There is a powerful statement that one can make about Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage: Once you have seen or played it, you will never view PlayStation and Nintendo 64 games in the same way again.  Dreamcast games were meant to look and sound like this game does and it is unfortunate that so few games, excluding those made by Sega themselves, have managed to reach the level that Sword of the Berserk hits during its best points.  The only thing holding the game back from being a must-have title its 16-bit play mechanics.  Despite its button-mashing game-play, which some might call derivative, the stylistic graphics and excellent storyline do a great job of immersing the player in the game.

American players are lucky to be playing this game because it is based on an anime series that is obscure in this country and, furthermore, the game is extremely violent in nature.  Luckily, Eidos grabbed the rights for American publication and did an amazing job tailoring the game for stateside released (while also adding "30% more gore", as their press release states).  

Playing Sword of the Berserk is like watching an anime movie that you can control.  The graphics are phenomenal and are really a showcase for the Dreamcast's power like few other games on the system.  Sword of the Berserk features high resolution, rock-solid 60 frames-per-second frame rates and an overall graphical clarity that was impossible to create before the Dreamcast's arrival.  The whole game is infused with a Japanese style, hinting at its anime roots at every point.  And, unlike so many games, the voice acting is surprisingly good.  It helps draw the player into the story instead of destroying any chance of realism.

Sword of the Berserk starts out with the main character, Gatsu (called Guts by his friends), on the road with Puck, a fairy, and Casca, his lover.  Unfortunately, this is like beginning a novel a few hundred pages in, because it’s obvious from the manual and the in-game definition screen that there is a lot of story that has occurred before the opening scene of the game.  I say unfortunate because the story seems extremely interesting and would certainly help understand the characters.  Regardless, all you really need to know to play is that you are Gatsu.  Gatsu has a brand on his neck that draws him to supernatural beings.  Gatsu has a sword bigger than he is and he likes to use it.  Often.  Gatsu is best referred to as Guts, because his friends call him that, and it's best to be on Gatsu's side.  The plot of the game begins with Guts fighting off a bandit attack on a young girl.  This leads into a town overtaken by supernatural beings.  Although not the most original storyline, it’s good enough to keep you playing and it has some decent twists in it.  Basically the storyline exists to give Guts as many things to chop into tiny pieces.

Eidos meant it when they said they added gore to Sword of the Berserk.  Blood flies everywhere in this game when Guts uses his sword.  The gameplay mostly revolves around fighting with Guts in a 3D environment.  The story is told through very impressive cut-scenes, which look and sound just like an impressive, dubbed anime movie.  These scenes can be quite long; in fact, its entirely possible that in the course of beating Sword of the Berserk, as much time will be spent watching the story as playing the game.  Luckily, the graphics, storyline, and voice acting are good enough to make these scenes enjoyable.  Once the actual game begins, Guts usually has to get from point A to point B and in his way are a ton of human and supernatural foes.  Guts can fight without his sword, utilizing arrows, grenades, a cannon blast, and his fists but, except when in a very restrictive environment, Guts is at his best with his sword.  

The controls are both logical in their layout and tight in how easy it is to do exactly what you want with Guts.  As he lands blows with his sword, a red meter below his life bar fills up.  When it is full, Guts goes "berserk".  His eyes glow red and the screen becomes dark and tinted red.  In this mode, Guts is nearly invincible.  His life-bar cannot go down and he is faster and does more damage.  If it’s hit, the berserk bar decreases.  It decreases slowly on its own as well.  Interestingly, enemies have a tendency to get chopped in half and lose gallons of blood when Guts is berserk.  Sword of the Berserk also has scenes similar to Dynamite Cop, in which a button prompt will pop up on screen for a few short seconds.  The correct button press leads Guts down a better path for the next scene; an incorrect one can lead to a more difficult scene.  There are also a number of bosses to be defeated, some of which are massive, all of which are graphically amazing.

No matter how many times I have mentioned it, it bears repeating; the graphics in this game are incredible.  Likewise, the sound effects and music are very well done indeed, as is the majority of the voice acting.  There really only two main problems with Sword of the Berserk.  The first is that, basically, the game is rather mindless.  Blindly hitting the A and B buttons over and over again allows Guts to hack his way through most levels.  Guts starts out with ten continues, but his progress can be saved every three scenes when a new stage is reached.  When a save is loaded he has ten continues again.  Thus, beating this game is a given.  However, Sword of the Berserk does offer good reasons to keep playing.  Defeating each of the three difficulty settings unlocks various things in the Prize Box, such as a time attack mode, a picture gallery, a mini-game with Puck, a boss battle mode, and best of all, a movie theater that allows you to watch any story sequence on demand once you have seen it once.  This really ties into the other problem, which is the game length.  If deciding whether to buy this game or not, it must be understood that Sword of the Berserk will probably take three or four hours to beat once and even less to beat again.  You can get your money's worth if you play to unlock everything, and play the other game options, but this is no Final Fantasy in terms of game length.

I know that this game is not for everyone.  There are plenty of people who will be impressed by the graphics, but hate the old-school aspect of the game-play.  There are also people who will love the game, but beat it in three hours and never work with any of the extras, feeling ripped off.  Personally, I consider this game one of the Dreamcast's best.  It's a quality action game with amazing graphics, an excellent storyline, and a copious amount of gore as well.  The style is intensely Japanese, both in plot and in the artwork.  Sword of the Berserk is really a love or hate type of game, and a rental may be necessary to decide if a purchase is worthwhile.  Personally, I like to know that whenever I am stressed or in need of an incredibly good-looking game to remind myself how good game graphics should look in the year 2000, I will have Sword of the Berserk ready to provide me with all of my hacking and slashing needs.