Kentarou Miura’s long-running manga series, Berserk, is known among Japanese fiction enthusiasts as one of the medium’s darkest works. Though its lavish illustrations often call to mind fairy tale picture books, Berserk’s Fantasy world is far from cheery. Nations are slaughtered, people are raped, demons borne from the minds and hearts of mankind threaten to engulf the world. Even its herculean protagonist, Guts, cannot fend off tragedy and psychological fractures with his titanic sword alone. Yet Miura manages to counterbalance Berserk’s despair with a faint, glimmering light, the conviction that there is a little hope in this world after all.
So it makes perfect sense that Berserk’s incredibly bloody saga will be adapted to a game series known for pitting players against massive armies. That’s right: Omega Force and its parent company, Koei Tecmo, revealed at E3 yesterday that they are developing a Dynasty Warriors (or “Musou”)-style game based on Berserk. It’s currently just called Berserk, though that is a working title.
You can check out its teaser trailer below:
The project was initially teased last Monday on a landing site that displayed an ominous text: “The most evil ‘Musou’ in history.” Koei Tecmo also announced last month in an official press release that they would reveal a “top-secret title” at this year’s E3.
This won’t be the first time Berserk has entered the realm of video games. Among its past titles are Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage for the Dreamcast, which has received mixed reviews, and Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, which is widely regarded as a solid PlayStation 2 hack-and-slash. Omega Force’s Berserk Musou will also join several other popular manga and anime franchises in the Dynasty Warriors/Musou mutliverse, alongside One Piece, Fist of the North Star, and The Heroic Legend of Arslan.
Berserk Musou will receive both Japanese and Western releases for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PC (via Steam). No release date has yet been announced, thought the game’s Japanese website says “Coming 6.23” at the bottom of the page. You can visit Berserk Musou’s English site here, and its official Twitter page here.