If you’ve spent any time at all in the dark, blood-soaked trenches of Kentaro Miura’s manga masterpiece, you know that a "Berserk" adaptation is a tricky beast to tame. Honestly, most of them fail. They either miss the tone, botch the art style, or just feel like cheap cash-ins. When Omega Force—the folks behind Dynasty Warriors—announced Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PlayStation 4, the reaction was split right down the middle. Half the fans were hyped to finally cleave through a thousand soldiers with a hunk of iron, and the other half were terrified it would be a mindless button-masher that ignored the emotional weight of Guts’ journey.
It’s been out for a while now. The dust has settled. But with the tragic passing of Miura and the continued legacy of the series, people are still hunting down physical copies for their PS4.
What Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PlayStation 4 Actually Feels Like
Let’s be real. It’s a Musou game.
If you hate the Warriors formula, this isn't going to magically convert you, but it does try harder than most. You play as Guts. You swing the Dragonslayer. People explode into red mist. It’s visceral. Unlike the colorful, almost cheerful chaos of One Piece: Pirate Warriors or Hyrule Warriors, this game leans into the grit. It’s dark. It’s oppressive.
The weight is what surprised me most.
In a standard Dynasty Warriors game, your character feels like they’re gliding through paper. In Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PlayStation 4, Guts feels heavy. When you hit the square button, there’s a deliberate delay, a sense of momentum that mimics the "heap of raw iron" he’s carrying. It’s satisfying in a way that’s hard to describe until you’re ten hours deep into the Eclipse, sweating because the screen is literally covered in demons and you’re just trying to find an opening.
The Story Coverage is Surprisingly Massive
Usually, licensed games skip the boring stuff or rush to the "cool" parts. This one? It actually puts in the work. It starts right at the beginning of the Golden Age Arc—Guts as a mercenary for hire—and goes all the way through the Millennium Falcon Arc.
That is a lot of ground.
You get the internal politics of the Midland army. You get the quiet, campfire moments between Guts and Casca. You even get the transition from the high-fantasy knight aesthetic into the pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel of the later manga chapters. The game uses actual footage from the Golden Age movie trilogy for its cutscenes. This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the production value is sky-high. On the other, the jump between the high-quality movie animation and the in-game engine can be a bit jarring. One second you're watching a beautiful cinematic, and the next, you're looking at a slightly stiff 3D model of Griffith. It’s kinda weird, but you get used to it.
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The Combat Mechanics: Beyond Just Mashing Square
Look, you’re going to mash square. A lot. But there’s a layer of depth here that gets overlooked because people assume all Musou games are the same.
Guts has a "Frenzy" gauge. You fill it by killing things. Once it's full, you pop it, and you become faster and stronger. But then there’s the "Obliteration" gauge. This is where the Berserk flavor really kicks in. If you kill enemies while in Frenzy mode, you can trigger a devastating special attack that clears the entire screen.
Later in the game, when you get the Berserker Armor? Everything changes.
The game stops being a tactical hack-and-slash and turns into a horror movie where you are the monster. The speed increases. The damage is astronomical. It captures that feeling of losing control, of the armor biting into Guts’ flesh just to keep him moving. It’s one of the best representations of that specific power-up in any medium.
Boss Battles and the "Apostle Problem"
Musou games usually struggle with boss fights. Usually, a boss is just a regular guy with a bigger health bar who doesn't flinch when you hit him. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PlayStation 4 tries to fix this with the Apostles.
Fighting Zodd the Immortal or the Great Goat isn't about clearing mobs. It’s about timing and dodging. These encounters feel more like a simplified Dark Souls than a standard Warriors game. You have to learn patterns. You have to use your sub-weapons—like the arm cannon, the crossbow, or the throwing knives—to create openings.
Is it perfect? No. Sometimes the camera gets stuck behind a giant demon’s leg and you die because you couldn't see a swing coming. It’s frustrating. But when it works, and you finally take down a towering Apostle after a ten-minute slog, it feels earned.
Why the PS4 Version Specifically?
You might be wondering why we’re talking about the PS4 version when there’s a PC port and even a Vita version (if you can find it).
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- Stability: The PS4 Pro and PS5 (via backward compatibility) handle the sheer volume of enemies better than the base PC port did at launch.
- Physical Value: This is a big one. Digital licenses for anime games are notorious for disappearing. If Koei Tecmo loses the license, the game goes poof from the PlayStation Store. Having the disc is the only way to ensure you actually own it.
- The Controller: The DualShock 4 vibration is tuned quite well for the clang of the sword. It sounds silly, but that haptic feedback adds to the "weight" I mentioned earlier.
There are some downsides, though. The game isn't 4K. It’s a 1080p experience that prioritizes frame rate over raw resolution. On a massive 65-inch OLED, you’ll notice some jagged edges and some muddy textures in the environment. The ground usually looks like a flat brown texture. But let’s be honest—you aren't looking at the grass. You’re looking at the five hundred guys you’re about to bisect.
Endless Eclipse Mode: Where the Real Game Lives
Once you finish the story mode, which will take you about 20 hours if you don't skip the cutscenes, you unlock Endless Eclipse.
This is basically a "Bloody Palace" or "Survival" mode. You descend into the Abyss, completing missions as you go. It gets hard. Really hard. This is where you unlock the best gear and the most powerful "Behest" items.
It’s also where you get to experiment with characters other than Guts. Playing as Griffith is a totally different vibe—he’s fast, elegant, and focuses on precision rapiers. Schierke plays like a glass cannon mage, which is a wild departure from the rest of the cast. Wyald is... well, Wyald is just a chaotic mess of power.
The grind is real here. If you want to platinum the game, you’re going to spend a lot of time in the Eclipse. Some people find it repetitive. Others find it meditative. It’s the ultimate test of whether you actually enjoy the core combat loop or if you were just there for the story.
The "Berserk" Atmosphere: Did They Nail It?
This is the most important question for any fan.
The music is decent, though it lacks the haunting, ethereal quality of Susumu Hirasawa’s work from the 1997 anime. It’s more "epic orchestral" which fits the Musou genre but loses some of that unique Berserk identity.
The gore, however, is on point. There was a lot of concern about censorship before release. Rest assured, limbs fly. Blood splatters across Guts' face and stays there. The game captures the sheer brutality of the manga better than the 2016 anime ever did. It doesn't shy away from the darker themes, though it does sanitize some of the more "extreme" content from the manga to keep that M rating.
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What Most People Get Wrong
People often say this game is "just for fans."
I actually think that’s a bit reductive. If you enjoy action games and want something with a bit more grit than the usual fare, this is a solid pickup. You don't need to be a Berserk scholar to enjoy the feeling of being an unstoppable force of nature.
However, if you are a fan, you’ll appreciate the tiny details. The way Guts’ move set changes as he ages. The specific dialogue between characters who haven't seen each other in years. The way the environment changes after the Eclipse. It’s a love letter to the source material, even if the medium—the Musou genre—is a bit divisive.
Final Verdict on Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PlayStation 4
Is it the best Berserk game ever made? Probably. The Dreamcast and PS2 games were great for their time, but they cover very small slices of the story. This is the most "complete" package we have.
It’s not perfect. It’s repetitive, the environments are bland, and the boss fights can be janky. But it captures the soul of Guts. It captures that feeling of standing against an impossible tide and refusing to break.
If you see a copy in a bargain bin or on a shelf at a retro game store, grab it. It’s a piece of Berserk history that likely won't see a remaster or a sequel anytime soon.
Next Steps for Players:
- Prioritize the Story: Don't jump into the Endless Eclipse immediately. Play through the story to unlock the Berserker Armor; the game feels significantly better once Guts has his full kit.
- Check the Options: Turn off the "Auto-Lock" if you find the camera frustrating during mob fights. It gives you much more control over your swings.
- Physical vs Digital: If you're a collector, look for the physical PS4 disc now. Prices for "niche" anime titles tend to spike once they go out of print or get delisted from digital storefronts.
- Character Progression: Don't ignore the "Refine" system. Merging accessories is the only way to survive the later floors of the Eclipse, especially if you're playing on higher difficulties like Berserk or Hell.