If you’ve ever picked up a volume of Kentaro Miura’s manga, you know the feeling. It’s heavy. It’s oppressive. It’s beautiful. Translating that specific brand of "suffering-meets-badassery" into a video game has always been a nightmare for developers. Most failed. But then Omega Force, the team behind Dynasty Warriors, took a swing at it. The result was Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PS4, a game that is simultaneously the best way to experience the story interactively and a repetitive slog that’ll make your thumbs ache.
It’s been years since it dropped, and yet, the community keeps coming back to it. Why? Honestly, it’s because it’s the only game that actually lets you feel the weight of the Dragonslayer. When Guts swings that massive slab of iron, people don't just die; they liquefy.
The Gory Reality of Playing Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PS4
Most Musou games feel like you’re cutting grass with a plastic trimmer. This one? It feels like you’re trying to move a refrigerator through a crowd of people while screaming. The physics are intentionally clunky in a way that fits Guts perfectly. You start the game during the Golden Age Arc. You’re young, you’re fast, and you’re using a sword that—while big—is still technically a sword. By the time you reach the later stages of the game, specifically the Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc, the gameplay shifts.
You aren't just a mercenary anymore. You’re a god-killer.
The game covers a massive chunk of the story. We're talking from the very beginning of the Golden Age all the way through the sea voyage. For a lot of fans, this was the first time they got to see the Berserker Armor animated with a budget that didn't involve the questionable CGI of the 2016 anime. Seeing Guts lose his humanity while the screen turns into a red-tinted blur of carnage is, frankly, the main reason to play.
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What the Critics Got Wrong (and What They Got Right)
When the reviews first hit, people complained about the repetition. They weren't wrong. If you’ve played one Warriors game, you’ve basically played them all. You capture outposts, you kill 1,000 nameless soldiers, and you fight a boss with a health bar the size of a CVS receipt.
But critics often missed the nuance of the "Endless Eclipse" mode. This is where the game actually gets hard. It’s a survival gauntlet. You pick a character—Guts, Griffith, Casca, Judeau, or even Zodd—and you dive into layers of hell. It starts easy. Then, around floor 50, the game stops playing nice. You’re forced to actually use the sub-weapons like the hand cannon and crossbow. If you don't time your "Frenzy" gauge correctly, Femto or some other apostle will absolutely delete your progress.
- The Roster: It’s small. Let's be real. Only eight playable characters is a crime when games like One Piece: Pirate Warriors have forty.
- The Gore: This is the bloodiest game Omega Force ever made. There’s a "gore" toggle in the settings for a reason.
- The Cutscenes: They used actual footage from the Golden Age movie trilogy. It looks great, but the transition from movie-quality animation to in-game engine graphics is jarring as hell.
Why the PS4 Version Specifically?
You might be tempted to hunt this down on PC or even Vita (if you're a masochist). Don't. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PS4 is the definitive version for a few technical reasons. The PC port is notorious for being a bit of a mess with controller support and frame rate caps. On the PS4 Pro or PS5, the game holds a steady frame rate even when there are two hundred trolls on screen at once.
The lighting in the PS4 version also captures that grim, muddy look of the manga better than the brighter PC settings. There’s a certain grit to the textures on the armor that just feels "right."
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Also, let's talk about the Boss Fights. Fighting Zodd in his apostle form is a genuine highlight. He’s huge. He’s fast. He doesn't stagger. In a typical Musou game, you can just stun-lock enemies. You cannot stun-lock a ten-foot-tall demon dog. You have to dodge. You have to wait for an opening. It almost—almost—feels like a simplified version of a Soulslike during these encounters.
The Problem With the Narrative Pace
The game is a weird hybrid. It spends three hours on the Golden Age and then suddenly sprints through the Conviction arc. If you haven't read the manga, you’re going to be confused. Characters like Mozgus show up, scream about God, and then get flattened. The game assumes you already love these characters.
Is it a replacement for the manga? Absolutely not.
Is it a great companion piece? Yeah, totally.
The emotional weight of the Eclipse is handled surprisingly well for a "hack and slash" game. They didn't shy away from the trauma, though they obviously had to censor some of the more extreme elements to avoid an AO rating. The despair is palpable. When you're playing as Guts trying to reach Casca through an infinite sea of monsters, the gameplay fatigue actually works in the game's favor. You feel tired. You feel desperate. You feel like the world is ending, because in that moment, for Guts, it is.
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Hidden Mechanics Most Players Miss
Most people just mash the square button. That’s a mistake. If you want to actually enjoy the combat in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PS4, you need to master the sub-weapon cancels.
- The Hand Cannon: Use this to reset your combo string. If you're mid-swing and see an enemy about to attack, fire the cannon. It has a massive knockback area.
- The Berserker Armor Transformation: Don't trigger this the moment the bar is full. Wait until your health is low. The transformation fully heals your "Frenzy" stats and gives you a massive speed boost that can save a failing run in the Endless Eclipse.
- The Horse: Honestly, the horse is useless for combat. Use it for traversal, but get off the moment you see a commander. The mounted combat in this game is clunky and lacks the impact of the ground game.
Is It Worth Buying in 2026?
Finding a physical copy of this game is getting harder. Digital is your best bet, but it rarely goes on sale. Despite the flaws—the small roster, the repetitive missions, the weird pacing—it remains a "must-play" for a very specific type of person. If you find yourself staring at Miura's art and wishing you could step into those panels, this is the closest you’ll get.
It’s a game made with love for the source material. You can see it in the way the armor chips away. You can see it in the idle animations. It’s not a "perfect" game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a "perfect" Berserk experience.
Final Steps for New Players
If you're jumping in for the first time, do yourself a favor and don't rush.
- Focus on the Gallery: The game includes a massive amount of lore entries and character bios. It’s basically a digital encyclopedia.
- Upgrade your accessories early: The crafting system is a bit deep. You can fuse items to increase your "Attack" and "Defense" stats. If you ignore this, you will hit a wall by the time you reach the Sea God arc.
- Play with headphones: The sound of the Dragonslayer hitting a shield is a heavy, metallic "cluck" that is incredibly satisfying.
Don't expect a masterpiece of game design. Expect a masterpiece of atmosphere. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk PS4 is a bloody, loud, and exhausting tribute to one of the greatest stories ever told. Grab your giant sword, put on some Susumu Hirasawa music in the background, and start swinging. You've got a lot of demons to kill.
Next Steps to Enhance Your Experience:
- Check the PlayStation Store for the DLC: Some of the extra costumes and "White Falcon" skins add a bit of variety to the visuals if you're planning on a second playthrough.
- Prioritize the Endless Eclipse: If you want to unlock the best gear and the secret playable characters, you need to spend time in this mode. It’s where the real challenge lies.
- Sync your save data: If you ever plan on moving to a PS5, ensure your cloud saves are active; the game runs significantly smoother on the newer hardware with reduced loading times between those massive battlefields.