Arslan: The Warriors of Legend

Written by Matt Mirkovich on 2/9/2016 for PS4  

It’s time for some revisionist history. Quick, can you name the realm of Persia that was constantly involved in a civil war during the Crusades? I don’t actually expect that to be on the tip of the tongue of many people, except for maybe fans of the manga series, The Heroic Legend of Arslan by Yoshiki Tanaka. The sixth of the collaboration series that developer Omega Force has been working on, Arslan: The Warriors of Legend takes the gameplay that they are known for, and gave it a very anime-inspired twist. In fact, if the story of the Warriors series titles has ever been a let down for you, then Arslan is a very welcome effort to convey a timeless, and popular storyline.

For those who’ve never heard of the Arslan saga, it was a manga series from the 80’s that featured quite a bit of art from Yoshitaka Amano. In 2013 the manga was revised to feature art by Hiromu Arakawa, who was responsible for Fullmetal Alchemist, so if you’re noticing that the art looks a little familiar, there you go.The prince of Pars, Arslan has embarked on his first battle, serving his father Andragoras III, as they attempt to stave off the invading nation of Lusitania. A nefarious plot has separated Arslan from the main unit, and Andragoras has been captured, the capital of Pars has fallen, and now Arslan must rally a small contingent of soldiers who have sworn loyalty to him, as he faces off against the secret weapon of Lusitania, the devious Silver Mask.

The other Warriors titles out there typically are light on the story, maybe some text, or a pre-battle breakdown of the events leading to this moment. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend bucks this trend, quite mightily, by opting to use scenes of the animated series, and somewhat seamless transitions from these cutscenes to gameplay. This makes the game feel like one long sequence of events. This also creates a weird situation where I found myself wondering, ‘okay when can I stop to improve my characters?’ As you progress through each battle your characters will level up over time, and by completing various objectives you earn cards that can be used to power up your characters further. There are plenty of cards to collect, and if you find yourself with too many in your inventory, you can fuse them together to create newer, more powerful cards.

Initially things are kind of minimal as you alternate between the normal and strong attacks but as you acquire more weapons you can extend your combos by swapping weapons and by defeating generals and ranking officials you’ll earn books that can increase their capabilities. This will give them increases to their strength or give them elemental properties to increase their damage output or alter their combo trees. Being able to also equip multiple weapons gives you plenty of options for increasing your combos, which this game is pretty big on. There’s also the ability to switch weapons mid-combo to extend your juggles, and increase the overall damage total.

The mission structure that blossoms on the battlefield is pretty straightforward. Most of the time you’re competing against the clock to reach a specific goal, or you’re trying to kill a specific number of enemy units. Some missions can only be completed by using the Mardan Rush skills. These are moments of battle where you rally a number of troops to your side to overwhelm the opposition. Cavalry rushes will plow through the battlefield and can be used to knock down barriers that prevent you from advancing. Infantry rushes allow you to maneuver through tighter spaces and Archer rushes are great for causing havoc on the battlefield by setting fire and sending enemies into a panic.

Arslan has some pretty faithful visuals to the source material as designed by Hiromu Arakawa. But at the same time, the visuals seem to be a bit bland in comparison to other Warriors titles. The colors seem a lot more muted than other games, and the game doesn’t quite run at a consistent frame-rate which really drags when there’s tons of grunts on screen. There’s also a noticeable amount of pop-in and pop-out that occurs when the camera is changed to focus on story elements in the middle of battle. It’s a bit jarring at times, but nothing major. Music is a mostly forgettable affair, plenty of rockin’ tracks, but nothing memorable.

Once you get a few chapters of the story under your belt, you might want to branch out and see what else this game has to offer. There’s the Free Mode that lets you take any unlocked character and bring them into any scenario you’ve completed. Online mode allows you to go through the game’s story with a friend or through maps in Free Mode. There’s also a Gallery Mode that has information on the game’s characters, and artwork from the animated series.

Arslan: The Warriors of Legend does a good number of things right, it gets the storytelling down, the combat gets really fun as you unlock additional characters and weapons, and Omega Force pretty much nailed the anime aesthetic. While this is definitely a good game, there’s still some issues that pop-up that have been present in other Warriors titles, and it’s kind of becoming old hat at this point. Enemy pop-in and pop-out during gameplay and camera transitions really needs to be ironed out, the inconsistent frame-rate also hurts the overall experience. And while it’s different from other games, the character growth system doesn’t feel as fleshed out as Samurai Warriors 4-2.

I want to make it clear that this is definitely a fun game, with some interesting new mechanics, but also has a couple of problems that make this title feel a bit rushed. I definitely give it a recommendation for the hardcore fans of the Warriors games, or for people who enjoyed the Arslan manga and anime. I think if this game had just another month of time in the development process to squash some lingering bugs, then I think we’d have a stellar title, no doubt.