Arslan: The Warriors of Legend was developed by Omega Force and published by Koei. The game was released on Xbox One on February 9th 2016. A press review copy was provided for The Hidden Levels. The review contains no spoilers.
Arslan is a Hack and Slash game where you play as a Prince to the throne of Pars. In the game you will be fighting against armies from the kingdom of Lusitania and Sindhura. With a deep story line, sharp cut scenes and smooth frames, Arslan is easily one of the best Hack and Slash games I’ve played on the Xbox One.
What I enjoyed:
Tutorial – In the previous warrior games I often found myself not knowing the full buttons, counters or move combos properly. In Arslan, the beginning of the game takes you through the move combinations and teaches you properly how to play. This proved invaluable when playing through on harder difficulties.
Cut scenes – After you finish missions you end up watching a short (or sometimes long) cut scene which really engrosses you into the storyline and plot. The style is really good and drawn very sharply. The visuals and characters are based on the 2015 TV Animated series and I really enjoyed this part of the game. During the cut scenes you can also pause them, so if you have something to do you can just pause and walk away.
Content – The game comes with an abundance of missions, stages and storyline. My first playthrough of the game took me around 10-12 hours. Going for all achievements will see you easily playing for over 100 hours.
What I disliked:
Linear – I always remembered that in the early versions of Warriors series you had a lot more freedom and movement around the maps. However, again this version follows the typical hit the target and follow the line to progress. Having a big battlefield but being stuck to a single area is one thing I dislike about this game and wish that it was more like the older series where you could free roam more. I also disliked going against time limits and targets for S Ranks as I like to take my time and engross myself into the game
Voice Acting – To some this may be good but for me the fact there is no English Voice Acting makes it harder for me to get engrossed into the game and sometimes means I can miss crucial instructions in chat due to the fact of being fighting or notifications popping up. I always loved English VA in the older series of Warriors however this has been another trend lately of Warriors games.
Open Ending – The ending did not conclude as well as I wanted it to. I wanted everything to wrap up and tie together only to find out that it was not really an ending but more of an open tailed finish.
Overall, I had a great time playing Arslan. If you are a fan of anime or have yet to experience it then I would definitely recommend this game to try out. If you can get past the fact the talking is in Japanese then you can get quite immersed into a very good storyline with deep plots behind it.
Score: Buy it now
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