Arslan: The Warriors of Legend (for Windows)

• Latest Game For Windows

   

   Here we come with a Review of Game Arslan: the warrors of legend

   

  • Pros

  A solid PC port, offering great visuals and good performance. Highly detailed maps and flashy action combat. Very engaging story.

• Cons

  Combat does not innovate beyond what other Dynasty Warriors games already offer. The few new gameplay mechanics feel half-baked.

• Bottom Line

  Dynasty Warriors fans will know exactly what to expect from Arslan: The Warriors of Legend. Despite flashy visuals, great art, and a good story, the gameplay is par for the hack-and-slash course.

Of all the places Dynasty Warriors could go, pseudo-fantastic Persia is not one I would have considered. But Arslan: The Warriors of Legend ($59.99) takes the franchise's absurd, large-scale action warfare, gives it stylistic anime flourish, and does exactly that. Arslan is standard Dynasty Warriors fare: It features more than a dozen characters with over-the-top attacks who slap around hundreds of brain-dead mooks across a variety of themed maps. But the Persian architecture, high level of detail, and the politically charged story that's ripped straight from the anime series give Arslan: The Warriors of Legend enough substance to be worth your consideration.
The Life of a Parsian
Arslan: The Warriors of Legend weaves several major plot threads into its narrative. The Persian-inspired kingdom of Pars has come under attack by the Byzantine/Roman-inspired Empire of Lusitania, igniting a fierce military conflict. Pars is a slave-owning nation, while Lusitania is deeply religious and monotheistic, which also fuels the war. Also, the legitimacy of the Parsian throne is under question, because of Prince Arslan's questionable background and the exiled king Andragoras's treacherous rise to power. All of these elements are spun together to create a surprisingly satisfying and engaging story.

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The combat scenarios are also fairly well paced. Despite the scale of the maps and the size of the enemy forces, most combat missions can be completed in roughly 10 minutes. Gameplay and story scenes transition quickly and smoothly, so neither feels like it drags on. Smaller-scale missions are also peppered in between larger ones. For example, one short mission sees the wandering bard, Gieve, escorting the queen away from the palace through the sewer system. Another has an archer, Elam, sabotaging weapon kiosks in the city at night. These missions take a few minutes to complete, and the change of pacing is enough to make Arslan feel more varied and enjoyable.
It is very important to note that, as good as the plot is, the game's story is incomplete. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend follows only the first season of the anime, as the second season has not aired yet. Naturally, there are many plot threads that remain unresolved by the end of the first season, and these carry over into the game. So, keep in mind that you won't get much closure by the time you reach the end of the story campaign.

Fighting Like a Lion
Arslan's combat is a decidedly more blasé than its story. As is typical in Dynasty Warriors-styled games, from Hyrule Warriors to Gundam Reborn, you have a two-button attack system, which lets you perform a variety of combos. You can unlock and equip several weapons that you can switch between on-the fly to vary attacks. That said, Arslan introduces a combo extension maneuver that unleashes a powerful special attack with your off-hand weapon. This maneuver is interesting at first, but isn't as useful as it sounds, and I quickly shelved the attack in favor of the bread-and-butter combos.
Like most other games of this style, Arslan lets you make minuscule stat adjustments to your character prior to a mission for special perks. In Arslan, these come in the form of Skill Cards. Enemies randomly drop Skill Cards, enhancements that give you a minor boost to health, melee attacks, projectile attacks, recovery, and other combat stats when equipped. Each character can equip several cards at a time. Skill Cards come in grades, so higher grade cards reward you with bigger boosts, but are much harder to find. I find the boosts to be relatively negligible, despite the micro-management that the system allows. You could easily play through the game without ever touching Skill Cards.
As you fight off hordes of Lusitania's armed forces, you will occasionally come across some obstacle or hazard that impedes your progress. Arslan introduces a large-scale attack called the Mardan Rush to overcome these roadblocks. At specific times during a mission, a blue area of effect appears on the map. When entered, you can initiate the Mardan Rush, which puts you in control of a horde of allies that deal heavy damage to enemy forces. While visually interesting, the Mardan Rush is essentially a glorified area-of-effect that you can move around the map. The Mardan Rush is situational, so you never feel like you earned it; all you're doing is pushing the stick around whenever the game tells you to do so. The Mardan Rush feels shallow, which is a shame because the idea itself is an interesting one that I would like to see applied in more Dynasty Warriors games.
That said, Arslan's maps are filled with detail, and make great use of the Persian setting. Palace maps feature lavish architecture, reflective floors, and decorative draperies. Towns feel like believable settlements, with abandoned bazaar stalls and colorful carpets carelessly thrown around in the wartime scramble. Waterways and dungeons feel labyrinthine and complex, yet are surprisingly fun to navigate. These environments go a long way towards keeping the combat experience fresh, and at the very least, visually appealing.

Just Like One of My Japanese Animes

Koei Tecmo has had a spotty track record in respect to PC ports. Games like Dead or Alive 5: Last Round and Toukiden suffered on PC as a result of slipshod porting and negligence. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend is a surprisingly good port compared to Koei Tecmo's previous endeavors. The game supports a wide range of resolutions, from 640 by 480 up to glorious 4K. Graphics options let you tweak character detail, display distance, graphical detail, texture quality, shaders, shadow quality and texture filtering. Light shafts, depth of field, and anti-aliasing can be turned on or off. Overall, the Steam game runs well on my Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-powered rig at 1080p with max settings. Frame rate stays at about 60 for the most part, but drops regularly during special attacks and Mardan Rush finishers. The aliasing is not particularly good, but there is no way to adjust it: You can only switch it on or off. Hiccups aside, I am pleased with the port, and hope to see more competent ports from Koei Tecmo in the future.
It is also worth noting that the game has Japanese audio only, with English subtitles.
A Hero We Deserve
The truth is that Dynasty Warriors fans, as well as fans of the Arslan anime, have already made their decision on whether or not to pick up The Warriors of Legend. If you like hacking through hordes of goons in a fun, mindless sort of way, Arslan has exactly that, but not much more. The quality of the port is only icing on the hack-and-slash cake. The story will certainly keep you entertained, but if you've watched the anime it won't have any surprises for you. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend is a game for the fans.

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