Warriors of Arslan

Over the last few years, Koei Tecmo and developer Omega Force have progressively become less predictable in choosing the next Warriors game they’ll jointly create. For a time, they relied solely on their internal Warriors titles, of the Dynasty, Samurai, and Orochi variety. While that period couldn’t last forever, sales in each series petered out with changing market conditions in Japan quicker than many expected. That they were so intent on capitalizing on the popularity they generated with a plethora of quickly-released expansions and sequels didn’t help either.

The trend explains why they started using licensed properties, starting with Dynasty Warriors Gundam during the last console generation and continued with One Piece: Pirate Warriors. During this generation thus far the duo has utilized video game franchises from other publishers, evinced with Hyrule Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes released within the last year. Heck, the latter was so successful that its publisher, Square Enix, green lit a sequel only a month after it released — one they still haven’t revealed, which makes you wonder why they announced it so early. Well, until you remember which company is behind it.

The string of unpredictable collaborations for new Warriors games continued when the company’s next project was revealed within the pages of Japan’s Shonen Jump: The Heroic Legend of Arslan Warriors.

Though the Arslan franchise has existed for a good while, the game is predictably based on the currently-airing anime adaption, which, in turn, is based on the manga from Fullmetal Alchemist and Silver Spoon’s Hiromu Arakawa. The original novels were written by Yoshiki Tanaka, mostly known for the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series, and Arakawa has given the story a reimagining through her own style.

Surrounding the announcement was the revelation that many English-speakers only know of Arslan through the old anime adaptation from the early 90s. That one used character designs inspired by cover artwork from the old Kadokawa -released novels from Yoshitaka Amano, mostly known for his design contributions to the Final Fantasy franchise. While some of us will miss those, the new anime and game’s FMA-style designs will appeal to more modern fans, and that’s what Koei Tecmo is counting on.

This can be seen through those very screenshots, which show how well the team at Omega Force has replicated the anime designs through its character models. In fact, I had trouble telling whether they were actual models or portraits, showing where most of the team invested their graphical resources. No one should have expected the enemies to be too detailed, but the backgrounds look blander than many other Warriors games. Perhaps they were determined to have the game handle a larger amount of enemies on screen simultaneously, so it will work on both PS3 and PS4 without a hitch.

You only have to watch a little of the anime (like, five minutes of the first episode) to know the Warriors formula is perfect for Arslan. It also shows why the enemies aren’t as detailed, due to the show’s use of (bad) CG to render some larger battles. I’d like to assume that improves as the show progresses.

So far, only Arslan and Daryun have been confirmed as playable characters, but more will undoubtedly be revealed in the interim between now and its release sometime later this year. I’m sure they’re planning on revealing more characters as the currently-running anime continues, to avoid spoiling anyone who hasn’t kept up with the reportedly still-on-hiatus manga or also-on-hiatus novel series. (Is this series cursed!?) Don’t expect the game to go beyond the current manga’s story, because they need to have content for a sequel if this sells.

Expect Koei Tecmo and Omega Force to continue adapting more licensed properties, as their internal Warriors games continue to sell less than their predecessors. But they aren’t throwing in the towel on them. The developers are currently discussing plans to revamp the formula with the next Dynasty Warriors installment, meaning it will be in development longer than the average sequel. It would be best if they didn’t make any extremely divisive changes like Dynasty Warriors 6, resulting in features being removed and many characters being clones instead of having a distinct style.

But in the meantime, expect more products like Arslan, and a definitely expect a sequel to this game if it sells, and they can continue the anime long enough.

P.S. I saw more people than expected joking about Legend of the Galactic Heroes Musou/Warriors when this was announced, though the Warriors formula wouldn’t work within the franchise’s context unless you want to see a bunch of similar-looking guys in armor wielding axes. It would make for a better tie-in with another Koei Tecmo franchise: a ship-to-ship combat version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games. That would be a good idea for whenever the new adaptation starts, assuming it’s still planned.