Arslan Warriors of Legend PS4 Gameplay Preview

Arslan: The Warriors of Legend is a musou game by the genre kingpin Koei Tecmo. It has a lot of things genre fans have come to expect: namely giant, wide batttlefields, thousands of foes charging at the player at once, and super-powered heroes fully capable of slaying an entire army. Yep, this is a musou alright.

The TGS demo put me at first on a horse, which controlled well enough. I could move wherever I wanted and press seemingly any button to reach out and slice a man to death. But of course, if you’re playing a warriors game and killing only two or three enemies at a time, you’re doing it wrong. What Arslan really wanted me to do was charge up super moves when I could, or get to shiny glowing spots on the map, which would trigger events. And in that sentence, “events” means “lots of enemies dying fantastically.”

After my giant blue magic shit wiped enough people out, I was shown a brief story sequence, starring the red-haired girl, but it ended just as she awoke and took a firm stance. Cliffhanger!

Then I was a bearded guy, back to killing and killing and killing. It controlled well and looked good, though I can’t say it looked as good as the bullshots from the press kit. Arslan has anime and manga adaptations with which I’m not familiar, so I imagine the story and locations will make more sense and mean more to you if you’re a longtime fan of the franchise. To me as a newcomer, it looked inviting, if a little overwhelming for a first time.

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After hacking and slashing my way to key points on the map, I could perform “Mardan Rush,” which made my character the warrior equivalent of a giant rocket zipping around the battlefield and sending masses of dudes 50 feet into the air.

Battle flowed very nicely, it looked good and handled better. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 owners who like large-scale musous like Dynasty Warriors can look forward to Arslan: The Warriors of Legend this October in Japan, then North America and Europe in 2016. When it comes west, it will get an Xbox One version as well.