Roster of really colorful characters speaks in game’s favor: besides usual warriors and bowmen you can play as a bard or even an artist that brings paintbrush to a swordfight. But what’s the point, when the main mechanic has aged poorly and Koei Tecmo doesn’t even try to modernize it? [Issue#207, p.69]

Ultimately, Arslan: The Warriors of Legend is a game that - as far as gameplay is concerned - seems to accept what it is and just do it well. Combat is fluid and well animated if just as repetitive as we've come to expect from Koei Tecmo.

There’s no making up for a lackluster story that clearly pads the game length, unimaginative missions, or a weak combo structure, but Arslan: The Warriors of Legend could have been a much better experience had it not been marred with inexcusable framerate problems and sullied with glitches.

Arslan aims to pepper a re-telling of its anime source material with familiar Warriors-style battles, and that, for better or worse, is what it does. But this release lacks some of the absurd character flair, goofy thrash-rock soundtrack, and (dare I say) depth of the mainstream series.