Attack on Titan Review
In recent years, Koei Tecmo has taken many a shot at adapting popular anime titles into games similar to their Warriors series of games. Having done crossovers with the likes of Mobile Suit Gundam, Fist of the North Star, and even The Legend of Zelda, Koei Tecmo has released a new game with the popular manga and anime series Attack on Titan. Unlike previous crossover titles though, Attack on Titan takes a very unique approach to the hack-n-slash action sub-genre. It sets itself far apart from other Warriors games by building its mechanics around the interesting and terrifying world of the Attack on Titan franchise.
Attack on Titan abandons the button-mashing, massive combo meters, and piles of dispensable incompetent enemies, for a slightly more tactical approach to action. In the manga and anime, the series heroes and heroines swing about with omni-direction movement gear that allows them to grapple around buildings in cities and heavily wooded forests. It also allows them to grapple onto titans, towering humanoid creatures that seek to mindlessly devour humans, and the main antagonistic force in the game. The only way to kill a titan is by cutting an incision at the nape of its neck, a feat that can only be done by some fancy grapple-work and fast dodging.
Koei Tecmo captured the fast-flying and adrenaline pumping action of slaying titans and turned it into something fun and addicting. Every important action is mapped to a single button, keeping the controls simple. It’s a little confusing to get into a first; for example, there’s no real “run” option as movement is mostly dictated by grappling to nearby buildings and boosting around through a refillable stock of gas. Fighting titans is as easy as locking onto the nape of their neck with the shoulder button and launching your grappling hooks. After that you need only to let yourself be pulled forward and tap an attack button to slash at the nape of a titan and bring them down. Some titans have gimmicks to them though, they’ll track the player and grab at them, making it hard to zero in on the back of their necks. It requires a bit of mixing up strategies, and going for other body parts on the titan like their arms or legs to allow for an easier kill. There are also titans that require the destruction of certain body parts, normally their arms, before the guard around the neck is lowered and can be cut.
Supplies in the Titan world are limited though, blades become dull after a certain amount of slashes and gas canisters empty as they are used. It’s possible to restock items from supply troops scattered about the map and off of corpses of fallen allies, but keeping track of your surplus is important and can sometimes be the difference between a good and bad ranking at the end of each level. There are other consumable items, such as healing potions and stun grenades that become very useful on harder difficulties as they help alleviate a lot of pressure from huge groups of titans (rarely will you be fighting only 1 titan at a time). You can also upgrade your gear, giving blades more damage and durability, as well as increasing the capacity of gas tanks and the amount of speed they add to your dashes.
There’s a sizable amount of variety in missions. In stages where there are few buildings or trees, horses are used to help cover distances across the map quickly and serve as another effective way to out maneuver a titan. The main hero of the game, Eren, has the ability to turn himself into a titan. These sections also get their own specific levels, but sadly don’t live up to the bar of quality the rest of the game has. Titan Eren feels like a sluggish Warriors character, a lot of what you’ll be doing with him is mashing attack and dodge till you’ve built up a super meter that does a large area of effect attack. The lack of other playable titans weighs this down even more. Even if it’s not how the series story actually pans out, having the option to stomp around as the few other sentient boss titans you see throughout the game would spice these sections up a bit.
The story of the Attack on Titan game is a very trimmed down version of the first season of the anime. In the game’s “Attack Mode,” you can re-experience some of the series’ more action packed moments. Beautifully rendered cutscenes imitate the art style of the anime, and give an expressive amount of life to the short episodic breaks between each mission. The slightly hacked up story of the game gives the barebones needed to understand what’s going on, but it really feels like this mode was built for those already familiar with the Attack on Titan story.
The game’s other playable mode is “Expedition Mode,” which operates a bit like free play. Rather than be tied to the story, expedition mode lets you select a character from the game’s roster (all unlocked by finishing attack mode), and puts you into smaller scuffles with titans. Each successful adventure in an expedition fills up a bit of an exploration meter, and as you complete various missions it unlocks new episodes in Attack Mode’s post-clear epilogue, which by proxy unlocks “True Attack Mode,” the game’s highest difficulty.
The game does have some grindy elements to it though. Characters come with various stats and levels, gear can be upgraded with rare materials sometimes dropped by defeated titans, and at higher difficulties this can be the difference between an enjoyable expedition or 30 minutes of pain as you struggle to land denting blows against the nape of a titan. It can be a real mood killer over extended periods of play, but thankfully the grind elements are minimal to the enjoyment the game’s combat and visuals bring, and the frustration really only starts to hit for completionists.
The game has a Japanese-only voice track, standard issue for Koei Tecmo crossover games. While it might be disappointing to some to not hear the English voice cast, it doesn’t bring the gameplay down. All cutscenes are subtitled, as is most in-game dialogue. While it might seem daunting to read and pay attention to all the action on screen while playing, a lot of it is filler text. Places of importance pop up in the form of smoke signals and large icons on the screen rather than being simple dialogue commands. There’s also several moments of downtime when slightly more important text or dialogue is on screen. Overall, unless you’re actively against a Japanese-only dubbing, the voice work in Attack on Titan doesn’t detract from its fast-paced gameplay.
In conclusion, Attack on Titan for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC is one of the more refreshing action games to come out this year. It’s seemingly complex, yet simple to understand gameplay is addictive and fast-paced. Visually, it wonderfully translates the heavy contours and colors of the anime and manga into 3d models, and it does a great job of creating a bombastic soundtrack similar to that of anime. While the cropped and cut story in the game is aimed more at those already fans of the series, anyone with an appreciation for fast-paced action games can appreciate Attack on Titan.