Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom Review

It took me a while to get into anime, mainly because I lacked the resources and patience to watch any. Sometimes I still struggle watching it. But Attack on Titan is one of my favourites. So when I caught wind of a video game adaptation of the anime, I couldn’t help but feel an increase in the overall tension of my jorts. The idea of playing as Eren Yeager or Mikasa Ackerman really excited me and needless to say, I was honestly surprised with what I played.

Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom (henceforth referred to as “Wings of Freedom”) is a semi-linear action JRPG developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo. The game is an adaptation of the events of the anime series, while also shedding some light on details which went unexplained in the show. For the uninformed, Attack on Titan is set in a world where humans live in fear of giant (sometimes colossal) humanoid creatures called Titans. These creatures are generally zombie-like in their thought, except instead of going for just brains, they eat humans whole. Humanity has taken refuge within a city divided into three districts. These districts are determined by the walls they are behind. The game opens with the fall of one of the walls due to the impressive kick of a colossal titan. As a result, the populace is in danger and needs to retreat further into the city to remain safe and Titans now roam inside the walls. The game follows the actions of characters like Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman and Lieutenant Levi. The story is pretty much spot on with the anime but where it really shines (story-wise) is what happens in the game in-between major events. It is here where you learn some of the events which lead to major plot points. It also helps explain smaller things like what certain characters did whilst the spotlight was on others. Every aspect of the story felt refreshing and as a fan of the anime, I enjoyed every moment of it. Reliving events of a familiar series never felt so good.

Gameplay is where Wings of Freedom differs from most. Travelling from place to place is usually done by grappling from building to building at incredible speeds. Sometimes you go so fast that you smash into a wall and come to a dead stop. Realistically you should be a blood red smear across the side of a building, but this is a video game so to hell with realism! The gameplay in general is very much like a Spiderman game, except instead of your character reaching upward and hooking onto nothing in the sky, there has to actually be building, cliff faces and/or trees nearby to actually hook onto. This mechanic is also used in the combat system.

Every aspect of the story felt refreshing and as a fan of the anime, I enjoyed every moment of it. Reliving events of a familiar series never felt so good.

So, for those who haven’t watched the show, how you do combat giant naked people who eat your friends with no remorse? Simple. You anchor your grapple into the Titan’s body, swing around while cutting its limbs off, eventually you’ll come around and cut the base of the neck (referred to as the “nape”) and it’ll die. I’m surprised you didn’t think of that. For people who are fans, you will be pleased to know that fighting Titans is fast-paced and incredibly fun.

Swinging around Titans at ludicrous speeds, slashing their limbs off and being covered in a flurry of blood is just so gratifying.

Even though the gameplay can get repetitive, the nature of it and just the fact that it is different from the current norm allows it feel a little less monotonous. There are various ways you can approach the taking down of a Titan. You can opt to instantly go for the nape, or you can completely and utterly dismember the Titan which sometimes nets you some extra upgrade materials. This leads us to the character progression system. While the game implements a levelling system, the only thing your given character’s level determines is the amount of abilities that are unlocked. One of the best things about the way this is done is that there is no need for any form of grinding. Levelling yourself up by repeating previous missions does not really serve any purpose so progression is smooth no matter how you approach it. Your damage and anchor speed are determined by your gear, so playing through the story and unlocking better gear is a smarter move than grinding for hours. This is refreshing as a lot of games require an arduous grind for power. This also stops you from becoming ludicrously overpowered and breezing through the game.

Upon the completion of the main story, Wings of Freedom opens up a plethora of content for all types of players. It offers little in-game tokens for collectors to hoard if they have the required materials to craft them. There are plenty of extra missions to do and secondary objectives which are given to you through talking to NPCs. Not to mention you can also perfect the game through the grading system. Upon the completion of missions you are graded based on your performance. D being the lowest and S being the highest. While it is not overly difficult to attain S ranking on every mission, it is still quite easy to just miss out on the prestigious grading due to missing a side objective in the missions themselves (not the ones that NPCs give you, these ones spawn whilst in the missions). To work along all of these things, you can also unlock new looks for your characters. A majority (if not all) of these costumes are just unlocked through playing the story, but the customisation is neat, however minimal it may be. Wing of Freedom’s endgame really feels like it caters to collectors and completionists alike.

Unfortunately for me, the game does not make use of the original opening song “Guren no Yumiya” (Crimson Bow and Arrow in English). This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, I was just hoping it would be there because I love that song. But I digress. The soundtrack which Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom makes use of is very fitting. When playing missions, music is usually fast paced and intense. This helps emphasise the chaos that is combat (not in a bad sense) as you feel like a real badass when hacking off a Titan’s arm only to be covered in its blood while listening to epic music. The game can also make use of more sombre music when in some of the more melancholy cutscenes. Fans can already predict what these are, but regardless of that, the music fits perfectly. The music team did an excellent job on this one.

Not everything about Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom is amazing though. When playing through the game you unlock scout missions, however, the only way that it indicates this to you is by a small icon on the map which looks the same as the one for replaying previous missions. This wouldn’t be such a gripe if there weren’t so many scouting missions you could do. It’s great that there is a lot for you to do, but at least notify me that it has initially become available so I can make a note to check out these extra missions. Another issue is that sometimes the titans bug out and start behaving crazily, whether it be they jitter uncontrollably or just fall over for no apparent reason. While this issue doesn’t necessarily hinder the player, it can be jarring to look at (especially when the titan falling over causes a building to be crushed). My only other issue with this game is that the gameplay can lack any form of variety. While the gameplay is fun in pretty much every aspect, I can also see why people would get bored as it can be very repetitive.

Final Thoughts

Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom is a perfect example of taking the greatness of a beloved anime series and turning it into a very fun video game. With its gorgeous graphics/art direction, Spiderman-like gameplay, exhilarating combat and thrilling score, Wings of Freedom correctly captures the chaos that is conveyed in the anime series. Completionists and collectors should find themselves with plenty to do, especially with the endgame which allows for more game time than most. Whether you are a fan of the anime series or not, this is one title I would definitely recommend.

Reviewed on PS4