AOT: Wings Of Freedom is a game was developed by Omega force and Toei Temco the studios responsible behind most of the Hack and slash games, such as Dynasty warrior, Legend of Zelda Hyrule Warriors, One piece
and plenty of others with the recently developed Persona 5 Strikers. The game came out February 2016 and only had two release verions.
Standard
Included the game alone
Collectors Edition
Included the game, an Artbook, a set of pins, CD with the game's Audio, a muffler towel.
What is AOT?
AOT is an acronym used in place of Attack on Titan. Attack on titan is a popular manga series written by Hajime Isayama. The franchise receive it's anime series in 2012 and skyrocketed it's popularity. The series were so popular
that even main stream media covered their success. The series focusses in a world where Humanity is going up againts Giant genterless carnivores who seem to be trying to excting humanity. To counter this, the Human race developed their
Omni directional gear, a weapon that shoots angors to allow them to elevate with the help of a special gas, and use two blades to cut the back part of the titan's neck which is their weakest point. As the series proceed things
become more comvoluted. As of the writting of this,(DEC 2021) The series had 5 seasons (1,2,3a,3b,4) with the final season in the horizon (1 month away), plenty of OVAs focussing on different aspect of the story, 3 novels, plenty of
animated movies(recapping the episodes), 2 live action adaptations and 34 Manga volumes.
Just for a brief reference the Anime series season 1 ended in 2013 while season 2 aired on 2017. This meant that the game along side some Ova's were the only things available for the fans of the series
Story and Expedition Mode
The game has two main game modes, Attack mode and Expedition Mode.
In Attack mode the player goes through the original story mode of the attack on Titan Season 1 . However being a video game
it adds more contend and behind the scenes. What it means, is that the game goes out of it's way to add all the Ova's in a chronological order. OVAs are episodes that re being released whenever and they showcased more story
that took place during a certain timestamp. OVAs are used to show a less significant content of story OR focus on a specific character (Main or Side). Attack on titan has plenty of Ovas, The original three focussed on trainning missions
that the heroes had gone through, three focus on three different characters ("Villain", Captain Levi, Mikasa) and there was an episode focussed on a character who wasn't shown in any of the seasons 1 episodes but their Act influenced the characters.
To further elaborate on the OVAs and their connection to the game, The Ova about Ilse Lagnar the person responsible of writting the diary claiming that a titan talked to her is placed between the Trost battle and the time the Levi squad alongside
the wings of freedom were outside of the walls for their 56th Exterior Scouting Mission. Overall the game's main story is going through the entire 25 episodes of the anime alongside the Ovas. Thats covering the first 8 Manga books, however this
is not where it ends. Upon finishing the main anime story the game additionally adds the next three battles from the season 2 of the anime ( which back then were only illustrated in manga) and these are the appearance of the beast titan.
It concludes with its own original ending which doesn't mess with the cannon lore. Basically the Collosal Titan alongside the Armor titan Attack the walls for the third time for a techincally speaking final boss fight. The identities of
them is yet to be revealed as both the titans dissappear upon being defeated leaving the main characters wondering of who they might 've been. It's worth mentioning how the story is being shown through some really nice animated scenes
in the art style of the game.
Expedition Mode on the other hand is more about , open the game select a character, choose a mission and enjoy the game. No story mode and ofcourse no need to be cannon in any way. In other words the player can fight
three different female titans and there won't be any problem lore wise. In expedition mode the players are placed on a hub world once they select their main character of choice. In the hub world the players can only visit the store to purchase materials
and the crafter in order to forge better equipment. At the same time the player can choose to request for an active lobby in order to play any mission of preference in Online mode. In online mode the player can forge a party up to 4 players.
There is no character lock, so if every player wants, they can all choose to be Levi Ackerman. The missions that are available to play are the missions the host player unlocked during solo campaign.
Gameplay
There is a total of ten different heroes for the player to choose from and most of them feel different. First of all, the game offers the best characters the Ackermans Levi and Mikasa. These are the two heroes for the player who want to
feel "badass" . Choosing an Ackerman, level them up and then the players find themselves with un overpowered "broken" character. E.G Levi when fully maxed out he is doing his "bayblade spin attacks" without wasting much gas or blade health.
Levi has an additional ability where he can throw his blade mid air when changing a set. Their (both) special ability allows both Levi and Mikasa and their party to use more gas and deal greater damage with little to none blade/gas health.
Completely BADASS and definetely not Broken !!!! Eren is another character who is also the protagonist of the show. Unlike Levi he can only chain attack twice. What makes Eren unique is his ability to turn into a titan when using his special.
As a titan Eren can almost one shot everyone. Titan Eren only lasts for a few seconds. These 3 characters make for 2 different classes of heroes. The Titan shifter(Eren) And the Ackermans. There are 2 more classes. The tactitian heroes like
Armin, Erwin and Hange are heroes of lower Damage however their main focus is to command their teammates as to where to attack. Their special attack not only boost them but also boost their teammates damage. These 3 feel very different than
the others since they dont do much of the the kills themselves. This doesnt mean that they can't attack the titans and get the kill, but it does take em triple the time. Last but not least there the characters who re inbetween The technitians
and the killers with average damage but rewarding more points. These are Sasha, Connie,Jean and Christa.
All heroes have themselves a level up system that will allow each hero to gain more abilities the more the player is using them. Some of them are chain combos, others allow the hero to double boost and so on. Each Character levels up on their own
and not as a whole. For example only using Levi, will result on Levi becomming level 7 (max) while the rest nine will be levels 1.
Basic Gameplay
The game starts by dropping the player into a huge sandbox. Theres a fair amount of maps to play which is a genuine nice thing to have . Once the mission begins the players 're free to do whatever they like. On the minimap on the right theres a red Exclanation mark.
The mark represents the main event. Once the player heads over to that area, the main enemy of the mission will appear, and the moment he is killed the game is over, unless it's a story event which upon completion might spawn a different one. However it
is not recomended to go straight there because the player wont get enough points, materials and etc, unless all the main goal is to finish the game. The red mark should be left till the end. The minimap will have a set of green exclanation marks which act as
side missions. Side missions are mostly in the form of:
go there kill the titans to protect the certain person who set the green flare
kill the titans and escort that person to a different area
protect the civilians who re in the nearby area
Succesfully dealing with green signals will allow the player to reroup that person in the players team/party . In the game the hero might start alone but in most cases he'll have three lower class soldiers in their team. The green signals are mostly main characters
from the series. The more side quests completed the more warriors will join the battlefield including suppliers who will give the players extra blades and gas. Regrouping soldiers in general is easy, simply approach the soldiers and press O. The gameplay similary to
all games of it's genre is simple. The player will have to lock on an enemy by pressing R1. Changing the locked target can be acquired with R3. Targeted Limps with a golden rock means that upon dismantling them they will reward the player with an item.
Once the limp of preference is locked on a titan, the player can tap the square button which will shoot the anchors on the enemy. Once the anchors are set, pressing the X button will use the
gas to build speed and then use triangle to slice that part of. If the playable character has chain attacks, continue to tap triangle to continue attacking. There is no need to relock or shoot the anchors.
Controls recap
X is Speed (gas), Square is the usage of anchors, Triangle to attack and O for the interactions. Interactions can be made with heroes, to regroup people them or give the player supplies if they re the supply group. The game maps also have certain items that the slayers can use
such as, interacting with Cannons, in order to fire them with the triangle button. Interactions can occur with fallen corpses to get their ammo, and occasionaly on horses in order to ride them. Option button will use an emote to trigger the titan and get their attention. R2 is the
button that triggers the special when the meter is filled. Last but not least the keybad. Left & right arrow move the selection of tools the heores can use. These are, blades, gas, potion, molotof, stun granades and flash granades. To use these items,the player will have to press the
up arrow. Blades and gas will allow the character to change his respective blades and gas. The stunt and flash granades are both granades that result in the titans either cover their ears Or their eyes depending on the type of granade launched. Last but not least molotof is a strong granade
that causes a huge ammount of damage on a titan. Last but not least the potion is to recover the players health when low which is when the titan succesfully graps the player. To avoid the titan's grap, the player will have to continuesly tap the attack button before the enemy bar is filled.
The Titans
The titans come in various sizes and various speed levels. They have 5 different health bars, 4 for limps and 1 for neck. The player can chop all of them but unless they kill the neck the dead limps will regrow within a specific time. The titans try to kill the NPC alongside
the player and also they destroy the map. Normal titans can deal damage to the hero by grapping them. If the team doesnt help the grapped player, they will be required to spam the triangle button. But dont worry,
normal titans are nothing to be scared of as they re easy to be dealt with. However, The final kill or the black signal aka Desicive signals are different. These Titans in higher level missions they come with a bigger healthbar and the players will be task to first chop every
single limp before they 're allowed to target and attack the titan's neck. In other cases the final kills might be a fake version of the Armor Titan, Female titan or even the Beast titan. These titans very similar to the other special ones, re reguired to first have their limps
removed before approaching the neck. However, they re faster and they deal damage without even the need to grap. To face the Armor titan direct attacks dont work in the same way as the others since they have a bone structure infront of them. In order to deal damage to them
they player will have to attack them from behind or somewhere where they dont have armor, FYU from the back of the legs or inbetween the biceps and brachioradialis. To face the female titan the best option is to attack her normally make sure that the titans limps arent hardened
otherwise the helth of the blades will reduced faster and won't deal enough damage. Last but not least in order to face the beast titan the hero will first have to use the Molotofs to burn away the hair in order to expose the beast titans body. Once the body limp
is exposed, normal attacks will lead to the titan's doom. The decisive signals mention prior are the blacked smoked signals that appear after specific criteria are met. When starting a game, press they touch pad on the controller , Select Missions Task and there
should be some smaller tasks that need to be taken cared of before the final titan kill in order for the black signal to be spotted. These small Missions are in the form of, kill a number of titans, do this amount of side missions, make sure to regroup a certain hero Or
even don't let any scout to die. Last but not least, as mentioned before some of the limps of the titans have a rock symbol onto them. This means that when the specific limp is chopped , the character will obtain a crafting material.
Hub-world
While outside of missions, the player can interact with different characters that will give them small miniquest with a description and where to find them. There re also 3 stores that can be interacted with. One of them is to buy different horses, the main difference on the
horses is their colors, stamina and speed. The other store is to purchase titan models that can be useed online and generally placed on the player's Gallery. The third and last store is about gear and equipment. The player can use the items dropped by the titans to craft better blades
whose stats can be seen mostly on the damage and durability of the blade. The Omni Gear can see crafting as to how far it can go, how many extra blades it can store and how many gas bottles. As for the gas simply put how long it can lasts. Upgrading and mixing gear will result in better
equipment for the hero.
Final thoughts
Overall all the game was really good for it's time. It deliver the story of Attack on titan (season 1) in a very nice way that made even people who did not watch the anime to understand what was happening. The graphics of the game were really good for it's time and the music used, although
nowhere near the sountracks used in the anime they did a fantastic job making soundtracks almost similar to it. The destructive environment is absolutely stunning as the animators made a perfect job capturing the destructions caused from such events. The ttans look scary and move scary similar
to the show. The omni gear manuvered felt really good, polish and clean, altough when in lower ground sometimes the player might stuck in the bottom of the building. The heroes all feel unique and genuently different in their own respective rights. The Game offers an online mode, However
it is highly recommended to play with friends or use microphone while playing cause what tends to happen is that the people that join will most likely ignore everything that happens in the battlefield and head over to the final titan kill ending the mission with a bad rating and the dissatisfaction
of ending the game so fast. All of the original voice actors are back reprising their roles and once again they do a fantastic job. The game also has a sequel AOT 2 which recently (end of 2021) stopped getting new content updates. The sequel with the expansion final war covers the events covered
from season 1 all the way to season 3 with its own unique ending and the third person prespective as the story is being seen through the eyes of the players custom hero. The Main Negative aspect of the game is that it is very Repeatetive. Similar to every hack and slash game, in the
beggining the game is fun and great but eventually it becomes the same pattern of Lock, Anchor, Boost and Slice. There will be no new titans to phase, no new interactable objects to use and no new heroes to try out.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
