Mahou Arms is a pretty magical-girl hack-and-slash, sabotaged by fan service it could really have done without

There are games you want to love without reservation, and that stop you themselves. Mahou Arms is one of those. A polished, nervous anime character-action with a slick art direction, it ticks many of the good-surprise boxes. And then, at regular intervals, the camera dives where nobody asked it to, the outfits shrink for no reason, and you catch yourself sighing: please, they could have, they should have spared us the panty shots. That's the whole paradox of this game, as pretty as it is hampered by fan service it absolutely didn't need.

The context

Mahou Arms is an anime-inspired character-action hack-and-slash developed by Dischan Media and published by Sekai Project, released in full after six long years in early access. It tells the story of a magical-girl paramilitary group fighting back against an alien invasion. The proposition blends nervous action and unabashed anime style, with six main missions, a collection of side quests and relationship-sim elements. The game was fairly well received, with 80% positive reviews across more than five hundred responses. The Steam version had its adult content removed, an optional patch remaining available elsewhere, but the fan service itself is very much present in the base game.

The gameplay: Musou and Devil May Cry in a magical-girl dress

On the field, Mahou Arms hits the mark, and that's where it seduces. Combat plays like a cross between Musou, with its hordes of enemies surrounding you Dynasty Warriors style, and Devil May Cry's combo trees. You chain light and heavy hits, launch enemies into the air for aerial raves extended by meteor drops, and the action has that heady edge of a nicely nervous character-action. The polished art direction and the fluidity of movement perfectly serve that energy, and as long as you love the genre, there's real pleasure in dissecting the hordes with style. It's pretty, it's punchy, and it's clearly well thought out in its intentions.

The content, without being lavish, does its job: six main missions and side quests offer a decent adventure for an indie game. You feel the care poured into the move set, the staging and the universe, fruit of six years of development. It's a modest but sincere character-action, whose gameplay needn't blush before more ambitious productions, and which finds a pleasant identity in its blend of genres. At its best moments, when the camera stays put and the action unleashes, Mahou Arms holds a real promise of immediate fun.

What sticks

And yet, impossible to skip over what spoils the party, because it's the first reflex the game inspires. The fan service is omnipresent, insistent, gratuitous, and it hurts Mahou Arms far more than it serves it. Suggestive camera angles, outfits cut to the bare minimum, close-ups nobody needed: this overkill of panty shots constantly undercuts the elegance of a game that, without it, could be recommended with no reservation. It's all the more frustrating because the art direction is beautiful and the action stands on its own. The game shoots itself in the foot by alienating a whole swath of players who'd have loved it without this permanent cheap veneer. They could have done without it, and the game would only be better for it.

The other reservation, more classic, is combat depth. Nervous as it is, the system shows its limits: the combos end up fairly limited, the absence of a real tutorial leaves the player to discover alone a not-always-legible repertoire, and some enemies can chain you in frustrating stunlocks. Character-action is a demanding genre, where the richness and legibility of the chains make everything, and Mahou Arms stays below the genre's references here. It's an indie game that owns its means, and its action does the job over the length of a short adventure, but it doesn't reach the depth or mechanical refinement of the masters it draws from.

What we take away

Mahou Arms is an endearing and sincerely pretty game that could have been a real little gem of indie character-action. Its blend of Musou and Devil May Cry, its polished art direction and its nervous action form a pleasant base, fruit of six years of passionate work, and at its best moments, it delivers that immediate fun you expect from the genre. There's genuine know-how here and a real love of the anime universe, and that's precisely what makes its main flaw so infuriating.

Because the omnipresent fan service does it considerable harm, sabotaging the elegance of its art direction and excluding a whole audience that would have recommended it without reservation. They could have, and probably should have, spared us this overkill of panty shots: the game would only be stronger and broader in its reach for it. Add combat depth below the references, with no tutorial and its stunlocks, and you get a likeable title held back by its own choices. To reserve for genre fans who can look past its cheap veneer to appreciate what it does well, while regretting throughout what it could have been by trusting itself a little more.

Verdict

A pretty, nervous anime character-action blending Musou and Devil May Cry, but sabotaged by gratuitous fan service and limited combat depth: likeable, but held back by its own choices.

Strengths:

• A polished art direction and nervous action
• A pleasant blend of Musou hordes and Devil May Cry combos
• Real care for the universe, fruit of six years of development
• Immediate fun when the action unleashes

Weaknesses:

• Omnipresent, gratuitous fan service that sabotages the game's elegance
• Limited combat depth, with no tutorial and stunlocks
• A cheap veneer that needlessly excludes a whole swath of players

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Tested on PC.