Koei`s Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors game series you either love them or hate them, as a result many of you will just ignore Warriors Orochi. Those that do however will miss out on a pretty cool game that deserves a lot more attention than most will give it.Yes it is similar to the Dynasty Warriors series in many ways, but its also very different as well.
So whats the game about? Its about £40 if you in the UK, $60 American, Seriously though its about the Serpent King Orochi using his demonic powers and shattering time and space to fuse together the three kingdoms era of china and the warring states period of japan, so that he may test his might against the legendary warriors of ancient China (Dynasty Warriors) and ancient Japan(Samurai Warriors) in battle.
Don't worry though that`s not all there is to the story line, as the game spans over four different main story lines for the factions of Shu,Wie,Wu and Samurai Warriors each consisting of 8 main levels with a further 7 levels a piece covering the X storylines, an alternative take to the original main branch, each with a totally unique last level compared to the in twined ending of the main story branch.
All story`s start off with a cut scene of the characters getting transported to the middle of nowhere to battle Orochi, The story of the very first Shu mission is that Zhao Yun has been held prisoner beneath Ueda Castle which is under the Serpent Kings control. Worrying about his masters safety (Liu Bei) Zhao Yun must escape from the castle and reunite with his master to defeat Orochi.
This mission has you playing as the following three characters.....
(I don't know why but playing as real people from centuries ago just seems to add something more to the game)
Zhao Yun who according to Wiki was a major military general during the civil wars of the late Han Dynasty and during the Three Kingdoms era of China. For most of his career, Zhao Yun served the warlord Liu Bei, playing a part in the establishment of Shu Han. In literature and folklore he is lauded as the third member of the Five Tiger Generals.
Xing Cai who is unfortunately a fictional character who is believed to be based upon Zhang Fei`s daughters.
She is depicted as a calm and collected warrior who wields a two-pronged fork called the "Ambition". Her ultimate goal is to protect her husband's kingdom in her father's stead.
Yoshimiro Shimazu,Again according to Wiki was a skilled general and the victory against the Ito clan at the battle of Kigasakihara on 1572 is counted as one of his many victories. He contributed greatly to the unification of Kyushu. On 1587, facing Toyotomi Hideyoshi's troops that sought to pacify Kyushu, Yoshihiro pressed for a war even after his brother and the head of clan Yoshihisa surrendered. After Yoshihisa repeatedly asked for the surrender, Yoshihiro finally did surrender. After Yoshihisa became a Buddhist monk, it had been believed that he became the head of the clan but the real power remained in Yoshihisa's hands.
All pretty cool characters and a pretty balanced team in all, with Zhao Yun being a mix of speed and strength,Xing Cai`s Speed and Yoshimiro`s power they are a pretty formidable team, and are all pretty fun to play as.
So what makes this game different from the previous Koei games, well the main difference is you can switch between 3 characters per stage during play as opposed to being stuck with 1 character that plays like a turd (Yes i do mean Yoshimoto Imagawa). You know the kind that causes you to just give up on the other games in the series, as you press buttons but don't seem to have any effect on the enemy units around you. With 3 characters you can change between on the fly though, there is always a character that you will enjoy playing as, which in turn makes the game so much more fun to play. It also makes the game a bit easier than previous titles in the Koei game series, as when one character is nearly dead you can switch them out to rest, instead of seeing the dreaded defeat screen in their other games.
Just when you find a character you like and have levelled up over a few levels, you normally unlock another character who is much more fun to play as than the last (Mitsunari Ishida), with the majority of the characters having different moves and combos, most are different, but with over 75 characters its with little suprise that some of the characters do seem like carbon copys of others with just graphical changes, although once you found 3 you like you don't normally change them, so its not a big problem.
Yes it is just a button masher with you mainly just using the X and Y buttons, but there are also combinations that come into play with an extra press of the X button before the Y sometimes meaning all the difference between a average move and one that takes out most of the enemies around you. Along with these combos you also have the special attacks activated by the RB button which depending on the character can be something really cool that does a lot of damage, (Mitsunari Ishida) to something rather lack luster (Yoshimoto Imagawa again) that makes you wish you saved your musou gauge, these moves however like the Musou moves can get you out of a pickle when your swarmed by enemies with only a slither of health left, some characters special attacks don't use any of the Musou though, which is pretty handy as you don't have to worry about conserving your energy so you have enough to use the Musou move for the next officer you have to defeat.Incase you have not played any of Koei`s games before a Musou move is a super devastating move that does a serious amount of damage, kind of like Ryu`s Shinku Hadoken and Akuma`s Shun Goku Satsu in the Street Fighter series, or Tidus and his overdrive moves in Final Fantasy X.
Another cool feature added to the game is the ability to customise and strengthen the attack power of your weapons, with a total of four weapons in the game to be found for each character. The customisation of the weapons costs growth points that you get from playing the game. With each weapon being able to add an extra 20 points of attack power and having 8 abilities used on them from the rather pointless air, which is good against enemies in the air.(I've seen about 3 enemy officers in the whole game jump and that`s all) to the much better ones like ice which freezes enemies in blocks of ice while you give them a beating.
As well as these though you also have character abilities which you unlock by meeting certain conditions in the game, from defeating 180 troops in a set time limit to taking out so many officers without using any of your musou gauge. These can make a big difference to how easy or hard the game can be for you, if playing on normal upwards, with abilities such as Vitality that extends your life bar, or acclaim that gives you more experience so you level up faster. You can only equip seven of these in total though, which is pretty annoying when you want to equip eight of them, If they made it so you could equip eight though i would want to equip nine, but hey I'm greedy i want everything and more
Each level has you basically having to defeat certain officers, while making sure that one or two of your own stay alive, while taking out troops along the way.
So what is it about the game that makes it fun to play? I don't know but i got all the achievements in it, (Yes I'm sorry i mentioned them in a review but i had to) but then proceeded to play the game for another 3 - 4 hours after. In short this game just seems to have something that keeps me coming back for more. I'm not a big fan of going around collecting this and that, levelling this character up and crap like that, Yet i would gladly sit here and do it for 90% of the characters in the game, unlocking all the abilities and getting the fourth weapons for each character. This games fun and i like it, it just has this charm about it maybe its because there doesn't seem to be much choice around now days with the plethora of First Person Shooters, even though that`s not the case as There`s a lot of good games still being made that don't involve guns.
So in closing go and at least rent the game and give it a try, if you don't like it come back and call me a liar, i cant really say fairer than that, but hopefully one or two of you will appreciate and treasure this game for what it is,an old school hack n` slash game play with a lot more to offer than you will see in a screen shot.
Audio – 7.0
Visual - 7.5
Gameplay - 8.0
Lifespan - 9.0
Presentation - 7.5
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