Warriors Orochi

"Two Worlds Collide"

Summary
Warriors Orochi is basically a game that combines Koei's two great titles into one so we could see some of the "dream matches" we always thought about. Like who would win? China's mightiest warrior Lu Bu or Japan's mightiest warrior Tadakatsu Honda? Also what would happen if the two great ambitious rulers Cao Cao and Nobunaga Oda crossed paths? I personally feel that Koei did a good job making sense in how the two worlds could possibly co-exist at the same time. Basically Orochi The Serpent King is a legend and he has the power to alter time. He decides to take the finest warriors from the Sengoku era and the Sangoku era and mix them so he can test his might against them. This actually makes sense because how else could two eras in different times co-exist? The game starts out with Orochi defeating the toughest rulers from all periods because he surprise attacks them all with his army. He captures Sun Jian, Defeats Liu Bei, and kills Cao Cao. Some armies resist him and some actually join him. Cao Pi joins orochi and some of Wei's great generals disagree with Cao Pi and join the resistance. This is why Nobunaga's army can actually have Cao Ren in it. Every general does what they think is best to protect their lord.

Graphics (8/10)
The graphics of this game are very good for the PS2 console's power. The character models look nice, the backgrounds show good detail, and the moves look very pretty. Obviously Xbox 360's graphics are far better than PS2's so if you want outstanding ones you better buy 360's. To me the graphics were good enough however there are some weird glitches in the game. When you play two players and fuse your mosou attacks the enemy officers disappear which I think is terrible. I believe only PS2's has this problem though. Also on two players the game can start to lag a bit if the battle has two many soldiers at once. The graphics are far better on one player because of this. The cut scenes and artworks look very nice though. The graphics for PS2 is good but it has some minor flaws.

Game play (9/10)
I feel that the Game play for this game is outstanding. If you want a hack and slash game this is the game for you. Koei has combined some of the aspects from DW and SW series and they did a very good job. They still have the good old square and triangle moves in the game but they have also added some nice new features. Some good things they added is the team battle. You can choose 3 warriors from the SW and DW series in any kinda of mixture you want after you have unlocked them. In story mode you will only be aloud to choose a warrior you've unlocked in that story until you have beaten the story than you may choose who you like for that story. Koei shocked me in a positive way because they actually change the dialogue between the characters even if the character you picked has nothing to do with that level or even the story! So this helps makes Game play feel a bit less repetitive at times. Each character belongs to one of three types of warriors. These types are speed, power, and technique. Each has their own special ability like the power types specials can't be blocked, speed can do a jumping dash to help get around faster and their specials normally don't use their mosou gauge, technique's specials are the best. Instead of pressing triangle you will press R1 and will go faster and deal extra damage! You can KO officers in one hit like this. Another thing they added is that you can do a mosou chain by switching between the characters while holding the circle button. This lets you deal extra damage and add better effects to your characters depending on what combination of character types you want to use. They are all good so do what you like. AI is well made and all the difficulties are just right. Bad things that were added is that your horse has no stamina so you get knocked off in one shot which stinks. Weapon dead locks have no meter too so you can't tell if you are winning until you do. Also there is no bullet time in mousu attacks so if you liked that it is not here.

Sound (9/10)
A lot of people say all the new voice overs are terrible but in general they are not. I like most of them but I have to admit some are pretty bad. Lets face it with new voice actors your gonna get some improved voices and some voices are gonna be worse. That is just how the cookie crumbles but I think the new voices in total are actually very good and this is the English version too. The songs are perfect, I love them all. Play SW story and during the first level you will see why they are so good. The horses running, soldiers grunting, and weapons clashing sounds great as they always do in Koei's games.

Story (8/10)
Story could've been better because I know Kessen III's story is amazing so I know Koei has that potential but it still is good. All 4 stories have their own unique levels except for one in particular but with that one level it still is a bit different in events for all 4 stories. This is not as repetitive as DW4's first few levels being exactly the same for almost all the stories. There are 8 long levels for each story and there are 8 garden levels as well. Koei also didn't half *** the garden levels stories which was great. Two thumbs up to Koei for that. Some stories are better than others. I'd recommend playing Wei first to people who buy this game.

Replay Value (10/10)
There are plenty of things to work towards to keep you playing more and more like unlocking all the characters, getting all their level 4 weapons and unique items, also getting all the artworks will take you a really long time so replay value is nice. Like I said earlier the characters interact differently in different levels even if they aren't suppose to be there so no matter who you choose the character might get involved in the dialogue. I feel that helps keep things different.

Rent or Buy?
Buy this game if you're a fan of both series. If you rent this game you will not get to finish it and if you do finish it than obviously you've liked the game a real lot and should've bought it anyway.

8.8 gets rounded up to a (9/10)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/07

Game Release: Warriors Orochi (US, 09/18/07)