Warriors Orochi

"For SW and DW veterans - Total Letdown"

This guide is intended for fans of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games.

I'm a huge Koei fan. A huge one, ever since I played New Horizons back in '94. When I heard about Orochi I exploded with excitement. Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors mashed into one? What could be better? After giving it a fair play-through, I'd have to say just about anything could be better. It was the most disappointing thing for me since the Final Fantasy series went bottom up.

Overall Ratings:

Gameplay - 4/10
Now, for you Dynasty and Samurai fans, you should know the basic rundown. WO didn't adopt the rolling from SW, but did adopt the special stances. Also, there is no bow and arrow in WO. You cannot issue commands to your AI teamates via the D-Pad, or through the menu during battle.

The only thing that's really different about the mechanics in WO is that you select three characters (from the faction you're playing, factions are split as follows: Wei, Wu, Shu, SW1, SW2, and Others) to control for each mission. At any given time you can switch between these three characters. While a character is 'benched' their musou will build up; however, while they are actively being used they will not build musou. Another big difference is that when playing in two-player mode, the second player does not get to select their characters. They get to use the same three as player one.

Obviously, being able to have three different characters at once destroys almost all the tactical value of the Warriors franchise. You don't have to decide whether you want a character with quick movement as opposed to one with a spear for area damage, or a massive powerhouse for taking out enemy generals. Instead you can use all three if you want. Of course, you can avoid this huge oversight if you only use one of your three characters. The downside to doing this is that you will never get to use musou unless you pick it up from a destroyed object or a corpse (that's how my brother and I played though, and it isn't too bad).

The maps are pretty lackluster in this game, compared to DW or SW games. Orochi even uses some previously used DW and SW maps, but cuts out certain aspects of them. It seemed like most walls you could double jump over had been removed (if not all of them). The Orochi specific maps were eyesores, in my opinion. They were black barren landscapes with touches of lava here and there, and little tactical value or special circumstances (like floods, ambushes, etc). There weren't many of them either.

As far as character selection, you can use most of the characters from SW 2 and approximately a little over half (I think) the characters from DW 5. Said characters remain mostly the same, though you might notice some of your favorites characters are missing. The new playable Orochi characters were decent, but nothing to rant and rave about. No doubt Orochi was powerful, but his outrageous power numbed the gameplay a lot (and I didn't have musou).

Like usual, you can reset levels after you acquire weapons and play the game on hard mode from level 1 (which Koei cut out for Gundam Warriors, sad me). Though, the weapon system in WO was a huge hassle. While it was a pretty cool way to customize your weapon instead of relying completely on random chance, it really was a hassle. You can take the abilities from the weapons you find and put them on the weapon you have (it replaces the same bonus, you can't have more than 1 of a certain bonus on a weapon). While this is cool, you'll see the downside after battle when your weapon becomes full. You'll have to go down a list and discard every new weapon you get every single battle. It doesn't sound too terrible, but if you're a total Warriors addict like me all that discarding will add up to a lot of time.

I think (it's been a few months since I played this game) that you start every battle on a mount, or with a mount nearby if you're indoors.

Overall, I think the 3 characters thing is a huge flaw and crippled the usual Warriors gameplay. It wouldn't have been so terrible if they wouldn't have changed the musou system. Being unable to control your AI friends efficiently (DW 5 Empires was cream of the crop for that) was a big disadvantage, as you no doubt know how stupid/reckless they can be. Second player not getting to choose their own characters was also a big step backwards. I think Koei took a great idea and smashed it into a million pieces this time. Hopefully WO 2 will be better.

Story - 1/5
I'd hate to spoil it for you, but I'm going to. So don't read this if the story interests you (hahaha). A space/time anomaly occurs and China and Japan get sucked into Orochi's realm. Yikes.

Graphics/Sound - Nil
Standard Warriors stuff here.

Play Time/Replayability - 3/5
Due to being able to control three characters in each battle there's a little less play time. If you're fanatical (and obsessive) about playing all the characters and such that could be a good thing for you.

Final Recommendation - 4/10
What should have been the best Warriors game really disappointed. I'd say it's the worst Warriors game I've played byfar (though I saw a trailer for the Wii one and that probably takes the cake). If you have the latest DW or SW games I'd recommend skipping this one. I bought it and was sad about it. Now Koei might think they did right by this game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/09

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