Warriors Orochi 4 Review

1. After being seemingly wrapped up at the end of Orochi 3 Ultimate, the Orochiverse returns with some Greek company. But is Koei Tecmo's latest Warriors game m.
2. Extrapolating from the PS4 version of Orochi Warriors 4 (which got a 78 Metacritic score) combined with the terrible performance of the game on the Switch it's not really that hard to see why it.
3. Warriors Orochi 4 is a pleasantly familiar experience in the long-standing Warriors franchise, offering 170 playable characters across the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series as well as.

Warriors Orochi is the ever evolving dimensional crossover series of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises, and Warriors Orochi 4 is the latest release in Koei Tecmo’s iconic.

Koei Tecmo is a company whose games have always captured my attention, but found issue in finding an entry point to them. Hyrule Warriors, despite the praise, ended up boring me to tears the first time I jumped on and then off the one-versus-thousands style of games. That is, until I bought One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 on a whim (during a One Piece kick) and fell in love with it. When given the chance to review Warriors Orochi 4, I jumped on it, hoping to recapture the magic and fun I had with Pirate Warriors 3.

For those who aren’t aware of what kind of action Warriors Orochi 4 features, it’s a hack and slash game that puts you in the shoes of a powerful soldier. Waves of minion-like enemies stand before you as fodder for your weapons, while more equally powered fighters come are base commanders and opposing generals.

Set in a fairly decently-sized map, you move around defeating literally thousands of enemies, while leading your army towards victory by capturing bases and defeating enemy leaders. The gameplay can be an acquired taste, as the key design is to make things fairly simple. Normal attacks are performed with two buttons, and more often than not, you find yourself using the same combos over and over. The intent is to create a powerful fantasy as you cut, shoot, and bash your way through huge squads of foes towards your goal, making you feel like the strongest fighter around. Warriors Orochi 4 starts getting convoluted when you add in the other attack buttons. Introduced early on, every character has a special item that gives them three powerful magical attacks. They range from helpful to pointless, though, and trial and error teaches you which ones are worth using.

Adding to the growing confusion is the special charge attack you can release, which was something I forgot about for the majority of my play time. You’re also given a special unity attack, which can be released after charging up another meter and will deal massive damage. Despite an overwhelming high amount of charge meters, bars, and different combos, I found the combat to be quite engaging. Yes, I might have forgotten about one of the special attacks, but I was able to use the others effectively enough, and had fun trying out the characters.

Every plays differently and wields a unique weapon. Even repeated armaments, like swords, are varied enough by combining them with additional equipment or a unique attack styles. On the subject of characters, it’s an understatement to say that there are a lot of choices. This is because the core reason for existence of Warriors Orochi 4 is that it’s a cross-over title between Chinese-centered Dynasty Warriors, and the Samurai Warriors games set in Japan.

Characters from both series are mixed together and each mission unlocks, at my count at least, a minimum of three new fighters to select for the next mission. This fact was a two-edged sword for me. On the plus side, it kept me cycling through new allies. Each mission gives you the control of three heroes you can cycle between, and I often went into the next mission with a rookie team. While I occasionally would find a fighter who was harder to handle or just wasn’t all that fun, I also stumbled on a few who were an absolute blast to play with. This creates a feeling of freshness throughout, as I never felt stuck having to play with only a small handful of bland characters. On the flip side, though, looking through the growing roster of men and women can get overwhelming.

With so many new choices, I sometimes struggled with who to play as. While there’s an option to test out the characters, I chose to ignore it and give myself a trial by fire scenario each time by jumping into the next story chapter. The lack of focus also meant that I had no room to fall in love with any one of the characters. Even fighters I did come to enjoy got pushed to the side in case the new guy was better than the gal I found fun to play as.

The prequel anime (pictured right), the 's most recent television anime, premiered in January 2016. Creator on his official Twitter account on Thursday that the 'final season' of the series' television anime adaptation will premiere in 2018. Fairy tail season 9 release date. Mashima said in English, 'The Final Season of anime will go on air in 2018!'

As for the story, this is where the game is either strong or weak, depending on your past experiences with the Warriors franchise. I would assume, being someone who doesn’t know the characters, that the story is something fans of Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors, or both, would find highly enjoyable. As someone with no understanding of the past events, or know who exactly these strangers were, it came across as a detailed, yet perplexing mess. That’s not to say that the story is inherently bad. The core plot is simple enough; warriors from different eras and backgrounds find themselves needing to come together to defeat a common evil. In fact, the framework is laid well enough that a Warriors rookie such as myself coukd follow the gist of it.

My failure to grasp the story came from the more intricate details, as well as the importance of introduced characters. On the whole, the story mode is competent, and does its job to create a base for the gameplay, and that’s all you can ask of it at the end of the day. I did find myself, while not fully engaging in the narrative, understanding it enough that it didn’t get in the way of the fun parts. What’s not as fun, though, is the character management, and this is where calling it bewildering would be yet another understatement. On the surface, I understand the objective; allow for customization and gamification of characters to drive continued play. There’s nothing wrong with the idea, but in execution it becomes a clustertruck of insanity. You have characters gaining bond levels with other fighters based on how much they are used together, you can equip different levels of weapons and add new elements to their attacks, levels grant skill points which can be used to upgrade stats and combo lengths, and so on.

It all creates a mess of an UI that makes me feel like I’m playing a skim-milk version of Monster Hunter. The need to be prepared is understandable in the boss-centered franchise, but here it meant large amounts of work for a little overall benefit.

I actively avoided as much of character management as possible, only focusing on the skill trees and levels. Those were the only really important features anyway, as levels equal strength, and you could unlock better combos or further upgrades with each skill up. One noteworthy feature is that while the story mode is where you’ll spend the bulk of your time with Warriors Orochi 4, there’s are online battles too. From best I can tell, it’s a 3v3 mode where you play capture the flag-style elimination matches.

I say this coming from the light tutorial offered, because when I tried to jump into a few matches, all I got was waiting around. The best I could get was one other person, who would drop out after a few minutes. Those looking to jump into the Warriors series and experience the flavor of the games, could do better. Personally, I would recommend the licensed Warriors games, such as One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 or even Hyrule Warriors, because they will teach you what you can expect from the genre.

What they offer as well is a brand you’re more likely to be familiar with, and therefore care more about the characters and the story. As a newcomer to Warriors, I never felt welcomed into the mythos, my point of view being more like that of an outsider, only scratching the surface rather than becoming absorbed. There is fun to be had with Warriors Orochi 4, as I certainly found myself hooked in once I got going, yet I don’t recommend the game for the uninitiated. It failed to leave a strong lasting impression, and I lacked the emotional connection to the story concepts. If you’re a veteran of the franchise, you’ll find Koei Tecmo has made a solid entry to add to your library. If, like me, you’re still fresh-faced, wait for a sale or work your way towards it.

This has been a busy year for the malevolent forces of ancient Greece. Ever since Kratos went to northern Europe to start a black metal band, the Grecian ne’er do wells have been coming out of the woodwork.

First we have the doing all sorts of cloak and dagger nonsense, and now Zeus, Ares and Athena decided to take a page out of Orochi’s playbook and mash up the worlds of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. Not that we’re complaining of course since we tend to enjoy the simple pleasures of the repetitive chaos that can be found in Musou games and Warriors Orochi 4 introduces some new elements in the latest installment of their one version a zillion formula. The story of Warriors Orochi 4 continues after, which the former is nice enough to include a story synapse of the latter during the loading screens. Zeus had observed the events involving Orochi X and the Hydra, and after all that mess was settled the characters went back to their home worlds with a convenient case of amnesia. Zeus is bored and wants to recreate this world since having the warriors from the Three Kingdoms and Sengoku period meet up again sounds fun. Some video games have stories that show video games can transcend storytelling into high art and this is not one of those games.

The story is interesting enough, but really just exists to provide an excuse for a reunion between the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors to battle against supernatural forces they wouldn’t encounter in their more historically accurate main games. Warriors Orochi 4 begins with a modest roster of three characters but this increases after almost every main story battle and side story, ultimately leading up to a total of 170 playable characters once everyone is unlocked. “Guest” characters from Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate do not return, such as characters from the franchise or historical figures such as Joan of Arc and Achilles. All Dynasty and Samurai Warriors return, along with the natives of the Mystic Realm such as Da Ji and Susanoo, along with some select members of the Greek and Norse pantheons. The design choices for the Greek gods are not what we’ve been accustomed to traditionally. The designs for Ares and Athena are well done with Ares having some of the coolest new weaponry, though when I look at Zeus I can’t help but think of Chris Farley being turned into a steroid-devouring bodybuilder. Veterans of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate will feel at home in Warriors Orochi 4.

Players will assemble a team of three warriors and go into battle, switching between characters to help stave off death and slaughter an endless supply of enemies in the familiar one vs one thousand formula. Players fight off hordes of enemies is the familiar hack and slash gameplay, using simple attacks and the special musou attacks when they need to clear out a lot of enemies quickly.

In keeping true to the play mechanics of their predecessors, characters from the Mystic Realm and Dynasty Warriors games will have a stronger charge attack they can mix into their combos while the Samurai Warriors characters get a dash attack. Each battle lasts on average around fifteen to twenty minutes, though character level, difficulty setting and skill factor into this. The gameplay is repetitive and generally simple, but in that sense it can also be cathartic and good game to play when you need to unwind. The biggest change in gameplay is the addition of magic which is introduced early on. Each character has four different magic abilities that can be activated by holding the right bumper and pressing the corresponding face button. The least exciting of these is the ability to summon a horse, but having a horse appear underneath a character is a nice change of pace from having to chase down a galloping equine (we’re looking at you Samurai Warriors 4-II). Each character has normal magic that is useful for dealing rather weak to moderate damage to a large group of enemies and only uses a bit of quickly regenerating magic gauge, which can vary from sending a barrage of fireballs to waves of ice to shooting a wide beam from a sword.

Charge magic is a more powerful attack that drains the entire magic gauge and requires it to be full in order to use. Lastly, each character has a unique magic spell that drains the musou gauge and the magic gauge. The addition of magic helps breathe some new life into the formula, and while there were some reservations when it was first announced, I quickly found myself constantly spamming enemies with my new found spellpower. In the same vein of magic attacks there is now a unity bomb.

This attack is basically launching a mini nuclear warhead on the battlefield by using the combined powers of all three party members and the four support characters, which is a good tool to have on reserve if the battle starts to shift out of your favor. Certain characters undergo a process known as deification once they find the proper Ouroboros Bracelet that resonates with them. When in this state they undergo a transformation process and can unleash virtually unlimited unique magic. Character and weapon growth is a necessary part of progression in Warriors Orochi 4. Players will collect new weapons from the battlefield and characters will gain levels by gaining experience in battle. Because there are so many character options there is a good chance that your favorite character might not be unlocked until later in the game, but just like its predecessor, growth points are accumulated that can be freely distributed to any character the player chooses if a new addition to the roster needs to catch up. The story progresses through five chapters, each one offering several battles. In addition to the main battles there are side story missions that don’t necessarily deal with the main objection of figuring out what Zeus is up to but typically lead to unlocking new characters.

In addition to standard level gaining, characters will earn skill points with each level that can be spent on new abilities to make them even more powerful. Gems can be spent on camp rewards that are bonuses that benefit all members of a player’s party, such as increasing the experience earned in battle or getting more gems. Characters that aren’t being used can be sent off on training missions to gather materials and gain levels, so there is a simple kingdom management portion.

Warriors Orochi 4 is an enjoyable experience on single player, mainly because the battles aren’t too long and the story gets fleshed out some more with each battle. Like most games of this style, the greatest enjoyment comes from multiplayer which can be done locally with a split screen or online. All story battles are available for online co-op, provided they have been unlocked through normal story mode play. There is an online code called Battle Arena which supports up to six players in three against three teams of capture the base. During the review process no one was ever online during any of the attempts to play it but I was able to complete the tutorial. Based on the tutorial it seemed like a simple game of capturing a base by standing by it.

It looks like it has potential to be fun but probably not a major selling point for the game. There are no other game modes besides story and arena, and even though any completed battle can be replayed at will this seems lacking. A gauntlet mode like the one in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate would have been a nice addition to this package to extend the value of single player and local co-op. Warriors games are notorious for experiencing slowdown when things get too busy on the battlefield, which is especially true in multiplayer. No slowdown was encountered during the review of Warriors Orochi 4, but when deification or unity bombs were done in local co-op the enemies on the other player’s screen would freeze momentarily, though the other player was free to move about and attack.

There were no framerate issues with the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One version and the two seemed comparable as far as performance is concerned. The Switch version looks fantastic in handheld mode but the lower resolution results in a noticeable graphical downgrade in docked mode.

Aside from longer loading screens the Switch version seemed to perform comparably to other consoles. The Switch version can be played cooperatively with a single set of Joy-Cons so there is no need to purchase a separate controller, but the button remapping for using the shared controller scheme is awkward.

Closing Comments: Warriors Orochi 4 is successful in maintaining the essence of the series while introducing new gameplay mechanics, making it a definite step in the right direction for the evolution of the series. The lack of additional gameplay modes is unfortunate, but that story campaign has enough content to provide a worthwhile experience on its own. Repetitive and mindless are words used to often describe these type of games, which are not inaccurate descriptions, but that is also what fans of the style have come to expect. The added magic attacks and unity bombs help make this entry feel unique among the countless other Omega Force/Koei Tecmo games while still maintaining what makes this type of game enjoyable. Warriors Orochi 4 is one of the stronger titles in Koei Tecmo’s extensive catalog of this style.