An evil serpent demon lord called Orochi has transported the most skilled warriors from history to a dimension he has crafted for the sole purpose of testing his might against their battling mettle. It appears that the world beyond Japan and China has some work to do in respect to creating great fighters as these two countries hold complete representation in this warlord Olympics. Four factions are drawn into the previous Warriors games each having their own take on the battle against the serpent king. Not traditionally known for their strong narrative, Warriors Orochi takes the series’ further off storytelling course with an average plot and some painful dialogue with, for the most part, equally painful voice acting. However the basic premise is that each of the houses must defeat Orochi. Not an overly complex affair.
Each of the game’s playable characters is plucked from the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors worlds. To begin with there are only three available from each of the four houses but as the game progresses the number to choose from skyrockets to around 70.
There's a lot of battling to be done in Warriors Orochi, and a lot of buttons to be mashed.
Warriors Orochi employs a system in which you have at your disposal three warriors on the battleground who are chosen at the beginning of the mission. These are switched on the fly using the trigger buttons. It adds an extra dimension to the gameplay, but this is more of a sidestep than a revolution of the series. Whilst not being used, the two characters out of your control will regain health and special attack charge. With the number of selectable players many of these feel incredibly similar, although this is a relatively understandable and expected drawback.
Slicing your way through swathes of enemies has been the staple of KOEI’s Warriors series’ since they emerged from the safe confines of the developer’s walls, and there is very little that is different here. If you loved the earlier games the base gameplay is a more of the same and should therefore appeal to you. If you’ve played the previous games and not found a morsel of fun, or the sound of endless button mashing action does not appeal to you, then you may as well forget this game now as the core gameplay follows the same relatively worn path.
As the game progresses it becomes apparent that AI was not at the forefront of the development teams mind, or perhaps their skill set. Both enemy and ally soldiers can often be seen running on the spot whilst stuck on what to them must be an invisible wall, but to you appears clear as day. Most of the time both friends and foe stand around watching rather than contributing to battle, letting you slice them to pieces, or seemingly sensing your unimaginable warring skills and not feeling the need to lend a hand. These things make it more apparent that the game was designed with last generation hardware in mind and end up detracting greatly from any attempt to immerse you in a raging believable battle.
Also a hint that the game is originally for the PS2 are the game’s graphics. It seems that the team behind the game were focusing all their effort on placing as many enemies onscreen as possible on Sony’s last generation console resulting in average looking textures and a lack of general intricacy in your surroundings. It is obvious that the 360’s power was a relative afterthought.
There are several missions for each house to complete. It can be difficult to determine exactly what is supposed to done in each incredibly often. Therefore much of the time it seems best to follow around other generals blindly. When you do realize what it is your running around cutting up people for, missions usually centre around what you're already doing and defeating the enemy forces scattered across the map. However at times these involve protecting an allied general. This can be incredibly irritating especially when the lacklustre AI is taken into account. Rather than stay within the group these fools will often charge into battle unprotected leaving you with the game over screen as a parting gift.
A karmic rain you say.
Musou, meaning unparalleled in Japanese, powers are back in Warriors Orochi. These special moves are enacted with a simple press of the right bumper when your special gauge is above a certain level. Each warrior has their own attack and although with the sheer number of protagonists to choose from there is a small amount of overlap, this makes taking down foes more interesting. Various items appear when your enemies are dispatched. Armour bonuses, scrolls to give you experience points and weapons, along with many other items assist in making what would simply be a button mashing fest a little more fleshed out. These allow for some RPG-esque elements to be implemented including the gaining of new attacks and greater power.
A newer element that has been added to the gameplay is the ability to mix and match weapons in order to create more powerful tools for bringing swift deaths to your enemies. It a decent concept – although how someone rubs together two daggers and comes up with one stronger dagger we’re unsure of, but hell, we’re not weaponsmiths. However it seems that more often than not a more powerful weapon can be simply picked up on the battle field during the next mission, almost negating any use that your newly crafted weapon may have.
Taking down hundreds of enemy troops in a single battle is cathartic the first few times that you’re asked to do so. However as the game requests little more of you throughout there's very little for those that crave variety, or those whose concept of fun strays ever so slightly away from constant button mashing action. Orochi is a beat 'em up, plain and simple and its RPG elements seem simply painted on.
If you were a fan of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series’ then there’s a whole lot more of what those games offered here. And with most of the characters from the other games drawn into the same game it ends up being some fantastic ‘fan service’. It's a shame that the game does little to push the Xbox 360’s hardware but fortunate for fans that the cathartic experience of cutting down hordes of enemies remains. That said there's little else on offer. We can’t help but feel that Warriors Orochi indicates a crisis of meaning for the Warriors series.
Loading...
