Exciting, Original, Immersive. This is everything Orochi is not,
Koei's Warriors Orochi is a combination of the Dynasty Warrior and Samurai Warriors franchise. While the game may seem like a fresh idea, it is left with the same characters you will find in both games and the same repetitive gameplay you would come to expect from both games.
There are four different campaigns: Shu, Wu, Wei and a campaign revolving around the Samurai Warriors portion. The storylines are all vary, depending on the faction you chose, but the same structure is used for each faction so the missions are very similar. While Omega Force - the developer - has tried add variety to missions such as escorting officers to safety, or infiltrating an enemy camp, it does little to squelch the monotonous feeling after you are on your last campaign.
The gameplay is what you would expect from the other Warrior games. The AI is about as useless as a rotten sack of potatoes and your allies do very little but distract you from your main objective. You can easily pace through the game using on the two attack buttons and using your special Musou attack. A noticeable change in the gameplay is the introduction of the ability to switch your officer to another one in-game. This is achieved through selecting three officers to take into battle in the prebattle menu then in the battle you can switch the officer with the press of the button. While it adds some variety, it does little to save the game's dire gameplay.
In terms of extra content, Warriors Orochi has very little. There is a free mode which allows you to pick a warrior and fight a chosen battle, as well as some extra features such as a gallery, but it remains at that. You can play the story in co-op but it's not more interesting than playing it in single player.
You would expect the emergence of Samurai Warriors in the game that there would be more officers, but there are only 77 in the game. Despite this, it should keep fans of the franchises busy, and for anyone trying to get the easy achievements in the game.
The area which perhaps sets Warriors Orochi apart from the other games are the new customisable weapons feature. This allows you to gather weapons in battles then merge them to improve your weapon further. You can also add add-ons to your weapons to give it fire damage, for example. It isn't much of a revolutionary feature but is a welcome addition to the game and allows you to create some beastly weapons.
In terms of graphics, Warriors Orochi's are very poor. They are of the same quality of past Warriors games like Dynasty Warriors: Empires. To say the graphics are of next-generation standard would be a blatant lie. The character models of the singular warriors are identical, and on screen they can become just a choppy mess. The named officers are slightly better and give an aura of individuality thanks to their colourful and unique design. Other than that, the game is more like a recycled Xbox game.
The sound quality of the game is also unbelievably bad. The script is poorly written and phrases in the game are completely over-used. The voice acting is also abysmal. You would have thought in a game set in medieval China that it would feature some of the Chinese language, however, the Officers have accents similar to those who live in Sussex. Not only that, but the irritating cries of warriors on the battlefield and the 1970s electro soundtrack is enough for you just to mute the game - you might even get some enjoyment out of it that way.
Warriors Orochi is proof that Koei is really just milking the franchise, and perhaps it is time to cut the Warrior franchise and focus on something new. If you are one of the fans of all the other Warriors games, then give it a try, but if not your money is better spent on something more worthwhile.
