A Dynasty of Mediocrity.
Warriors Orochi is the newest beat ‘em up from Koei. Like previous games in the Dynasty Warriors series, Warriors Orochi is a button hammering mess of brain-dead NPC’s and timeworn combat.
The daemon Orochi has come from another dimension to challenge the greatest warriors from the Dynasty Warriors series. Though the games, story modes you will unravel the mystery of why this daemon has come and what’s in-store for him.
In Warriors Orochi, there are four different story modes, yet there is really only one. In each mode, you will play as a different warring faction though the same maps with roughly the same story. Certain events and characters will chance, but since the voices are the same and the artwork is so similar, you’ll hardly notice a difference
The voice acting is atrocious. Not only is it bad, it’s repetitive and reused. The same actors voice different characters though-out the story modes, which kills any individuality said characters could have had. Even with bad voice acting one would hope that the game’s story would at least be fleshed out, unfortunately it’s a Swiss cheese tale of daemons and warlords. Combat in Orochi is very simplistic, ranging from a few generic combos and magic attacks for the games 77 unlockable characters. You will get a Normal attack, a charge attack, a musou (magic) and a special attack. You also have the ability to Strafe/Guard against incoming attacks. For the most part, enemies just stand and stare at you waiting to be cut down, the only NPC’s that get a touch of intelligence are the random named NPC’s that you will come across. Each will have a 1-2-3 combo that is easily avoided and countered. Throughout the battlefield there will be named NPC’s that you must take down in-order to break the enemies courage and strengthen your own party’s. Warriors Orichi introduces a new feature to the series, giving the player the ability to switch heroes on the fly, but since the attacks feel don’t feel any different there is little point to this ability. Also, regardless of what you throw at an enemy, their reaction, and fall down animations are exactly the same. This causes the game-play to become stagnant rather quickly
The game focuses heavily on controlling certain areas called bases. Once you control a base, addition reinforcements fro your party will start to trickle into battle. Each map, or level, is speckled with bases that you must capture to move forward in the fight. Each base is guarded by a Leader, and if you take him out the other guards will retreat. During battle you will randomly pick up weapons that can be used in the crafting menu. Each weapon you gather will be assigned a random number of attribute slots and attributes. You can combine weapons together to increase the base damage, amount of attribute slots, and attributes. The attributes consist of minor weapon enhancements such as Ice or Fire, which has the chance to freeze or burn you enemies upon striking them with your weapon.
Finally once you reach the end battle you will fight Orochi himself, who uses cheap AI tactics such as his AOE push spell. This attack is 99% unavoidable because he only uses it once you have started a combo. The only way to avoid this attack is jumping, which since you are already in the animation for your combo, becomes impossible.
New characters are accrued after each battle. Some of the named NPC’s you defeat will start to see things your way and agree to fight by your side. These warriors are separated into 3 classes by design, yet despite the class separation the characters never feel very different
To say Warriors Orochi is a “button-masher” is a massive understatement. Orochi is a button pulverizer. This game is only for the strong-armed, as you will get immensely tired playing threw even just the first story act. Frequent breaks are recommended to avoid unnecessary wrist strain
. Warriors Orichi is what happens when a dumbed down version of God of War meets Tekken Tag. While this may sound fun on paper, the bland combat, world, and character design, suck out all the potential fun
