Koei’s Warriors titles –
Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors respectively – have been
merged together for a super collaboration. Being a fan service to hardcore
fans, this collaboration could be compared to when two famous rappers finally
work together to produce a hot new track. My review of this beat-‘em-up won’t
deter fans of either series from picking up Warriors Orochi based on the
assumption they are actually die-hard fans. Let’s jump right into the storyline
basics and cover how these two dynamite franchises have come to be one.
I, for one, haven’t followed the
Dynasty Warriors franchise as religiously as I should have though I do know the
basics. For those living under the rock for the past decade, Dynasty
Warriors takes several ancient warriors from Chinese mythology/history and
fictionalizes how events took place. Samurai Warriors, on the other
hand, follows the same premise with the exception to the fact that it takes
Japanese warriors and puts them on the battlefield. How do both franchises come
together? Well the main villain of Warriors Orochi is in fact named
Orochi – a demon serpent king looking for a worthy adversary to fight as he
makes hell upon Earth. Orochi is such a super-baddie that he is able to rip
open time itself and pull together warriors from both video games into one to
test his strength.
So the story isn’t 100% believable,
who really cares though? Warriors Orochi isn’t meant to establish the
storyline as historical fact nor does it convey realistic scenarios – what it
does want to do is please its acolytes that have followed every release with
dream match-ups between both Warriors franchises. I personally know
several fans who were awaiting such a game where they could play all of their
favorite characters in one worthy beat-‘em-up game rather than buying two
separate titles.
How does the gameplay stack up?
Warriors Orochi has a few minor differences than what players may have been
accustomed to. Orochi now incorporates a team-based mechanic controlling
up to three different warriors on the battlefield. Switching on the fly
couldn’t have been easier so it’s a welcomed addition to the stagnant gameplay
from the past. As players progress through the game, they’ll be able to unlock
all 77 warriors found from both titles in Orochi. Another change that
has been incorporated is a pre-battle setup allowing players to merge two
weapons into a super-weapon to take advantage in battle. The option to merge
weapons is nice, but it’s only a novelty addition due to that it doesn’t change
the game up too much from the past.
Players wanting a long single-player
campaign will be pleased to hear that there are four different story campaigns
to traverse through – three from Dynasty Warriors perspective while one
from Samurai Warriors. While the storylines differ, the missions are
still unfortunately made up of monotonous combat where players simply mash away
on their controller hitting everything in sight. A few missions will ask
players to escort non-playable characters, but for the most part, players will
be slicing their way through hordes of enemies at a few simple clicks of a
button. Though, there are actually three attacks – Normal Attack, Charge
Attack, and Musou Attack — I found that mastering both the regular and special
attack was enough to get me through the single-player without too many worries
about death.
Before moving on from the tedious
gameplay, there are a few perks for action fans. First off, there’s the option
to play cooperatively. With having a friend tagging along for the ride, it may
make the game more enjoyable but it could possibly end negatively as your friend
may wonder why you are putting them through the torture of repetitive hack and
slash. If the storyline bores the player, then they could possibly jump into
free roam mode to use existing unlocked characters to battle without any story
tied to it. I found this even worse than the story mode since the game became
stale immediately after starting it. Lastly, there is a little depth added in
with characters receiving attributes in power, speed, and technique, but this
level of depth isn’t necessarily fun since many of the characters come off as
clones of another.
Now if players have experienced a
Warriors game in the past then they should know that they aren’t about
pushing the graphics to the limit. Being an Xbox 360 title, compared to recent
releases in the genre, Warriors Orochi doesn’t look like a
next-generation title. It’s an overall ugly game with concentration on
delivering unique character models. Outside of the character models, the rest
of the game doesn’t receive the level of detail it needs; the environments and
special effects are diluted to the point they resemble a PS2 title. Matter of
fact, it reminds me of every other Warriors game in the past. The only
real positive I will speak of, outside of the character models, is that the game
did run smoothly throughout the single-player campaign.
The audio work is among the worst I
have experienced in 2007. The voice-acting suffers from bad dialogue and poor
performances on behalf of the actors. I suggest turning off the voices and
sticking to reading the text as that will be a lot more pleasing on everybody’s
ears. I have come to notice that many eastern-oriented titles suffer from bad
translation and horrible voice-acting – which clearly Warriors Orochi is
a victim of. Not even the soundtrack was worthy of turning the surround
sound up to get a more aesthetic acquaintance of the game.
Overall, Warriors Orochi
isn’t the hit that button-smashers worldwide have been waiting for. It’s more
of the same that can be had in the other Warriors titles that are
available for a bargain price on the Xbox 360. I am quite positive that I won’t
be able to talk many fanatics away from buying the game since their mind is
already set, but if you are among the many that have found Warriors
titles repetitive, then stay clear of Orochi at all costs. If you have
the desire to buy this, I suggest avoiding any urge and spending your money
elsewhere.
Review Scoring Details for Warriors Orochi |
Gameplay: 6.4
The team-up mechanic is possibly the best addition to the title. But
outside of story mode, there is little replay to be had.
Graphics: 5.5
It’s a shame that it doesn’t take advantage of the Xbox 360’s horsepower –
it could’ve been a beautiful game if they worked on providing detail to their
environments and better special effects.
Sound: 4.0
Avoid listening to the dialogue at all costs; mute your television, plug
your ears, turn on music in the room, or anything that will allow your ears the
safety of not hearing the terrible voice-actors.
Difficulty: Easy
Hack and slash hasn’t been easier – I could finish the levels with my eyes
closed.
Multiplayer: 6.0
Cooperative play does help out but even then, who has friends that would
want to sit through several hours of mind-numbing hack and slashing.
Concept: 6.5
I applaud Koei for attempting to put both Samurai Warriors and
Dynasty Warriors into one title, but where it fails is in the execution.
Overall: 5.8
Koei delivers another beat-‘em-up that pits players against hundreds of
on-screen opponents, though it barely provides any type of worthwhile replay to
attract players to devote endless hours of their time.
