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.
