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
