Warriors Orochi

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.

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.