Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei
Platforms: PS3, Vita, PS4, Xbox One
Anyone who knows me, is well aware of my love for the Dynasty Warriors franchise. I have fond memories of defeating Lu Bu at Hu Lao Gate with a low level character after an intense 30 minute battle in many different versions of the game. That being said, I have not really played many of the other series. I played the original Samurai Warriors and enjoyed it, but never really got into it. I also tried the first Warriors Orochi and while I enjoyed it, I never played nearly as much as Dynasty Warriors.
Warriors Orochi is a series that combines Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors into a crazy what if event. After the absolutely incredible Dynasty Warriors 8 (Which I did a review for here.) and the even better Xtreme Legends version, can Koei knock out another home run?
As always, the opening movie is fantastic. These always get me pumped up and ready to hack and slash thousands upon thousands of people. As soon as you get into the main menu you are presented with the all the game type options. Coming from someone who knows little to nothing about this series, the options themselves were pretty varied. Where I found myself having the most fun was the story mode, which typically sees you progress through a meaty bunch of of missions as you gather more and more allies, and this forms the basis of what the game’s all about: the character roster. Warriors Orochi 3 starts at the big final battle with Orochi’s monstrous Hydra, where all the good guys get killed and it looks like the world is doomed. Using Kaguya’s time-travel abilities, our warriors have to jump back and forth through time to recruit the 145 playable characters so you have the biggest possible army to fight and defeat the Hydra.
Multiple stages also have “Redux” versions of the map.
During your quest to unlock all the playable characters there will be some that you would assume don’t belong in this game. Characters like Ryu Hayabusa, Rachel, Ayane, Sophita, Achilles, and Joan of Arc to name a few. When I first saw some of these characters I had to sit and ask myself what game I was playing. It was just so strange to see Ninja Gaiden and Soul Calibur mixed with my normal characters. I’m not saying this is a bad thing at all, far from it. I loved the inclusion and thought they were a nice touch. The characters themselves all have different combos and control differently.
That said, the game features a number of characters who simply aren’t very effective. The entire roster is split into four different types of fighter: power, speed, technique, and wonder. Power types are immune to flinching when they’re busy attacking, speed types can jump away from danger and cancel out of combos, technique types possess a sidestep, and wonder types can perform a dash that allows them to keep up a combo and break an enemy’s guard. As you can imagine, the varying styles make room for even more game play experimentation, but unfortunately, some abilities are far more useful than others. The technique type’s sidestep, for instance, relies heavily on the situation, and most of the time, you’ll just want to keep on the offensive anyway. The same goes for a number of character’s move sets, which just don’t measure up to what other characters have to offer. While it’s clearly incredibly difficult to balance a cast of over 100 personalities, that doesn’t make it any less disappointing when you find a warrior that you like the look of, only to discover that they’re frustratingly outclassed in combat by other available fighters.
What was completely new to me was the option of playing as 3 characters instead of one. By using the shoulder buttons you can swap between one of the 3 characters you chose. By hitting the correct shoulder button at the right time during a combo, they can continue the combo, allowing for some pretty cool displays of power. Outside of the switching mechanic, the release plays exactly as you’d expect it to, as you wade through thousands of enemy troops using accessible, but satisfying combos.
Weapon forging and upgrading is also included and it is what you would expect at this point. You can also promote your officer a total of 9 times that allows you to upgrade your stats based on a upgrade stone currency. The higher you promote, the more bonuses you get. Some of the bonuses are speed stat boosts, drop rate increases, and proficiency boosts.
For a long time now, fans have been calling out for a mode that’s more akin to a fighting game, and Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate has answered. Duel mode sees two teams of three go head to head in a small arena. You’ll be locked on to your opponent so that there’s a fighting genre feel, but other than that, the mechanics stay largely the same. You can face off against computer controlled combatants or take the fight online, and while it’s a fun distraction, there’s no denying that the mostly unchanged combat system simply doesn’t translate too well into a more traditional brawler. As such, some warriors sport annoyingly broken move sets or overpowered attacks, which makes the whole mode feel like if you do not pick a certain group of characters you will most likely lose. I tried a few online matches and sure enough most players are using characters with broken move sets.
The newest addition is Gauntlet Mode and I must say this is a breath of fresh air into the series formula for me. Here, you’ll make a party of five, and your goal is to progress through dungeon-like stages in one piece. Sure, you can argue that its still the same game just with randomly generated enemies, but you would be missing out on other features this mode offers. The treasure chests on the map when opened have varied rewards. Some treasure chests will spawn very difficult enemies that can wipe out your entire team no problem if not careful. If one of your characters dies in this mode, you have the option to wait for a natural resurrection or to move on without them. I personally enjoyed this mode as it was just something different and can get very chaotic later on into the game. Most of my game play has gone into Story Mode and this game mode.
On top of that there is a level editor called Musou Battlefields, which allows you to edit already existing stages by swapping out opposing officers among other smaller elements, before uploading your creation so that players around the world can download and try it out. I came in expecting a full level editor and that idea excited me to no end. However, if you come into this expecting that prepare to be slightly disappointed. However, for what it is, I enjoyed downloading a couple maps and seeing peoples different takes on famous battles in the series.
The backgrounds look amazing.
Overall the game itself is packed of content for fans of the series. However, something really irked me while playing this and actually compelled me to go out and purchase the PS4 version of Dynasty Warriors 8 to see if it was just a port issue or not. That issue is the pop-in. While playing enemies would just disappear and reappear a couple seconds later. The characters disappearing would be right next to me, and reappear again in the same spot as if they never moved. It really was distracting and felt like it was a step back for the gameplay after how well the PS4 port of Dynasty Warriors 8 handled it. I can understand it not being as sound because the amount of enemies being thrown at you in Ultimate is much higher, but it really made me feel like I was playing a PS2 game at times due to just how bad the pop in is. Another issue I had was while streaming off the PS4 (Thanks to the people who came in and chatted while playing!) was it would slow down while streaming. I could not pin point why it would slowdown as it seemed to happen at random, but at times the game was going at a very low frame rate and took me out of the immersion.
Even with those issues, I enjoyed my time with Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate. It seems this year is the year of Koei and I cannot be happier for that. However, after the superb Xtreme Legends port of Dynasty Warriors, this feels like a step back. The story itself I enjoyed and was refreshing to see after seeing the same story being played out each installment. With all the characters, levels, and fighting styles, the game will keep you busy for a long time if you are a fan of this style of game play. However, I can only recommend this to fans of the series. Any newcomers I would steer to the superior DW8 Complete Edition.
