Warriors Orochi Review (X360)

Let’s get the usual out of the way first. If you don’t like Dynasty Warriors or have gotten sick of playing them, then obviously this game is not for you. If you’re a hardcore DW fan though, this game is godly. There are some minor improvements as well, but I’ll get to those in a bit.

Warriors Orochi is a fantasy crossover of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series. The serpent king Orochi comes to Earth and brings together the armies of China and Japan. The named generals from both games choose sides and battles break out. There are 4 storylines to play through: Shu, Wei, Wu and Samurai. Since I’m a big fan of the Samurai Warriors series, I chose to start there.

The game boasts a total of 77(!) warriors for you to use. However at the beginning you start with 3 from each kingdom. Your starters on this team are Nobunaga Oda, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Hideyoshi Toyotomi. By playing stages, you unlock more characters. Inbetween stages, you’ll be given the chance to swap out characters in your team, abilites, and weapon fusions. What you say? Well, let me explain

NEW GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS
3 man teams – First off, you now command a 3 man team. You can switch between team members on the fly using the triggers. Only the active character gains EXP for kills, but your reserve characters regain life and musou (super meter).

3 catagories of generals – There are now three types of generals – Power, Speed, Technique. Each has pros and cons
- Power Generals don’t flinch when hit and can use part of their musou meter to area attack.
- Speed Generals can use musou to up their attack speed or counterattack when hit
- Technique Generals can cancel combos by jumping and can air dash

- Growth Points are new. You gain experience in battle as before. However at the end of the stage, instead of more experience you are given growth points. These points can then be used to level ANY character (not just the ones in your team) and for Weapon Fusions (see below)

- Weapon fusions. You will still aquire weapons in tiers during battle. But in the past you could sometimes get stuck with a Lv. 1 weapon for quite some time. Weapon fusion allows you to build weapons to your liking. Take a base level 1 weapon and mix it with a level 1 that has a slot for a special ability. You then use growth points to pay to add the slot to your weapon and up the attack by 1. You now have a level 1 weapon with +1 attack and an empty slot. Mix this with a weapon with say Fire element and pay to move the fire element to your weapon as well as up attack. You’ll end up with a Lv 1 weapon with +2 attack and fire element.

- Abilities are now learned by all, not character specific (these are the speed +, attack + etc). You can equip 7 different abilities to your team

- Call a horse at any time. Makes getting around maps a hell of a lot easier

- Dialogue during battle when adversaries meet and other situations. Xiahou Dun meets Nobunaga and says that he reminds him of Cao Cao, but then for the rest of the battle tells him he’ll never be as great as Cao Cao. Enemy generals will have dialogue usually with each of the three generals on your team.

- Battle itself seems to be much more faster and chaotic. Normal mode is very hard as well. I’ve had to switch generals constantly when one gets too hurt.

GRAPHICS
It’s a DW game, so you know what to expect. However a few things have changed. One is the fog of war is much much less. In past games when too many enemies got onscreen, some would disappear and would then hit you when you didn’t expect it. I actually had 6 named guys onscreen with multiple foot soldiers at one point, no disapperaing act and no slowdown. Overall the game looks a heck of a lot better but I don’t expect the big leap until DW6.

SOUND
Standard fare of orient mixed with techno. Voice acting in English seems to have gotten better, I think they hired known VAs this time. You do have the option for Japanese voices. They do use correct pronunciations for names now (Cao Cao is now spoken as Tsao Tsao)

FINAL
As it stands right now, it’s getting an B from me. The new gameplay elements and the increased speed of the game were sorely needed, and the fantasy storyline is pretty cool. If you’re a DW/SW fan, it’s a no brainer. If you’re on the fence, give it a rent. Yes it’s still repetative and the core button mashing elements haven’t changed, but the new features make it feel more updated than what you have seen from the series recently.

VERDICT = B, RENT IT THEN BUY IT