Viewing Single Post From: Warriors Orochi Review

Viewing Single Post From: Warriors Orochi Review
LittleDragonZ	Oct 13 2007, 08:37 PM
Behold the spear of Baby Dragon! Posts: 6,846 Group: Admins Member #3,636 Joined: October 5, 2006 Gender Male	I've had a blast playing this game more than I would say the Empires expansions because I don't favor them too well. I prefer stories personally, but this is coming from someone who praises Dynasty Warriors 3 more than any other game and with little thought. Core: This game based on Orochi, the Serpent King, fusing both time periods together to create one final ultimate battle of the ages. Both the Samurai Warriors crew and the Dynasty Warriors crew arrive bundled up leading different paths as they normally would for whatever initial or undecided reasons along the way. Including the return of Kunoichi, Goemon Ishikawa and Yoshimoto Imagawa. And because of Orochi's absence throughout the game until the end, he sent his strategist Da Ji to keep an eye or two on all the heroes. Enough about the introduction now, the main plus point about this game has to be the introduced 3 way team battles where you get to switch alternatively through your pre-battle character choices as quickly as light travels. However, although this game brings something new and wanted to the franchise as well as the overused R1 new abilities, they cause the game somewhat to be based solely around each and every character to a high degree. Forcing many moves to be ignored and the characters previous usages crumbling or being improved upon, naming Mitsunari Ishida as one of the prevailers, as he use to be one of the worst. Though his charming sarcasm shines more than ever which you'll be glad to know. Along with his new companion, Cao Pi. Every single Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors game has the word 'musou' come up hundreds of times. This musou I feel doesn't really belong in this game as much as it should and probably wants to. If you are new to the series, the musou is basically every characters ultimate attack, but in this case since the R1 attacks are so blessed and worshipped, they have little meaning, plus do very little damage in comparison. Koei must of prediced this and this is why the musou chaining feature was implemented to the new and perhaps continuing future series. But in the end it pays off with no real promise no matter how closely you look at it. Further on to the game features we can see that the ability to change your character once you've unlocked him or her, instantly. And even then since the character will be struggling with experience points behind, can be given experience with the amount of points you've gained throughout the previous stages. Features: A new character type system introduced, putting characters either into the Speed, Tech or Power categories. Each having a few plus factors over the other two. Also, the weapon enhancement returns allowing you to upgrade your 4th's easily and with fantastic results. However, not forgetting that those palette swaps return unfortunately instead of the eagerly awaited new costumes. Ability aquisitions, a new feature, joins the new game, giving you a chance to work at something and prove yourself on the battlefield by fulfilling tasks. Free Mode returns, but is frowned upon, like in the Empires expansions since there are little to no differences between this mode and the actual Story Mode. The main difference being that you can only unlock characters in Story Mode with everything else being the same, except for the unique death quotes which can only been found in Free Mode. That's when the perfectionist side of things comes into effect. Moving on, a delightful aspect of the game is that of the Gallery Mode which you can unlock 4 artworks for each of the characters by basically training and using that certain character. Along with the nice music thats present while browsing you are also able to set your own background to the game which is visible in places. That is indeed a dosage of the old nostalgia and a very warming aspect the game offers, especially to the hardcore gamers that have been with either series since the start. Story: Taking the core introduction above into account, you will know that Orochi fused both world periods together to test his might against Japan's and China's greatest warriors. Even persuading some warriors to join his cause whilst some continue on their righteous paths to slay the creature. The story altogether lacks cutscenes though, some being good and some bad, each story has its own path which later intertwines together to face the mighty Orochi, someway or another. Plus the fact since there are so many characters, 79 in total, the stories only base on a handful of characters, more noticeably with the initial bunch. Sound: Some tracks from both series appear in the game, but not as many as you would hope for. Leaving out many favorites of mine, but also delivering some awesome new tracks exclusively to Warriors Orochi. Furthermore towards the sound, the voice acting level is decent, but however the actual voices used aren't perhaps as good. Especially with the Samurai Warriors team since they were replaced with new actors once again. Longevity: This title has huge replay value as expected with the Warriors games, since it's an enormous portion. You can do many objectives, such as train your favorites or all of the characters to level 99, play any stage once unlocked, achieve the characters personal items and also unlock the artworks in the Gallery. Even then mix and match comedic or serious teams for your disposal. Graphics: Not very impressive to tell you the truth, as I've got the PS2 game and it still looks quite ugly at times. Rather noticeably with the background scenes, such as the shaking walls and horse heads as well as your weapons vanishing in obstacles, etc. However these graphical problems have been with the games since the start, so it wouldn't be anything of a surprise to the veterans. You can easily tell the improvement that the XBOX360 version has towards this aspect. Should you rent or buy? If your a Warriors fan and have played one or the other, then buy. That way you can see and witness the characters from the other time period, but not exactly identical as they were since some moves have been changed along with the characters abilities, etc. Though if you got sick and tired of the initial Warriors games but later grew on the Empires expansions, as you wanted some change, then maybe this is or isn't the right choice for you. Perhaps a rent would be the best case scenario here. Though the game is nothing like Empires, it still has its flaws. For a diehard Warriors fan, yes buy it. Score: 8/10


Warriors Orochi Review · Warriors Orochi (Musou Orochi) Series Reviews