Developer: Omega Force, Koei Tecmo
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Tested on: PS4
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate – Review
Back in 2018, Koei Tecmo continued the rather complicated story of Warriors Orochi in a fourth installment. As this series is a crossover between Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, a lot of fans from either of those games were more than pleased to experience a new adventure featuring their favorite characters and we even reviewed the game ourselves here. In February of this year, the game was updated and re-released as Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate, featuring extra levels, new characters and some other perks that are sure to please any fan of this Hack and Slash classic.
Story
Warriors Orochi 4 takes place almost immediately after the events of the previous game. As the opening cutscene explains, all the characters have been returned to their rightful universe and have forgotten their previous strange adventure, meaning they have also forgotten each other for now. Their relative peace gets disturbed almost immediately when Zeus pulls them into the same dimension again. Persues steals the eight Ouroboros bracelets his father Zeus has made, which grant the wearer a godlike power and as is to be expected, they end up scattered across the land and pulling all our characters back into an adventure where different factions arise who all want to collect the bracelets. New alliances are formed as a race begins to keep these powerful bracelets from falling into the wrong hands.
The story is conveyed usually through dialogue and the occasional cutscene. When this dialogue appears before or after a level, it’s easy to follow. But a lot of it also crops up during the battles itself and sometimes it can be hard to concentrate and make sure you catch it all if you’re too busy slicing an army to pieces or even fighting a boss. Combined with the fact that some preexisting knowledge of the lore and characters is required to follow along, it can be tricky for those unfamiliar to get pulled into the plot.
Graphics
Warriors Orochi 4 stays as good looking as we’re used to from this franchise, with especially the character designs standing out between the chaos. While the hundreds of common soldiers sent your way may look like the world’s biggest collection of identical twins, the main characters and bosses have some really cool designs with giant weapons and colorful armor that might not be entirely historically accurate but do look like they fit the more wacky settings and plot from the game. The maps your battles take place on are also impressively big and even while being surrounded by a hundred enemies the animation stays smooth with no discernible frame drops.
Sound
The biggest shoutout in the sound department goes to the amazing cast this game has. A lot of the voice actors are well-known in the anime community and their experience shines through in the delivery of lines, recognizable even if you don’t speak the language. The music too is fast-paced and exciting, though sometimes it gets slightly drowned out by the sound effects during gameplay. Not that this is the biggest worry, as the sounds of slicing and slashing an enemy army to pieces can be quite satisfying.
Gameplay
Warriors Orochi 4 is a hack and slash game where you fight your way through a horde of enemies to defeat bosses and capture bases. Your team always consists of three characters between which you can switch effortlessly with the press of a button. Whichever characters you’re not currently using regenerate some health and charge their Musou gauge. If you switch between characters with the right timing you will also get a short combo attack that blows your enemies away, which is a handy feature whenever you’re surrounded. With over 170 playable characters, the number of combinations are practically endless too.
You have a bunch of different attacks at your disposal, though very often (and as is typical for these kinds of games) the gameplay will quickly devolve into mashing buttons as fast as possible. When your Musou gauge is filled, you can unleash special attacks that have devastating effects, often decimating dozens of weak enemies at once. Bosses can be a bit trickier as they have a lot more health and also have very dangerous attacks that can drain your health rapidly. Blocking and evading become more necessary here, as well as thinking your attacks through thoroughly. Warriors Orochi 4 also introduces Sacred Treasures, special weapon artifacts you can equip and that allow a few different magic attacks.
Just like in previous games there is a base, though in this version it’s a simple menu as opposed to a hub world you can walk around in. Here you can pick your team, see which level your characters are at or promote them (which is a feature from previous games which was originally left out of the fourth installment but re-added in the Ultimate Edition). Also new is the infinity and challenge modes. For who wants to tackle the game with friends there is a co-op version of the story mode as well as a 3v3 competitive multiplayer mode.
Conclusion
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate builds on an already solid game and adds just enough to make sense. From extra story missions and new characters to a complete upgrade of the interface. While the gameplay remains mostly the same, fans of the franchise certainly have nothing to complain about. It might not be the perfect starting point to those completely unfamiliar with the Warriors Orochi games or either of the series it was based on, it certainly remains a lot of fun for everybody.
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate - Review,
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[…] Koei has been known for its ‘Warriors‘ games for many years now, and outside of the main series we have also seen spin-offs, such […]