Developer: Koei Tecmo Games
Publisher: Koei Tecmo Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition – Review
With the overabundance of ‘Warriors‘ games on offer by Tecmo Koei, one tends to wonder when the company decides to port a ten-year-old game to PC. In this case that would be Warriors Orochi 3, which recently got its Ultimate Definitive Edition, which sounds like a very overkill title for a game. Nonetheless, being fans of the series (and the genre) we were curious to see what this game still had to offer a decade after its initial release. We put the game to the test, and before we knew it, we slaughtered thousands upon thousands of soldiers, and still barely scratched the surface of this massive package. That being said, the game’s age was noticeable from time to time.
Story
Warriors Orochi 3 puts different characters from the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors games together in a fantasy setting. In this case, the world is being ravaged by an unstoppable hydra, and only a few pockets of the human resistance are fighting to live another day. In a hopeless attempt to turn the tide, the resistance tried to kill the hydra once and for all, but sadly, they weren’t even able to hurt the mythical beast in the slightest. When the party is offered the opportunity to go back in time to save those who died at the hands of the demon army, they don’t hesitate to do so.
The story is fairly basic, but the game does have a lot of dialogues present and a few in-game cutscenes. We enjoyed the somewhat cheesy plot of this title, and we couldn’t wait to see which characters awaited us in the missions to come.
Graphics
For a decade-old game, the title still looks quite good. Of course, the game’s age shows when it comes to many of the backdrops and environmental textures, but the character designs, the unique skins, and the attack animations all look great. We loved trying out all the different characters the game had to offer, simply to see their battle animations and special moves. As the Ultimate Definitive Edition also comes with almost all previously released DLC, it was a lot of fun checking out the different costumes for the characters. The game ran quite smoothly, even with the hundreds upon hundreds of enemy soldiers on our screen at any given time. We did notice some pop-in, but other than that, this ‘old’ game holds up quite well.
Sound
The sound design is quite good. The game’s soundtrack is quite cinematic, and there’s also quite a bit of voice acting that adds to the overall atmosphere. Those who have played other games in the ‘Warriors‘ franchise will immediately recognize several signature sound effects, such as the hack and slash noises, as well as those of the troops cheering.
Gameplay
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition is a Musou (1 vs 1000) game. Unlike the Dynasty Warriors titles, however, Warriors Orochi 3 has a fantasy theme propelling the story forward, and you’ll find yourself traveling through time in order to change the course of history and bolster your troops. You’ll go from one battlefield to the next, completing objectives, battling thousands of soldiers, defeating officers, and so on. The game is pretty straightforward and can be played on several different difficulty levels. You’ll pick a party of three warriors for the different battlefields, and you’ll unlock many new characters as you progress through the Story Mode.
The game also has different modes on offer, such as the option to freely pick which stages you want to play, but also a Duel Mode, where two teams of three warriors duke it out, or the Gauntlet Mode, where you command a team of five warriors to take over Dragon Portals. We did, however, mainly enjoy Story Mode, which had the most charm, and the most amusing gameplay. There’s also a mode in which you can design your own battlefields, but we found this mode to be somewhat lacking. When designing your own battlefield, you can only swap around some officers, change the time limit and alter other minor components, making it just a mild variation of the original map.
As expected, the game plays very much the same as other Warriors games, and thus you’ll find yourself hacking and slashing your way to victory. You’ll kill a seemingly infinite number of troops, while leveling, collecting better weapons, and unlocking a plethora of different characters. The controls prove to be quite responsive, but we do find that certain modern ‘comfort’ options are nowhere to be found. For example, when playing locally with a friend, that player will always have to manually join and choose his party of characters again for each mission. The game does not keep track of the last selection of the second player and will always revert to the party the first player has selected. This might only be a minor inconvenience, but it becomes a hassle during long co-op sessions.
Conclusion
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition is still a great game after all these years. That being said, if you don’t really care about DLC and you already own the original title, then it might not really be worth dishing out additional money to replay the game. If you, however, would like to experience everything Warriors Orochi 3 has to offer, then this is an amazing bundle deal. Keep in mind, in essence, this is still the same game that was released a decade ago, and thus not everything will feel as modernized as the latest installments in the series. If you’re a fan of the franchise or other Warriors games, you will probably be able to sink many hours into this game.
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