You’ll need to form a three-person team that will go into battle. With 170 characters to manage, there’s a lot to do. These can range from generic banter to something that’s borderline “shipping.” Who knows, maybe it’s to please the fan fiction-loving crowd out there? At most, you’ll probably enjoy them for what they are - just humorous, lighthearted conversations among characters. While Bonds do boost your abilities slightly, you’re never in too much trouble anyway. At best, you’ll have short dialogue scenes depending on the relationships formed among characters called “Bonds.” This is more superficial than anything. Only a few will play a prominent role throughout the campaign. There’s never enough time to shine a spotlight on characters you’ve grown accustomed to over the years. In fact, you’ll realize that the longer you play Warriors Orochi 4 - everything feels just a bit too bloated. Then again, it leaves you feeling that it’s suddenly getting a bit crowded. After all, seeing half the Sun family followed by Sima Yi and kids and then Nobunaga Oda and his retainers all joining in consecutive missions might be akin to a reunion of sorts. To long-time fans, this could be a treat. Later, you might find yourself meeting a dozen new faces. Initially, you might just encounter one or two joining your troupe. Officers will join you after each mission and become playable characters. Thankfully, everything is voice-acted in Japanese so you won’t have to worry about the bane of Koei Tecmo games: unbearable English VA. There are a few plot twists that might catch you off-guard, as well as over-the-top new character introductions that are the trademark of a Warriors game. Instead of Orochi, you’ll now have to contend with the deities of Olympus themselves - Zeus, Athena, and Ares - as well as Mystic forces led by Nuwa and Nezha. From here, you follow a very linear storyline where you’ll need to complete one mission after another, many of which are reminiscent of locations in other Warriors titles.Īlong the way, you’ll meet up with other heroes of the age who’ve been dragged into this timeline through the machinations of the gods themselves. The first level with the trio teaches you about the game’s basics while giving you an idea that the characters completely forgot about the events of the previous games. You start off with Samurai Warriors characters Tadakatsu Honda, Naomasa Ii, and his mom Naotora Ii (more on her later). That’s essentially what we’re getting in Warriors Orochi 4. Given that it’s a mishmash of various Koei Tecmo hack-and-slash games with some guest characters thrown in, it’s as if the company was just trying to cram in as much detail as possible leading to a tacked on storyline. The Warriors Orochi narrative has never been its strongest suit.
Will this, and the whopping 170 characters, be enough to hook PC gamers? Let’s find out in our review of the PC version, shall we?įirst, let’s talk about the story. Warriors Orochi 4, with its introduction of the Magic system, is Koei Tecmo’s attempt to reinvigorate and freshen up decades-old mechanics and gameplay.
The Warriors Orochi series, which originally released a decade ago, initially received a lukewarm reception and, outside of the first game, never saw a PC release until now. For each Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors game that had a strong showing, another title followed suit that tarnished the reputation. Needless to say, there have been many ups and downs. The Warriors franchise and its various spinoffs from Koei Tecmo have been around since the late 90s.