Warriors Orochi
by KOEI Corp
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: KoeiRelease Date: 2008-03-25
Platform: Sony PSP
Publisher: KOEI Corp
Product features:
- Includes 77 playable characters from both Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors series
- 2 player co-op via wireless ad-hoc
Video Game Reviews of Warriors Orochi
Customer Review: Take the console game and cram it onto the PSP, changing very little. This is the definitive PSP Warriors game.
Summary: 5 Stars
THE SHORT: Unlike past PSP Warriors games, this is the real deal- no shrunken maps or different board-game style format. This is the same game as the PS2 and Xbox360 editions, just crammed onto the PSP with no glaring differences. Great fun to have on the go. Little to complain about unless you're just sick of the Dynasty Warriors formula, in which case you wouldn't like the console version anyway.
THE LONG: I admit I've been a longtime fan of the Dynasty Warriors series, and although I still play them, the enthusiasm for each new one wanes more quickly than the last. For every new batch of characters and levels, the formula has remained the same for 8 years as of this writing. Granted, if it sells why mess with it, but there is warrant to the criticisms against the game.
Last fall Warriors Orochi came out and I picked it up for the Xbox 360. With modern graphics and featuring the almost 80 characters from the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors games, I thought this would be the ultimate Warriors package. Sort of a collectors' pack.
I was disappointed that the game hardly looked any different than it had on the PS2, and while it was fun, I just had better games to play on my 360. Oblivion anyone?
So I sold the game and took my losses, and was surprised to see it pop back up on the PSP. I remembered not wanting the earlier PSP Warriors games because they had been changed to fit the format- shortened levels, quick-play board game mechanics, etc. In other words there didn't seem to be a true Dynasty / Samurai Warriors game for the PSP, so when I saw this one I wondered if it would change the formula. I looked up a few reviews that indicated that it did, and picked it up. I was quite happily surprised.
Let me assure you that, although It's been half a year since I played the 360 edition, the PSP game plays exactly how I remember its console brother. The graphics have hardly changed over the years but this means that they're right at home on the PSP. The action is smooth and I rarely see slowdown. I was worried that since it was a smaller format the game would compensate by having fewer troops. I dreaded wandering through small handfuls of enemies and vacant levels. In fact there are plenty of times I was able to rack up 1500 kills in a level due to being completely surrounded by dozens of enemies. The meat of the Warriors games has always been to play the role of a super soldier who hacks and slashes his or her way through hordes of foes, and this experience was not diluted on the PSP.
Similarly, the Orochi experience specifically was kept intact. In this game you choose from about half a dozen kingdoms that you want to represent, and you play through their story and unlock new characters as you work your way through the levels. Each kingdom's story has around a dozen stages, for a total of anywhere between 3 and 10 hours to complete depending on how fast you want to whisk through. When you figure this is PER story, this is a pretty big game. For example I began by playing the Shu storyline, and spent about 5 hours finishing it. Then I decided to try the Samurai Warriors storyline and have already put about 3 hours into getting halfway through it. The good thing is you can save after each level, and the game keeps track of progress through each storyline. You don't have to completely finish one storyline before playing parts of another.
Something I enjoy is that while the characters you unlock are generally members of the kingdom you're playing for, you get a few surprises. Fans familiar with the game will understand when I say that I unlocked Ma Chao of Shu while playing through the Samurai Warriors storyline. I think that's pretty cool- there's crossover and it keeps things interesting as it's not exactly rigid as to what characters will become available next. In all modes of play you take 3 characters into battle and flip between them at will- in story mode you are restricted to the characters available for that particular story, whereas in free mode you can make your team out of anyone you've unlocked.
The little incentives from the console version are there too- weapon fusion is a fun way of customizing your character, for as you find new weapons from defeating officers you can spend experience points to combine a weapon's attributes and increase your overall attack strength. It isn't greatly deep but it's pretty cool to have a maxed out character with a superpowered weapon of death backing up 2 weaker characters on the team. In-battle abilities, such as higher defense or faster speed, can be applied to your team and must be earned by completing character specific goals in each battle (such as killing 60 foes in 5 minutes, etc). This isn't mandatory but fun and helpful to do since these accumulated abilities remain for later story playthroughs.
Are there flaws? Well of course. The biggest is probably the draw-distance. While the levels are vast and I was happy to see them filled with enemies, you can't see much beyond your characters' current screen. The PSP had no trouble surrounding me with 30 troops as I hacked away a smooth, flashy, colorful barrage of 10 hit combos, but I still had to move forward a few steps to see officers 20 feet away. It's not horrendous, but it is noticeable. I didn't think it made the game any more difficult or lame to play.
Audio during battle is fine, but the instructional chatter is gone. You'll still hear the grunts, groans, stabs and slahes. And you'll still hear your character yell or taunt after defeating an enemy officer. But progressive comments such as "Now! Lure them to the east bridge!" Are represented only by word balloons on the screen and not spoken dialog like on the other systems. This isn't TOO much of a big deal. The battle isn't some quiet experience because of this and sometimes that chatter could get annoying since it's fairly constant. However, this does make some situations irritating when you miss dialog because you're too buy watching the action. You can bring up a screen to check the last messages, but you'll want to train yourself to do a little in-battle reading instead.
Lastly, there aren't many video cutscenes. There are opening and story ending cutscenes that are fine. But the in-battle cutscenes are sort of comic-book style still shots without much animation. This isn't a huge flaw, it comes across as decent and there aren't enough of them to make a big difference. They, like the pre-match rhetoric, are accompanied by spoken dialog.
So to wrap up...Will this change anyone's opinion of the Warriors series? Doubtful. It's a packed game- some characters do feel the same but with 77 to pick from you'll definitely develop specific favorites on each team. The gameplay is pretty much just action and button mashing, so nothing new there, but this feels perfectly fit for the PSP. You can click it on for an hour, go through a stage or two and get some solid action on during rides or lazy afternoons, or you can stay at it for hours and unlock a dozen characters before ending your session. With the amount of characters to unlock and stat building to do, this is a very solid entry in the portable library and without question the most reccomendable game in the series for the PSP.
Description of Warriors Orochi
You are a wise and courageous warrior in Ancient Asia who has been kidnapped by Orochi, the Serpent King. Most of the great armies of these two periods would succumb to the might of Orochi. But warriors like you remain and are ready to continue the fight. You can play as any of the 77 legendary characters from the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors video game series. Go into battle with your own three-person tag team. With the new Team Battle System, when one warrior is engaged in battle, the other two can recuperate, restoring their Life Meters and Musou Gauges. In battle, you can rotate to a different character in real-time. You can also combine attributes from different weapons for more devastating results with the new Weapon Fusion System. So get ready for the greatest showdown in history.Go into battle with your own three-person tag team using characters from either series with the Team Battle System Combine attributes from different weapons for more devastating results with the new Weapon Fusion System Play previously played and unlocked stages with any combination of available characters in Free mode
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