The Warriors games have been around since the late 90s, taking hack and slash combat to the extreme with battlefields full of literally thousands of enemies just waiting to be chopped down to size by a gigantic cast of playable characters.
If you want a good hack-and-slash game then there are already two here, this just doesn’t come close.WARRIORS OROCHI 4 ULTIMATE / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: KOEI TECMO / PLATFORM: PC, PS4 (REVIEWED), SWITCH, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW With both Fire Emblem Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition available on the console, choosing a lesser version of the game with less recognisable characters isn’t realistic. Perhaps the largest issue with Warriors Orochi 4 on Nintendo Switch is that it is on the Switch. Combat feels weightless, even the most dramatic attacks don’t feel like they hit. In fact, the whole game feels a bit lacklustre compared to the better Musuo offerings.
It isn’t like a Musuo game can’t be stunning on the portable home console, just look at Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition – a game literally from the last generation that is clean, bright, and colourful. It just isn’t good enough for a game these days. Everything looks muddy and like it’s coated in grime. Unfortunately, it looks outdated and is easily outclassed by most other games on the Nintendo Switch. While the focus of the games has never been the graphics it does make the experience more enjoyable when it looks good.
Given how short some of the battles are you may start to feel as though you’re spending more time sorting your weapons out than actually using them. It sounds like a lot, but it is pretty easy to keep on top of, though not brilliantly explained. You have to choose the composition of your team, who you have supporting them, what weapons you’re using, and what skills you will unlock. Outside of the battles, there is a fair amount of management to be done. There just isn’t anything really deep enough to sink your teeth into. While these have never been complicated games it still manages to feel particularly shallow. That’s more or less all there is to the battles. As you do so you can pepper in magic attacks and your ultimate musuo attacks for the stronger foes. You chain together normal and special attacks to take out the same drab enemies. So, how is it? Well, the moment-to-moment gameplay is pretty much what you would expect.
These are games that are about gameplay and little else. If that seems a bit reductive to you then it’s mostly because the story is largely irrelevant. The story goes like this a bunch of ancient Greek gods are bored and miss the last time the two universes crossed over, so they meddle with things and here we are. It ties together both the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors worlds into one pick ‘n’ mix of over-the-top action and weapons. Warriors Orochi is basically the tweenage fanfic of this multiverse. Nevertheless, these are the kind of games that are a huge amount of fun and offer a lot of hours if you’re into them. The gameplay is rarely all that involved, the stories are nearly always utter nonsense, but they are normally a lot of brainless fun. No matter which style you choose one thing is always true, you’ll be mowing down hundreds of faceless minions in-between more interesting boss battles.
The Musuo games are a weird and wonderful hack-and-slash series that come in a variety of flavours.