Warriors: Abyss

Warriors: Abyss is a fantastic roguelike that takes the Dynasty Warriors gameplay and injects roguelike elements successfully. It is also great on the Steam Deck!

Warriors: Abyss is an excellent mash-up of a roguelite structure with the core gameplay of the Dynasty Warriors franchise. There is plenty of content to unlock, and the level of variety in creating builds for each run is incredible. Just be ready to skip through a lot of poor dialogue.

Something of a lovechild between Hades and Dynasty Warriors, Warriors: Abyss is fun while it lasts but doesn't have the staying power of the best roguelikes. Still, with over 100 characters to play as and some neat ideas up its sleeve, it's well worth a try, particularly if you're a Warriors or a roguelike fan. Even better if you're both.

Truthfully, Warriors: Abyss feels like Koei Tecmo tried to cook up its own budget Hades from the leftovers of last night's Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. That's not to say it fails to sate the appetite, though. Despite being a bit rough around the edges, Abyss is a solid and successfully addictive foray into the roguelike genre, and the series' signature hack-and-slash ingredients blend right in.

Warriors: Abyss is an addictive roguelite that successfully blends elements from acclaimed titles, carving out its own place in the genre. Combat is a thrill. Taking on hundreds at a time with an array of huge, diverse attacks leads to a compelling system that can quickly get its hooks in you. However, fights can get a little messy in the latter stages of the game removing some of the deliberate actions which take place in the earlier portions. Despite its dated visuals, this roguelite remains a fun and engaging experience.

Warriors: Abyss may stumble in its open-ended, cookie-cutter story and cut-and-paste boss battles, but the replayability that comes from its combat and the customization of its multitude of characters and builds helped keep me slashing through thousands of enemies for dozens of hours of roguelite runs.

Koei Tecmo has come screaming into 2025 with all kinds of wins, from bringing the hype back to Ninja Gaiden to successfully shifting gears in Dynasty Warriors. Even Atelier is growing in leaps and bounds. Somehow there’s room for more, as we saw during the February 2025 State of Play. A whole new Warriors game shadow-dropped, and it’s another intriguing experiment: a roguelike! Not just any roguelike, but one that goes out of its way to invoke Hades, one of the most tremendous of its kind in contemporary history. Generally I buy what Omega Force sells, but I wasn’t feeling Warriors: Abyss when...

Warriors: Abyss is far from perfect, but I can't pretend I didn't have a blast unleashing flashy attacks and dodging the enemy onslaught.

Warriors: Abyss can provide a fun experience for the Warriors die-hards, but could be skipped by everyone else.

Earlier this year, Koei and developer Omega Force achieved a landmark success with their reboot of the long-running Dynasty Warriors franchise. As we concluded in our Dynasty Warriors: Origins review, there’s no going back for the series now that it has established a strong new gameplay formula – then along comes Warriors: Abyss.

Warriors Abyss has its heart in the right place and some interesting ideas, but its particular blend of musou and roguelike doesn’t feel like it’s fully realized. A novel blueprint for something down the line, but as-is, it’s hard to justify for anyone but the biggest fans of the Warriors series.

Warriors: Abyss is Omega Force's attempt at breaking into the rougelite genre. There is some fun to be had, but ultimately, the game lacks potential in a lot of cases. With poor boss battles and limited gameplay features, you're better off spending your time elsewhere unless you are a die-hard fan of Warriors.