Warriors Orochi 4 Reviews

If you can look past the little annoyances like grinding and the frame rate, then Warrior Orochi 4, coupled with fun gameplay and pretty looking environments, makes for a rather welcome instalment into the franchise.

Similar to how I felt in my review of Dynasty Warriors 9 from earlier this year, I feel like there’s a better game hiding beneath the surface of Warriors Orochi 4. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more and more characters. It plays into the story, but I wish it translated into the gameplay in a meaningful way. While playing, I imagined battles being immensely more difficult if I was unsuccessful in recruiting new allies. I imagined my roster constantly increasing and decreasing based on my success in battles. But nothing like that exists in the game. Instead, if you fail in a battle, you have to redo it until you win. It all felt too safe, a huge problem for a story that creates a dire situation that what is actually reflected in gameplay.

Warriors Orochi 4’s offering of a massive roster and the ability to use magic in combat makes for a fresher experience that fans of the series will enjoy though it's repetitive nature still lingers for those who aren’t fans of the series’ signature element of taking down entire armies on your own.

Warriors Orochi 4 is a celebration of Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series, and it’s a great game to pick up for those interested in some good old hack-and-slash goodness. With its record-breaking roster of characters and some new gameplay mechanics, this is one adventure that is divinely entertaining.

Warriors Orochi 4 is a great offering in the tactical action genre with massive scale, excellent combat solid RPG offerings. Some repetitive NPC usages coupled with the grindy nature of the title might be a turn off to sum. However, if you are someone who loves develop overpowered characters and teams, is a completionist at heart or is looking for a title to grind through while binging whatever is on Netflix, Warriors Orochi 4 delivers!

Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors series has always been somewhat polarising in the West. These games allow you to mow down hundreds of enemies with a single attack and they are always great spectacles. However, the series as a whole has seen criticism for being too simplistic and repetitive. Warriors Orochi 4, which is a crossover between the China-focused Dynasty Warriors series and the Japan-focused Samurai Warriors series, brings many new features to the table. It might not necessarily win...

Despite rocky presentation and a ho-hum story, Warriors Orochi 4 has been some of the dumbest fun I’ve had with a video game all year. There’s always been something magical about sending dozens of foes flying with giant swords and massive spears, but to up the ante with cross-character combos and absurd magic attacks makes the whole thing even more fun. While the lacklustre story mode didn’t provide a strong hook for me to keep playing, I was driven by the swath of new characters I’d unlock with each mission and the new tools and tricks I had at my disposal when I went into the next battle with these additional soldiers. Warriors Orochi 4 doesn’t get everything right, but I’d argue it gets the most important thing spot on.

Warriors Orochi 4 will not turn a non-believer into a believer. If you are already uninterested in the Warriors franchise, or musou games in general, Warriors Orochi 4 isn’t going to change your mind. Yet, I imagine that for most fans, they’re merely looking for more of the same. Despite being formulaic and repetitive, you know what you’re getting with a Warriors game. And if that’s your thing, you’ll no doubt have some fun with Warriors Orochi 4.

Koei Tecmo and Omega Force have something of a legacy when it comes to their hack and slash titles. Any game with the name “warrior” in it most likely has some sort of tie to the pair of studios ranging from Dynasty Warriors to Samurai Warriors, Hyrule Warriors to Fire Emblem Warriors, and so on. These are games that present their own compelling narrative and mix in some capture the flag hack and slash gameplay that – while simple – can pull you in for hours with its oddly addictive nature. Much like our beloved larger than life superhero movies these days, the next logical step has been to bring these worlds together, something Koei Tecmo and Omega Force first did back in 2007, kicking off the even larger franchise of Warriors Orochi. Eleven years later we have Warriors Orochi 4, the latest and largest entry into a franchise comprising well over a dozen games. Having invested incredible amounts of time in Warriors Orochi 3, I was interested to see just what the sequel could bring as a stand-out feature in the previous seven years since it last graced my screen.

Dynasty Warriors has seen its time under the Far Eastern sun change from arena battles to the open world, while Samurai Warriors has stayed true to its formula. Now on its fifth iteration, the Warriors Orochi crossover series has tried to bridge the two together with snappy arena battles and none of the filler. Now, the action has shifted westward across the globe, seeing the heroes of both nations fighting together (and against one another) upon a new mystical backdrop. Does the change of scenery mean enough to pick up a weapon and charge back into battle alongside Cao Cao and Hideyoshi Toyotomi?

It’s not for everyone, but Warriors Orochi 4’s multitudinous hordes can be pleasurable to sweep through, despite the game feeling by-the-numbers in many ways. This is simply more, and while fans might be able to forgive the bland presentation, we’d wager that non-devotees would have a much better time with the Zelda or Fire Emblem spin-offs – with the characters, settings and accoutrement you know and love helping to temper the monotony when you’re not quite ‘in the zone’.

With thrilling, classic Musou gameplay, new systems, and a fun story, Warriors Orochi 4 is a really great game that both fans of the series and newcomers can enjoy. It might be the ultimate Musou game following the same traditional blueprint Omega Force stuck with for almost two decades, as future games might all pick-up the open-world formula.

Warriors Orochi 4 is the peak of the Warriors formula at the moment and is a a great addition to any fan’s collection or even for a curious newcomer.

Over the years, Omega Force has tried several new ideas with its flagship Musou, or Warriors series, most of them outside of the core gameplay. These changes would come in the form of a new side mode, or perhaps a new progression or weapons system, things to do to break up the supposed monotony of the simple, but bombastic combat. But in recent years, new ideas began seeping into the gameplay, with vehicles like outside IP allowing the developers to play a bit with what a Musou is and can be. A side effect of this gradual change has been an erosion of sorts of limitations, with the power creep of things like popular anime licenses leading to ever-growing combo numbers and body counts. While Dynasty Warriors 9 was perhaps a misstep in trying something new, Warriors Orochi 4 takes a step back from the open world thing. Orochi is Omega Force’s own supernatural setting using its historical characters, and the approach with this entry seems to be testing the limits. With a literal record-setting number of characters, a premise rooted in mythology, and new mechanics meant to extend combos even further than before, Warriors Orochi 4 is a “kitchen sink” approach to Musou, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with the series yet.