In my many years of gaming, I never had the chance to try any of the games from the Dynasty or Samurai Warriors series.  And it looks like I have missed out – there are thirteen Dynasty Warrior games and six Samurai Warrior games. The Warriors Orochi games combine characters from the Dynasty and Samurai games, so needless to say, I was very lost when starting this review for Warriors Orochi 4.  

But can you blame me?  Warriors Orochi 4 set a world record for having the most playable characters in a hack-n-slash video game.  There are 170 playable characters!  There are countless interactions and character development that I have not experienced.  Therefore, this review will reflect a newcomer’s experience with the series. In some ways, it’s unfortunate that Warriors Orochi 4 is confusing for a newcomer.  It’s a very fun hack-n-slash game with a great amount of action and replayability. But it would be very helpful to have a database of some kind (besides Wikipedia) to get a grasp of the story so far.  You can read the dialogue between characters on the side of the screen during battle, but that is really difficult to do with all the chaos going on.

Let’s start with the basic story for this game.  Our heroes have entered a different realm/dimension.  This type of scenario has happened in previous Orochi games, and our heroes do not remember what has happened previously.  Besides their memory, our heroes must deal with Zeus and the other Olympian Gods. Like other iterations before, Zeus comes across as an all-powerful being who just wants to mess with mortals by giving people God-like powers to some and letting them battle it out.

You will choose three warriors for each mission.  Each warrior has strengths and weaknesses that really matter if you enjoy playing at a high difficulty.  If you want to hack-n-slash on easy mode, then feel free to pick any character you wish. But if you try harder modes, then the characters you pick are crucial to your success.  The three warriors have supporting characters to help during battle, along with a horse that can help you mow down enemies and get from one place to another.

In each battle, you will fight hundreds of foot soldiers in your attempt to take out army lieutenants.  Yes, you can easily hit a single attack button and take out foot soldiers. But when you use your combos wisely, then you gain the satisfaction of sending countless soldiers flying in all directions.  Mixing your attacks is key to keeping your combo meter high, and it is a blast to do so. Warriors Orochi 4 includes magic attacks, which are super fun and can clear out enemy waves with ease. And in my opinion, the hit chain is pretty generous.  It took me quite a few seconds of not engaging in combat in order for the meter to drop back to zero.

Since this is the first time playing a game in this series, I had no problem with the repetitive gameplay.  All hack-n-slash games can be repetitive, especially if you have played all the other Warrior games. But a couple things stand out to me that keep the gameplay exciting.  Being able to switch characters on the fly is very helpful. If you ever get tired of a Warrior, then a button press can switch you to any of the other two characters in your mission.  Each character has different magic attacks that can break up the repetition. And remember the 170 characters? It’s really hard to get bored when you have so many characters to choose from.  It’s easy to go back and try a mission with different characters and mix up the action. Plus, you can upgrade characters and weapons throughout the game, so the replayability is pretty high.

As a newcomer to the series, I had a blast playing Warriors Orochi 4.  The combat is very satisfying, especially with the number of characters to play and the mix of sword and magic combat.  Yes, it can be repetitive, but the number of characters and upgrades helps mitigate that repetition. I just wish there was a better way to get caught up with the story so it would be a little easier to follow along.  

Editor’s Note:  A code was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.