The Warriors series is a long-running series that most people are familiar with by now. The Warriors series throws you into large environments to fight hordes of enemies, all with over-the-top action. Warriors Orochi 4 continues this trend, with less than spectacular results. In short, Warriors Orochi 4 does nothing new with the series and, in many ways, has found new ways to provide gamers with a less than spectacular experience. If you’re not a die-hard Warriors fan already, then ignore this game. It won’t change your opinion on the series.
Warriors Orochi 4 takes place shortly after Warriors Orochi 3, where the heroes of the Three Kingdoms and Sengoku periods return home to go about their normal lives. This all changes when the Greek god Zeus decides to pull them all back into the inter-dimensional world they escaped from. The entire story takes place over 70 missions, and you’ll get to play as over 170 charatcers.
Here’s the thing about Warriors Orochi 4. If you’re into the Warriors series’ gameplay, then this is a game you’ll enjoy. Large numbers of enemies spawn onto the map, and you’re able to slash your way through them all. It’s always crazy to see how many enemies surround your character and the awesome ability you have to take them all out. The large spaces you get to travel through are also quite nice. The game never feels small, you’re never in a small area and feel claustrophobic. The large battlefield you play on truly gives you the sense that it’s you versus an army. The game also runs surprisingly well, despite some usual issues that Warriors games have. I got to play the Nintendo Switch version and was surprised at how sharp the game looked in both docked and handheld mode. The game doesn’t have any pop-up problems, and it manages to hold a steady(ish) framerate. Occasionally, the game dips down a few frames when many enemies are on-screen and surrounding you. For the most part though, it all looks and runs well.
To be fair though, the game isn’t trying anything special with its graphics. I compared the Switch version next to the PS4 version and found that it looks no different. This could either be taken as a neutral or negative point. On one hand, it’s awesome to see the game looks the same across all the platforms it’s available on. On the other hand, the game clearly wasn’t really trying to do anything special in the looks department. That lingering thought, the thought that it was purposely “phoned in”, continues throughout the whole game. Almost everything in this game feels ‘meh’ and phoned in. The combat doesn’t do anything new or special, it literally feels exactly the same as the last 5 Warriors games. No doubt fans that like this sort of combat will be happy that it’s more of the same; however, it loses a lot of its fun and appeal quickly. If it looks and plays like the last few games, why buy this one?
The game also has a story that’s near impossible to follow for a few reasons. 1.) I genuinely think no one at all has any idea what’s happening in a Warriors story because nothing ever makes sense. The game is so focused on its combat that the story never really got the attention needed to make it work. 2.) The entire game has to be read, which is a problem when the game wants you to read long texts while battling 500 people. The entire game is voice acted in Japanese, so you can’t ever enjoy hearing the story while you play. The English version of the story is text boxes that appear in the bottom right hand corner during combat. I’m not saying that if the game had English voice acting it would be much better, because it wouldn’t be. The issue is you can never learn the story by actually playing the game. You have to stop and read the texts to even remotely understand what’s happening or who’s talking.
Even worse to me is that this game is basically only made for those who know the Warriors series. Newcomers to the franchise will have no idea what is going on and who any of the characters are. The game also doesn’t bother to explain it either. It throws you into this world with all these characters (170 of them!) and expects you to know everything about them. This continues my thought in the above paragraphs about the game feeling phoned in. Everything feels very slapped together without any improvement or explanation. It makes the game feel cheap. Who are these characters? Where did they come from? Why are all 170 of them here? Well, here’s hoping you memorized the characters from all the previous Warriors games because Warriors Orochi 4 isn’t gong to tell you anything about them.
In short, Warriors Orochi 4 isn’t a good game, it’s barely even a fun game. It’s more of the exact same thing we’ve all played in the last few Warriors games, yet somehow it feels even worse. The game feels cheap, rushed, and phoned in. Do yourself a favor, just buy a different game. If you want a Warriors game, then Warriors Orochi 3: Ultimate is an awesome experience. Otherwise, Warriors Orochi 4 is a miss.
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: 16th October 2018