Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate (PlayStation 4) Review

Whether it's the long-windedly-named Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition or the crossover with Nintendo's Legend of Zelda in Hyrule Warriors, Koei Tecmo continues to put out updated versions and branched-off entries in the Warriors franchise in timely fashion. The fan-service-driven Warriors Orochi sub-series is no different, and this latest edition brings everything the Wii U's Hyper introduced, plus a bit more.

On top of the rather typical mixed worlds and warped dimensions plot, which results in warriors traversing time to save and recruit feudal Japanese and Chinese heroes in their battle against Hydra and Orochi, conveniently excusing the fact all sorts of characters from different worlds are able to unite as one in this game, an additional four chapters have been added in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, bringing the total to eight. There's not really anything new in how the game plays out; each stage involves smashing through hordes of enemies, defeating officers to claim territories on the map, and eventually settling the score with whichever boss occupies it. There's a lot of running around, chaining combos and kills together, and unleashing special moves, and it's pretty action-packed and frantic stuff. The new chapters give more attention to characters that weren't as heavily focused in the original scenario, but there really isn't enough done to flesh out the stories for those from non-Warriors games, which is unfortunate. It's no stretch to say plot isn't this game's focal point, though.

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate is all about the fan-service, more than anything. It brings together a grand total of 145 characters from all over the series, as well as cameos of popular faces from other games, some of which have been exclusively added to Ultimate, and include Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden heroes Ryu Hayabusa, Kasumi, Ayane, Rachel and Momiji; SoulCalibur's Sophitia Alexandra; and Atelier Meruru's Sterkenburg, to name but a few. These cameo appearances really help to keep newcomers who previously have had very little experience with the Warriors series interested, and they never really look or feel out of place.

Crossing over to more franchises and bringing in other series characters in the future could go a long way to getting more people to take a look at Warriors Orochi's next instalment, sort of in the same way Nintendo fans have dipped in with Hyrule Warriors. Perhaps the odd Final Fantasy and Tales character would be a wise investment for Koei Tecmo. Giving more story focus to these cameo characters would have been really welcome, though; it was a little disappointing that DOA fighters Kasumi, Ayane and the rest were brushed over and only featured in the odd cut-scene with very little story input. It's expected for cameo appearances, but for those who jump into this game simply because their favourite characters are featured here, it does make for mild regret.

As expected of the fourth iteration of Warriors Orochi 3, Ultimate is packed with content. Aside from that insanely huge cast of playable characters, each with their own individual movesets, as well as the additional Story Mode chapters, the card-based Duel Mode that was introduced in Hyper, network options to play story maps online with friends and a complete scenario editor in the form of Musou Battlefields are crammed into this game. The map editor in itself is very extensive, allowing original levels to be created, where officers and their dialogue can be chosen, and then uploaded online for others to download.

Gauntlet is a brand new mode for WO3U, and rather than the normal three officers that can be switched between on the fly elsewhere in the game, allows for a total of five characters to flick through in real-time here. Given the number of playable characters on offer, Gauntlet is great for picking even more favourites and putting them into the ultimate team, and stats and items gained here will carry over into all other modes. The aim is to escape a multi-tiered dungeon and survive the constant barrage of tough enemies, which gradually get tougher as time goes on.

It makes sense to port this most recent update of the game to current generation consoles, but it's unfortunately all too obvious that this was built to run on the PS3 and Xbox 360 first and foremost. Save for the odd technical upgrades here and there, there's no real indicator that this is PS4 quality. That all said, it runs smoothly given the obviously large number of enemies on-screen at once. The nature of the game does mean gameplay becomes rather button-mashy and repetitive, but bump this up to harder difficulties, and those timely blocks and special moves become all the more important. It's getting newcomers to stick with it to try the tougher settings that puts the game in a sort of catch-22 situation, though.

On top of it looking and feeling like a last gen game, little things here and there, like graphical glitches, stiff controls when riding horseback, and just a general lack of diversity overall in mission structure, hold it back. WO3U is a game aimed towards the Warriors fanbase, and whilst it's very much worth looking into for those who want to try the series out, or indeed people after more Warriors goodness after stepping into the genre with Hyrule Warriors, it isn't going to be for everyone. Anyone who cannot get enough of ploughing through hundreds and thousands of enemies at once, however, will find enough content in WO3U to last ages.