Tag Archives: hack and slash

Warriors Orochi 3: First Steps in a Ruined World

I, if it has not already been made abundantly clear, love the Warriors series as a whole. And I’ve found myself particularly enjoying the Warriors Orochi branch.

Warriors Orochi’s core appeal is that it successfully divorces both the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors casts from their original contexts, allowing them to break free from the stories they’ve been telling since the PlayStation 2 days. Instead, they get the chance to have a bit of fun.

Well, “fun” might not be quite the right word, given that Warriors Orochi 3 starts off with all of them (except for three, conveniently) dying horribly. But it’s certainly fun for us.

Continue reading Warriors Orochi 3: First Steps in a Ruined World

Warriors Wednesday: Redhead Tactician – Warriors All-Stars #20

Our second playthrough of Warriors All-Stars gets well and truly underway as we get to grips with Sophie’s moveset, and look at expanding Tamaki’s forces.

On today’s agenda is Mitsunari Ishida, a vibrant-haired, brilliant tactical mind with his own strong opinions on how best to wage war. How will he get along with the rather flighty Sophie… and the somewhat more grounded Plachta?

Better punch a whole load of dudes in the face to find out!

Kamiko: Fighting for the Transient World

Yuumi “Skipmore” Kimura is a modern Japanese independent developer who deserves a lot more attention.

His Fairune series provides a fascinating twist on the item-based action RPG formula, emphasising puzzles of traversal rather than all-action combat.

And, as it turns out, his game Kamiko does precisely the opposite… while still maintaining that distinctive Skipmore magic. Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Kamiko: Fighting for the Transient World

Warriors Wednesday: Barking Up the Wrong Tree – Warriors All-Stars #9

Oh dear, Darius. You don’t know about Arnice, do you? That would explain why you’re so relentlessly pursuing her, but I can assure you, you are most definitely… you know.

Yes, this time around we encounter Darius from Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, a representative of the Demon Clan and an altogether mysterious individual. While everyone’s favourite lesbian vampire half-demon could be argued to be leading him on a bit with her girlish eyelash-fluttering and flushed cheeks, the sooner our mysterious hero understands his situation, the better.

Oh, also we fight some bad guys a bit. Hack and slash and hack and slash!

Warriors Wednesday: The Mysterious Book – Warriors All-Stars #6

Rio’s back in the leading role today as we take on a series of new challenges, culminating in the recruitment of Plachta from Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book.

Today’s missions provide a good example of how Warriors All-Stars’ quick, snappy pace and structure give it a markedly different feel from Warriors Orochi. Rather than long, drawn-out battles all the time, you can enjoy plenty of smaller-scale challenges to acquire specific goodies for your team, then take on more substantial missions when you want to advance the plot or unlock new characters.

I’m really enjoying this game so far… and there’s a lot of game to explore here, so I think we’re going to be here a while!

Warriors Wednesday: Her Name is Rio – Warriors All-Stars #5

Arnice takes a back seat this time around as Rio decides to lead the party into battle.

We do our best to fulfil some of Kasumi’s unreasonable demands before moving on to face Laegrinna, star of Deception IV: Blood Ties. She does not want to go down without a rather sneaky fight, but surely the invincible Girl Power team of Rio, Arnice, Christophorous, Kasumi and Honoka will prevail, non?

Warriors All-Stars is, so far, doing a very good job of paying homage to its incredibly diverse source material through a combination of its playable characters, stages, music and overall game design. We’re in this for the long haul, I think!

Warriors Wednesday: Who’s That Girl – Warriors All-Stars #4

You know sometimes how you see someone and you know that you know them, but you just can’t remember their name? Yeah, that.

How could I forget dear old Honoka, though? She’s become quite a high-profile mascot for the Dead or Alive series in various crossover collaborations — besides Warriors All-Stars she also had a guest appearance in Senran Kagura — but her name just fell right on out of my head for some reason.

Oh well. At least I remember her name once she’s said it a few times… and once she’s joined Arnice’s brigade of brave warriors!

Warriors Wednesday: Kasumi’s Arrival – Warriors All-Stars #3

Now we’re past those pesky introductory missions, it’s time to get down to the real Warriors All-Stars.

This game doesn’t mess around either; it immediately provides you with a huge variety of things to do, including time-limited events, battles where you can recruit new playable characters to your cause, and story-critical Key Battles.

The whole thing actually unfolds rather like a cross between a traditional Warriors game and Hyrule Warriors’ excellent Adventure Mode, which is a recipe for a lot of fun over the long term so far as I’m concerned!

Warriors Wednesday: Grand Finale – Warriors Orochi #60

We made it, everyone! After 60 weekly(ish) episodes, we finally made it all the way through Warriors Orochi from start to finish.

The funny thing is that there’s still actually a bunch more of this game I could continue to play if I wanted to, and I might just do that off-camera. There are harder difficulties to challenge, hidden items to discover, weapons to collect and even more characters to unlock.

But for now, this particular “season” of Warriors Wednesday is over. Next week, we’ll be kicking off a look at something a little different: Warriors All-Stars, which brings together characters from a variety of different Koei Tecmo games to save a fantasy world from destruction. Please look forward to it.

And if you’ve watched any or all of this series… a sincere thank you! I hope you enjoyed it. But our job here is far from over!

Glutton for punishment? Watch the whole thing here and admire my gradual progression of confidence in both making videos and editing them!

Warriors Wednesday: Just a Quickie – Warriors Orochi #58

It’s nice when things go your way for once, isn’t it?

In the first instance of that happening for quite some time in this Warriors Orochi playthrough, Cao Pi, Nene and Xiahou Dun all find it remarkably straightforward to struggle their way through Nan Zhong and deal another significant blow to Orochi’s forces.

It’s nice when you get a clear, quick, simple, decisive victory like this, as it’s good motivation to keep going! And there’s not long to go until we are well and truly done, once and for all! We’re coming for you, Orochi… again!