Warriors Orochi  Preview for Xbox 360

Friday, August 17, 2007

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Title: Warriors Orochi .............................................. System: Xbox 360 .............................................. Genre: Beat 'Em Up .............................................. Publisher: KOEI Corporation .............................................. Developer: Omega Force .............................................. Release: .............................................. Online: No .............................................. ESRB: Teen (T) .............................................. by Seth "forweg" Weisend Koei's long-running Warriors franchise has long garnered mostly disdain from critics and non-fans. Every game is the same, they say, with virtually no significant differences between installments. The hack-and-slash style of play has rarely been fundamentally altered, and there have been only minute visual improvements since Dynasty Warriors 2. Orochi Warriors, the latest game in the series, looks to change many of those negative trends. Due for release on both the PS2 and Xbox 360, Cao Cao and crew return for yet more epic wars and bad dubbing. Die-hard Warriors fanboys will be lifted to orgasmic joy, as all 48 Dynasty Warriors characters and 29 Samurai Warriors characters make fully playable appearances. (Sadly, Kojiro and Katsuie are left out.) Lastly, two new faces join the ruckus: the title's arch-villain and namesake, the demonic Orochi; and his assistant, the sultry harlot Da Ji. Regardless of one's feelings on the franchise as a whole, 79 colorful and wide-ranging characters surely must be considered impressive. While the Warriors franchise has never been overly concerned with historical accuracy, history buffs and purists may be disappointed to learn that Warriors Orochi has no basis in history whatsoever. Orochi distorts the universe in order to pull all of these historical warriors together and test their strength. Not exactly the most compelling tale, but hey, whatever gets Lu Bu and Tadakatsu Honda beating on each other is fine with me. Several new game mechanics are added, giving Warriors Orochi extra polish. Players may select up to three combatants to bring into battle, and switching between the three is available at the press of a button. Just think of the possible combinations. (My favorite team is Okuni, Zhang Jiao, and Wei Yan. Go, team weirdo, go!) Each character also now has his or her own personal item. These are much like other equippable items, but as the name implies, a personal item can only be used by the person it's meant for. Also added to the repertoire of new features is a unique special move button exclusively assigned to each fighter. Both of these additions do the game a service by differentiating the brawlers that much more. 360 owners should be pleased to know that their version will have a significant graphical advantage over the PS2 version. A Warriors game has never looked so detailed and crisp. Koei could have taken the lazy route and ported the game from the PS2, so it's refreshing to see them make such an effort. All in all, Warriors Orochi will probably polarize the gaming community, just as the franchise always has. Fans can anticipate a September 18th North American release date.