The evil Serpent King, Orochi has come down from the heavens and plucked armies from Ancient China and Feudal Japan, he pits them against each other, and the greatest will then have the honour of testing their strength against him.
In Warriors Orochi you are able to choose from up to 77 characters, each one from the massive back history of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors storylines. Though only a few are available from the start, as you play through the game, more characters will join you, and then you can select them from the start menu. Each character has their own weapons, moves and style. Each style is split into Technique, Speed and Power, enabling you to ensure that you have a well-balanced team. There are plenty of weapons to use and find throughout the game, as you defeat enemy officers they will drop power-ups, and on occasion, a new weapon. Once the level has finished, you are then able to change to the better weapons on offer. For example, there is a huge guy who carries a hammer but once you pick up a new version, this character will then be seen carrying a different hammer, this time with huge spikes on the ends, which is pretty brutal.
As well as the normal collecting of weapons, there is now a new Weapon Fusion System. This allows you to combine different attributes of other weapons. There are up to 8 power slots available for each weapon, and these can be loaded with special powers like ice-blast, stronger attack, break defence and fire attack.
There are 4 main story lines to play through, each has 8 battles, but on top of this there are also side plots, which allow you to earn more power-ups and characters.
Rather than go out alone, you now have the Team Battle System, this is where you can choose 3 characters, and at any point switch to them during battle to use their strengths. This is a well executed function as if you are surrounded, you can use your Muso attack on a group, then with a press of a trigger button, tag in another character and then use theirs, making for some huge combos.
Graphically, Warriors Orochi is a step up from previous outings, character models seem improved, but the buildings still seem pretty basic, but there is a reason for that. As with all other Warriors games, the amount of characters on screen is impressive, however I did notice some pop up of enemies and also backdrops on a few occasion, though this does not deter from the game-play experience.
