#Sengoku Musou Stage

[simayeeet]

i opened a file to come across this and thought to dump it here

i drew it thinking about how dw1 nobunaga looked like he was wearing a wrestler thong

[yeonchi]

Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 6: Samurai Warriors 1 Spinoffs (State of War/Pachislot)

Samurai Warriors State of War (激・戦国無双) Platforms: PSP Release dates: Japan: 8 December 2005 USA: 7 March 2006 Europe: 24 March 2006

Like Dynasty Warriors before it, Samurai Warriors has also released spinoffs that explore new concepts or take advantage of the technology in new consoles. The amount of spinoffs that Koei and Koei Tecmo released can feel daunting and wasteful, but the purpose of this series is to determine their merits and call out their faults.

With that in mind, let's continue with the two spinoffs for Samurai Warriors 1.

Samurai Warriors State of War

Like Dynasty Warriors before it, Samurai Warriors has its own spinoff for the PSP called State of War, or Geki Sengoku Musou in Japanese.

The Story Modes for each character vary depending on the character, though they do share scenarios most of the time and some characters do have their own scenarios. All characters from Xtreme Legends are featured and are split into three groups, namely the Oda, the Eastern Warriors and the Western Warriors. The Tokugawa are kind of unique as they only share one scenario with the Eastern Warriors instead of two.

Unlike the Dynasty Warriors PSP game, stages are in a grid format rather than an area format. Each enemy space you go to will have a mission, whether it is to defeat enemy unit leaders, defeat as many enemies as possible, or preventing enemy spies from causing a mutiny among others. At the end of the mission, you will get an A/B/C rating that will allow you to move 1 to 3 spaces depending on what you get.

Throughout the stage, you can obtain charms from defeating enemy officers or passing chests. These charms can affect enemies or benefit your allies. Some of them can take effect in a wider area and some of them continue to be effective as long as you have them. Aside from these battle charms, you can also earn tactic charms that can open gates and dams or deactivate cannons.

During the battle, you can obtain weapons like you would in the vanilla game. You can also obtain subofficers that give you stat buffs, abilities or charms from the start of the battle (subofficers don't cost anything, but you can only have one playable/Musou subofficer). The Level 4 weapons are unlockable on Hard or Chaos difficulties. Skills are also obtained when you level up or defeat certain officers in Story Mode.

Characters from Dynasty Warriors 4 also appear as subofficers (like how the Samurai Warriors characters appeared in the Dynasty Warriors PSP game) and in the final Ultimate Warriors story. It's pretty interesting to see the beginnings of a concept that would become a mainstay in the future.

Like the Dynasty Warriors PSP game before it, State of War is another great adaptation of the main Samurai Warriors game, showing how you don't necessarily need to fully adapt the main game to provide a fun experience on the go.

Samurai Warriors Pachislot (Pachislot Sengoku Musou)

Pachislot Sengoku Musou (パチスロ戦国無双) Platforms: PS3 Release dates: Japan: 6 September 2007

Imagine going down the pub and seeing this among the pokies. Slot machines based on licenced franchises are not a new thing, but I don't pay much attention to them, whether I'm at the casino or at the pub, because I'm not much of a gambling person when it comes to money. My dad used to buy lottery tickets sometimes when I was little, but he doesn't do it anymore now. Scratchie tickets are a rare occurrence, but even then they're gifts from his boss.

Yamasa Entertainment has licenced Koei's IP to make pachislots of the first three Samurai Warriors games, but only the first one was made into a PS3 game in 2007 for the Yamasa Digital Slot World series (because adapting further sequels would be more of the same anyway). As such, this allows the first four generations of Samurai Warriors games to be represented on the PlayStation 3 (Yes, Warriors Orochi exists, but I'll get to that later). For a time I wasn't able to play it until I realised that I had to decrypt the ISO, after which I managed to get it working. Same goes for a few other games that I downloaded for the sake of it.

Look, this game is just a simulation of the actual game running inside a simulation of the pachislot machine. You use the controller to enter credits, start the reels and stop each individual one. Pressing Select allows you to switch the camera focus between the reels and the screen where all the CGs are displayed, while pressing L3 switches you into a free camera mode.

The main characters playable in this are Yukimura, Keiji and Hanzō, with others appearing in events. You can view the CG loops and events for the three of them in the Museum.

Simulation Mode is just as what it says on the tin. It allows you to set the frequency chance multiplier for bonuses so that they can appear more often. Practice Mode allows you to simulate a machine in a shop that has been open X out of Y hours, accumulating simulated playtime from previous plays. I think this sets a benchmark for up to 6 settings in Simulation Mode but I'm not even sure what it even does. You can activate the Auto Play so you don't have to do much.

There are three modes to be played in Challenge Mode; there is Medal Attack, where you play to see how many medals you get in 300 plays; Sengoku Rush Attack, where you play to see how long you can keep the Sengoku Rush replay sequence going for; and Bonus Attack, where you have 40 plays in the Big Bonus Game to see how many times you can fill your Musou gauge, or rather, trigger the minigame event with the Strike Ninja and beat him by getting a bonus reel, namely a kanji symbol in each reel. I have no idea what "Bell Musou Gauge" even is.

Yeah look, this isn't something I'm going to be that serious in reviewing. If I can play something to try it out I'll definitely do it, but if I can't enjoy it properly for whatever reason then I'm just going to talk about it a little and move on. This game was a thing and that's it.

We're sailing back to China next time as we get into the pinnacle of classic era Koei Warriors with Dynasty Warriors 5.

[anayka05ymewtwo06]

Soy Sailor Witch Anayka Reimu

Mewtwo:Y Yo Sailor Witch Mewtwo Lunar!

Y seran castigados...¡en el nombre del planeta tierra y del Mundo pokémon!

Sailor Witch Mewtwo Mariposa y Sailor Witch Anayka Mariposa.

Las Heroes de Paldea panamá en Halloween.

Coming soon los trajes Teatro aeos (Mewtwo) y algunos mios diseño sailor Moon. Y traje Artes Marciales y la Forma Mega Mewtwo X.

Y poses basadas en Mewtwo Contraataca y stages de Ninja Gaiden y de series de Sengoku musou (No aplica personajes Masculinos) aunque vendria:Eternal Angel Nobunaga Oda! Y Eternal Angel Ryu Hayabusa!

Los Mods serán de todas las Sagas de la linea Sengoku Musou y Ninja Gaiden y Dynasty Warriors (Mujeres para diseño del broche Sailor Moon) para las Alas de Angel serian protagonistas de NG DOA Warriors Orochi SW y DW

Guests:Pokémon y en este caso Mew y Mewtwo y Kyurem y Xerneas e Yveltal. Entre otros pero solo 16 por 9 Regiones y Hisui (Legendarios Mayores Menores Poipole Singulares *Ahi entran Mew celebi Shaymin Diancie y Peacharunt)

Otros Guests:Blood Rayne y Bayonetta y Palutena de Kid Icarus.

Nuevos Guests:Chun Li y Cammy y Athena A. Y Alisa

Y las Kunoichis de Dead Or Alive Marie Rose Honoka.

Y por DOAX venus Vacation trajes Aniversario 4 Tamaki y Luna y las hermanas Misaki Y Nagisa y Kanna. Tambien Nyotengu.

Coming Soon para noviembre dias festivos de 🇵🇦 507 PTY de Ninja Gaiden

©Copyright Toei Animation The pokémon company y Koei Tecmo Games.

Derechos Reservados

[ono-kento]

@kento_leo9 The cast visuals have been released ^ ^ I'll do my best at practice today as well!

[amr-1010]

Stage play Sengoku Musou ~Sekigahara no Shou~

－Poster shooting of UERYUWA 

[magnaevil]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARAMAKI YOSHIHIKO (February 5th, 1990) Hope you still healty, always success for your carrier, and may God bless you （＾ｖ＾）

[hoppidehoppu]

夢の続き。

[akatsuki-shin]

[REVIEW] 刀剣乱舞無双 Touken Ranbu Warriors

Finally finished this game after 55-hour gameplay on Steam! It was a fun experience overall despite some complaints that I have about the plot, so I'd like to share my review with everyone. ^^

My final stats:

Total Gameplay: 55 hour

Character Level: All Lv. 99

Character Skill: All Lv. 5/6

Honmaru: Lv. 30

Bonds: 100% unlocked

Memoirs: 100% unlocked

Shop: All items cleared

Game Achievements: 100%

Note(s):

Long post ahead, may contain spoilers

This review is written by an existing Touken Ranbu fan

My opinion does not represent the entire audience and players of the game

P.S. I will post a separate character gameplay review next week, as well as some mini-guide/tips and trick for those who haven’t played it.

SUMMARY:

In the year 2205, an evil force known as the Historical Revisionists attempted to alter history by sending their troops, dubbed the History Retrograde Army, to interfere with major historical events in the past. To prevent disaster from happening, the Government of Time deployed Saniwa, people with the ability to manifest the hearts of inanimate object, to intercept the enemy's scheme.

Each Saniwa was then assigned to a Honmaru. With their special ability, the Saniwa summoned the spirit of famous Japanese swords and became their master. These sword spirits, who took the form of young male warriors, are known as the Touken Danshi. Under the Saniwa's command, they would travel through time to battle against the History Retrograde Army and prevent the course of history from being changed.

Unfortunately, the enemies managed to locate one of the Honmaru and launched a massive attack on it, nearly annihilating the entire citadel as they pursued a "melody" that belonged to the Saniwa of this place. As the consequence, the Saniwa of this Honmaru went missing, and the remaining 15 Touken Danshi was left adrift in time.

However, one day a sudden enemy attack arrived once more in the drifting Honmaru to annihilate the surviving Touken Danshi. At the same time, Konnosuke, a fox spirit acting as the Government of Time's messenger, arrived to instruct the Touken Danshi to defeat the approaching History Retrograde Army.

What follows after this sudden turn of event is an order from the Government of Time to investigate a series of disturbance in the past, leading the 15 Touken Danshi to travel back to the Sengoku Era in order to pursue the truth and protect history.

STORY: 6/10

A typical Touken Ranbu plot where we have to prevent history from being changed, but the methods and twists of how it could be changed never failed to draw our curiosity. In fact, there are a lot of unpredictable factors and possibilities that the story always manages to keep us gripping the edge of our seats.

Usually, in other adaptations such as the musical/stage play, the movie, and anime, there will only be one historical event to be protected in a single arc, making the story's goal clear from the beginning. However, the game managed to chain multiple interferences by the HRA in a single historical period, sometimes even making the HRA messes up an event that we have fixed. This does not yet mention how these seemingly individual events are gathered up to slowly build up the game's main plot, so the suspense kept rising the further we progress through the missions.

Nevertheless, the delivery method of some scenes often does not equal the emotional significance of the said scene. On one hand, the game’s story has almost every single surprising plot twist imaginable, but at the same time, due to the way it was delivered, the emotional impact wasn’t as big as we expected, which is kind of a pity.

There are also several plot holes left after completing the game. A lot of important issues are left unaddressed; the ending itself resulted in more questions that answer.

During the livestream of Touken Ranbu Musou's trailer, the voice actor of Mikazuki Munechika, Toriumi Kousuke, seemed to hint at the possibility of another Touken Ranbu Musou game, but as there has been no confirmation or further update on this matter, for the time being we have to be content with the existing plot despite many of our questions still remained unanswered.

Aside from that, the game faithfully retains all of the characters' iconic lines from the original games, including their comments off-story (e.g. in the Honmaru, Menu screen, or during Mini-Games). Off-story conversations between the characters remain loyal to the characters' personality that the whole fandom is already familiar with

Another praiseworthy aspect is that Touken Ranbu Musou includes a huge educational value when it comes to history. Whenever the Touken Danshi departs for a mission, we are provided with an overview of how the actual history should go and a side-by-side comparison with how the enemies are changing it. The format and the explanation are easy to follow, allowing us to both understand the goal of said mission and learning history at the same time.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10

Overall, it’s not a difficult hack-and-slash game. Most of the time we can just keep hitting all the enemies, dodging occasionally with a couple of rare special-command actions and combo attacks. It's quite beginner-friendly but may prove to be rather boring for veteran hack-and-slash game players due to the generally uniform enemy types and battle patterns, save for every story arc’s Final Boss. The game has Easy-Normal-Hard modes, but to be honest, I see no difference in difficulty between Normal and Hard, except that the enemy would have a bit more health bar and maybe hit a little bit harder.

It's nearly impossible to die in battles, but it is worth noting that there is not a single healing item, except for a couple of accessories with occasional healing abilities when the specific requirement is fulfilled. On the other hand, this means the battle commands are made to be as simple as possible where we only need to remember the attack and dodging combination. Based on my experience, as long as we can avoid the bigger enemies' attack range, we may even get out of the battle completely unscratched.

Nevertheless, if there is anything that could make the game difficult, it would be the “Victory Requirements” assigned to each mission. Generally, the goal would simply be to defeat the enemies, but the further we progress through the story, the more diverse and complicated the requirements become. Sometimes it would be a simple instruction to defeat all the enemies while making sure some NPCs remain alive. But there are also stealth missions that strictly forbid us from drawing the enemies’ attention, investigations that make us look for clues or hidden paths, and many more. Even in a simple “protect the NPC” mission, sometimes there could be extra enemy troops appearing out of the blue and trapping us from the rear.

It is also worth noting that every mission has its own time limit, which means even if we are strong enough to one-hit-kill everything, if we can’t meet the mission requirements before the time limit ends, it will still count as a failure.

In general, the gameplay itself is almost similar to the MMORPG “Dragon Nest” minus its town exploration, as this isn’t an open-world game. We are basically made to keep switching between going out on missions and returning to the Honmaru to prepare for the next missions (e.g. upgrading characters’ stats and skills, buying booster accessories, etc). Among the many features in the Honmaru, there are interactive mini-games to get some bonuses like extra EXP or materials. The Honmaru navigation itself is not difficult to adapt to, which is another plus point for this game.

There are a total of 16 playable characters, but thankfully grinding for EXP isn’t too painful because first of all, we can bring a maximum of two Touken Danshi into missions, which means both characters will get their much-needed level-up together. In the meantime, we can assign a total of nine characters to various areas in the Honmaru (e.g. the kitchen, garden, veranda, etc). These characters will get some EXP every time we return from a mission, allowing them to also get some level-ups albeit more slowly.

Grinding for Koban and materials might prove to be more difficult, but not until the point of frustrating. There are also some accessories and occasional stats bonus that would result in an extra amount of Koban and materials dropped after every mission.

In addition, there is a "Post-game" feature where you can continue playing after completing the main story. Touken Ranbu Musou has quite a lot of "Special Missions" that can be cleared after fulfilling certain conditions, such as defeating X number of enemies with Y character, clearing a particular mission without taking damage, etc. Furthermore, it also allows "completionist" players to max out the characters level, bonds, and stats after the game.

GRAPHIC, MUSIC, & OTHER TECHNICAL ASPECT: 8/10

Although the visual is not the most realistic, they still capture the characters' expressions well (and the costume texture is superb). I am especially in love with the battle effects, especially when the characters are landing their special skills and Hissatsu attacks.

The music is downright beautiful. For Touken Ranbu fans, it is especially precious that they include existing character theme songs with a new arrangement for Touken Ranbu Musou. They also keep the same voice actors as the original Touken Ranbu browser game.

There are still some differences between the actual Japanese lines and the translated subtitle, but overall, it doesn't change our impression of the characters' personalities and relationships. I'm especially happy that they keep most of the iconic terms in Japanese (e.g. Honmaru, Hissatsu, etc), as well as the honorific used between the characters when talking.

There are some minor glitches. For example, when a character or NPC got pushed back, instead of stepping away, their entire person will be pushed around like you’re pushing a table. But since it’s really that minor, it doesn’t really affect the whole gameplay.

The Glossary is quite helpful to refresh our memory about plot-related issues that we forgot or missed during the story section.

CONCLUSION: 7/10

A great game for existing Touken Ranbu fans, but story-wise may be somewhat confusing for those who aren't familiar with Touken Ranbu. Likewise, the gameplay can be considered enjoyable, but those who wished for more challenge shouldn't expect too much.

It is a pity that the plot has a lot of unexplainable holes in the end. Hopefully there will really be a sequel to explain these questions.

And now let me close this review with Tonbokiri’s glorious manboobs.

[lady-mug]

hi hi~ Do you know where I can possibly download/watch Sengoku musou stage? I read that ono kento, wada masanari, and aramaki yoshihiko are in it and I totally want to watch. Plus, it's technically samurai related so even more so hehe

Hi there! So it’s been so long I can’t remember if I asked for permission to post this publicly or not already, so forgive me if I suddenly public post your ask lol.

Anywho I’m afraid I am not sure, would anyone be able to assist?

[tima520]

Ok I was tagged in this long time ago and I just got the chance to make it,so sorry for being late ,not gonna tag any one so feel free to do it if you feel like it Here's my top 6 Butai (stage) actors  ヽ(゜∇゜)ノ From left to right : 01: Onuma Shota ,my absolute favorite ,best known as Aomine Daiki in Kuroko no Baskue stage ,Sanada Nobuyuki in Sengoku Musou stage ,Sakaki Daichi in Kiniro No Corda:Blue sky stage & 2nd Atobe Keigo from TeniMyu ,his character is so lovely and caring that's why he's my No.1 !! *^* 02: Asato Yuya ,the cute guy that never looks like he's actually 30 years old ,best known as Kagami Taiga in Kuroko no Baskue stage, Kanzaki Touji from YowaPeda drama,Shu Sakamaki from Diabolik lovers. 03: Kohei Shiota , the most energetic and athletic stage actor i've ever seen,he even plays basketball with Onunu lol,best known as Tanaka Ryuunosuke from Haikyuu stage ,Jackal Kuwahara from 2nd TeniMyu & Ikkaku Madarame from Rock Musical Bleach stage ,can't wait to see more of his works !! 04: Kishimoto Takuya ,I don't even why I love this guy,he's that kind that is full of charisma and makes you love him for no reason,best known as Akutsu Jin in 2nd TeniMyu stage ,Gen Shiotsu from K-Lost Small World Stage ,Hirato from Karneval stage & Hasekura Heath from Prince of Stride stage. 05: Anzai Shintarou ,this guy is just too cute and precious,best known as Saruhiko Fushimi from K-Lost Small World Stage ,Shiraishi Kuranosuke from 2nd TeniMyu, & Sanada Yukimura in Sengoku Musou stage. 06: Masumura Ryuunosuke ,actually I haven't seen much of his works but his role as Kasamatsu from KuroBas was truly awesome ! ,best known as Shima Kinzo from Ao no Exorcist ,Kasamatsu Yukio from Kuroko no Baskue stage ,Nine from Zankyou no Terror & Kotaro Ishigaki from Yowamushi Pedal stage.

Ah finally finished it ~~   ＼(*^▽^*)/

[newsintheshell]

Primo trailer di “Kitsune no Koe”

La serie andrà in onda dal 5 ottobre.

Pubblicato un primo video promozionale di “Kitsune no Koe” (Voice of Fox), anime tratto dal fumetto cinese “Hu Li Zhi Sheng” di Guang Xian Jun, che debutterà sulle tv giapponesi a partire dal 5 ottobre.

Il video anticipa la sigla di apertura “COME: BACK Stage!”, ad opera dei LoveDesire.

La serie segue il sedicenne Hu Li, che sogna di diventare un cantante famoso. Tuttavia, non ha né un bell'aspetto né i mezzi finanziari per perseguire il suo sogno, quindi Hu carica le sue canzoni online usando un avatar di volpe.

Il progetto sarà diretto da Koujin Ochi (Sengoku Musou, Kiniro no Corda) e animato presso lo studio Yumeta Company (ex-TYO Animations).

SilenziO)))

[FONTE]

[yeonchi]

Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 11: Warriors Orochi 1 & 2

Warriors Orochi (無双OROCHI) Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PC Release dates: Japan: 21 March 2007 (PS2), 13 September 2007 (Xbox 360), 21 February 2008 (PSP), 20 March 2008 (PC) USA: 18 September 2007 (PS2/Xbox 360), 25 March 2008 (PSP/PC) Europe: 21 September 2007 (PS2/Xbox 360), 28 March 2008 (PSP/PC)

The era of the PlayStation 2 was reaching its conclusion and the gaming industry was beginning to move onto the PlayStation 3, just as it did with the Xbox and Xbox 360 a couple years earlier. Dynasty Warriors and with it, the Warriors series, was also approaching its tenth anniversary in 2007, hence it was decided to create a crossover game between Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. The game served multiple purposes; to farewell the sixth generation of gaming consoles (namely the PS2 and the original Xbox), to celebrate 10 years of Koei Warriors games, and to provide fanservice wish fulfilment for both developers and fans alike. The game was called Warriors Orochi.

The first I heard of this game was when my cousin, who had played the first Dynasty Warriors PSP game, teased a game that combined Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors together. I got to play the first battle for a little while, then later I got Warriors Orochi 2 on the PSP and focused on playing that; I didn't even get the first game until quite later. Some years later, I bought Warriors Orochi on PS2 at a discount around 2012-13 (when the PS2 was starting to become obselete), then I got Warriors Orochi 2 from an online store the year after just so I could play both games in English. When the lockdown happened in 2020, one of the games I played was Warriors Orochi Z on my potato PC, which was still decent even if the cutscenes and True Musous lagged.

Anyway, the retrospective starts after the break.

Warriors Orochi

The main and only mode that matters in this game is the Story Mode. In each story, you start off with a team of three characters, then you unlock more as you progress through the story. Once you have cleared the story, those characters can then be used in other cleared stories and you will be able to use characters from other stories in that story. By the time you clear all the stories in the game, Free Mode is essentially redundant except for if you don't want to change your teams in Story Mode.

The Shu, Wei and Wu kingdoms of Dynasty Warriors, along with Samurai Warriors as a whole each get stories of eight main stages plus seven side battles (aka X/Gaiden stages) for a total of 15. The eighth (or rather, seventh) side stage is unlocked by completing a special condition in the seventh stage. In those stages, you will also be able to face Orochi if you have cleared the eighth main stage at Koshi Castle.

The game and the subsequent series as a whole takes place in an alternate dimension, combining characters and locations from the late-Han and Three Kingdoms periods of ancient China with the Sengoku era of Japan. The dimension was created by the Serpent King Orochi, whose army of demons conquered all armies of both lands, causing them to be scattered or absorbed into the Orochi Army.

Shu's story begins with Zhao Yun being locked at Ueda Castle, with his lord Liu Bei believed to be dead until he freed by Zuo Ci with the help of Xingcai and Yoshihiro Shimazu. Zuo Ci tells Zhao Yun to flee and he does, meeting up with Yoshihiro's rival, Ginchiyo Tachibana, on the way. While gathering up the remnants of Shu forces including Yueying and Wei Yan, Zhao Yun is confronted multiple times by Zhuge Liang, who is currently serving Orochi for reasons he does not divulge to anyone.

Wei's story follows Cao Pi and Mitsunari Ishida, the former serving the Orochi Army after his father, Cao Cao was apparently killed in the initial battle against Orochi. Throughout his story, Cao Pi works to gather Wei officers under secret pretences.

Wu's story follows Sun Ce, whose family serves the Orochi Army alongside Ieyasu Tokugawa. Sun Ce is dissatisfied with his servitude until he is approached by Sakon Shima, who reveals to him where his father is being held. Sun Ce goes to rescue his father, but is forced to flee without him when the Orochi Army catches up with them. This then causes a rift between Sun Ce and his younger siblings, who are still serving under Orochi.

And finally, the Samurai Warriors story follows Nobunaga Oda as he travels the lands, recruiting officers such as Guan Ping, Huang Zhong and Zhang Jiao under his banner while also hoping to entice Xiahou Dun and Sun Ce (through Sakon) along with the Takeda and Uesugi into fighting Orochi.

Just out of interest, what clans and factions are fighting with or against Orochi (aside from the main ones)? Starting on the Orochi Army's side, there are Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, Masamune Date and Keiji Maeda, and with them are smaller warlords like Yuan Shu, Tao Qian, Zhang Lu and the warlords of Wujun along with the Miyoshi, Hōjō, Mōri, Satake and Mogami clans. As for the clans against Orochi, there are the Yellow Turbans, the Nanman and the Saika Renegades along with the Chōsokabe, Azai, Asakura and Imagawa clans. And then there's Kotarō Fūma who's just there to spread chaos as he can be seen fighting against both the resistance and the Orochi Army.

All characters and battlefields from DW5 and SW2 are featured. In the case of Goemon Ishikawa, Kunoichi and Yoshimoto Imagawa who were cut from SW2, they appear in their SW1 designs. Although Hideyoshi, Yoshimoto, Tadakatsu and Ina made their playable debuts in SW1XL, they are counted under SW2 in an effort to balance out the lineup against SW1. In regards to DW5's stages, Guan Yu's Escape is known as the Five Gates and The Trials of Sun Ce is known as Jianye Castle. As for SW2's stages, Kuzegawa and Tetorigawa are included as separate stages taking place at day and night respectively, with only the latter being represented in the original game's Free Mode.

Tadakatsu Honda and Lu Bu are unlocked by impressing them in the seventh and eighth side stages for each story respectively; impressing Tadakatsu requires some effort, but impressing Lu Bu just involves defeating him without running away from him. While many characters are unlocked as you play through the story, characters who are unlocked in side stages are only unlocked after fulfilling certain requirements, some of them easier than others. As such, those unlockable officers will appear in stages as third-party troops/armies fighting with your allies. This is how I got the misconception that third-party armies in Samurai Warriors were allies when they were actually enemies.

The original characters in this game are Orochi, the Serpent King, and his strategist Da Ji, who essentially does most of the work pitting humans against each other while Orochi seeks out warriors who can defeat him, which eventually happens in the final chapter of each story. Orochi's army does have its own generic officers, named after supernatural beings in the Japanese script or snakes in the English script.

The battle mechanics of this game are similar to that of SW2, but each character retains the movesets used from their games of origin. Dynasty Warriors characters are able to use their Evolution Attacks as part of their Normal Attacks after reaching level 19. Special Skills for Samurai Warriors have either been scrapped or worked into their Type Action special attacks, which are activated by pressing R1.

Starting from this game, all characters can summon their horses by pressing Select. Horses cannot be summoned within the castles of Samurai Warriors battlefields and Dynasty Warriors characters cannot perform their horseback C1s because that function is reserved for making the horse jump. You are also unable to change characters on horseback, which can be a bit annoying.

Orochi's moveset, being a character from Japanese mythology, follows the SW Charge Attack moveset, while Da Ji's moveset, being a character from Chinese history and folklore, follows the DW5 moveset. This pattern would continue for all original characters introduced to this series, albeit with some variations that will be covered when we get to them.

As is obvious, you play a team of three characters and switch between them in battle. While your other characters are in standby, their health and Musou will slowly recharge. You can still charge up your Musou Gauge by holding Circle, but your Musou Gauge does not fill up with attacks like in the main games. If you switch characters during a Musou Attack and immediately perform another one with them, you can perform a Musou Chain, which has them perform their True Musou while also adding an effect depending on their character type (Multi, Agility, Drain). The Musou kanji does not appear for Samurai Warriors characters.

Characters are divided into three character types, namely Power, Speed and Technique.

Power Characters have a Power Attack for their Type Action, which uses a good portion of their Musou Gauge to perform a powerful attack or buff the character briefly. They also have Hyper Armor which protects them from enemy attacks and arrows while the character is attacking.

Speed Characters have two Combination Maneuvers/Arts for their Type Action, which can be activated by pressing R1 on its own or while the analog stick is tilted. For most Speed characters, this doesn't cost any portion of their Musou Gauge, so it can be used even if the gauge is empty. They can also "double jump", or dash in the air by performing an Aerial Thrust and they can also cancel their own attacks by performing an Aerial Escape.

Technique Characters can perform Enhanced Strikes by pressing R1 in place of Triangle when you perform a Charge Attack, which really is just the same Charge Attack but in sanic speed. Each character has a special EX combination that performs a unique attack; for some characters it is the C1 so you just need to press R1, but for others it is performed in place of another Charge Attack. In addition, Technique characters can perform critical hits on airborne enemies with Charge Attacks or Enhanced Strikes, plus they can use a part of their Musou Gauge to perform a Counter Strike on enemies after taking damage.

Each character can keep up to eight weapons, which can be combined together by using the growth points you've earned in battle (which can also be used to level up characters). There are four levels of weapons for each character, with the fourth weapon available as random weapon drops on Hard (for stages with at least 3-stars) or Chaos (all stages) difficulty. Weapons can have a maximum of 8 attributes out of a total of 14.

18 types of skills are available of which 7 can be equipped at a time. All characters contribute a level to 4 skills, which can be unlocked by fulfilling the requirements, which usually involve achieving a certain amount of KOs or officer kills. Other conditions can be tacked onto them, namely time limits, maintaining your life over a certain amount or not using a Musou Attack or Type Action which uses any portion of your Musou Gauge. The Cavalier skill is the one that gives you a horse and maxing it out will allow you to use Red Hare or Matsukaze depending on what side your leading character came from (China or Japan).

Characters level up using the Samurai Warriors XP system (and not the backwards ranking system as used in Dynasty Warriors) to a maximum of level 99. There is also a Proficiency bar that increases after you defeat a certain number of enemies (with one officer being equal to 100 soldiers). The higher the Proficency (up to 9 bars), the stronger your Type Actions become.

Each character also has a unique item/treasure that can be obtained by fulfilling conditions on any difficulty akin to obtaining fourth weapons in the original games. Obtaining the unique items unlocks an image in the gallery for that character and makes the Type Actions even stronger.

In battle, you can rendezvous with your allies or form an alliance with a third-party army when you meet up with them. This doesn't really do much other than gradually recovering your life, but if an officer is struggling and you rendezvous with them, they can recover their health once. Also, there are secret dialogues (and events) available when you play as certain characters and approach certain officers on the battlefield, providing for some interesting interactions between the warriors of the Three Kingdoms and the Sengoku era.

This game has Xbox 360 and PC ports as well, both providing higher quality and additional gallery items for all characters. While the PC port does have the SafeDisk DRM, it apparently isn't used to run the game so later versions of Windows can open it easily.

A PSP port is also available and it is the first full Warriors game to be ported to the PSP, with full battlefields instead of split areas. Being a first attempt, the PSP port of this game is fairly cut down compared to other versions; battle events are replaced by kamishibai-esque still montages with character portraits, while other voices in battle are not included except for the usual officer defeated lines. The only movies in this game, namely the pre-rendered opening and ending movies for Story Mode, are played whole.

Warriors Orochi 2

Warriors Orochi 2 (無双OROCHI 魔王再臨) Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable Release dates: Japan: 3 April 2008 (PS2), 4 September 2008 (Xbox 360), 27 November 2008 (PSP) USA: 23 September 2008 (PS2/Xbox 360), 28 August 2009 (PSP) Europe: 19 September 2008 (PS2/Xbox 360), 4 September 2009 (PSP)

Koei pulled a Dynasty Warriors 2 with the naming of this game. Yes, this game is a sequel (or rather, a continuation) to the original Warriors Orochi, but presumably, Koei didn't know if they were going to make another Warriors Orochi game after this, so while the sequel (continuation) received a subtitle in Japan, the West just named it Warriors Orochi 2, meaning that future instalments in the West would be one more than what they were in Japan, just like Dynasty Warriors and Shin Sangoku Musou.

Given what we would see later, this game could be considered the "Ultimate" expansion of the original Warriors Orochi, but despite the subtitle in Japan, this game doesn't have the content of the original game with it. On the PS2 and PSP, having save data from the last game does let you unlock the first ability for all characters from the start.

On a side note, I did briefly take a look at the ISO sizes for both this and the last game along with the folder size of the next expansion and given their sizes, I think I can say that both games can fit on a dual layer DVD-9 disc, but Koei wasn't willing to do it given how many PS2 players had issues with SW2XL. There's probably no reason why they couldn't do it for the Xbox 360 either.

Elements from the Xtreme Legends expansions have been added to this game, which include 5 new characters (Toshiie, Motochika, Gracia, Kōjiro and Katsuie from SW2XL), the refreshed costume for Yoshimoto and 15 new stages. However, the C5s and C9s for Samurai Warriors characters have not been ported over, thereby nerfing the five new characters in their inclusion. As a result, the Samurai Warriors cast has also been split into three groups of 11-12 characters to balance them out once again, creating the misconception that there were three Samurai Warriors games when at the time, there were only two.

In terms of stages, 15 stages from the original game (including Tedorigawa/Kuzegawa, Xiliang, Jieting, Tianshui, Xiakou, Mt. Dingjun and the ministages of DW5) have not been carried over to the continuation in favour of stages from the Xtreme Legends expansions. Out of the new stages from DW5XL, The Two Qiaos (Jiangdong) and The Ten Eunuchs' Rebellion (Luoyang Castle) have not been adapted into this game. Of note, the Battle of Jing Province in Dream Mode uses the Mt Kunlun map as used in DW5XL's Struggle for the Book, which kind of makes sense because it's a rehash of the parent stage.

An additional four original stages have been added in addition to Koshi Castle from the first game, namely Itsukushima, the Wuhang Mountains, Yamatai and Hinokawa.

The new original characters in this game are as follows:

Taigong Wang

Sun Wukong

Fu Xi

Nuwa

Yoshitsune Minamoto

Kiyomori Taira

Himiko

Orochi X

Dodomeki

Gyūki

Fu Xi and Nuwa return from DW3, bringing their weapons that had been used by edit characters in DW4 and 5. Dodomeki and Gyūki are also the root models for two new types of Orochian generic officers, the English script naming them after spiders for the former and minerals for the latter.

The game's Story Mode is set some time after Orochi's defeat (Japanese Wikipedia says a month) where the remnants of Orochi's forces have scattered and created their own armies to rule the land while Da Ji and Kiyomori Taira work behind the scenes to unite them as they plot to revive Orochi. The Three Kingdoms of Shu, Wei and Wu along with Sakon Shima, the new protagonist of the Samurai Warriors story, are joined by mysterious characters as they inform the heroes about their new enemies and the revival of Orochi. There is also an additional story set before the first game covering the story of Orochi's conquest, defeating the major players of both Japan and China. The five stories in Story Mode are made up of eight stages with no side stages.

Also, this is the first game to show Lu Bu become enraged upon Diaochan's defeat. This would continue to be the case in future DW games.

Dream Mode is this game's answer to the side stages of the first game, with the DW and SW characters assigned into trios as they fight in dream teamup showdown battles, like the rulers of the Three Kingdoms and the Sengoku era fighting each other at Ōsaka Castle and Fan Castle or the three proteges Jiang Wei, Lu Xun and Sakon Shima facing off against their mentors Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu and Shingen Takeda. Each stage in Drama Mode is unlocked by completing certain requirements, like clearing certain stages and stories, having every character's levels total a certain amount or having every character's proficiency levels total a certain amount, which is easier said than done. Some stages fit into the overarching story of the game while the rest are merely non-canon Gaiden stages.

VS Mode is a new addition in this game with four mini-games available, namely Tag Team, Elimination, Tower and Steeple Chase. Tag Team is a one-on-one duel stage akin to the original Dynasty Warriors, but with a simplified control scheme and the ability to switch between three characters. The match is decided by whoever defeats the other player or throws them out of the ring first. Survival Mode is a continuous series of Tag Team matches where you can beat your own record of wins. Elimination is similar to Tag Team, but it's character against character without the ability to switch characters, meaning that whoever is the first to defeat all three of the other player's characters (while also keeping the last one alive) is the winner.

Tower is similar to Bridge Melee in DW's Challenge Mode, where you gain KOs by knocking enemies off the tower and the objective is to score more points than your opponent. Steeple Chase has you race a course around the Escape from Chibi (Huarong Pass) stage with all three characters in your team, the first to complete their laps being the winner. Tower and Steeple Chase have items which can be used to boost yourself or impede your opponent by picking them up and pressing L3 (Select or R for Steeple Chase on PSP).

Some changes have been made to the battle mechanics for a quality-of-life improvement. Character switching is now totally performed with L2/R2 (whereas in the first game you could change it to the left/right buttons) and can now be performed on horseback. Musou Chains are made easier as the next character's Musou will activate if you hold down the Circle button as you change characters. Dynasty Warriors characters can perform C1s on horseback at the cost of performing a horse jump.

New team mechanics have been introduced as well. When you have one or both standby characters with full Musou Gauges, you can have them perform a Support Attack when you take damage. When your life is in the red and you have a full Musou Gauge, you can perform a devastating Triple Attack with all three characters. On top of that, you can perform special Triple Attacks when you have certain combinations of characters in your team.

All characters now have one of five strategies that are activated after fulfilling particular conditions. They are Command, Shield, Dance, Face Off and Volley. With the new characters in this game, skills that originally had a maximum of 10 in the previous game have now been increased to 15 and all characters only contribute to three skills instead of four. The Proficiency gauge has also changed to be a level bar with a maximum level of 50 and this time around, the Proficiency level determines how much damage taken is reduced.

Upgrade Skills are a new mechanic introduced to weapons for this game. These upgrade skills are kind of the equivalent to the items of previous games as they can allow characters to do things like perform True Musou Attacks and Triple Attacks without your health being in the red. To obtain an Upgrade Skill, you need to have acquired the required materials/treasures (which serve as a replacement to the unique items of the last game), then you need a weapon that contains the required attributes to use as a base to create the skill. A maximum of 3 skills out of 15 can be equipped onto a weapon and up to 99 of each skill can be banked.

Where the last game only had two costumes for each character, this game adds an additional costume that gives most characters their designs from DW4 and SW1, otherwise they get another original costume.

The PSP port ports all battle events as is from the main console releases without the still montages. Battles are fully voiced except for encounter, defeat and 100 KO praise lines. The Japanese release gives Zhao Yun, Xiahou Dun and Sun Shangxiang their Fury forms from Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce as their fourth costume after clearing their kingdom's stories. All non-Japanese releases, however, have additional elements ported back from Warriors Orochi Z, which I will cover next.

Warriors Orochi Z/The Collective (Musou Orochi Z)

Warriors Orochi Z/The Collective (無双OROCHI Z) Platforms: PlayStation 3, PC Release dates: Japan: 12 March 2009 (PS3), 27 November 2009 (PC) Taiwan: 30 July 2009 (PS3), 24 December 2009 (PC)

The late-2000s and early-2010s were a significant transitionary period for video games. The analog experience of the PS2 and Xbox would make way for the high-definition and net-supported experience of the PS3 and Xbox 360. This kind of transition was something future game console generations could never hope to match.

Koei had begun their transition into the modern (HD) era with DW5 Special for the Xbox 360, before they followed through with Dynasty Warriors 6 for the PS3. Samurai Warriors 2 and the two Warriors Orochi games so far were also being released on the Xbox 360 alongside the original PS2 release. As such, the classic era would truly come to an end with Warriors Orochi Z, combining the two previous games for a last hurrah on the PS3.

So yeah, this was the original Warriors Orochi's answer to the Ultimate expansions of future games. Story Mode contains all the stories of the first two games, with each faction requiring you to beat their story from the first game before moving onto their story from the second. As was the case with SW2XL, the generic officer Toshiie Maeda is replaced by other Oda officers in the first Samurai Warriors story when theoretically, it would have been easy to fit in Katsuie and the playable Toshiie.

Two new characters, Sanzang (who is female compared to the male monk Tang Sanzang from Journey to the West) and Benkei are introduced in this expansion. Dodomeki and Gyūki are playable in Story and Dream Modes after they were limited to VS and Survival Modes in WO2.

Another costume has been added for characters; most DW characters receive their designs from DW6 and characters who were in SW1 receive their alternate costumes from it, but Yoshimoto's fourth costume is his original design from SW1 that was seen in the first game.

Dream Mode adds 12 new stages focused on the original characters along with an additional ninja stage. Among these stages are mini storylines for Sanzang and Benkei which also play into the overall story of the game. Some unlock conditions for the other stages have also been made easier, such as lowering the proficiency condition from 50 to 20 or the level condition from 99 to 28. Also, once you've cleared a stage once with the recommended characters, you can then play it again with any three characters, a feature that the second game never had.

As is obvious, the move to a next generation console means more computing power and to Koei, that means adding more enemies on the screen. However, that comes with a consequence - message and dialogue spam. There are enemy encounter lines every time you meet an enemy officer, then after you defeat them, they'll have their defeat line, then you say your "enemy officer defeated" line and an ally will compliment you. Allies will also praise you every 100 KOs and you can see how it adds up. But no, it's not the annoyance of this that I'm complaining about, but how the dialogue spam affects how you achieve some objectives within a particular timeframe.

Take the unlock condition for Wu's Chapter 8-X for example. In Chapter 7 (Battle of Komaki-Nagakute), you need to rescue Sun Jian and Sun Quan and have their event play within 3 minutes of the start of the battle. If your characters and weapons are strong enough then you could achieve this close to the 3-minute mark (on Hard or even Chaos), but not everyone wants to grind or use cheats for this. I recall being unable to do this when I initially played the stage, even on the PS2 or PSP versions (I checked an old PSP save I had for this), showing how this was also a problem even before Z's release.

A tip you can try to mitigate this is to pause the game when someone starts talking, then continue once they're done. The dialogue will finish as time is frozen, which can help in saving you time. Later games changed this so that the dialogue would pause when the game is paused, which creates another similar situation in Warriors Orochi 4 which is harder to mitigate, but I can't be sure exactly where it happens. On the PC version, you can also use Van's OrochiZEditor and activate 去除战场冗余信息 (remove redundant battle messaging) under the patch menu. You can also use the editor to reduce the number of troops in a unit using the 减兵补丁 (troop reduction patch).

Another annoyance I've found is that when you're supposed to guide someone to an objective, the people you're guiding will easily be distracted by the first enemy that's near them. This becomes obvious in Orochi's Chapter 7 (Battle of Mikatagahara), where the main objective is to guide two sorcerer units into the supply base. If sky ninjas get near them and they bury themselves into (a dustball above) the ground, the sorcerers will attack them regardless of the futility of it. This could easily lead them to be defeated if you're not powerful enough to clear away enemies quickly, or the mission to fail because you're taking too long. Similar phenomena may be seen in earlier games, but those examples aren't as frustrating compared to this one.

A couple more tips for the PC version; first, be wary of what video converters you have installed on your computer and two, turn Resizable BAR support off in BIOS. In the former case, the Video to Video Converter that I was using installed the Haali Video Splitter that was affecting the DirectShow codecs, causing the game to crash before the Koei Tecmo logo displayed (which didn't happen on my potato PC but then again it was running Windows 7). After discovering the cause by examining the generated crash log (on a whim), uninstalling the converter resolved this issue and I haven't bothered reinstalling it because by that point, I was downloading my music from YouTube anyway (plus, if I needed to convert files, I could use something else that didn't use Haali). In the latter case, I have an AMD GPU and turning Resizable BAR support on caused the game to fucking lag in battle. Had I been unable to figure this out, I would have had to play the PS3 version which, before an RPCS3 update in August 2023, was fucking unplayable because it crashed when the battle started. But really, I'm practically familiar with the game at this point so I don't know why I'm even trying.

Now to address the elephant in the room, the English localisation of this game. Just before the game was released in Japan in March 2009, Siliconera reported that video game rental service Gamefly listed Warriors Orochi: The Collective for the PS3, this assumedly being the localisation of Musou Orochi Z. However, when it was noted that no mentions of that game were made at E3 in June the same year, a Koei representative was asked about it and they apparently confirmed that while plans to localise the game did exist, they have been shelved.

And as always, because gaming companies never seem to explain or justify their reasons for anything, the reason as to why this game wasn't localised was left to speculation. There are two reasons I could find for this; one, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA, now Sony Interactive Entertainment) apparently had a rule about not allowing games to be released on the PS3 if it had come out on the Xbox 360 first, or SCEA wouldn't allow Koei to sell what was essentially two updated PS2 games on the PS3 at full price.

No matter the speculation or real reason, these justifications are batshit and everybody sucks here in this situation, because like SW2HD, this is one of those games that should be easy to localise because most of the localisation is already there. There's also no telling why they didn't just decide to release this in Europe only or on the PC, but I suppose Koei did an "all or nothing" for the localisation of this game. What happened instead was that the extra content in this game was released on the PSP port of WO2 for the West and Asia (as an "enhanced version" 增值版 of sorts) with dual audio options.

Honestly, if Koei were smarter about this, they should have skipped the PC port of the first game and aimed to release Z worldwide as a backup plan. Like seriously, the PSP and PC ports for the first game were released within two weeks either side of WO2's release on the PS2 in Japan. If they didn't want to wait another year to release WO2 they could have waited it out on the PC port of WO1.

English text patches do exist for this game, but they are incomplete because they only translate the menus, weapons and abilities for the most part. I think the hardest part of this is getting the English text to display as half-width characters instead of full-width that Japanese and Chinese uses, which is why nobody has bothered to continue working on it years after it was released. Maybe there might come a day when modders will end up localising the game through reverse-engineering, and it'll happen before Koei decides to rerelease anything from the classic era on Steam.

Since I'm covering it here anyway I might as well talk about the localisation situation for the two games. Both games were localised by Voicegroup as usual, meaning that the Samurai Warriors characters go back to having American voice actors instead of Quebecois ones. However, the entire English voice cast for SW1 characters has been recast, except for G.K. Bowes as Kunoichi by some miracle. As implied in the SW2 retrospective, I prefer the Warriors Orochi voices for the SW characters mostly because it's the game where I played with them the most and because of my toxic nostalgia, I hate when people say they prefer the SW2 English voice cast compared to this or even SW3.

While the English officer defeated quotes remain the same for Samurai Warriors characters (except for Yoshimoto whose quote is different between this game, SW1XL and SW2XL), there are variations for Dynasty Warriors characters. DW5 had most characters say "Enemy officer defeated!" or some variant, but in this game, efforts have been made to add more variety to the quotes. Some characters' quotes have been carried over from DW5 (like Xu Huang, Cao Pi, Huang Gai and Zhang Jiao, mostly because they were already varied) and some characters' quotes would continue to be used up to DW8 (like Sima Yi, Sun Jian, Pang Tong and Lu Bu). Some characters who had different lines in this game would go back to their DW5 lines in DW8 (like Pang De, Sun Shangxiang, Sun Ce, Liu Bei and Ma Chao) or retain them (like Lu Meng) even if they ended up being reworded (like Xiahou Dun, Huang Zhong and Zuo Ci) or said by different characters (like Xiahou Yuan/Taishi Ci).

Like how DW5 Special to WOZ was a transition between eras for Koei Warriors games, Dynasty Warriors would also go through a transition of English voice actors between the classic and modern era. Some DW characters have retained their voice actors since 4 and would continue to retain them through 8 (like Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, Lu Xun, Zhuge Liang, Ma Chao and Dong Zhuo). For other characters, their voice actors would change, whether in 5XL, WO, WO2 or 6 before settling by 7. Interestingly, for characters who voice actors changed between WO and WO2 (like Xiahou Yuan, Cao Pi, Lu Meng and Zhou Tai), the officer defeated lines would continue to be voiced by the old voice actor while the new lines were dubbed by the new voice actor. Remember this point because it will get ridiculous later.

Rant: Why I did The Recollective/Timelineing

Earlier this year, I did a redux of my 2015 series Warriors Orochi: The Recollective, named after the intended English title for Z. The concept for this was bringing the characters from DW8E and SW4-II to Warriors Orochi Z while also improving on the shortfalls and errors from the first two games. Such shortfalls and errors in the story included:

How did Lu Bu come to join Orochi if he wasn't seen in his story mode?

Why is Nobunaga Oda in both the Wei and Samurai Warriors stories in WO2?

How did Sun Wukong, Himiko and Kiyomori Taira come to join the Orochi Army?

The original elements to my work included a double-length Orochi story, ensuring that the Orochi Army fought or encountered every character from DW and SW, along with a Jin story that split into two paths, one following Sima Yi as he served Orochi and one following Sima Zhao as he later rebelled against his family and Orochi. While most characters from newer games could easily fit into existing stories, there were others that couldn't so they were relegated to the Jin stories. Some stages in the Jin Sima Yi story were existing battles written from the Orochi Army's perspective.

Even in 2015, my storywriting skills weren't as mature as they were in 2024, so there were more shortfalls in my story that I decided I needed to resolve:

There were some characters I forgot to account for in the stories for both games

Masamune Date, Keiji Maeda, Dong Zhuo and Sima Yi defect to the Resistance in one story and yet they are still with the Orochi Army in others

The first four stages for both Jin stories were shared and it didn't feel fair on that story

Something I thought about was that with all the new clans being featured in Samurai Warriors 3 and 4, which of them would serve Orochi and which of them would side with the resistance? My takes were as such:

Hisahide Matsunaga would side with Orochi alongside the Miyoshi

Motonari Mōri would also side with Orochi to maintain the stability of his clan while also hoping to meet the different heroes of China and Japan

Motochika Chōsokabe (and Muneshige Tachibana) would stay independent, building up an army before rising in rebellion, however they were quashed and assigned to Sima Zhao's army

Ujiyasu Hōjō, Kai and Lady Hayakawa would split themselves from the rest of their clan led by Ujimasa Hōjō (who surrendered to Orochi) and go into exile before siding with Sima Zhao

The redux was made to be as perfect as I could get it, but despite this, there was something I couldn't change, which is the multiple storylines and endings of the two games. While each story does have its connections (particularly in the Samurai Warriors story for the first game with Nobunaga meeting Sakon and Xiahou Dun), there are separate Koshi Castle stages for each faction as they fight Orochi (along with Da Ji and some of Orochi's main generals). The second game repeats this as each faction defeats Orochi X at the end, albeit in different battlefields. There's not a lot of theories out there that explain why this is the case, but after finding an interesting post from Blizzanity on r/DynastyWarriors (that had no comments despite being there for three years), I developed a theory of my own.

The theory goes that the timeline was split into four (one for Shu, Wei and Wu and one for the Japanese), whether by the mystics in an effort to delay Orochi's plans or by Orochi to evade detection by the mystics. The generals who were committed to serving Orochi were split into those timelines with him. The others were assigned into one of those timelines, but depending on the situation (mystic willing), they could be transferred into another timeline (such is the case with Sakon and others like Ma Chao and Lu Xun in the side stages). Maybe Tadakatsu Honda's prowess allowed him to split himself into the timelines as well because physical strength equals supernatural ability.

(Originally, The Recollective had Sima Zhao facing Orochi at Koshi Castle which would have made a fifth timeline, but I changed it in the redux because Jin is the successor to Wei and Sima Yi was willing to serve Orochi.)

Orochi was defeated in his separate timelines, but spoiler for the next Warriors Orochi game, it didn't cause the end of the world yet because Orochi's original self remained in him to suppress his echoing wish to be destroyed, but also because the catalyst wasn't introduced or Orochi was merely in a coma. Da Ji and Kiyomori's plan to revive Orochi using Himiko was the catalyst to unleash the God of Destruction, but once again, Orochi's original self was still there to suppress it, even if its growing power would become too much for even him to bear. Ultimately, the defeat of Orochi X was what finished off his original self and created the foundation for the events of the next game, because with Orochi X's defeat, the four timelines became one again and what was four would become eight.

"But if the events in the four timelines are connected to each other, then is it possible that there could be one timeline for this game?" Maybe. Before working on the redux I tried to mock up a combined timeline of the two games' stories but I gave up because it was too hard. Later on, though, while trying to find lore for Warriors Orochi 4, I stumbled upon this website by Nanasi aka Yupzhou detailing everything, and I mean everything about the lore of the Warriors Orochi series. Although the site is only in Chinese, the creator has gone into much detail to create a comprehensive timeline of the games' stories, even if there are parts that I disagree with. The different endings are listed separately as there is no way to reconcile them, but an alternate theory I have is that the timelines were split towards the final battle before joining back up together after Orochi's defeat. This would happen again following his resurrection.

I wrote the redux in a way that would make sense regardless of whether the timelines were split or combined. Originally, I wanted to create original scenarios for the endings, but I decided against it as I didn't want to change the existing stories that drastically.

"But what about the random characters appearing in the prologues and epilogues of each battle that might not be a part of that faction's story?" Look, there is only so much I can do. Maybe they're weak clones created by Tamamo in the Killing Stone, I dunno.

Warriors Orochi 1 and 2 were legendary games for the Koei Warriors franchise, bringing together the characters of DW5 and SW2 to wrap up the classic era in a neat bow. There's no telling what kind of game would have resulted had this been made with only the characters of DW4 and SW1, but at least their costumes are in WO2 and WOZ at the very least. The stories are good even if there are inconsistencies and unaddressed elements, but let's face it, nobody plays Warriors games for the storytelling.

Now that the classic era has been covered, we must now descend into the dismal degradation of the Warriors franchise as we enter the modern era with Dynasty Warriors 6. See you then.

[butai-downloads]

hello, do u happen to know if anyone sharing inferno stage, sengoku musou and handsome rakugo? thank u

Hello, you can ask the person we mention here. Please ask them un anonymous and be nice to them :)

Inferno - @aoihono96Handsome Rakugo - @funjoushiSengoku Musou - its available on bilibili and you can search w the kanji name there.

[ono-kento]

@jurigig My neighbour. ( *｀ω´) We're in the theatre together for the first time in a long while.

[amr-1010]

Stage play Sengoku Musou ~Sekigahara no Shou~

－Ryu’s Birthday celebration

[airu27]

Musical『Hetalia 〜in the new world〜』Visual Shooting Part ④【Russia · Yamaoki Yuuki】Interview

03-07-2017 | Source

Yamaoki Yuuki was born on 05 March 1992. He is from Tokyo. He debuted as an actor in 2002. His name is well-known for his role in Musical 『Tennis no Oujisama』 (as Yanagi Renji) and he is active in numerous stage plays, such as Ultra Musical★Bakumatsu Rock and Sengoku Musou (as Shima Sakon). He is a lovable, often-being-teased person. This time we have a chance to talk to him about the enjoyment of Hetamyu.

――How did you feel when you first hear that there will be a third stage?

I'm happy that it continues as a series. However, as the stages progressed, there is a pressure to aim further and become better than the previous works. It is no good if I can't portray the character well, so I study a lot to be able to play Russia as I want to show new sides of him.

[Photo//look in the source yourself] His shooting is the first, so it took times to prepare the settings and other things. From the back, France-oniisan and America were shouting teasingly, such as "Do your job properly!" or "Let out your inner gravure!" things like these lol.

――Looking back to the second stage, what is your impression?

Russia is like a young boy, a character that speaks what he thought honestly. That's why he is kind of dark, wanting attention from others. This work allows these feelings to appear completely.

When we were arranging a festival for England, I acted as the villain until the end, I'm really happy to be able to show Russia's dark side there. I feel like I have been letting out his character more than when I did in the first stage.

――This time we have Prussia as well. He seems involved with Russia in some ways.

I haven't heard anything about this stage (the interview was in May), I'm looking forward to see how we interact. He is a character that appears quite a lot in the original work, I want to know how he will bring out the story from his point of view. I have never worked with Takamoto (Gaku)-san, who played Prussia, before. This is his first time participating, I don't want him to feel left out.

The first stage follows the story line of the original work, but last time there is an original plot about dueling as well. I wonder how this time will go. Is Prussia going to have an original story line or following the original, I look forward to it as well.

When we met during the second stage, the director — Yoshitani (Koutarou)-san — and the producer talked about how "the duel is original", so the casts also fought like it was a real duel. When the audience watched, I heard things like "I want to see Hetamyu following the anime story line" and also "It isn't strange if the story differs from the anime", I'm happy to hear these opinions. Because the world is formed by many opinions and it is not just one man's world.

Like when we turned a toy box upside down... That's how Hetalia is. In it we have laughter, songs, many entertaining things, I think it is a very wonderful work.

――In the second work, how did the practice go?

When I practiced the second stage, I entered it along with the same people from the first stage, so there was a feeling of confidence and it was different than other stages. Usually when casts first met in a practice, it was to get to know each other, but in the practice of the second stage of Hetalia, we laughed and getting along well from the first day.

――Talking about laughing, the adlibs were being put in the DVD, weren't they?

Yes yes! lol I'm totally embarassed! I was desperate each time, so when I saw it again I was thinking "why did I do it like this". I had a section with America · Isogai Ryuuko-san where I had to adlib a lot, they were pretty bad.

――Was it being initiated by Isogai-san?

Yes. I was just replying back, but it was pretty tough. But fans said it was totally Hetalia-like, so if I have to do it again this time, I hope I can give a proper reply.

I want to make everyone laughed, but as this is a musical, I also want to act and sing well. And then this work will be better than the last. By all means, please look forward to watch us in the theater.

ⓒHimaruya Hidekazu・Senzaku Comics／Hetalia Seisaku Iintai (Production Committee) ⓒMusical「Hetalia NW」Seisaku Iintai (Production Committee)

(Interview by Nishioka Yuka)