#wforce | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gqazngaming · 4 years ago

Text

The Musou Mashup! Warriors All-Stars Review

Warriors All-Stars is a celebration of Koei Tecmo characters in one a new musou game.

The Roots

I still remember my first taste of musou. The Dynasty Warriors series has been around since the launch of the Playstation 2 era. Released on August 3, 2000 Dynasty Warriors changed the beat em up formula from the 2D platform on to the 3D platform. Just in case you don't know what Dynasty Warriors is, it is based off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchise. ROTK is famously known as a strategy game and Dynasty Warriors is to be the action genre of ROTK. This was my first memorable jump from 2D to 3D on the beat em up genre.

The Mechanics

Much like my Dungeon Fighter Online review, beat em ups are often labelled as repetitive. But much like Dungeon Fighter it's all about "how you fight, which means characters play a big role in creating variety in a game with repetitive gameplay. It's no secret. You have to like this type of game to enjoy it. If you enjoy the characters of Koei Tecmo games and the Dynasty Warriors formula this game was created for that desire.

Every musou iteration will have it's own special game, combat, and system mechanics. From Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Orochi Warriors, and more each game has it's own type of combat system. As the games developed over time W-Force (DW's developer) has added and removed certain things to keep the game fresh. Some changes are welcome and some changes seemed unnecessary. Personally, being able to add more into a game is more important than taking away. The player can also choose to use certain combat mechanics and options. Having that option will always add value to the game.

New(ish) but familiar combat

If you've played a musou game, picking up this game will be natural to you. Typical Dynasty Warriors fanfare. There's an main attack and a heavy attack, a jump button, and a musou (special) button. Reach character will have it their own combat tree but not every character is unique. The characters fall under specific combat molds and skill trees. There isn't really much new to the combat with a few exceptions of a few addition "tag features". Pressing a direction on the d-pad will enable you to temporarily tag in one of the 4 members of your squad. After a few minutes you will return to your main character. It's a strange addition but I applaud them for trying to keep it fresh.

The Look

Warriors All-Stars is not going to break any boundaries in it's graphics department. Character models carry specific rigs that are will be shared with the roster. You'll find many of the character models share the same neutral pose and moving animations. I will say that Warriors All-Stars does do a great job with "keeping it together". Very seldom I encountered frame drops especially with all the spark effects and the amount character models on the screen. I still remember in older Dynasty Warriors titles where character models would disappear during combat so compensate for frame rate. The power of the older system could not sustain the vision of what musou games were trying to achieve.

The Story/Plot

Koei Tecmo characters are summoned to a new world where three members of the royal family are fighting for each sacred treasure they hold to save their world from impending doom. The goal is to combine the three sacred treasures to save a spring that brings life to the world. Each member of the royal family summons their own set of Koei Tecmo characters and as you progress you will meet and acquire more heroes to add to your roster. The plot unravels the more you play. And as you play you find out that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

SPOILERS Once you unlock specific heroes and achieve certain criteria different story paths will unlock that will lead to one of the many endings. This game offers multiple playthroughs depending on which characters you have unlocked and which faction you decided to fight for. Personally, I unlocked about seven to eight endings on my blind run. I later returned to the game to pursue the true ending. There are also hero endings that are more focused on the relationships of some heroes. These are what I call optional endings.

The Sound

In my opinion, EVERY music of a musou game sounds the game. It doesn't matter if you've played Dynasty, Samurai, Arlsan, Berserk, One Piece, musou music is very noticeable. Instrumental J-Rock riffs with some remixed themes from certain stages of each franchises games do show up. Another good thing is you can pick the background music before a stage loads. Having control of the music does give it more variety but personally, I did not pay much attention to the music.

The Feel

It feels.. well.. like a Dynasty Warriors game. LOL. There are some characters that offer more impact with some of their move sets but it will ultimately break down to which characters move set you prefer to beat the level as quick as possible to move the story along and grind out those levels. It always feels good to play a musou game when you want to feel like strong bad ass. Video games are suppose to be fun right?

The Why

Why should you play this? Check some off this list:

Do you like Dynasty Warriors? Do you like the Musou series in general? Do you like any of the playable characters in the game? Have you ever wished there was a Musou game of the character you picked? Do you want to feel like a super powered warrior in a battlefield?

If you said yes to 90% of these things you should play it. I'd like to confess that I DID NOT buy this game at launch nor did I buy it a full price. As a long time gamer I KNOW what musou games are and what they have to offer. Personally, I don't like to play full price for games that I want to play and not NEED to play. I already knew what this game had to offer and I picked it up at a $19.99 price point new. With so many games release and my ever increasing backlog, I can afford to wait. And unless they release another musou game that blows me out of the water I won't be picking up any of them at launch anytime soon.

Last Thoughts

Referencing on "The Why" if you are a fan of the series, just add this to the many other iterations of the musou series. If you are collecting, it's a must have to add to your collection. I enjoy mash-ups and collaborations and Warriors All-Stars did a decent job placing characters in cel-shaded JRPGS into an action brawler title. If you are a fan of any of the playable characters, you will either enjoy this game or think this game is weird. I don't blame you. Remember when they made Hyrule Warriors? They put Link in turned him into a musou character. Many people thought it was a weird Zelda game, but what they really needed to know was it was a musou game with Link as the main character.

If you can pick up this title at around $20-30 dollars it will be worth your time. There is over 20-30 hours of gameplay in there. Fair warning as I repeat my statement from earlier, if you aren't a fan of musou games this game may not change your mind. But if you have an open mind and a wallet, it wouldn't hurt to try and play this decent average action game.

If you are looking to pick up this game check out my affiliate link below: https://amzn.to/31NweGo

GQAzndood

Headmaster of GQAzndood Gaming Check out my social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/GQAznGaming Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gqazndood YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/gqazndood Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GQAznGaming/

#videogames #gaming #gamereviews #musou #dynastywarriors #koei #tecmo #samuraiwarriors #orochiwarriors #wforce #nerd #geek #koeitecmo

1 note · View note