Musou Orochi / Warriors Orochi (PS2) (2007)
Musou Orochi Z (PS3) (2009)
Developer: Omega Force

Review by Faididi and Co.

At this point, they might as well throw in Joan of Arc and George Washington

Story: Average

The fans want it, and so Omega Force and Koei give it. Musou Orochi (Warriors Orochi) does the unbelievable, if not totally unforseeable, by mixing together the Shin Sangoku Musou and the Sengoku Musou series, resulting in one of the craziest crossovers of all time.

As the story goes, the evil Japanese serpent god, Orochi, is itching for a fight and stirs up trouble by creating a dimensional rift that merges the respective warring-states settings of second-century China and sixteenth-century Japan. Things get really, really weird as historical characters become mixed and matched with one another, sometimes on a seemingly random basis, but the story is disappointingly straightforward. All the sociopolitical elements that serve as important backdrops for great conflicts have no place in this fantasy tale, and no matter which of the factions you choose to play, most of the human forces always team up together against Orochi in the end.

Gameplay: Above Average

Musou Orochi, to be more exact, is a 2-Player tactical action fighter that combines Shin Sangoku Musou 4 (Dynasty Warriors 5) with Sengoku Musou 2 (Samurai Warriors 2). Featuring an overwhelming cast of 79 playable characters, its new features all scream the theme of fusion. The greatest change is the team setup. Instead of choosing a single officer and some half-useless bodyguards, you now pick a set of three officers. Although you still control one character at a time, you can freely switch among the team members. The other members automatically recover stamina and musou energy while they hang back, and this is a nice way to encourage swapping heroes, because the characters no longer gain musou energy normally by hitting enemies, and stamina-restoring items are now rarely found in boxes. (Due to technical reasons, the second Player controls clones of the same team members, but, hey, having three characters is better than two!)

The special moves system from Sengoku Musou 2 makes a heavily modified comeback, and it's applied to the Sangoku officers as well, giving them a much-needed refreshing. While the characters' basic moves are mostly untouched from their respective games, the new special moves consist of extra-powerful strikes, stats boosters, counter attacks, and sometimes totally cheap-ass attacks that can be performed over and over for free. Granted, Musou Orochi's changes lead to the loss of certain old moves (like the evasive rolls and Yukimura Sanada's fiery dash attack), but compensating for them is how every character can now summon a horse (a handy ability originally unique to just two characters in Sengoku Musou 2).

More appealing changes lie in the friendly weapon-fusing option and the shared skill bonuses. The weapons collected for each character can have their upgrades combined (for a small cost), making almost every spare weapon that's picked up useful. The skill bonuses, instead of being item-based like in the past, are now earned by having the different heroes defeat enemies. These skill bonuses are shared among all your playable officers, giving greater incentive to try out more characters.

There are downsides, even if they're small compared to the good stuff. Despite Musou Orochi's claim of including every playable character from the past Musou games, Nu Wa and Fu Xi are noticeably absent, which is odd considering that Sanada's imaginary ninja friend, the simply-named Kunoichi, returns for this game. Aside from the generic serpent men, the only fresh faces here are Orochi, who manifests himself as a three-meter-tall grim reaper in plate mail; and Da Ji (Dakki), the fox fiend who has had quite a makeover since Chou Battle Houshin (Mystic Heroes). There are merely one or two brand-new battlefields to be found, as almost all the environments are taken straight out from Shin Sangoku Musou 4 and Sengoku Musou 2, with minor aesthetic changes.

Controls: Above Average

The controls are generally solid and responsive. For some reason, though, switching characters while getting hit isn't always consistent, working sometimes but failing to respond at other times.

Graphics: Above Average

The characters may not receive new looks for Musou Orochi, but that's understandable here. In any case, they're still gorgeously rendered with many tiny details, and the game doesn't suffer from excessive slowdown whenever lots of people show up on the screen, even with 2 Players.

Audio: Above Average (Japanese), Average (English)

As though to further distance itself from its original source materials, Musou Orochi features plenty of hyperactive, almost raving music. Unfortunately for the English versions, the voice acting continues to be dubbed over, without any option to change back to the original acting.

Overall: Above Average

On one hand, the tactical fighting action of Musou Orochi will prove all too familiar to veterans of the series, even with the introduction of the team system. On the other hand, the amusing mixture of characters and the combination-crazy emphasis for the weapons and skill bonuses are revitalizing for a series whose scenarios have worn terribly thin ages ago. Fans of the Musou games who are curious or in need of a good chuckle will get a kick out of this, but others can probably wait for the inevitable follow-up.

Port: Below Average (PS3)

Available only for the PS3, Musou Orochi Z is a compilation of the original Musou Orochi and its expansion-like sequel, Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (Warriors Orochi 2). It also holds a few new exclusive features. The most important of these (and the only one that really takes advantage of the PS3's greater power) is the option for both Players to choose completely different trios of characters in the story mode, further realizing Musou Orochi's mega-crossover spirit. The remaining bonuses include two more playable characters (both of whom are available from the start), a few more standalone stages (for the dramatic mode), and a set of PSN Trophies (which are completely different from the XBL Achievements for the X360 versions of the games involved).

Aside from the ability to choose up to six different characters at a time between two Players, however, Musou Orochi Z is a waste of time for those who've already played through Musou Orochi or Maou Sairin. Although the progress for both games is neatly consolidated within a single save file here, you cannot import the save files from the PS2 versions of those games. The graphics and the audio effects aren't upgraded, and the visuals are actually worse, due to technical issues involving the porting. The environments suffer from a bizarre low-contrast dimness, and the loading times remain substantial even when utilizing the system data installation option. In other words, if you've had your fill of the original Musou Orochi, your money would be better spent on something else, like a real PS3 game.