Warriors All-Stars is a hack and slash game developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo. If you’re a fan of Koei Tecmo’s other titles, then you’re going to find a lot to love here. There is an impressive selection of characters from various games. Recently released in the west on 29th of August in the US and on the 30th in Europe and can be found on PlayStation 4 and Windows via Steam.

Story

A new and exciting world is in trouble. Family fighting over a throne and a mysterious evil threaten to drain the spring of life. Heroes from other worlds are summoned to this world to help defend it.

The story is presented through various cutscenes where characters are speaking in their native language, what entertains me is the characters are all able to understand each other. However, with each character speaking in their mother tongue, we are getting an authentic experience.

While cutscenes are used to string together the narrative beautifully, there are a lot of sections which are presented via talking silhouettes. I do dislike silhouettes used to tell a story with a passion; the game is still oozing with style.

Aesthetic

The beauty of furies. Candidate of best Waifu?

Developer Omega Force has managed to recreate various environments from multiple platforms and brought them into this mixed world wonderfully. Interestingly they have managed to normalize the style of these environments, with a handful which brings along their own unique and colorful style.

The characters have been drawn from their respective game, and while at first, the various art styles appear to conflict with each other but over time I found myself appreciating the differences between them. Also, the game has an incredibly clean and stylish UI which is present throughout the whole game. I do love good UI.

Gameplay

Musou Rush! Hack n Slash!

The core gameplay is what you would expect from your typical Warriors game. You take control of your chosen character while hacking and slashing your way through hordes of enemies, occasionally coming face to face with another enemy general. There are multiple changing objectives throughout each battle with some light strategic components, taking over enemy bases and giving your faction the advantage in the fight.

Throughout your early encounters, you’ll have a cast of side characters who can help you during battle and over time finding more heroes who will join your roster. You can go into battle with five companions who can support you directly by jumping into the conflict and using an ability, or they can provide passive effects to empower you and hinder your enemy. Additionally, you can temporarily take control of your companions, utilizing their unique skill sets.

A unique mechanic is the Musou Rush, a special ability where your character takes center stage of the screen, the lights a dimmed and a spotlight is cast on your character. You become empowered additional enemies are spawned locally to you. Cutting down your enemies increases a counter in the corner of your screen, and suddenly, you supporting members are on the front of your screen cheering you on.

Musou Rush has this overreaching celebratory theme, fitting with the title being a celebration of the publisher’s vast catalog of characters.

There is a nonlinear story on offer for players here, a large map to explore offering you different missions and random

There are three main warring factions present throughout the story, and different characters get to see the game from each perspective providing unique missions and cutscenes. Giving you the excuse for multiple playthroughs and opportunities to level up and empower your favorite characters.

Collectables

There are plenty of collectibles for you to find on your journey, a large amount unlocks automatically as you find heroes to join your roster. This includes character models, playable dialogue, and information for games featured within Warriors All-Stars.

Frame Rate – Main Concern

I have been playing this for 20 hours on PlayStation 4 Pro, and while the game appears to be aiming for 60fps, the game does seem to drop frames considerably and in some of the least obvious places.

Due to the nature of the Warrior franchise, there is a lot of enemies on the screen at any given time, and understandably this can have an effect on your FPS however to my surprise even when running through a less populated environment the drops were still present.

I would hope that we will have a patch at some point to better optimize the performance of the game. While I haven’t had any time with a standard PlayStation 4, I can’t help but show concern that our partners are going to have a worse of experience.

Final Thoughts / Opinions

William and bathing. Perfect.

Warriors All-Stars has an incredible cast of characters from various titles, and the draw in for me was that I had spent countless hours with those characters in their initial struggles. While the game brings in characters from various games, they have brought their visual style along for the ride too. I found this to be a little jarring at first, but over time I found myself appreciating each games flavor brought into the mix.

During my time with Respawning, I have had the opportunity to play a lot of Musou/Warriors games, and I feel like what we’re playing here is slightly underwhelming. It does a great job in giving exposure to lesser known titles from Koei Tecmo’s impressive library of characters however I have found that there isn’t much to offer regarding expansive features and the roster is minimal in comparison to other titles found in the genre. Overall I’m giving Warriors All-Stars 5/10!

 

5/10