Warriors All-Stars Review – Heroes Unite For A Massive Crossover!

<p>The idea of a &OpenCurlyQuote;<em>Warriors<&sol;em>’-like game like <em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em> has always interested me&period; Be it Orks in <em>Space Marine<&sol;em> or Geonosians in <em>Lego Star Wars<&sol;em>&comma; battling hordes of enemies has always appealed to me&period; It’s a middle path&comma; between the dark&comma; branching storylines of <em>The Witcher<&sol;em> and the happy&comma; relaxing nature of <em>Abzû<&sol;em>&period; You don’t have to really think with a <em>Warriors<&sol;em> game&comma; but it also offers enough action to excite&period; And sometimes all you really want to do is bash some heads in using a fancy special move&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Don’t worry though&comma; <em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em> does have as much depth as you want it to&period; You can quite easily complete levels using the most basic attacks and a couple of Hero Skills&comma; as I did on many an occasion&period; You also have the option to use Special Attacks&comma; Musou Rush &lpar;more on that later&rpar;&comma; Awakened Skills&comma; Hero Chains… There’s a lot of options when it comes to attacking and that’s all just with one character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are 30 characters in total&comma; separated into three factions&period; These stop you from playing them all in the same playthrough&period; Outside of the original hero you choose to play &lpar;one from each series&rpar; and their series counterparts which are unlocked straight away&comma; the other way to unlock characters is through Hero Battles&period; These allow for unique story crossovers between the different game series and were great to play even with limited knowledge of the individual game series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The entire game can be enjoyed by both newcomers and experts alike&comma; with copious amounts of information about each character and game series available&period; I personally found myself looking into game series I’d never have originally thought to look at&comma; from <em>Toukiden<&sol;em> to <em>Atelier<&sol;em>&period; Veterans of these games will also be able to experience new character interactions and developments between their favorites&comma; which wouldn’t have been possible without a crossover game such as this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This crossover interaction is even larger than <em>Hyrule Warriors<&sol;em>&comma; the last <em>Warriors<&sol;em> game I played&period; It allows friendships to be formed between demons and demon slayers&comma; alchemists and warriors and cats and cat humans&period; I still can’t quite decide whether I would have wanted more characters which would have reduced the depth or even fewer people so that each character can be even more detailed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129637" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129637" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129637 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;13141226&sol;rsz&lowbar;warriorsallstars&lowbar;screenshot14&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Warriors All-Stars 1" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129637" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em>&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The actual battles consist&comma; like other <em>Warriors<&sol;em> games&comma; of defeating leaders and taking over bases&period; Aside from the main mission&comma; you also have side mission which allow you to gain more materials and experience&period; I’d suggest completing as many of them as possible&comma; going straight to the end battle can be almost suicidal if your Bravery isn’t leveled up&period; Battling is quick paced&comma; with the end section being especially fun as swathes of enemies fall to your blade&sol;magic&sol;floating hands&period; Talking of weapons&comma; I’ve so far played using a giant sword&comma; a gun&comma; magic&comma; throwing knives&comma; fists and ethereal fists&period; My own primary choice has to be a long-ranged weapon as it allows you to keep out of range of the other heroes attacks easier&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The AI in the game is better than <em>Hyrule Warriors<&sol;em>&comma; in that the general grunts will attack you&comma; but it is still not as dynamic as I would like&period; Imagine a game where you can see mini battles happening all over the battlefield&period; You can choose whether to engage and help out or leave them be&period; Instead&comma; your choice is to either engage and start their attack patterns or leave them standing around&period; While it must be incredibly difficult to code battle tactics and pathways&comma; especially in a 3D space&comma; something a bit more mobile would be greatly appreciated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Along with Key&comma; Hero and Dramatic Battles&comma; there are challenges&period; These don&&num;8217&semi;t have story advances but allow you to collect materials&comma; Hero Cards and experience&period; These can be great for upgrading your characters but be careful when choosing battles to begin with&period; Once you have access to the World Map&comma; lots of challenges are unlocked straight away&comma; although are mostly vastly over leveled compared to you&period; Taking note of the suggest Hero level is vital at the start until you level up a bit&comma; as well as the specifics of the mission – some are harder than others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You have three separate &OpenCurlyQuote;leveling’ systems in <em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Levels&comma; Bravery and Regard&period; While this might sound confusing at first&comma; it’s really quite simple and effective&period; Levels are your regular&comma; experienced based RPG material – with each level giving a slight increase in stats&period; Bravery is my favorite system – it’s reset per battle and is basically another leveling system&period; If your level is higher than an enemy&comma; then they are easier to kill and vice versa&period; It adds another level of depth to the game&comma; and encourages you to spend more time on the hordes of enemies instead of just going for the bosses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; you have Regard&comma; which changes how your character reacts to others&period; If you play with other characters more&comma; using Hero Skills and Hero Chains&comma; then their level of regard for you will increase&period; This then unlocks perks and unique conversation points&period; All three systems are easy to use and can be basically left to do their own thing – something I quite like&comma; growing up with <em>Dragon Quest<&sol;em>&period; But if you want depth&comma; then onto the next system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129635" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129635" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129635 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;13141055&sol;rsz&lowbar;warriorsallstars&lowbar;screenshot01&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Warriors All-Stars 2" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129635" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em>&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;<span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 16px&semi;">  <&sol;span><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Hero Cards&comma; replacing weapons from previous <em>Warriors<&sol;em> games&comma; basically give your character better stats and abilities&period; You can equip one per character&comma; with a range of stats available&period; You have regular&comma; which just gives you more attack&comma; as well as elemental&comma; which gives you extra damage of that type &lpar;including Love&rpar;&period; Not only that&comma; but you also have extra attributes you can unlock and equip giving you even more customization&period; It also requires some forward thinking as your equipped card levels up while playing&comma; making an originally lower level card more powerful than others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To create abilities and traits you need materials&comma; which you can get from either completing missions or disenchanting Cards&period; I found that Hero Cards were a lot more complicated than they needed to be&comma; especially given the amount of other systems there are in the game&period; I also found they didn’t provide much immediate benefit&comma; outside the attributes which nulled effects&comma; as I wouldn’t call the battle systems particularly &OpenCurlyQuote;tactical’&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Sanctuary is your home away from home in this game&period; It provides the ability to talk to your teammates&comma; acquire missions&comma; train&comma; upgrade Hero Cards and take a bath at the Hot Spring… Okay&period; Sure&period; Why not&period; Overall&comma; The Sanctuary gives you more breathing room than the simple World Map does&comma; with little secrets dotted all over&period; It also looks really nice&comma; with the Spring being the center of attention&period; One problem with it though is that there’s no teleportation to the different areas &lpar;besides to the missions and world map&rpar;&period; You will probably find yourself planning your route before you go&comma; as it does take a little while to get around&period; It’s not a major problem&comma; but a quick quality of life update would be much appreciated&comma; especially as most of <em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em> is so well made &lpar;besides the occasional localisation issue as well&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So&comma; I won’t be giving away story spoilers here&comma; but it’s pretty good overall&period; There are twists I didn’t predict beforehand&comma; tension&comma; humour and quite a lot of Japanese traditions mentioned&period; But what’s nice is that it never gets too bogged down in the morality of choices&comma; allowing you to just play the game&period; There are also 15 separate endings&comma; so there’s plenty of replayability for everyone&comma; especially as each starting character changes it slightly as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129636" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129636" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-129636 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;13141140&sol;rsz&lowbar;warriorsallstars&lowbar;screenshot11&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Warriors All-Stars 3" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129636" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em>&comma; Koei Tecmo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>My computer auto-detected my graphics settings to be medium&period; It looked pretty good&period; But of course&comma; I had to check what I was missing&comma; changing my settings to high&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t say I noticed a massive difference between the two in terms of graphics&period; The lighting seemed better&comma; more characters were allowed on screen and it did look generally better&period; What really impressed me though&comma; was that even with 200&plus; enemies in Musou Rush mode&comma; I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t experiencing any lag&period; The entire game runs incredibly well&comma; with a huge amount of settings to tinker with&period; One thing it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t allow you to change is the voice acting language&comma; which is stuck in Japanese and has no English dub &lpar;although this isn&&num;8217&semi;t necessarily a bad thing&rpar;&semi; I actually quite enjoyed listening to it<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; I don’t usually stop playing a game to listen to the menu music&comma; with the last probably being one of the big Square Enix games&period; I stopped when <em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em> music blared up and I just sat and listened to the rocky instruments&period; It’s really good&period; Not &OpenCurlyQuote;atmospheric’ or &OpenCurlyQuote;matching my movements’ but just really good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; I would definitely recommend <em>Warriors All-Stars<&sol;em>&comma; even if you&&num;8217&semi;re completely new to Koei Tecmo games&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a game to relax with if you&&num;8217&semi;re a bit tired of the grey area morality genre&comma; but still want to beat things to a pulp&period; In the most cartoony way possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review code of Warriors All-Stars was provided by Koei Tecmo for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version