Over the last few years I have played a lot of Warriors games, and have enjoyed them all. So there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the next one to come my way was going to disappoint. The hack-and-slash madness that I love in these games was present, the over the top hordes of enemies that I could milk hours into slaying were also there but when Warriors All-Stars added a sizable roster full of different characters from various Koei Tecmo titles, I was intrigued to see how they would fit together and what some off the character would play like in a genre that’s out of their comfort zone. Though you don’t have to worry as this game is another hack-and-slash beauty that brings character from the Atelier series and Dynasty Warriors series (to name a few) onto the battlefield in perfect harmony for some action packed gameplay.
Storyline
What makes this game possible is it’s simple but engaging storyline; In a kingdom that relies on magical springs to sustain themselves, suddenly face trouble when they begin to wither, if this isn’t bad enough they also lose their king. The Priestess of the spring “Sayo” informs her children Tamaki and Shiki as well as her nephew Setsuna that the springs must be restored and the only way of doing this is by using the power of otherworldly Heroes. When Tamaki attempts to summon the heroes it goes horribly wrong and the heroes are scattered throughout the land. Tamaki, Shiki and Setsuna proceed to recruit the various heroes to their cause in a race to restore the springs and claim the throne.
Game concept
During the game you play as one of many character from the Koei Tecmo franchises to aid Tamaki, Shiki or Setsuna. The world that our heroes travel to ends up looking similar to that of their own worlds because of something to do with the springs in this new world that they have been brought to. You’ll not only fight enemies from this new world but enemies from the games that the characters are from, which is really cool and makes for some odd battles. Like most Warriors games if follows the simple hack and slash premises of fighting hordes of enemies while trying to complete various objects that arise while doing missions, because the game has a lot of different characters from different game series it opens up for an array of different gameplay styles. For example you have Arnice from the Nights of Azure series who uses a sword and her demonic powers as a ways of attacking and then we go onto Sophie from the Atelier series who uses alchemy and her staff to perform lots of different alchemy attacks. These are only two of the many characters present in the game that allows for you to pull off amazing combos, attacks and because of this you are able to find a character that suits your playstyle.
Mechanics
Gameplay wise it’s your stand warriors control scheme, with square being your light attack, triangle heavy attack, cross to jump and circle to perform your Musou attack (special) when you have filled up the gauge. L2 locks onto big enemies, these enemies have a level and depending on your level compared to its you could be in for a hard battle. It’s wise to make sure that you’re around the same level or are the same level before tackling these types of enemies. By hitting R1 you get to see one of the new features that’s in the game, this feature is Hero Skills. Each hero in the party has their own unique ability that can be called upon during combat to aid you. For example Arnice is able to provide you with a stun attack whereas Rio will provide an attack buff for you, if she gambles correctly. When you have better relationships with your party members these Hero Skills are better and are more powerful. The max party size in the game is five including yourself. Which means that you can have up to four Hero Skills available at one time. By pressing R3 when your Musou Rush gauge is filled you can perform a Musou rush; kill as many enemies as you can in the time scale provided to unleash an epic attack. The more enemies you kill the more allies will appear on the screen to cheer you on, once the timer ends all the heroes that you got will participate in the overall attack making the damage output even greater. If you kill enemies quick enough you can get more time which in turn will allow you to get all the allies available. Pressing a DPad directions will allow for another new feature, use a direction that has an ally allocated to it you will be allowed to have that Hero fight alongside you for a short period of time, if you have an ally on every direction on the DPad then you can have all 4 allies fighting alongside you. Whichever Hero you called upon last will let you briefly use them as your main character, you can even use their Musou Attack and so on. If you have a better relationship with your allies the cool down period on this will be quicker meaning that you can plough through a battlefield with ease. By performing Strong Attacks you while be able to press Square to have all your teammates attack on your behalf, this is called a Hero Combo and is useful to use as it helps reduce the cooldown times on Allies.
The World map is where you progress through the story by navigating through the world and selecting varies mission types. Then once you are in a mission it plays out like a normal Warriors game in a sense of your given an objective and you have to complete it. You will have lots of different mission types available to you, to name a few you have Hero Battles: these allow you to discover new companies these are represented by a character face on the world map, Dramatics Battle: which are unlocked under specific conditions when you have specific party members in your team and Challenge Battles; These are hard in the sense of you and your allies can be defeated with just one hit but by completing them you get big rewards. Some of the missions you see on the world map have a little timer next to them and if you don’t select them in that time you miss out on playing that missions, these however are normally missions to get more treasure or experience, so not game changing if you miss them. I enjoy mixing up my party ever now and then to open up new missions and seeing the different way that character interacts and bounce off each other.
The game has a general hub area, this is where you go to see most of the event scenes and to build bound with different characters. It’s made up of a Tavern, Inn, Refinery, Training grounds and a command room. The Tavern lets you strength you relationships with character that you have unlocked as well as learn more about them. The Inn works in a similar way but only certain character will show up in the Inn and the same with the Tavern but the Inn has a Hot Spring which when visited allows further bonding between characters. The refinery allows you to enhance, sell or create new cards for your Heroes. Enhancing cards is a big deal as you can unlock unique abilities and attributes that can’t be found on the battlefield. The Training grounds provides you with a place to level up your allies. You will have to us gold to do so but is very useful to do if want some quick levels. Then we finally have the Command room, where you can find side missions for allies and also go to the world map to access more of the main story.
When completing missions you get Hero Cards and items from the different game series. Using these will allow you to get better Hero Cards. Hero cards are fragments of the cards that were used to summon the heroes, equipping or forging the right cards will boost their attack strength and give extra perks if there are any one the cards. The cards are generate randomly from the battlefield and can be upgraded to get better ones for characters.
Graphics
The game manages to bring multiple game series characters and worlds together really well without one looking weird standing next to the other. When you are Sophie and William standing next to each other you would think that there might be a clash between styles but the game has done perfectly with making all the character and worlds look like they are meant to be together in the same game. I love the cut scenes you get when running into a new character or the story line. The new fox people race that makes the whole game possible look stunning as their own characters and help make this game possible. While in game the UI is very pleasant and easy on the eyes, though when using the new Musou rush attack if can make the screen look crowded but other than this you can clearly see your character health and Musou gauge, which characters are available and in your party and where you need to go as the mini map you’re provided with is very detailed like in all the Warriors games. You do get loading screens but which games don’t now days, these can be tedious sometimes but not enough of a problem to remove me from the game.
Sound
I enjoy the soundtrack to this game and so will many Koei Tecmo fans, it offers an array of remixes and original songs from the series that the character comes from, which as a fan of the Koei games I can appreciate. You also get the voice acting for the character which make the whole game more engaging when it comes to cut scenes or events between two characters. Each character battlefield makes you feel as if you’re present in their game because of the audio used. So when you are playing on a dynasty warriors map you will get a lot of atmosphere from that particular games franchise. Though the original scores for the hub world and fox race really add to the games world. I also like the fact that you can choose your music before going into battle, it’s not really a big deal to the way the game plays out but it’s a nice added feature to have if you like a certain song and want to slay mountains of enemies while listening to your favourite music.
Replay value
With this game I can defiantly say it has replay value. Whether this be trying to complete the multiple storylines that are possible within the game to trying to complete the gallery with all the in game movie scenes or events that happen between character. This game really allows for you to sink hours of your time into it and makes you want to build character bonds so that you can unlock those extra events and scenes. With the game allowing for multiple routes to its story depending on the characters you choice to play as, as well as the side missions that random pop up or that are on the world map, Warriors All-Stars caters for the type of players that love to get the most out of their games.
Closing statement
Warriors All-Stars is a great game and keeps to the routes of the Warrior series that we all love while at the same time adding some new exciting mechanics. For me I enjoyed playing as characters that I know from previous Koei Titles but also finding out about new characters and other series. The game has a massive Galley and Encyclopaedia that examples each character really well and also provides information on which games these characters come from. The gameplay was easy to pick up as always and allowed me to play through the game with tremendous amounts of fun and enjoyment. I liked the roster provided and believe that any fan of Koei Tecmo games would like it to. The only real complaint I would have with this game was that it gets repetitive quiet quickly and if you are doing multiple play throughs of the game then the missions are the same. But what I like about the game is that you can unlock all the different ending in the first play through and because it saves just before the last mission you can avoid doing it until you are happy with how far you have got. I’m enjoying building bounds between the character and trying to get the event scenes as well as find my perfect team. I’m more than happy to say that this game deserve a 10-10 for being a fun filled hack and slash Warriors game that brings Koei Tecmo Character together for an perfect mash up.
Yes I wold recommend this game to other people.
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