Impressions: Warriors Orochi 3

I have been looking forward to playing this game ever since my last 360 decided to stick two fingers up at me and getting the dreaded red ring of death, which made it impossible for me to play and finish up everything I had missed completing in Warriors Orochi 2 for the full 100% completion. (Something I will have to rectify now I own a 360 again)

If you haven't played an Orochi game before it is basically a Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors crossover which combines the heroes and villains of those series together to fight the Serpent King Orochi after he has combined time and space to test the might of these heroes. Needless to say he got his arse handed to him, then in the 2nd game he was basically brought back for more and was defeated once again. The third game is set several years after the end of the previous game and a 7 headed serpent is destroying everyone and everything. You later learn that this serpent is the result of Orochi's defeat as upon getting defeated his power formed this new creature as well as something else that I won't mention as it will ruin the surprise.

Shuten-dōji

The main difference between the DW/SW and the Orochi games is that you have the ability to pick 3 characters and switch them on the fly. Which really doesn't sound like much but really does freshen up the game play and adds a new element to playing. (Although you will still find the characters you like best and stick with them most of the time) 


Some of the new characters are interesting to play as though, although I have to say I am quite disappointed that Ryu from Ninja Gaiden isn't as fun to use as I thought he would be as he just feels a bit well crappy, even his Musou and Special moves seem lack luster. It could be that he was just shoehorned into the game after the Koei - Tecmo merger.


Strangely though I am quite enjoying using the other new character Shuten-dōji who despite feeling a bit clumsy at first has a fire breathing special that does some serious damage, plus his musou move of doubling in size and trampling enemies isn't to shabby.

Sun Wukong

One thing that I am missing about the game so far though is that I am right near the end and still haven't got Sun Wukong unlocked as a playable character. 


I really enjoyed using him in in Orochi 2 flying about on his cloud and kicking ass. It just seems a bit of a shame that I will probably just end up unlocking him when I have finished the game, so won't have much use for him as a character apart from tidying up here and there on the bits that I have to do to achieve my 100% completion.

I have to say that Orochi 3 takes everything that was done well in the previous Orochi and Dynasty Warriors games (Mainly Dynasty Warriors 7) and combines them to make one of the best games Koei has ever produced. One thing that I am a bit sad to see is that the amount of grinding of levels to attain 100% in the game seems a lot easier. (Never thought I would complain about that) 

One other new thing included in Orochi 3, (At least I don't remember it from the 2nd game) is the inclusion of online multi-player this consists of jumping into battles from the story mode and completing one of the stages. I tried this a few times and didn't really see much lag, but you have to wonder if you are both seeing the same thing with so many enemies on each stage at a time. Orochi 3 also gives you the chance to create your own battlefields for uploading or playing when you have done everything else in the game. 
Personally I am not to overly keen on this feature; and apart from using it to get the trophy in the game on the PS3 probably won't bother with it apart from downloading levels other players have made every so often when I fancy a quick blast upon completing everything.