Addicted to fighting samurai-snakes

[jethrien]

Chuckro was playing his new Dynasty Warriors spin-off, Warriors Orochi, on Saturday. He noted that the game had a two-player mode, and asked me if I wanted to try.

And there went our weekend.

Holy mackeral, this is the most addicted to a game I've been since Katamari. All I really want to do is fight samurai and snake people. I closed by eyes last night to go to sleep, and I saw little Chinese and Japanese warriors running around a battlefield behind my lids. Also, the theme music? Most ridiculously catchy thing ever.

Damn you, Warriors Orochi!

Comments

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

And that's not even one of the /good/ Warriors games. One of us, one of us.

Trivia: one of the background music tracks they played a lot during the Olympics was originally from Dynasty Warriors 6.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I'd put Warriors Orochi on par with pretty much any of the later Dynasty Warriors games. It lacks the task-specific nature of Samurai Warriors, which I'm not really complaining about, and has the advantage of having a huge character selection and a new story. What do you rank higher, and why?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Really? You liked that game that much? I played it for about two rounds and abandoned it. I couldn't get used to the tag-team three-player switch-out...thing. I don't play Dynasty Warriors to have to THINK about stuff!

Consequently, hack-and-slash is pretty much at its pinnacle with Samurai Warriors 2--fixed all the problems of SW1, AND it gives me achievements on the XBOX. (It is also available on PS2, so check it out.)

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. Michael and I played Dynasty Warriors some-high-number for a long time together. It's just *so* satisfying to run around mowing down peasants and mashing enemy leaders together. And so nice to have a teammate come rescue you when you're in dire straits, riding in and smacking down your tormentors for you.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I have no interest in playing this game by myself, actually - I think this has both the satisfaction of mowing down peasants without needing much actual skill (good, 'cause I don't have any) and the fun of playing cooperatively with Chuckro.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get used to the tag-team three-player switch-out...thing.

I was reminded a bit of Marvel Vs. Capcom; it's essentially a way to make use of the billions of characters. We're playing on easy mode, which means you only really need to switch out characters when Lu Bu is handing you your ass and death is imminent.

I've got a 20+ game backlog to work through wen we finish this, including Drakengard 2, which has a similar play style, so it'll probably be a while before I buy a new iteration of DW or SW.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I had trouble with that in Marvel v Capcom, mostly because my ass got handed to me a lot. (I suuuuuuck at fighting games.) This one was harder for the fact that the system didn't always make sense and the opening available characters didn't give me a threesome I liked.

It was also not very great in terms of graphics quality, which I'd read about but didn't think would be as bad as reputed.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Graphics don't usually matter to me, so long as I can tell what's going on. We've encountered a few problems with two-player mode, mostly lack of processing-power (enemies disappearing and reappearing and one instance of slowdown), and the text boxes limiting player two's view. Other than that, I don't think it's significantly worse that DW3 or DW4, which are the ones I've played the most of.

I kinda like the fact that the starting characters are a bit random and some of the less-popular or less-available from the other games. When I play Dynasty Warriors, I always start with Guan Yu. It's just what I do. Being forced to start with a different set of characters forces me out of that rut.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Arrgh, text box! Stop cutting off my map!

Why Guan Yu?

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure why I picked him to begin with--Shu are the "good guys" in the novel, and he is "the man with the beautiful beard", but there was no rational reason to pick him at first. Once I'd played a couple of the games, it became clear that he's got a good reach and is fairly strong, if a little slow, which makes him easy to learn the quirks of a new system on. And typically the Shu campaign is a good starter and has fewer oddities than Wu or Wei, and the starting characters are usually the sworn brothers: Lui Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. Which means that Guan Yu is always available.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I didn't even think Guan Yu was available at the start. I've not played DW in so long that I don't remember who was available and who wasn't at the start. I should really try DW6 again soon to get back into that. Samurai Warriors 2 was so much more like the older Dynasty Warriors that I was easily distracted from DW6. (It was hard! Decimating Ancient China should not be HARD.)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I agree. See above, re:skill, or lack thereof.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think this has both the satisfaction of mowing down peasants without needing much actual skill (good, 'cause I don't have any)

Therein lying my attraction to the game. I like video games, but I'm pretty darn awful at them. I'm bad at button mashers, I'm bad at action games, and I downright suck at first-person shooters. The best I can do are the hack and slash, repetitive motion, one-button games. Which is why Dynasty Warriors is the Best. Series. Ever.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I have a tendency to accidentally Musou-attack my horse. Because apparently the jump and Musou buttons are just too similar. Really awkward when you were trying to ride your horse over to kill the stage boss, and now suddenly have an empty Musou meter and nothing to show for it.

Also, horse and I have an iffy relationship. I like being able to cover long distances and riding down peasants is fun. But I have an enormous amount of trouble getting on the damn horse in the first place, and when I try to ride into battle, I generally proceed to miss everyone until someone knocks me off my horse.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The horse and I have a complicated relationship as well. So, in general, I favor generals who are either blindingly fast (Lu Xun is a favorite) or I customize those generals to increase their speed with items. I can't be arsed to haul that stupid horse around. They need a "whistle for horse" option so it comes to you, not the other way around.

The only time I got a horse and kept it for any length of time was in DW5 with Ma Chao. He has ungodly stats on his final weapon, and there is a saddle option that keeps you permanently seated on your horse no matter how badly someone smacks you around. (Or how many archers get you. ARCHERS!!! ::SHAKES FIST::) Otherwise, I tend to just steal horses and let mine go hang.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

They need a "whistle for horse" option so it comes to you, not the other way around.

They added one. Press Select in Warriors Orochi.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ah, of course they would do that for the ONE Dynasty Warriors game I never play.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

I found the character swapping especially in regards to the full power meter pretty awkward, and as much as the normal Dynasty games are a bastardized version of the Rot3K story, Orochi was a bastardized version of that so I think it tripped just a bit too far on the silly side. I tend to prefer the first 'expansion' to any of the games because they often have more of a campaign/Risk mode, and WO2 is better than the first one (of course).

I will add the caveat that I played this one on the 360 and I feel like it was more of a port than a multi-platform game in that instance, so there may have been some gameplay issues that arose in translation.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

I feel like anyone who's played a few of these games has their default/favorite character. I usually pull out one of the Wu strategists, such as Lu Xun or That Other Guy With A Sword Who Likes To Set Things On Fire.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

"Zhao Yu, you are a fool to mock me!"

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I'm developing an affection for Ranmaru, but I haven't played that many characters yet. (Her sword's got really great reach.)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

They need a "whistle for horse" option so it comes to you, not the other way around.

The Select button (at least in Warriors Orochi whistles for the horse. Basically, as long as the horse isn't already within sight from where you're standing, about a second a half later, it slides to a halt next to you. It's fabulous.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, the story is totally ridiculous, which is part of what I was enjoying. I spent an enormous amount of the cutscenes and intros ridiculing the characters. Also, the Shu segment ends with The Power of Friendship!