Warriors Orochi 4

Not the best compare to their previous titles but not in a bad spot at all. Could have use some updates and some changes. This is the review about gameplay, mechanic wise, not about the plot.
Pros: New overall, interesting mechanic with new elemental mechanic that is still way better than the dumb elemental in DW9.
AI become a bit more aggressive than their previous title.
Better horse's recalling because you can just summon them instead.
Mostly unique movesets.
Easier to grind attribute and level up.
Every characters are viable.
Better crowd control due to Reach provides huge hit box increase.
Cons: Some DW characters got nerf while the SW got buff from the beginning.
DW characters don't get to keep their "Switch attack" and still fail to compete with the SW cast due to the Hyper attack.
AI are a bit too aggressive so sometime they forget to block some blockable attacks, which make it becomes less challenge.
Low difficulty, only Odin, Ares, Zeus and the Monsters are a threat to you. The rest deal puny damage.
SW's C9 characters can be depress to play as.
Unity magic is unskippable and boring after using it a few times.
Physical strength is pathetic in this game, only a few a characters can perform well with Physical set up.
Lu Bu is trash and overrate......He was like a god in DW8-xl...
No new proper updates or new DLCs...

So, blazing through both vanilla WO4 and WO4U for the first time, and getting somewhat up the final tower in Infinity Mode, I think I'm finally in the position to give this game a proper review.
TL;DR: It's an extremely solid entry in the Warriors lineup, especially considering the combat from both DW8 & SW4-II are here + Sacred Treasure system, so I feel it's worth a purchase. However, it is undeniably weaker compared to WO3U in terms of richness of features, and presentation in terms of visuals, story, and unique environments.
The Good
- DW8's & SW4-II's combat systems are finally combined, and let me tell you, that REALLY carries this game. I consider both of those systems the best versions of Warriors' hack-and-slash formula to date, and being able to switch between both with just a character choice feels incredible. It's one of the few strengths WO4U has over WO3U, since while the DW7/SW3 systems used in that entry were solid, it's sometimes very difficult to go back to after playing the entries that followed them. If gameplay feel is all you care about, this is the biggest reason to get WO4U.
- The Sacred Treasure/Magic system. Initially, it came off as gimmicky, but started to shine once I experimented with different treasures on a character (which vanilla WO4 didn't have, which is just... yikes). Finding the right treasure that fits both the character and your playstyle can really help make your favorites feel fresh again, since it gives them combo, cancelling, and/or area control opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have. Not all of them are useful, and a number of them share similar uses with a different coat of paint, but still, I was rather surprised at the amount of diversity available. The fact that it gives everyone an additional, unique musou attack is also a great touch.
- The girth of content available. Between the ridiculous character count and all the kinds of fights you can do, in various formats and difficulties, you really won't ever be short on things to do in this game. Tons of unique playstyles under the Warriors' tried-and-true light and heavy attack formula, all of the battles the story offers, the 5 different difficulties, the side quests, the DLC quests, the optional objectives in every mission, the random and secret missions, weapon earning/crafting, the Battle Arena PvP mode, Challenge Mode, and Infinity Mode... you'll certainly get your fix here.
- The music. With how much I heard of vanilla WO4 being a disappointment (we'll get to that), I expected the music to be lackluster, too... but nah, there are some real bangers here. A lot of returning songs from older Orochi games, as well as DW and SW, are here as usual, but the new mixes are pretty damn sweet as well. The remix of "Welcome to China" particularly stood out: It sounds nothing like the original, but became a great beat all of its own. "Twilight of the Gods" is also incredible.
- It's Warriors Orochi, man. The only Warriors game where you can tag between 3 different characters of your choosing, from any original Warriors franchise, and wreck house with your squad of favorites. It's the best example of all the games' strengths by default, and always a good time~.
- It doesn't struggle to reach 30 fps like WO3U, and can actually reach 60 fps. It's a miracle.
The Bad
- The fact that people who already own base WO4 pay more for the upgrade to WO4U compared to people that just buy WO4 with the Ultimate expansion. That legitimately makes no sense to me and is a big slap in the face to players who put up with vanilla WO4's disappointments. Lower the price, Koei, ffs.
- There's a lot of features missing from WO4U that made WO3U such a complete, feature-rich package. No color edit mode, no alternate color costumes, 4's Battle Arena is pretty sad compared to the chaotic Duel Mode of 3, no unique Triple Rush tag combos between certain team setups (replaced by a generic "everyone gets together" nuke), no Musou Battlefields (a.k.a. player-created combat scenarios that are shareable), no 3-at-once toggle for your team, no team musou attacks, and Infinity Mode is only an "okay" replacement for Gauntlet/Unlimited Mode, at best. More on Infinity Mode later, but yeah, one could only hope Koei patches these features back in... but wouldn't get my hopes up. There's enough for me to still recommend WO4U, but this game should be an upgrade to WO3U, not a sidegrade.
- Vanilla WO4's story sucks, lol. No ifs, ands, or buts, it just sucks. I'm specifically referring to Chapters 1 through 5 here, which is where a lot of time is spent initially & where you go to unlock most of the characters to play as. I would never tell anyone to play a Warriors game for the story, as it's often predictable, overly melodramatic, and kinda dumb, but at least it's been consistently entertaining in its simplicity up until this point. Vanilla WO4, though?... it's just bad, predictable trash. A lot of the characters repeat what's already been established, or say things anyone else could say, everything is an "All according to keikaku" twist, and the ending is abysmal. Chapter 6 and onward, which is Ultimate's territory, is a redemption arc for the story, imo, and helps make everything you did feel much more impactful & offers great closure. But man, that's a lot of crap you need to go through to get to that point.
- Presentation in this game is really lazy, honestly. I don't mind the camp from WO3U not being here, I prefer a lively menu to get to things quicker, but the camp UI design really needs a rehaul, even after the expansion's tweaks to make vanilla WO4's menu look less... awful. There's also the fact that a lot of the combat environments you fight in WO4U are literally just the same maps as DW8 or SW4-II, only in a different time of day, with the odd object here and there that signifies world distortion. WO3U literally smashed some environments together and introduced a few never seen before, including ones you'd never think an ancient Chinese dude would walk through, like a modern cityscape. It made fighting in WO3U feel awesome, and that's pretty much absent in WO4U aside from near the end.
- Infinity Mode... could've been a lot more. Gauntlet/Unlimited Mode from WO3U is still one of the greatest ideas Omega Force has ever had, and why they decided to scrap it for this stripped down version, I don't know. For comparison, Gauntlet/Unlimited Mode let you have 5 characters out at a time instead of 3, you used team formations (think football formations, that kind of stuff) to buff your team in various ways, and you constantly struggled with tons of enemies while they were becoming gradually stronger through a mechanic called "Miasma". Meanwhile, Infinity Mode has only 3 characters out at once, the most you can do with them is tell them to attack with you, explore, or heal, the enemy density is lowered, and it takes forever for the miasma mechanic to be re-introduced. It's serviceable as an endless mode, but once you've experienced Gauntlet/Unlimited mode, you really can't go back.
Conclusion
If WO3U didn't exist as a comparison point, WO4U would be an excellent entry into the Orochi franchise and definitely the best. Unfortunately for it, 3U does exist, and constantly looms over 4U like a bad omen. 4U does break through the clouds with strengths of its own, and does perfectly fine being a damn good Koei hack-and-slash, but it could've been so... SO much more. For me personally, going back to WO3U after playing WO4U is a hard sell since I love DW8's & SW4-II's combat so much, but there's definitely going to be a constant yearning for it to be more than it is, and that sucks.
Also, if you're wondering why I didn't mention the Deification system, that's because it's literally just there. Strikeforce transformations, these are not.

The best warriors game you can get on PC at the moment, with a massive amount of content.
Pros:
+ Graphics are nice, smooth 60fps even with thousands of enemies on screen.
+ Stages are fresh and colorful, BGM is upbeat and interesting.
+ Lots of variety with over 170 characters with unique move sets, weapons and specials.
+ Huge amount of content and stages.
+ Gameplay is based off of Samurai Warriors 4, which i consider an improvement over the older Dynasty Warriors 7 gameplay that Warriors Orochi 3 used.
Cons:
- Many characters get introduced and then forgotten.
- Story is merely ok and doesnt really make too much sense.
- A boatload of exposition is delivered through talking heads instead of cutscenes.
8/10
If you're looking for a 1 vs 1000 game on steam, and don't care about historical fiction, this is the one to get

I have bought a few of the warriors games on PC and this is the only one that gets my full endorsement, the story is what those of you who have played these games expect from a warriors installment, a bit iffy with alot of who cares really on top..but the gameplay is an absolute blast
Remote Play Together!
Controller mapping alone in this game is better than any Warriors game on PC, and of all of the other ones ive tried, (Dynasty warriors 8 XL, and One Piece Pirate Warriors 3) this is the ONLY one that actually works with Remote Play together right out of the gate, i didnt have to touch a single configuration option, just invite my friend and immediately jump into my murderball combat, just how i like it.
I just wanted to make sure that for those looking there was some positive feedback for this games remote playing options as it may go overlooked if people dont know that theyre looking for it before they buy, as i was very disappointed with the other Warriors games on this point and it makes me enjoy this one SO MUCH MORE!

Not as good as WO1 or WO3 (unfortunately i've never played the second game to compare :/ ), actually not even close, but still a good game. The story is very simple, the new Magics mechanics introduced are very cool, the new characters are interesting and enjoyable to play.

What do you get with the Ultimate version compared to the Vanilla? As far as actual missions to play, you honestly get pretty much the same type of missions as before with a slightly more interesting storyline expanding on the ancient gods theme. Gaia and Hades are joining the smorgasbord of warriors and deities along with a wee bit of Joan of Arc, Achilles, Ryu Hayabusa, and a mystic named Yang Jian. The story expands and fills in some of the holes of the main campaign, but don’t expect anything intense or all that surprising. From my experience, the story is a bit more character driven with interpersonal moments here and there, but not by much. I think that is because instead of the mad rush to save the world, it’s a slightly more investigative approach to the story. By and large, though, the game still sticks with the same “Oh, no! Someone must be stopped right now before it’s too late!” followed by some “Let’s go immediately and make sure to add some fairly nondescript dialogue!” for each mission with some visual novelesque story bits in between to tie it all together.
With the gameplay itself feeling like the same missions as in Chapter 5, the game does not change much of anything that you haven’t seen already other than a new musou Switch Combo that is nifty. I also noticed many of the missions had some “I gotcha!” moments where you thought everything was over and then some baddie says “Uh, uh, uh, didn’t say the magic word.” and you must rush off to cut them down before heading back to base. Beyond that, the new characters are fun to play and I rather liked Ryu the most, personally. I have to say, though, fighting the same enemies over and over along with their phantoms and monsters does get old. The real challenge is still balancing what to do on the map and when to do it.
You also get a bit of minor subterfuge as your mission objectives might be something like “Rescue the Girl” only to find out it’s one of the cool new characters for the DLC. I did feel that the story is stretched a bit thin as you get tiny morsels of detail that just slowly churn out the story, mission by mission. Also, there are new side missions that even unlock in the old main campaign along with collect-a-thon missions where you get to replay several old missions from previous chapters to unlock some hidden backstory. You’ll get to investigate what Zeus was secretly up to back in the main campaign along with some tidbits to elucidate some old scenes more, so it really does give more flesh to the somewhat bare bones main campaign story. It’s good, but not exactly mind blowing. Also, there is a new “True” ending to unlock and it's probably the best part of the whole game.
With all this, you also get nice changes. Firstly, you can change up the Sacred Treasures to be used by anyone. This is interesting, but I honestly didn’t find it all that useful. I went through several of those treasures and ended up just using the ones my characters originally had in the first place, but the freedom to change is nice if you want to.
Secondly, and likely most importantly, you get Infinity Mode aka the “Trial of Zeus”. Here you get a grind-em out mode where you can battle it out to level up your characters, all 177 if you like. It’s broken up into 12 sections, based on the Zodiac. I was fairly impressed, actually, and the screen full of constellations is rather slick. Some of them have different attributes like Total KO’s or Officer KO’s, and there are levels per tower to get through in order to clear them. You have a target goal with a time limit and you just need to hit it before the time elapses. Once you hit that goal, the timer stops and you can head to an escape point or just try to kill as many enemies as possible. You can die before heading to the escape point, though, so be careful. Intro levels are pretty easy, but they do get harder as you get further in as there are five levels per tower. It’s a lot better than a usual Survival Mode, so I have to say it’s a great addition.
On top of all this wonderfulness, there is now a level up cap change. You can level to 100 and then start again at 1 for a character, with the option to level them up to 100 all over again. You can do this 10 times per character! That’s just insane. Do note, that you don’t get to keep all your health, attack, and defense when you start them over, but you can promote more of their other abilities. My advice is to max out the Diligence on your weapons to get them leveled up as fast as possible. The first time you promote, you get a bonus of Officer Skill Expansion and the second time you promote, you get a bonus of a Status Cap Unlock so that you don’t lose all that health, attack, and defense like before. There are more bonuses each time you promote them past level 100, such as: 3rd/Gems+, 4th/Speed Increase Unlock, 5th/Musou Gauge Recovery+, 6th/Growth Points+, 7th/Gems++, 8th/Musou Gauge Recovery++, 9th/Growth Points++. All this put together with Infinity Mode means you can amass an army of absolutely OP characters rather quickly if you don’t mind grinding for it.
Verdict
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate is a good Warriors game. It is not Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, but it’s still a great game in the genre. The new Ultimate version makes some good changes, additions, and variances without tweaking the Warriors formula too far. It runs at 60 FPS at 1080p even on a mid-level PC and it looks, sounds, and does exactly what a Warriors Orochi game should do. The content is roughly 3/4 of a game, about 18-20 hrs long, and the Infinity Mode is very helpful in leveling up your characters. Should you rush out and get it right now? Unless you have put in several dozen hours and want to keep on going, I’d say wait until the upgrade is about $25 or so. If you have a few Warriors games under your belt and have been holding off on buying this game until now, then, yes, go ahead and grab it. This is the definitive version of the game for the foreseeable future and it’s in fine form.
For those new to the series, I’d say it’s an okay starting point, even though you will likely be lost with the myriad of characters almost flying off the screen every few minutes. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate isn’t even available on PC, though you can still get it on PS4 or Xbox. You could start with that instead, and it is a fantastic game, but you won’t really be missing all that much and there are several recaps of what happened in that game as you play. If it would be your first Warriors game ever, you may want to try something else with a better story, but Orochi 4 has a ton of hack and slash to offer if you crave combat instead. With the base game at about 25-30 hours and the Ultimate DLC at about 18-20 plus another 10-15 hrs of side missions, extra replay hidden content, and Infinity Mode, it’s plenty of combat to tackle. Do be aware that you can’t access the new story missions until you are done with the main campaign. It’s also super repetitive with the difficulty centered more around map management than actual enemy battles. Really, that is the only kink in this game. The repetition makes it grow stale after some time. The game is best handled in chunks, not long playthroughs.
The thing to remember is, WO4U does not try to be another type of game. It’s not going to be Devil May Cry or a God of War hack and slash. It sticks with map oriented objective based missions and doesn’t deviate because it’s entire goal is to finely hone that down without going into crazy ideas or altered game design other than to have 177 characters to play with. That repetition is both it’s Achilles heel and it’s strongest point. It does what it does and it does it well. If that sounds like a good time, grab the game and have a blast.

It's another Orochi game except this time no one really cares about him.