Dynasty/Samurai/Orochi/Whatever Warriors Thread

[bork]

I’m playing One Piece Warriors 4. It’s fun even though I know nothing about One Piece. The world isn’t really captivating to me either to learn more, unlike the Gundam Warriors games. I’d love to play another one of those. The third Gundam Warriors game was fantastic.

I wound up finishing the story in about 16 hours. I’m going through to S rank all the levels in the main story and treasure modes. A pretty solid Musou title. Unfortunately I don’t really connect with the One Piece lore like I did the other licensed games. Not sure why but oh well, I’m still having fun with this game.

It's one of the better licensed games for sure.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

As an update:

- I S-ranked the stages in One Piece 4 and ended up around 60 hours.

- Playing Dragon Quest Heroes 2. I remember not being overly impressed with the first one but I really like the second one. Per various walkthroughs I perused, I’m about halfway through.

[bork]

I actually kinda enjoyed DQ Heroes 1, although I never finished it.  Found the sequel much more impressive and played through a chunk of the import, but then never started over in English.  Kept waiting for a localized Switch version that never ended up happening.  Should check that out again on the Steam Deck!

My musou backlog is getting ever-larger:

-DQ Heroes II
-One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 (am at the end and just need to finish it up)
-Hyrule Warriors Age Of Calamity (am maybe halfway done)
-Samurai Warriors 5
-Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes

Was also thinking about playing through the original Hyrule Warriors again since I never finished the bad guy side campaign on Wii U.  And then there's all that added DX content.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I too was hoping an English version of DQ Heroes I and II would come out for the Switch.

I never was a big fan of Hyrule Warriors despite playing it twice on the Wii U and Switch

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Finished DQ Heroes 2 at around 40 hours and this game impressed me a lot. I’d consider it on the cusp of the upper tier Musou games. There were a few obnoxious items, like some side quests where I had to collect items from monsters with low drop rates. Sometimes the characters moved too slow to my liking but the fast travel zoom stones made this pretty tolerable at the time.

Considering it’s been 6-7 years since Heroes 2 came out, I doubt there will be a part 3. I recommend it, it’s available on PS Plus.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I’ve been playing Warriors All Stars and it’s very middling. Feels like Omega Force puts in much more of an effort with the licensed games than the original games. Maybe Square Enix, Nintendo, et. al hold them accountable and thus produce better Musou games than when they’re on their own.

[bork]

I’ve been playing Warriors All Stars and it’s very middling. Feels like Omega Force puts in much more of an effort with the licensed games than the original games. Maybe Square Enix, Nintendo, et. al hold them accountable and thus produce better Musou games than when they’re on their own.

This game was such a disappointment, especially with it following up on the excellent WO3U.  It did have some pretty fun character additions, but was otherwise very mediocre at best. Major performance issues pre-ps4 pro, too.  It runs great on PC, but there's issues with the display because the options available are very limited.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I beat All Stars with 70 hours on the clock but a few of those hours were me taking a nap or walking my dog. The game grew on me but the sparse number of stages was tiresome, the gameplay was way too simple for a 2017-era Musou, and the furries were disturbing. I might need to take a break from Musou games for a while

[bork]

I beat All Stars with 70 hours on the clock but a few of those hours were me taking a nap or walking my dog.

The game grew on me but the sparse number of stages was tiresome, the gameplay was way too simple for a 2017-era Musou, and the furries were disturbing. I might need to take a break from Musou games for a while

I don't blame you- you're all musou'd out!

[Bebpo]

So I saw PS+ now has DW9 and SW5 on it.

Either of these ones good for musou?

[pancakesandsex]

So I saw PS+ now has DW9 and SW5 on it.

Either of these ones good for musou?

SW5 is good.

[bork]

So I saw PS+ now has DW9 and SW5 on it.

Either of these ones good for musou?

SW5 is good.

And DW9 is bad! 

Easy decision.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is also getting new DLC BTW.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I had a lot of fun with SW5. It’s considered a reboot of the series for whatever reason.

Not sure what happened with DW9 but I’m glad they’re taking their time with releasing DW10. Their flagship series is now their weakest. I think DW9 was such a change because there was such minimal change between 7 and 8. When 10 does come out, they need to focus on making it fun to play. Omega Force has had such a strong track record with Musou featuring other property so we know they can do better.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I downloaded DW9 too for PS Plus and some of the ideas seemed nice but the execution is just bad. The PS2 era assets are mindblowing to me and there is a mode to cap it at 30 fps Still looked much better than the switch version of DW9 Empires which was just awful. I’m playing this game out of sheer morbid curiosity. I played DW Strikeforce, which is the worst DW game I’ve ever played on a console; my tolerance for shit tier Musou has always been high but DW9 and DW9 Empires is really testing me

[bork]

I downloaded DW9 too for PS Plus and some of the ideas seemed nice but the execution is just bad. The PS2 era assets are mindblowing to me and there is a mode to cap it at 30 fps Still looked much better than the switch version of DW9 Empires which was just awful. I’m playing this game out of sheer morbid curiosity. I played DW Strikeforce, which is the worst DW game I’ve ever played on a console; my tolerance for shit tier Musou has always been high but DW9 and DW9 Empires is really testing me

I couldn't with DW9.  Tried it twice and even with a huge discount on the PC version the second time around, I just couldn't play it and refunded it.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

DW9 has hooked me for the weekend

This game is not good but I spent 20 hours this weekend on it. My hands are sore from the PS5 controller.

[bork]

DW9 has hooked me for the weekend

This game is not good but I spent 20 hours this weekend on it. My hands are sore from the PS5 controller.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Update: I continue to actually like Dynasty Warriors 9. It’s dull and repetitive but it’s a great game to fritter away an hour or two to take on a few missions, explore all the little things on the map. I understand that this means I have terrible taste as this is a 6/10 Musou game.

[bork]

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I finished the game and got almost all the trophies. Spent 85 hours on the game, racked up 130,000 KOs and checked out all the landmarks. I’m not going to lie, the game really grew on me and really wound up digging a lot of the concepts in the game, even though there were major flaws.

[bork]

I finished the game and got almost all the trophies. Spent 85 hours on the game, racked up 130,000 KOs and checked out all the landmarks. I’m not going to lie, the game really grew on me and really wound up digging a lot of the concepts in the game, even though there were major flaws.

I don't think I'd be able to stick with the game for that long!

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I think the only Musou I hated was Strikeforce and a lot of that is because the console version was a really sloppy port of the PSP original. I was disappointed in Warriors Orochi 4 but I’m going to buy a cheap copy on PS4 and give it another shot. I think the issue is that the Switch version is pretty lazy and poorly optimized.

Update: ordered WO4U and Samurai Warriors Spirit of Sanada, which I’ve never played before.

[bork]

I didn't play Spirit Of Sanada, but read it was kinda bad. 

I played through WO4 and WO4U on Switch.  Definitely doesn't run the best but I still enjoyed it a lot.  The WO3U port is so much better, but now it doesn't matter since it's on Steam and that's the best version for sure.

[Bebpo]

Bandainamco be like "why make One Piece Warriors 5 when we can just keep making DLC forever"

announces 3 new DLC packs coming.

[bork]

Bandainamco be like "why make One Piece Warriors 5 when we can just keep making DLC forever"

announces 3 new DLC packs coming.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is also getting new DLC BTW.

This is OK to me if they're good DLC packs.  OPW4 was really good.

[Bebpo]

Hmmm, I never played 4 because it was an original story instead of recreating the manga storylines like 1-3. Plus I think they removed characters from 2/3.

Maybe I should grab it when it's on sale.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I agree, One Piece Warriors 4 was very good.

I didn't play Spirit Of Sanada, but read it was kinda bad. 

I played through WO4 and WO4U on Switch.  Definitely doesn't run the best but I still enjoyed it a lot.  The WO3U port is so much better, but now it doesn't matter since it's on Steam and that's the best version for sure.

WO3U is still the best Musou in my opinion.

[bork]

Hmmm, I never played 4 because it was an original story instead of recreating the manga storylines like 1-3. Plus I think they removed characters from 2/3.

I thought it did adapt the manga storyline, but the ending is different because it wasn't finished yet?  Like what they did with 3.  2 is the one with the original story IIRC.

OPM 2-4 are all great games.  We can just forget the first one exists. 

Maybe I should grab it when it's on sale.

I actually bought it for a second time- originally on Switch where I played through almost all of it (was at the end), and then again on Steam a few months ago.  It was on sale with all the DLC included for a ridiculously low price- $13.49!  Would recommend wishlisting and seeing if it hits a price that low again.

WO3U is still the best Musou in my opinion.

It's definitely still at the top of my list for sure. 

[Bebpo]

Actually still $13.49 for the deluxe edition. Picked it up!

[bork]

Actually still $13.49 for the deluxe edition. Picked it up!

Nice!  It's a bargain at that price.

[Bebpo]

Played a bit of this. Combat is...pretty different than the old ones. It moves really fast, which is kind of cool but also makes the camera more of a headache for bosses.

Not sure about this shield armor thing. Don't quite understand it. Says you basically need to get behind an enemy when they attack to do shield damage or something but hard to keep track of positioning given the speed.

Everyone seems really strong off the start.

[bork]

Played a bit of this. Combat is...pretty different than the old ones. It moves really fast, which is kind of cool but also makes the camera more of a headache for bosses.

Not sure about this shield armor thing. Don't quite understand it. Says you basically need to get behind an enemy when they attack to do shield damage or something but hard to keep track of positioning given the speed.

Everyone seems really strong off the start.

Don't forget that you can lock onto them, which might help!

[bork]

The first wave of the new OP DLC will be out on 9/14.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I'm a decent amount of hours into OPW4 now and it's a pretty solid musou.

I like that upgrading the general character map increases stats for every playable character, so you don't have to upgrade everyone from scratch. The sub-missions are fun and the speed of the game is great.

Main story mode is a decent best of moments of a few arcs. The original story part is just for the final Wano arc since the manga arc was still running.

Character unlocks aren't too bad, some of the characters are really distinct and fun to play as. Especially some of the sky type characters that just air dash and air combo non-stop for half the map. Some characters seem pretty shitty tier though. I feel like this is a musou that would benefit from character swapping. Maybe in OPM5.

Overall worth $13. Might pick up the new DLC pack but $30 for like 9 characters is steep, and by the time packs 2/3 come out I'll probably be done with this and moved on, so eh, doubt I'll pick it up.

[Bebpo]

Almost done with the story mode and trying/unlocking all the characters in OPW4. Some of these stages get looong.

If you've read the manga or watched the anime, the story mode is actually a pretty decent recap of the entire series. Refreshed my memory on a lot of arcs I'd forgotten.

I've been mildly addicted to it and keep playing a few more stages each day. Reminds me of what I like and dislike about musou. I can't remember the last musou game I played more than a few hours of and actually unlocked everyone/finished the story mode. Maybe Gundam Musou 3? I played OPW1/2 but I didn't finish either of them. Didn't play 3. Played maybe 5-6 hours of Zelda musou but didn't finish it or get super far. Played a few hours of Berserk/Fist of the North Star.

I think I could probably enjoy a musou game more than once a decade, but maybe not yearly haha. Needs to be the right IP, have decent variety movelists and character build progression, and stages need to be pretty quick (I like that most stages in OPW4 are ~10 mins).

Wouldn't mind going back to Zelda musou at some point or trying the Fire Emblem one (that one was good, right?). But will probably just wait until they do an interesting IP. I don't see a One Piece Warriors 5 in the near future and Gundam Warriors seems pretty dead at the moment.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Both Fire Emblem Warriors games are excellent. They are very different games though.

I found myself continuing to play DW9 but deleted it off the drive due to needing file space. I believe I spent over 126 hours on the game and had a KO count of over 250,000. I wound up really liking the game a lot but it was time to finally move on. Playing WO4 Ultimate currently.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, that's another thing. Before I started OPW4 I read you can clear the main story campaign and unlock all the characters in like 20ish hours. That was appealing.

I'd rather play a musou game that's like 20 hours long and then I'm good and move on then a 50-100+ hour one.

[Bebpo]

So I did a mission and lost a territory and it was game over. Never had that happen before. I then spent like 10 mins trying to find what "losing conditions" are in a mission in this game and I can't find it. I only see "victory condition". So like, how do you even tell how you can lose a mission (outside dying)?

Kind of pointless now as I'm done with the story and unlocked all the characters and I'm just going through the treasure log side missions to try everyone, but still seems weird that I can't find what losing conditions are for a map.

[bork]

Did the map not shoe that a territory was being swarmed?  What about NPCs asking for help?

[Bebpo]

Did the map not shoe that a territory was being swarmed?  What about NPCs asking for help?

I mean I think the map always says when a territory is about to be lost, but normally it's not a fail condition if you lose a territory? Never had that happen before.

The game throws out like a new message every 5 seconds so I don't really pay attention besides who I need to punch next.

[Bebpo]

So I've never played any of these games on the higher difficulties/endgame.
I don't really know how to play musou games when I can't just overpower everything 

I'm trying to get all the achievements in OPW4 which means beating the hardest optional stage, almost there and making it ok. I have a maxed out character stat-wise. But boss enemies kill me incredibly fast.

So my strategy is basically putting all the defensive survivability skills I can find on, beat up grunts -> dash near boss and unload all my i-frame cutscene musou attacks -> dash away -> beat up grunts until I fill my musou bar -> dash in and repeat cutscene musous.

It's kind of boring but kiting in and out seems the only way I've figured out how to survive.


Is there a strategy in musou games for the higher difficulties?

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Kiting in and out was how I did it. I don’t remember what character I used but it worked for me. Maxing out characters too of course.

I’ve been playing WO4U on PS4 and I’m enjoying it a lot. I don’t recall why it didn’t click with me on the Switch but I’m liking it a lot here. I don’t think it’s up to the level of WO3U but I consider that to be the best of the series.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Finished WO4U on PS4. I’m glad I replayed it as I was very down on the game the first time but this replay is pretty good. It still lacked the epic feel of WO3U even though Omega Force definitely tried, but missed the mark, in trying to make it more epic. I suspect a WO5 will eventually come out but I appreciate them taking a bit of a break here. I’m sure some Musou games are being worked on.

[Bebpo]

I’m sure some Musou games are being worked on.

With how well they keep selling, yeah, musou ain't ever going to end 

I kind of fell off OPW4. Like I finished the main story and tried most of the cast, but still about a dozen characters I never messed with. I think it's because I ran out of money from the story to be able to unlock the full moveset for each character and it was either grinding coins or trying out characters with their limited moveset which doesn't really give a good feel for them.

Still enjoyed OPW4 a good amount. Will play more musou games in the future, but I need strong SP gameplay loops to get me to stick with them.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I played Spirit of Sanada a bit and it’s okay. The Musou gameplay itself is pretty mediocre and the additional single player items are just basic things you’d see on many other Musou games like WO3U and All Stars. The strategem addition, which is providing assistance to other officers during a battle to help meet objectives, is not particularly impressive. This has a mid-to-low tier Musou feel to it, like bork said earlier. I’ll keep playing and see if there’s potential. If I can get something out of DW9, I probably can here

[bork]

I played Spirit of Sanada a bit and it’s okay. The Musou gameplay itself is pretty mediocre and the additional single player items are just basic things you’d see on many other Musou games like WO3U and All Stars. The strategem addition, which is providing assistance to other officers during a battle to help meet objectives, is not particularly impressive. This has a mid-to-low tier Musou feel to it, like bork said earlier. I’ll keep playing and see if there’s potential. If I can get something out of DW9, I probably can here

[bork]

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I finished Spirit of Sanada. Just a little under 45 hours. I liked it quite a bit but I had a lot of issues with the game too:

- Unskippable cutscenes, which is egregious
- Unlike WO4 where you can have pop ups to see how you’re progressing against goals, this doesn’t exist here so you have no idea until it’s too late to see if you failed a mission or not
- Some missions you will fail unless you are in the exact right spot when they pop up. If you’re in the wrong spot, an officer will be too fast or die too quickly
~ The six coin strategems are kind of innovative but kind of dumb too
~ There are many side levels that can slow down the pace but I appreciate the attempts at innovation. However some are going to require lots of grinding to get everything and frankly it’s not worth it
+ The day time and night time mechanics are decent and attempt to be balanced
+ I like the return of functionality of commanding your partner to go elsewhere based on location or officer. They took it out of the games for a long time except for here

I like this game a lot but man there are some big flaws with this game. This is the guy that liked DW9 so my taste is questionable. I can’t say I recommend this game but maybe if it’s free on PS Plus someday lol.

[bork]

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I’m playing through the Berserk Musou title and this one is pretty bad. I’ve never checked out Berserk but I heard some good things about it so I figured I’d check out the Musou title.

- Some of the cutscenes are from the anime and others are in game and it just looks cheap to not be consistent
- The game mechanics are terrible. Why do the horses act like shit when they’ve had the formula for this down pat since the PS2 era?
- Many of the time limit objectives don’t have a visible countdown nor does the game tell you what the time limit is; I had to go online to see best guesses from the community
- Some of the levels are pure aggravation due to how poorly the game is designed. The level where we first encounter Femto might be the worst Musou level/stage I’ve ever played.

Looking at the information online it seems like I’m halfway through. I paid $70 for this C-level Musou game. Feel free to laugh at me.

[Let's Cyber]

I paid full price and didn't even finish it. 

[bork]

but I heard some good things about it so I figured I’d check out the Musou title.

Never listen to whoever told you that again.     And if you're curious about more musou, stay away from the Arslan game- it's also crap.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I’ve heard bad things about Arslan too. I have Persona 5 Strikers left and other else than I feel caught up with all the games.

[bork]

The thing about Arslan that still gets to me all these years later is that the show was so much like "Musou: The Series" at times.  When the game got announced I was pretty hyped for it and then it was just crap. 

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Finished Berserk. Boy, did that game suck. It is the worst Musou game I’ve played since Strikeforce. The last stage in story mode was pretty good and that’s even worse because it shows it could’ve been a competent Musou title. 70 bucks well spent

Samurai Warriors 5 is free on PS Plus so I’m going to play that again.

Edit: SW5 is a breath of fresh air compared to Berserk.

[Himu]

WO3U still the GOAT next to SW2

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I S-ranked everything in Samurai Warriors 5. The PS4 version was a lot better looking and performing than the Switch version, at least to me. This is a really good Musou, better than I thought the first time I played this game on the switch.

I think the only Musou title I got in the queue is Persona 5 Strikers. I believe I beat all the PS4 and Switch titles except Arslan which sounds like it’s trash.

[bork]

I S-ranked everything in Samurai Warriors 5. The PS4 version was a lot better looking and performing than the Switch version, at least to me. This is a really good Musou, better than I thought the first time I played this game on the switch.

I think the only Musou title I got in the queue is Persona 5 Strikers. I believe I beat all the PS4 and Switch titles except Arslan which sounds like it’s trash.

I still think it's solid on switch, but no doubt it's better on other platforms. I got it on PC but still need to get to it!

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Persona 5 Strikers is not for me. I can’t say it’s a bad game, it’s just the Musou gameplay is not interesting and few and far between all the story elements. I might keep playing every once in a while, we’ll see.

[bork]

Samurai Warriors 4 DX got a Steam port out of nowhere- five years after the PS4 and Switch releases.  It's $50.