Warriors All-Stars (PC)

I like crossover especially that involves franchise that i know and i fond on, including Crossover game (e.g. Battle Moon War). Therefore for today's review i play Koei-Tecmo's Warriors All-Stars (2017) and see how it turns out. 

That's some dynamic artwork for title screen, don't you agree?  But there's not much of Koei-Tecmo Character that i know well. At least i know Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden series on bottom-right corner and Kasumi from Dead of Alive series on top center. Apparently the bloke on the center is Zhou Yun of Shu faction from Dynasty Warriors series but i don't remember him well. My bad. By the way, i got this from Steam sale quite recently.   

After i hit 'new game' option and select the difficulty setting (in Normal), this CG movie plays where there's 2 dog women stands in this open area. The smaller ones uses some kind of mirror and cards to incant some poetry spell. The mirror glows and flying. But suddenly a magical burst happens and the cards fly to random direction. Fortunately the caster seems fine. 

Then i get to choose the character to play and there's quite many character here. They're from Warriors series, Dead or Alive series, Atelier series (which i have no clue in the slightest about them), etc. Zhou Yun is the vanilla warrior guy so i pass. If there's my favorite Sun Ce, i will consider picking him. I can pick Ryu Hayabusa but i only played 2 Ninja Gaiden games: the arcade ones and the gameboy. In other word, my fans-ism toward Ninja Gaiden is very lacking to pick him. There's also a small cat but i have to refuse picking him because he's based on the infamous warlord Nobunaga Oda. I can choose Laegrinna from Deception IV! Picking her will be the closest i can get to play the most recent Deception game! The latest Deception game that i have played is Trapt/Kagero 2 on PS 2. She will be the 2nd priority.

Then, i go with William from Nioh! In my opinion he's the accurate presentation of non-Japanese player that get involved in war between Ieyasu Tokugawa versus Mistunari Ishida. At first he only want to retrieve his stolen Guardian Spirit but later take side with Ieyasu's side because Kelley the one who stole his guardian spirit, take side with Mitsunari's side. To put it short, William is perfect representation of foreign interference (which is the player) in some real historical event. One can argue that he's based on Tom Cruise's role in The Last Samurai movie. But instead of alcoholic former cavalry regiment captain, he's ex-pirate but also enjoys liquor. Besides i really like Nioh which is the best Dark Soul's clone in my opinion.

Not long after choosing William, i'm immediately surrounded by imps along with Razortalon (which are Crow Tengu)! They're oni (demon) from Toukiden which is basically Koei-Tecmo's Monster Hunter. Back when i still oni slayer in Toukiden 2. I will mow these schmucks with kusarigama (chain and sickle weapon) but luckily William can do well sweep them with only long sword. As this is Warriors kind of game you know how things work, right? It's simple, really. Basically you attack them with light attack ('J' key) and heavy attack ('I' key). The most preferable way to do so is: do mopping combo by hitting 2-3 light attacks and then end the combo with heavy attack strike. The results may vary between character or the number of light attack hit.     

What in tarnation are you thinking, guys? A group of cute slime thing-y try to take on hot-blooded ex-pirate weebs. Take this Ki blast! Hold on! I see Ryu Hayabusa there. To the rescue!

 

No. Not the Lost Souls or Oni-bi! Actually, they're Blazing Soul from Toukiden  but they're as annoying as either the elemental spirit or the infernal soul without body. Oh, i can see the spinning star on one of them that indicates that it's stunned. That's cute!  

After rescuing Ayane and run few meters, we meet Millennia from Kagero/Deception 2! As we're human and she's tasked to hunt human, she's against us. Lady, please! You're also human like us and not Timenoid.   

Don't you dare drop Mega Rock at my head, you cold-blooded witch! Well, she only activated some kind of fan on the floor that pull us in. Is this some kind of Magnet Floor? Oh! It said Vacuum Floor. I don't think i have heard that one before. She's adept at trap-laying and not direct combat so no wonder she's easy to defeat besides Ryu and Ayane helps me on taking her out. Actually, i'm excited to met her when i thought Koe-Tecmo completely forget about her and they recreate her as she was without any extra lewd feature. Back then, she's designed by someone who's less "thirsty". I mean, sure. Her back is exposed but at least she's not showing her rack or wearing cloth that's too skimpy or outlandish. Perhaps she's the predecessor of Shanoa from Castlevania Order of Ecclesia who's also lady with exposed back that's marked with magic sigil.

Upon defeating the trap-mancer, the stage ends. I got some experiences and loot. What's that Mighty Bombjack? Some kind of Bomberman's clone, maybe?  Intriguing.

Then three of us jump into that place from the prologue and greeted by this tall dogman. Oh! And the dogwoman from prologue is there too.

You're his mother? Really? I don't mean to flatter you, madam. But you don't look that old compare to your son there. Maybe your kind has power to counteract aging in astounding level.

Anyway Shiki the dogman tells story about the sacred weapons to control giant spring which is their living source. The spring's blessing is spread through shrines across this land. Hey! That's the magic mirror!

But when the king is passed away and no one replace him yet, the spring lost its power and dry up. The end of the world is near! Heavy_sf12_badmagic06.wav    

But there's hope. According to Sayo's prophecy "When the spring lose its power and the world is in brink of destruction, the heroes will use their power and save the spring". Thus, Tamaki (Sayo's daughter and Shiki's younger sister) summons all of us to this world at the cost of spring's remaining power. This is kind of cliché, if you ask me. There's William on left center. Who's the kicking one on top of Kasumi? She has nice flying kick style. Hey! I know the small ones in corner left bottom. It's Tokitsugu from Toukiden 2. He used to be normal human but later his soul is transferred to machina doll/small robot because he's dying fighting over many oni on that fateful time. He's quite flirty to women but i admire his deed back then.  

"Anyone who leads the heroes to revive the spring will be crowned as new monarch. So our job is to back up Shiki to become the king. He also reveals that Tamaki and Setsuna (Shiki's cousin) also have the same plan. Ayane feels disgusts with the thought of participating in civil war for the throne and wants to go home. But Sayo explains that there's no power left on the spring to return the heroes at the moment. Moreover, the ruler of the realm is a sacrifice for the other because anyone who take the throne will have shorter life span due to strangeness of the power spring. That mean Shiki is willing to sacrifice his life for other's sake. Is this confusing for you? We will get to the mindless fun action again. I promise.

After the plot line briefing, William notices that why Ayane is so affected toward Ryu Hayabusa. She replies because he's the most incredible ninja in the world. Hmm, yeah right! -_-

But as Ryu can senses Saoirsen within William, he's quite amazing. I have to admit that. By the way, only William that speaks English. The rest speak Japanese. So how they can understand each other? That's because Nekomata (which is Hanzo Hattori's guardian spirit) once possessed him that allow him to understand Japanese and speak to other without Japanese lesson required. To put it simple, it's because of magic! Sniper_sf13_magic_reac06.wav

That's not supposed to be "It's dangerous to go alone, take this!" line, huh? I immediately went to Hero Training marker on world map and i got this message. Luckily, the game tolerate my recklessness here by bringing the 'Team Organization' menu.

After setting my team (which isn't hard as i only have Ryu and Ayane as friend), i go into mock battle. Did you seriously think about this over, Shiki? Sacrificing your people for the purpose of our training. I know we have power to save the land but this is way too much in my opinion.

Because i'm still in early part of the game, so it's no wonder that tutorial message will suddenly appear in the middle of battle like this. At least, it lets me know about 'bravery' which is something new to me. To put it simple, bravery is some kind of stats that measure one's prowess at the battlefield. It's different than character's level, mind you. Bravery always reset to zero at the beginning of mission. It determines your attack power, defense power, and Special gauge rate. If there's intimidating skull symbol above enemy's head that means your bravery is lower than them and you have to raise yours before take them down or you will have hard time to deal with them. With this, i can't speedrun the mission by only defeating enemy's officers and heroes like in what i do in Warrior Orochi 2. I'm forced to slay those hapless cannon fodders to raise my bravery although there's other way to do that which is: completing mission and/or sub-mission.   

By holding hero skill button ('O' key) and press light attack button ('J' key), heavy attack button ('I' key), jump button ('K' key), or special attack button ('L' key), i can tell my companion to execute flashy hero skill. I kind of don't remember about what Ryu did there. He glows bright and then explosions happen, maybe?

Or i can press Musou Rush button ('V' key, not default button) to make me invincible while Ryu cheers on me. This is so freaking silly! The charismatic bloke with dark personality now acts like some kind of teenage cheerleader. That really cracks me up. XD

You can see the period of Musou Rush in top center. It will extend depends on K.O count while in this state. The longer Musou Rush's duration, the bigger chance that my other companion join to cheer me. Rush Star which is a pickup to gain Musou Rush can be obtained at the beginning of the mission. I can get additional Musou Rush if i defeat 1,000 enemies! Koei-Tecmo really wants me to slaughter those grunts, huh? I don't mind, though.

After defeating Shiki thus ending the training battle, we proceed to capture the first shrine. Shiki says that the monsters that we fought are the results of Tamaki losing control on summoning ceremony. That explain why Oni are here although Oni are capable of interdimensional travel by harnessing the power of Mitama and creating black portal. That's what i learned from Toukiden 2, by the way. I hope you're not mad you don't lose interest on reading this due to my rambling about both Toukiden 2 and Nioh.

Anyway, as you can see Ryu and Ayane look bright gold. That's because i unleash 'team attack' by simply adding light attack after successful heavy attack (as combo finish). They immediately attack in front of me and turns invincible while doing so. Also successfully pulling this trick will reduce cooldown of Hero Skill. 

At long last, i fight another hero. It's Zhao Yun that i mentioned before. But what i like to show you that giant orb thing on the back. It's base that you can capture to spawn troop and give some other benefit that depends on the base type. Apparently, this base will spawn healing item nearby when captured. To capture a base: you have to kill every soldiers within the base's territory until base point reduced to 0 (which is indicated by heart symbol and number on top center) then base captain appears. I'm sure you know what to do next: kill the base captain and then the base is yours.

Then i get to fight the small lady in the tutorial message. She's alchemist and i hate chemistry. So i have no qualm on sending her flying like this.

After her companion are all out, i proceed to beat Tamaki herself. You see green glows around her soldiers? They got attack and defense buff from her magic. Beating the support hero seems detestable but i do what i must.  

Oh no! Setsuna and his squad also here! Moreover that Nobunaga Cat along with his rifle units are on his side. And yeah Marie Rose (from Dead or Alive) is here to but that's not significant, right? Sometime you can see the specialty of enemy that you encounter like here where Marie Rose has ability to lower defense power of nearby enemies, apparently. Combine that with ranged assault of rifle units, that will be devastating. But i manage to cut her down fast enough that she doesn't have a chance to cast said skill. Speaking of rifle, i miss William's ability to wield ones or hand cannon. In this game, he's watered down to Dynasty Warrior like character.

I'm sure you can just ignore conflicting chat in the middle of battle and focus on Ryu's super skill here. The method to execute hero's super skill is the same with normal ones but the difference is: you have to execute it while your bravery is really high. That's all. By the way, Kasumi also takes side with Setsuna so i also get rid of her. Did i do favor for Ayane or the otherwise?

Well said, my man! :D

With Setsuna defeated, the mission is over. Wait! There's 'banana peel' trap on Deception? Again, i didn't know about that before. Or maybe there's one in Kagero as secret trap, maybe? I can't remember it at all. Maybe i will replay it some time in future. 

Shiki reveals more fact this time. Turns out, there's great demon called Yomi that's sealed within the spring by the first king. But the seal weakens thus allow Yomi to harness the power of the spring to further weaken the seal to free himself completely. Also he drains every ruler's life force through the spring. This explains why the ruler's lifespan is reduced.

To overcome this crisis, Shiki plans to search for The Monument of the Dawn that said could be the key to defeat Yomi. To find said artifact, we need to capture shrines and give power to the spring which is basically what we do up until now although that means we feed power to the great demon. Besides if the spring left unpowered, the nature is withered and people won't get food or water anymore. Shiki also said that there's possibility of Setsuna and Tamaki are brainwashed by Yomi. The heroes are immune to brainwashing, though.

After the storytelling, i'm thrown into sanctuary which is basically our home base in this world. Ayane is in bar although she's deprived from liquor because she's still underage, maybe? While Ryu is relaxing in massage chair inside this hotel. I though this world doesn't have modern technology like that. I also found slot machines and arcade machines. But i can't play the arcade cabinet at all! Preposterous! I was hoping i could play ninja gaiden arcade there.

Besides bar and inn, i find refinery in this sanctuary. I thought it was like blacksmith where we can have better equipment. But since we're locked with what we're wearing, that won't happen. Instead, refinery is where we can synthesize card or make a new one. It seems this card is important to boost our stats and i don't know what will happen if i manage to raise card's affinity to lower number. I try to create better card by combining 3 William card and the result is this 1 card that have the same quality. Not only i lose 3 card but also lots of money. Soldier_negativevocalization06.wav

There's also command center where i can have a chat with Shiki, his mother or quest master that provide me with request to related hero. Successfully finishing the task will increases affinity with related heroes and reward me with their card. It's kind of funny to see request from William because right now i'm William!

As you can see, the map is more revealed than before. Clearing main mission will reveal more part of the map. But the game suggest me to take on side missions as you can get more loot and experience that necessary for the next main mission. There's also the one called challenging mission which is side mission with certain difficult rule and very valuable reward. Just like what the game intends me to do, i will go with this side mission.

Why, of course! Even the doomsday draws near, local bandits keep harassing good people instead of working together to put an end to this great crisis. My objective here is to rescue 3 specific hero as soon as possible and defeat the great leader of the bandit. The good thing about working on side mission is you're allowed to choose BGM before the mission begins thus you're not trapped with fixed BGM. I find the remake of Ninja Gaiden music is to my liking thus i choose it for this mission. Here's the music:

It reminds me of the day i play Ninja Gaiden in gameboy although i never finish it. I should listen to this music again and again to repent for that half-hearted dedication.

Oh for God's sake, Ayane! Do you really want to remind everyone about that sexy volleyball game? I have better thought on this beautiful beach. It reminds me of Comodo area in Ragnarok Online. How's that?

Ok, this doesn't go well. I should be more focused or efficient on taking those bases and/or enemy heroes who are near allied ones. Not to mention that one allied hero falls mean instant failure. Taking the bandits is easy but those Yoki and dwellers are really challenging. Especially Yoki who have more resistance to flinch/stunlock. But again i'm William, the one who has the most experience on dealing with them. I can do this!

Of course, William's special power is 'Living Weapon' which summons Saoirsen to enhance his attack to be more powerful. By that i mean William's attack emit more damaging wave and with more range. This moment could be the most Nioh-ish in this game unless there's unlockable Nioh's music. But i'll be honest, Nioh soundtrack is certainly less fun and invigorating than mentioned Ninja Gaiden OST remix. Also back in the day that i still played Nioh, i don't set Saoirsen as my guardian spirit after i obtained her after the final boss which is ironic as she's the main raison d'être why William go to Japan. Why i do that? Because i see her boost isn't interesting to me. Thus i stick to Daiba-Washi (which is a wind-elemental hawk) that boost equipment drop rate and the quality of it because -you know?- i'm greedy bastard. Also i like to wear Odachi (two-handed sword) instead of Katana like in here. Wait! Did i rambling about Nioh again too much, again? I'm so sorry. 

After several attempt, i finish the mission successfully and we return to Sanctuary. Ayane now in the massage chair and Ryu is in the hot spring. I get into the spring with him and increase the friendship level just like in Toukiden 2. I never thought that i could see Ryu unmasked but here it is! Remarkable! With such tremendous achievement in my life, i stop the playthrough here.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the feeling that i get regarding Koei-Tecmo's Warriors All-Stars (2017). The gameplay is basically like other Warriors game which is simple but fun without too much thinking involved and it's functional. Plus there's bit of extra feature like Bravery and character card. The only bad thing in my opinion: the camera is easily distorted especially when you got juggled so you have to manually set the camera to your convenience. The gameplay is obviously not complex unlike Nioh (with stances and Ki). You can just swing your weapon around to your heart content but kind of mind about the combo move and unleash hero's skill once in a while. I don't see much of complexity in character's improvement yet as oppose to the variation of side missions and the reward you can get by completing them. At least that's what i feel if i compare this game with Dynasty Warriors Strike Force. The absence of horse, makes it difficult to travel around the mission map swiftly. Although the hero can run and initiate the sprint quite fast. Because this is crossover game, you will expect some serious blasting mash up as fan service. But that's not only including in character roster but also to music and enemies. Speaking of the rooster, it's more mixed than the one in Warriors Orochi which is Samurai Warrior + Dynasty Warriors and including Orochi himself. The music is fantastic, overall. The story is kind of bland cliché. The graphic is quite gorgeous.

I simply fascinated with Warriors All-Stars (2017). So it's no wonder it gets my personal recommendation. If you need action colossal but you're bored with Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors game, you can play this game especially if you're fans of Koei-Tecmo, certainly.