In the last Warriors Orochi, the titular Serpent King Orochi created a portal in space-time and brought warriors from different countries and time periods together in order to find a worthy foe to test himself against. At the end of that game, Orochi is killed and the new land enters a period of peace. Rather disappointingly, Koei seems content to put very little thought into the main story and once again the Serpent King is resurrected by his faithful right-hand demon-woman, Da Ji, to conquer the land to find mortal opponents that can match his prowess. Despite the somewhat dull over-arching story, the relationships between the human generals and heroes is generally entertaining and the strength of the game’s story lies more with the smaller tales of the mortal heroes and villains than it does with Orochi’s machinations.

The game plays out over five campaigns, as alliances are forged, truces shattered and old warriors return to the battlefield. The player takes the role of the empires of Shu, Wu and Wei as well as a motley crew of some of Samurai Warrior’s lovable rogues, and even as Orochi himself. The story is told by FMV, dialogue scenes between levels and through events on the battlefield, as officers surrender, change sides, flee or pursue personal vendettas. Each campaign takes place over the course of eight levels and the game generally does a good job of conveying a narrative that is easy to follow. Special mention should go to the characterisation of the heroes, as it has been consistent through each game, and long-term fans will delight in the charm of some of the interactions between them.

At its core, the game is a fairly straightforward hack-and-slash fighter, where the player will get a kill count of several hundred enemies per level. The player has a number of different attacks at their disposal: a basic combo attack, which forms the core of the combat; a charge attack; manoeuvre attacks; and a special Musou attack, which charges up as the player inflicts damage. Unfortunately, this variety of attacks doesn’t mean that the combat is slick or smoothly flowing. Often animations are a split-second too long, which can make some combos and attacks feel a tad clumsy. However, this is only a very minor detraction from the satisfaction of carving through crowds of enemies with one combo.

The choice to make three playable characters available through each campaign is no doubt an attempt to stave off the potential boredom caused by using one character over and over again. In a game where the player will get roughly 600+ kills a level, being able to switch between radically different characters is a welcome addition. On top of this, the characters level up and their weapons can be upgraded. This adds a feeling of ownership to them, as the player sees their characters grow in their abilities with extended combos, unlockable skills and magical attacks. Whilst this customisation isn’t particularly deep, seeing a character’s weapon blazing with fire or spewing lightning adds to the feeling of power and destruction the player has as armies flee before them.

Battles are played out across expansive landscapes that are unfortunately low on detail and have severe draw-distance problems. This is because the game is a direct port of the PS2 version, and there has been no work done on the art at all between formats. Having said that, the levels are well designed and often feature objectives on either side of the battlefield, that force the player to make tactical and sometimes daring decisions about where they are needed most.

Every recent Warriors game has featured a plethora of extra modes and Orochi 2 is no exception. There is a variety of multi-player modes, though none allow online play. The best of these is the split-screen co-op mode, which allows two players to tackle the campaign battles together, and the help of an extra player is greatly appreciated in tackling all of the objectives and sometimes-tough officer fights.

Warriors Orochi 2 is a divisive game and one that many will over-look due to the largely negative reviews circulating for it. The fact that the core gameplay has changed very little since the last game (and every Warriors game before it) and the design has gained only incremental changes will put a lot of people off. This is compounded by the poor art, animations and laughable voice acting. However, there is a an undeniably fun aspect to the fantastical slaughter, and this can only be put down to the base thrill of killing ranks of troops with a single sweep of a sword. It is a shame that Orochi 2 doesn’t have the looks or style to draw in a new crowd, but for those that give it a chance there is an enjoyable battle game here. It may not set the world on fire, but this iterationprovides fans with more of what they want: large battles, outrageous characters and simple but satisfying combat.