Warriors: Abyss Review – Welcome To Hell

Dynasty Warriors has been a series that has felt a bit of an identity crisis. It started as a spin-off of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, which itself was based off of the novels of the same name. The game was the birth of the musou genre. In fact, this series is the genre as any games that aren’t Dynasty Warriors will still have the Warriors name and branding. This includes Warriors: Abyss.

So, what exactly is the musou genre? Well, the term itself is the Japanese word for peerless, or matchless. Which, embodies the entire idea of the genre. You will take on hoards of enemies blasting through them in style and grace. It’s entertaining on a very base level.

There isn’t much depth but that isn’t a problem. Warriors: Abyss is an attempt at blending this genre with the randomness of a rougelite. Will Koei Tecmo pull it off, or will this be another failed experiment?

The First Layer is Always the Worst

Warriors: Abyss starts it’s story with King Enma, the lord of the underworld in Japanese Mythology. He has a problem. He needs warriors to help defeat the demon Gouma, who has attacked and weakened Enma. To combat him, the young King has decided to summon warriors to his aid.

However, he finds out that upon defeat a summoned warrior will return to the surface, forcing them to return to their original state from when he summoned them. So now, Enma must continually summon his warriors as they make their way towards the lowest layer of hell to defeat the evil Gouma.

The idea for the story is actually interesting to start out with. This setting also allows for the musou genre to shine. Allowing us to slash through the souls of the damned. However, it is sparse only popping up between each layer of hell.

The real issue is that, for the first time you begin a save file, you will have to listen to Enma constantly. This creates a stop and go feeling that by the end of it, I was screaming. Enma will rattle on about systems and defeating Gouma. All the while, the warrior will just be silent. We can choose responses to Enma sometimes, but more often than not, will go off by himself.

The start is arguably the worst part of Warriors: Abyss. It feels like a chore, especially after going through the very first layer of Hell. I do wish the story was spread out more evenly instead of being lectured at the start to hearing nothing from Enma. This style of course isn’t much different than other contemporaries in the genre.

For example, Hades only has story when the player dies or clears a run. The difference is that the beginning of Hades doesn’t have miles of text to start. The story and tutorials are spread out evenly per run. Warriors: Abyss on the other hand, front loads everything, not even allowing us to complete a run before being forced back to the start. Thankfully, playing the game feels much better than the tutorial.

Hack and Slash Until It is Done

The gameplay itself is what I would expect from a Warriors title. We will be mixing basic and heavy attacks to form combos, that look amazing. The difference is that following in other rougelites we must kill a certain number of enemies. This number starts low at around 40 to forcing us to kill over 200 in the later floors.

Once defeated we will obtain; experience, souls, blood tears, and a reward. This reward is based on what we choose in the previous room. Our choices will range from saplings, that allow us to summon another warrior, to a store, that lets us spend blood tears. The issue I have is that the beginning of a run feels the worst, mostly because of how fast 40 enemies die.

The first eight floors leading to the first boss fly by. So, the first time I hit the first boss I felt unprepared. Especially with how boss fights work in Warriors: Abyss. Fighting a boss will not lower it’s health instead lowering it’s shield. This shield once depleted stuns the boss opening him up for damage.

This can make the entire fight feel bad and annoying as the boss’s HP won’t go down. This is even more annoying as I personally got through a quarter health before he stood up. Meaning I had a whole other round with him. It wasn’t until my third or fourth run when I realized that we were supposed to use another mechanic when he went down.

Said mechanic is the Assemble gauge. This gauge fills up by dealing damage, killing enemies, and hitting the boss when he glows. Once filled we can activate it summoning each warrior in our assembly. This will deal huge amounts of damage especially with this trick. Alongside the Assembly Gauge we also have the Musou Gauge.

The musou gauge is the same as the Assembly gauge, except it fills much faster. Once filled our warrior can unleash a powerful musou attack that deals heavy damage. The game doesn’t tell you this but the musou attack changes during an assembly. This will essentially cause a special attack that will end in a huge finisher from all the summoned warriors.

Using this effectively will deal massive damage to the boss sometimes killing him in one go. Once I learned this the first layer of hell became a cake walk. Instead, I used it to start my build and solidify my strategy. This one mechanic made the boss instantly more dynamic but the game refuses to tell you about it.

That’s my real issue with the opening of the game. So much is left for us to discover that the tutorial is useless, marring an otherwise fantastic experience. Especially with the hundreds of heroes to unlock. Which is where the rougelite experience starts to shine.

Diversify Yo Bonds

To unlock new Heroes, you will have to spend the Karma Embers you’ve earned on your runs at the Hall of Bonded Souls. Each hero unlocked will improve a stat and raise the max level of a warrior on a run. This is where most of your buffs lie. Unlocking as many as you can is vital to make sure your stats get progessively stronger, which in turn, makes the runs a lot easier.

Furthermore, Heroes summoned through here can be summonable through a sapling, increasing your potential of builds and stats. You can also obtain new Formations that can be obtained through the King’s Caludron. This is the most engaging element of Warriors: Abyss. In fact, this is the element you should focus on first as going deeper will depend on your available warriors.

The End of the Line

Warriors: Abyss is a fantastic time that has a lot of mistakes. The primary issue being the introduction and tutorial of the title. It’s rare that I have an issue with an opening of a game. However, Warriors: Abyss manages it.

There is a lot here outside of the opening. The systems are engaging and playing the different heroes is great. Even the boss battles, once gotten the hang of, are engaging and fun. There are even hundreds of heroes to unlock. This title has it’s flaws but there is a lot here to keep you engaged. Although, you will need a lot of patience to start Warriors: Abyss. The system and art will draw you in and the rougelite aspect brings a ton of replayability to the title.