Warriors Orochi 3 first released in 2012 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The ultimate editions came out on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita just two years later in 2014. Now, eight years later, we just got the “Definitive Edition” of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate on PC, a game complete with much of the game’s DLC. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition comes with new improved PC graphics options, including uncapped frame rates and 4K resolution, as well as much of the game’s DLC. That means that Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition is the best way to experience this game.
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the game below.
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: Windows PC (reviewed)
Release Date: July 12, 2022
Players: 1-2
Price: $39.99 USD
The story of Warriors Orochi 3 is as crazy as the gameplay. The game takes place after the events of Warriors Orochi 2 where the monstrous villain, Orochi, has been slain by the combined heroes of the Sengoku and Three Kingdoms eras. Peace reigns across the mystical realms.
The combined lands of Japan and China that Orochi created with his magic. Just as life seems to have found a level of normalcy, suddenly a massive hydra appears around the world. The creature’s heads appear all around the world, swallowing massive pieces of land or simply killing the populace.
In a last ditch effort, the heroes Ma Chao, Hanbei Tanaka, and Sima Zhou lead a failed attack against the Hydra. When they realize that they have failed to kill the Hydra, they attempt to flee but, just as they were able to die, a mysterious woman named Kaguya appears and teleports them to safety.
Kaguya tells the trio that she has the ability to teleport the heroes to different moments of their past. She explains that the trio simply didn’t have the strength alone to face the Hydra, and they needed to go back and change the course of history and save their fallen comrades. If they are able to change their past, they can save their friends and bring them back to the present alive to go and face the Hydra together.
As new party members are added to the roster, new points in history will be able to be returned to, thus creating an expanding series of missions to carry out across the world. This is where the game gets awesome, as the story progresses, you can play as characters from Samurai Warriors 3, Dynasty Warriors 7, as well as a series of unique and cross-over guest characters – none of which I am willing to spoil.
The gameplay of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate doesn’t really break the mold of musou games. You play as a near demi-God, a hero who can take on over a thousand troops and barely break a sweat. You’ll bash, smash, wack, shoot, and blow up waves of enemies as you wage your war against the minions of the Demon King, Orochi.
You will play as a party of three heroes and work together to smash waves of demons. You can swap between the heroes on the fly and depending on when you do, you can create some awesome combos.
Every character will fall into a particular style category: Power, Speed, Wonder, Technical. Each category has its own strengths and weaknesses. I personally stick with using power characters like Xaihou Ba, Masanori Fukushima, Ding Feng, and Deng Ai.
Along with the campaign, there are also dozens of DLC maps you can play. Outside of traditional game experience, you can also play “Musou Battlefields” custom stages built by other players. You can make your own missions as well and upload them for other players.
There is also Duel mode, a 3v3 Fighting game where you can play against your friend in couch co-op, or take on AI in the increasingly difficult Survival mode.
In Duel mode, you choose three characters for your roster and then equip 4 card abilities that you can use as you build up points. These cards are a bit of a game changer in combat too, they can do things like instantly kill you, heal you to near full health, stop you from being able to attack entirely, pull you and your opponent together, or push you apart, among many different other effects.
Finally, there is Gauntlet mode, a mode where you select a team of five characters to go tackle maps together. In Gauntlet mode all characters will be out on the map at once and you must complete objectives, unlock Gates, and defeat enemies all while keeping track of the creeping miasma that will empower enemies and weaken you. Eventually you may want to just end a map early and escape through an earlier GATE rather than pushing forward.
One of the nice benefits of playing through Gauntlet Mode is that you will pick up resources as you explore the maps and those resources can be used to craft weapons and items in the main story mode.
The characters are based on their older counterparts, so Samurai Warriors characters play like they did in Samurai Warriors 3, while Dynasty Warriors characters will play as they did in Dynasty Warriors 7. This is fine if you liked those games, but I, personally, did not enjoy playing as almost any of the Samurai Warriors cast. I only really chose to play my boy Masanori Fukushima because, I mean, just look at him. He’s an absolute unit.
This will come down to personal preference, but I stuck with a largely Dynasty Warriors cast while I played through the game. That’s not to say that I did not enjoy playing some of the Samurai Warriors characters, certain characters felt downright insane on the right maps.
The sound of Warriors Orochi remains unchanged. All the characters are voice acted by their original cast to great effect. I personally love the voice actress for Kaihime, Masami Suzuki! As well as the voice actor, Jūrōta Kosugi for the intimidating but lovable demon himself, Oda Nobunaga.
Combat sound exactly like you think it would, but one of the highlights of this game is the soundtrack. The soundtrack of Warriors Orochi is full of bangers, like Samurai Scanners or Vertical Node
I often find myself grooving out to the OST while working on other content for the website. As time has gone on the OST has gotten even better with the Warriors Orochi 4 Trinity Mix of Samurai Scanners having a dude just going ham on that flute. There are no complaints to be had with the game’s sound, everything feels right as it should be.
The graphics are where it can get a little hit or miss. I personally played this game on my PlayStation 3, therefore the graphics feel fine to me. The 4k upscale and increased frame rate are a blessing because the FPS in a musou title has always been an issue.
That being said, at the time of the game’s launch there were some graphical issues with the game if you were running it at a higher frame rate, or at a 4k resolution. Personally, I did not run into any issues in the game, but when I used the Steam overlay to take screenshots, I would notice that the screenshots would have graphical issues, such as a piece of wood extending outward and just becoming a brown block.
The presentation of the game is amazing to me, it does show its age, especially compared to modern entries like Samurai Warriors 5 or Dynasty Warriors 9, but I feel like the graphics are definitely good enough that most players would not notice.
The one thing that I wish that Koei Tecmo and Omega force could have improved on was the draw distance of enemies. It is the same as it was on the console version, meaning the enemy pops in at a pretty short distance. That is a nitpick though because seasoned musou fans will have already experienced the musou draw distance, and new fans will still be surprised by just the amount of characters on screen anyway.
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate is an amazing game. It is full of content and will keep you playing for hours. When I started writing this review, I was 63 hours into the game, and I was only half way through the main story. I still had not cleared the 50th wave of Survival nor have I even started Gauntlet mode on PC.
There is so much content here that it is the ultimate bang for your buck. That’s why I have to give Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition a 10 out of 10
This is the perfect game to pick up if you want to get into the non-licensed musou titles, but also a fantastic game for veterans of the genre. There is a reason why so many consider it to be the peak of the IP. There are tons of characters to play that you are bound to have a bunch that fit right into your playstyle. The story is fun, the character interactions are charming, there really is nothing too negative I can say about it.
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition was reviewed on PC using a copy provided by Koei Tecmo. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition is available now for PC (via Steam).
