Path of the warrior

I can't remember the last time I had such a sudden burst of enthusiasm, interest, and a will to hunt down a series like this. Maybe its in part because I've got some small system of income to my own now, but its also got a lot to do with just the games showing up again and again in the right time and places. No more beating around the bush though, this whole article is about how freakin' awesome the Warriors franchise is. Actually is it even fair to call it a franchise? It kind of goes beyond that. Its like if Shadows of Mordor, batman, and mad max were all attached to the same team and relative formula as Asssassins Creed, and each new release earned the association of it being a "Creed game". That's kind of what the warrior franchise is. There's various spin-offs involving other franchises like one-piece and Zelda, Samuri warriors, Dynasty Warriors, and then a cross over for the publisher themselves by the way of Warriors Orochi. On top of that each series or game seems to have its own Capcom-esque hyper ultra semi-sequel revised edition going on for it. Crazy stuff. Needless to say its intimidating to find a good place to step in and hope for a quality experience and without being cheated of content. However I ended up indulging on it through three games, just to make sure I hit my mark: Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires, and Samuri Warriors 4 (not to be confused with 4-2). So far I'm holding Orochi on the backburner as SW4 and DW8E suck up my time and make me wonder how 9am became so dark all of a sudden with the clock saying 6. These games are way better than you'd think they have any right to be.

Basically they all work off the base idea that you go around some unusual jagged map with spots of territory, dealing mostly melee + magic based attacks, mowing down literally a thousand or more brain-dead army minions while cutting down the occasional high ranked official. The basic shared combat trait is that you mash in the square buttons for light hits, triangle for strong, and you make chains with them that eventually transition into energy that helps you pull off specials. That's it as far as shared traits go, and it usually stays relatively that simple for the most part, but each series has its own liberties and interesting tweaks. For example SW4 has two characters you can switch between and command around, as well as a Hyper attack system that begins with strong attacks and has a unique sweeping motion. There's also an inventory system and each character gets better over time by traditional RPG methods of experience points. DW8E allows two weapons (which come from a long list, whereas SW4 just gives each character their own thing), has more double the special types per character, and also some weird elemental system I don't quite grasp yet. Ultimately though its not just about the combat. What hooked me initially as I played a demo for it long ago was the novelty of commanding an army on a massive field, and claiming territories. That natural conquest tug-of-war is a feeling I always love in war themed games, and this just felt like nothing but that at first. Of course the combat seemed really lame at first, and the AI way too stupid to make this fun, but over time (especially thanks to Hyrule warrior's kiosk demo) I came to really appreciate the combat and seek out the depth under its shallow surface. Combined with the strategy, meta game of leveling up, and the personalization of a few features and this game series has me fully hooked.

In a couple of cases I found myself feeling kind of like a kid again with these games, and I wasn't fully sure what it was at first. I'm a nostalgic person, but use that term somewhat differently as a way of celebrating good things of the past rather than being clouded by it or intentionally trying to force a kid-like view out of it. So this feeling is actually quite rare. At first I found myself just thinking "I bet I would love this way more if I were 8" because of how awesome the novelty was, and some replay features. I then changed that to actually feeling as if I were 8, upon seeing the ridiculous piles of customization on Empires. That was it! I had found a surprisingly good gem of a series with a brand new list of things to learn, some solid strategy elements to it, and so much customization (especially empires) that if I wanted to I could get sucked into this game for days just playing out my own stories. All of that exactly like how I saw the worms 3D trilogy back in my childhood days; those games were fun strategy games with some edge to beating them, and a lot of creative ways to goof off after that work. There wasn't a lot of legit powerful strategy to them, and mechanically you could probably get whatever you wanted out of it in two weeks. Meanwhile due to my creative mind they would eat up over a month of my time, making armies, stories, and special rule sets catered to my role-playing mind. This game is like a modern day form of that, coming in with heavier surface mechanics of distributing live attacks in various and evolving combos, while being able to adjust and adapt to an evolving battlefield. It feels more relevant to me now than it might have in the past (besides, no way little me would grasp Empire mode), and delivers things under a style I kind of appreciate more at the moment than I would have before... but the draw is a whole line of creativity and an entirely unfamiliar formula to learn that throws me right back into an old mentality I've missed.

So now I'm just really hooked on this. I don't know how long it'll last, but so far I've got a lot to still do, and I'm still playing it with barely any incentive to leave the TV never-the-less give up on any game. This thing made me put down and forget about just getting Dishonored Definitive Edition as well, and I've honestly got no intentions on returning until I'm satisfied with this new little discovery... and that includes the still wrapped Orochi game. I still also kind of want to say something on battlefront, or maybe the recent dead or alive situation, but I just don't want to because I'd rather be playing these awesome games. ...and so with that being said, its time to get back to it. Time to continue the path of the warriors.