The mystical spinoff of Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate is coming at the beginning of next year and with it will come plenty of the deities and supernatural warriors the series has become known for. Not only will it have the entire cast from the original Warriors Orochi 4, it will include new characters such as the newest fighter to the series in Gaia. But she’s not the last new character to join the fray, as Yang Jian is the newest announcement to the roster.

The character is a brand new one to the series, as revealed by the latest Weekly Famitsu. Yang is a shapeshifter who has been ordered to inspect the human world by his masters, ending up getting caught in the conflict. His main element is water and he uses his trusty spear in battle. Yang Jian brings the roster up to a staggering 176, one of the biggest rosters of any Warriors title, which is saying quite something (thanks to Gematsu for tranlsations).

Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate will release February 14th 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

Dynasty and Samurai Warriors can bring you into versions of historical skirmishes that decided the fates of nations. Warriors Orochi brings those figures into a more fantastical conflict with terrible demons. Bringing these chaotic war zones to life brings with it elements of territory control and hectic balancing of defending multiple fronts.

" I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the oft-derided Musou series, and while the cheap high of the power trip it offers isn’t stripped away, the Berserk name is little more than a skin on an otherwise barebones Warriors title."

Hyrule Warriors was really a fantastic game. Taking the usually slower paced Zelda franchise, and recontextualizing those many years of adventures and childhood characters into something completely new. It couldn’t have been easy bringing it to life in a way that it both fit into the Warriors mold and considered the legacy of the source material with the same kind of reverence that they show other asian mythologies in their Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors series.

Of course though, this is supposed to be a review about Berserk, so why spend all this time on the history lesson? It helps put Berserk a bit more into context. Perhaps you consider the turn of phrase “The secret ingredient is love” to be a little trite, but that is precisely what bubbled to mind during my time with Berserk and the Band of the Hawk. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the oft-derided Musou series, and while the cheap high of the power trip it offers isn’t stripped away, the Berserk name is little more than a skin on an otherwise barebones Warriors title.

The power fantasy that gets fulfilled by striking down 15 foes with a single swing of your massive sword should fit right into the Berserk universe, with powerful mercenaries fighting for the highest bidder. The protagonist Guts, nearly superhuman due to his training is loathe to become beholden to anybody. Guts is soon inducted by force into the Band of the Hawk, led by Griffith.

"The dark and oppressive world of Berserk has deserved a game for a long time, inspiring titles like Dark Souls. However, Omega Force chooses to lift those moments from the anime instead of gives us the tools to live them."

The beginnings of the saga get retold pretty faithfully, if melodramatically even for the source material, either recreated in engine or cutscenes styled from the anime. It allows the game to serve as an introduction to the source material, even if one of the more long-winded and tedious ones.

Unlike other crossover Musou like Hyrule Warriors that came across as true labours of love, however, Berserk settles for these surface level connections and keeping relative pace with the plot of the anime as enough. Mechanically the game does nothing to connect it to the source material and put you in the boots of Guts of the cast, aside from a cheap “rage” frenzy meter with accompanying “Death Blow”. The dark and oppressive world of Berserk has deserved a game for a long time, inspiring titles like Dark Souls. However, Omega Force chooses to lift those moments from the anime instead of gives us the tools to live them.

Beneath the tenuous skin of the source material, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk really does very little to distinguish itself, and the moment to moment gameplay is the worst that the genre has to offer. Where most Musou games have some sort of extra gimmick or scope that keep things interesting, such as Samurai Warriors and the two character gameplay, or Hyrule Warriors and their huge maps exploding with objectives, Berserk just feels phoned in by comparison.

"The typical Warriors combat system might thematically mirror Guts’ brutal fighting style, but in practice it grows repetitive far faster than any other game in the series.   "

Maps in Berserk are far more limited, sometimes taking place within singular small fields instead of the sprawling environments these games usually have. Overarching objectives generally remain static throughout a mission. The situations may change, but the moment to moment gameplay remains rather banal. The typical Warriors combat system might thematically mirror Guts’ brutal fighting style, but in practice it grows repetitive far faster than any other game in the series.

Many missions can take place in what amounts to literal corridors, removing any element of territory management from the game as the fodder enemies are filed in as the plot demands them, asking you to push ahead or in most cases sit and defend a point. In the more open maps, the situation again may change but the reply to it never really will.

Defeat the captains to open the path for the siege tower, destroy the catapults and guard the rear for the retreating allies all sound on paper to be different objectives, yet the same gameplay loop of targeting the biggest guy resolves each situation. Past games would have mixed in surprises or dual objectives to prioritize, when the simple structure of Berserk’s levels frequently don’t allow such nuance.

"Limited maps and lacking mission design pair with basic Warriors series combat to deliver something that neither quite lives up to the Warriors series pedigree, or Berserk legacy."

Even the paltry three modes within the game function about the same, leaving nothing to break the tedium. You have the choice of following the story, free battle where you can follow the story with any of the playable warriors, and Endless Eclipse which thrusts you into a mission based tower mode with even less branches than actual story missions. It’s the most the game mixes up the core ideas, but it still loses to mechanical stagnation.

It’s a shame that Berserk ended up with such a soulless version of genre that could have done something with the source, and a source that so desperately deserved a good title. Limited maps and lacking mission design pair with basic Warriors series combat to deliver something that neither quite lives up to the Warriors series pedigree, or Berserk legacy. Perhaps it serves as an introduction to the series, but it is neither the most exciting introduction nor the most expedient. An easy skip.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 4.

Toukiden is an upcoming exclusive PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable title that is being developed by W-Omega Force the creators behind Dynasty Warriors series. However, this time around they’re making a ‘Monster Hunter’ genre-type title for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable exclusively for Sony. The game looks quite promising and a lot more beautiful than Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii U and 3DS thanks to the PlayStation Vita’s capabilities. With that being said, they have released two new videos and plenty of screenshots to gaze upon.

Feast your eyes on the media blowout below

Gameplay Video

Game Introduction/Commercial (In Japanese)

Toukiden Screenshots:

According to the trailer/videos the game will be available on June 26th in Japan. It is currently unknown if the game is coming to North America and Europe, I am deeply hoping that it does at one point. I loved Monster Hunter personally on the PlayStation Portable, and this would be the perfect way to play PlayStation Vita and would totally help the hardware pick up more sales.

Let us know if this game intrigues you in any way and if you’re hoping for a North American and European release sometime in the future in the comments below.