Ruling Hell is a grueling job and the transition can be rough when a new successor takes the reigns. Hell isn’t just where the worst of humanity goes, but is also home to countless powerful demons, and they’re not the type to sit back content in their positions. When Enma rose to being Hell’s new ruler, it didn’t take long for them to be deposed, with Gouma stealing the throne for himself. With the last of their power, Enma summons a champion from the mortal plane to engage in battle on their behalf, who in turn commands a small army of heroes to carve a path through the souls of the dead on the way to depose the usurper.
Over One Hundred Heroes And A Million Ways To Use Them
It’s best to ignore questions such as “Is Gouma doing a better job ruling Hell than Enma?” and “So long as the affairs of Hell stay in Hell, who the Hell cares?”, because when there’s an entire dimension of eternal punishment to beat down, it’s better to get right to it than go all philosophical. After a brief overview of the situation from Enma, who’s feelling all kinds of awkward about needing to summon a champion rather than having the power to take the throne back directly,Warriors: Abyssgets down to what it does best, which is let you pick a hero and become a human combine harvester reaping the battlefield of Hell.
Review: Dynasty Warriors: Origins
Dynasty Warriors: Origins offers a new take on the long running series.
Warriors: Abyssis a spinoff of Koei’sDynasty Warriorsseries, which initially started as aStreet Fighter-style fighting game back on the PS1 before completely rebuilding itself into the one-vs-army brawler series we know today in its second outing on PS2. Since that time the series has wandered from China to Japan, Hyrule,One Piece’s Grand Line,Fist of the North Star’s postapocalyptic wasteland and just about anywhere else it could possibly apply its gameplay hooks.Warriors: Abyssis different from the main series, though, in that it plays like the developer infused a bit ofVampire Survivorsinto the setup, with the camera pulled back to more of an overhead view while battles take place in open levels. There’s still the huge cast of over one hundred characters that each have their own weapons, stats and attack flow, fighting a battle against dozens of enemies crowded onto the screen at once. Each level ends with a choice of three options for a reward to define what the next level will be, though, and that’s usually going to involve brawling through a horde that starts off mostly harmless but gets progressively more aggressive as the levels flow by.
The simplest reward options are for two types of currency, blood tears and karma embers. Karma embers are for spending between one run and the next to unlock new heroes, hero formations and abilities, while blood embers can be spent during the run if a King’s Cauldron (I know spending blood tears at a cauldron is basically word salad, but just try to roll with it) shows up as an option for the next level. The King’s Cauldron lets you buy run-specific upgrades such as heroes, formations, and maybe a bit of health, and it’s a good idea to visit the first one you run across to get rid of the first formation. Which is advice that will make more sense in a bit, promise.
It Doesn’t Require a PhD In Lost Soul Whooping, But Doesn’t Hurt Either
The most common reward, though, is a crystal tree, which gives you the option to choose one from a selection of three supporting heroes and add their skills to the group. Each support hero comes with a number of emblems in two separate varieties, ability and attribute, and whether the hero is added to the active support group or not, these emblems add to the active hero’s totals. The ability emblem type has an immediate effect on the hero’s skills, whether that be an elemental affinity or attack, defense or other upgrade.
There’s no way to top off everything in a run, though, and in fact even maxing out a single emblem requires careful selection, but there are ones with effects you’ll quickly learn are vital even if you don’t want to focus on that stat. Level one speed, for example, makes it so the hero is invulnerable during an evade, while level one vigor lets you interrupt a telegraphed attack. The best skill selection is one of everything, a lot of a couple skills and to laser-focus on a specific trait to boost it high as possible.
Once a hero is selected and its emblems are added to your totals, it might be worth checking out the formation screen before heading off to the next level. You can have six heroes acting as support at any given time and they’re arranged in a formation that gives benefits to the fight. The default formation isn’t useless but close, best replaced with just about anything else you can buy in the shop between one run and the next. Seeing as you’re for the most part fighting alone, the formation isn’t visible on screen, but rather more of an upgrade running quietly in the background.
10 Best Dynasty Warriors Characters
These are the most beloved Dynasty Warriors characters in the franchise!
If that sounds like a lot, it’s actually just brushing the surface of the systems buried inWarriors: Abyss, but it’s all in support of becoming strong enough in a run to survive brawling through Hell. The actual combat system is straightforward, in fact, comprised of a standard strike and stronger charge attack, the screen-clearning musou attack when enough enemies have been taken out to fill its gauge and an all-heroes-on-deck formation assault that obliterates the normal enemies and does incredible damage to bosses. The shop also sells a particularly-nice permanent upgrade that lets you summon a hero from the formation for an extra attack as well, and when you get the timing of the various combat options down the screen, it can quickly get filled up with regular, special and support attacks all working in unison to dissolve the massed forces of enemy spirits.
It can take a while to mentally sort out all ofWarriors: Abyss' systems, even before touching on unique tactics, the difference between the in-run hero level and permanent hero stat increases from cumulative level, choosing the hero to play through a run as due to being in a bonus state that earns more karma embers, extra skills from finding or buying a hero’s unique weapon and a lot more. There’s a good tutorial right on the pause screen that explains each feature, but it can still feel overwhelming until you realize that all those functions, bonuses, upgrades and other options aren’t going anywhere and it’s more than fun enough to tear through an endless host of souls without getting too hung up on the details.
It can feel overwhelming until you realize that allWarriors: Abyss' functions, bonuses, upgrades and other options aren’t going anywhere and it’s more than fun enough to tear through an endless host of souls without getting too hung up on the details.
It’s unquestionably satisfying to tear through Hell’s battlegrounds, with each level upping the stakes until the fight is an explosion of attacks, effects, purple warning areas where the enemy is about to bring the hurt, damage numbers popping off everywhere, support heroes hammering their abilities onto the field and in general a whole lot of carefully-managed battlefield chaos. Experimenting by playing with different heroes and getting a sense of their combat flow is generally a good time, and while the button presses are similar from one to the other, their attack patterns tend to differ wildly and give strong variety in the handling. Getting to grips with each ofWarriors Abyss' system is something that can wait as the gameplay opens up, and each new run is another chance to both dominate the halls of Hell and become a little more familiar with the million upgrades needed to dominate the afterlife. There’s unquestionably a lot to figure out, but if you don’t worry about it much, it’s an approachable level of complicated.
Closing Comments:
Eventually most everything makes sense, which is right about the time the first full run is successfully completed. You find a hero that feels good to play as from the hundred-plus member roster, exploit the RNG as best possible to create a build for the run that works, synergize heroes like mad and unleash a barrage of attacks that melt enemies and bosses away. And then the Traversal Levels open up, giving all those skills you’ve learned a bigger, meaner playground to refine them in.Warriors: Abyssis a massive combat action-fest that’s got no interest in dumbing things down, and whether you’re learning its systems or exploiting them, it’s a fantastic brawl through Hell.
Warriors: Abyss
Version Reviewed: PC
Take command of historic and masterful warriors by challenging countless swarms of enemies. Through victory and defeat, traverse the merciless trials of hell.• A new type of battles fought alongside combinations of 100 and more heroes.There are 100 and more heroes for players to ally with, allowing them to combine the unique traits of multiple heroes and create their own powerful parties who will help them fight their way through the dead souls of Hell.• A new form of “WARRIORS” where heroes can be summoned to help eliminate enemies.By summoning heroes, the player can engage in impressive battles where they daringly rout endless hordes of enemies. This feature will offer players a new form of exhilaration never before experienced in the “WARRIORS” series.
