Warriors All-Stars Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: N/A

Warriors All-Stars is a hack and slash game developed by Koei Tecmo. The game is a crossover of many of the company's other games all with Warriors style gameplay. Players get to choose a main character from many game franchises from the start and then you'll start a campaign and story exclusive to that character. One of the best parts about the game is that there are multiple stories depending on who is chosen and you'll play different stages and get a unique ending, so it's worth it to replay the game as other characters eventually.

The game takes place in a kingdom where a king has died and a magical spring begins to wither as a result. This magical spring helps the kingdom to sustain life, so heroes from other worlds are called upon in order to restore the spring using their power. The heroes are scattered throughout the land during the summoning process so the characters from the kingdom set out to find the heroes. Depending on who you choose from the start, you'll get to see up to three sides of the story. Each character usually starts out with other characters that represent the game that they come from. You'll get to choose from Dynasty Warriors characters, Nioh characters, Ninja Gaiden characters, Dead or Alive characters as well as many other franchises from Koei Tecmo.

The game uses the standard Warriors style gameplay that is similar to the combat in Dynasty Warriors 8. Each character has their own combos that you can string using the two attack buttons and all characters have their own Musou super attack. There is also a crush attack where you get a few seconds to plow through enemies while your partners cheer you on. You can have up to four partners in your team along with your main character. The partner characters can be controlled if you switch them to the main character slot. Partner characters are mainly used for support skills. By holding the R1 button and pressing one of the face buttons, you can call in your partners to help out with their own unique support skill.

You'll be constantly unlocking new characters through characters missions that constantly appear. Story missions, character missions and missions for gaining extra loot appear constantly on the world map. You'll get missions that will suddenly pop up and be available only for a few seconds and you'll also find loot that pops up randomly on the world map as well. Completing story missions will further the plot and open up more of the world to explore. At the center of the world is a huge area where you can level up your character and purchase items for them. Material, gold and hero cards can be found on the world map and by completing missions. Hero cards are equipped to your main and partner characters. They give your character extra skills and level up your attributes. Characters can be leveled up by completing stages or by using gold to boost their levels.

Even though the game offers many options in customization and characters to control, just like the usual Warriors game, the gameplay gets rather boring very quickly. If you've played one of the Warriors games, this should come as no surprise. Thankfully, the game has some nice replay value since all character stories are different. Warriors All-Stars is a decent crossover game for players that are comfortable with the Warriors style of gameplay but don't expect anything more than your standard run-of-the-mill hack and slash Warriors gameplay from this one however.

The Good:
+ Separate stories and campaigns per character
+ Can switch between multiple characters per campaign

The Bad:
- Usual repetitive Warriors style gameplay
- Story is not that engaging at all

Final Rating: 65% - A decent Koei Tecmo crossover experience for fans of the Warriors style of gameplay.

Note: A review code for this game was provided by the publisher.