Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition Review – An Actual Definitive Edition

2012 gave us the third entry in the Warriors Orochi series, Warriors Orochi 3 on the PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U. A year later, in 2013 we received Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate on PS4, Xbox One, and PS Vita. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate included more characters and a new story that takes place after the end of the original game. With a huge roster of 145 characters and a butt load of stages, there was still a lot of content in the original game that was only expanded upon in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate. Eventually, it would be ported to the Switch. For those of us that were PC players, we had to wait until July 12th, 2022 before Koei Tecmo decided to shadow drop Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition on Steam.

Game Name: Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition
Platform(s): PC
Publisher(s): Koei Tecmo
Developer(s): Omega Force
Release Date: July 12th, 2022
Price: $39.99

Many “Warriors” consider Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate to be the absolute pinnacle of not just the Warriors Orochi series, but the “Warriors” games in general. Even though I still think it holds up in many areas, it also shows the advancements that Omega Force has made throughout the years to improve their “Warriors” games. Things I take for granted now were not in this game, and sadly they were not added in either.

Warriors Orochi 3 takes place at the end of the combined world of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors that was mixed thanks to a character named Orochi. Orochi combined these worlds not only to conquer the armies of the Three Kingdoms, and the Warring States period of Edo Japan, but to find someone who could kill him. You eventually find out why, which I won’t be telling spoilers because it is actually a pretty solid story. After Orochi gets his wish and is killed off, a massive Hydra appears and wants to destroy all dimensions of existence.

This results in even more dimensions crossing over, and you get to also team up with Soul Calibur characters, Ninja Gaiden characters, Dead or Alive Characters, and more. You have to team up with all the dimensions to stop the Hydra from destroying all existence. Pretty easy premise until you realize that the Hydra has killed most of humanity in these dimensions and you have to use the power of Kagura to reverse time and help find those who can help you kill the hydra before they are killed.

Three vs. 3000 

The whole thing of the Musou genre is one vs. 1000 type gameplay. One of you versus 1000 other enemy soldiers on a usually large battlefield., however, here it is slightly different. You can choose three characters to cycle through at any time in the battle. Most of the battlefields are rather large and still house quite a lot of soldiers to sink your teeth into. In battle, you have normal attacks, charge attacks, Musou attacks, and special attacks. Normal attacks do little damage but are fast. Charge attacks take up more time and are unique to the character you are playing as.

If you pick speed-oriented characters, your special attack may be fast to start up, or it may result in a normal string of attacks that are just more powerful. Some charge attacks will even have Area of Effect attacks that help destroy many soldiers at once. Musou attacks are also different with each character. Some have a move that uses up some of their Musou gauge to deal with one massive and crushing attack. Others can use a series of attacks until the gauge is depleted. Many of these movesets are unique for having a cast of over 140 characters.

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition includes a Story mode, Gauntlet Mode, Duel Mode, a Free Mode, and a Galley Mode. Duel mode is three vs three duels with you controlling one character at a time but can change at any time to fight your opponent, whether player-controlled or computer controlled. Story mode is the story of Warriors Orochi 3. When you finish, you get access to the other story modes added to the Ultimate edition. Three chapters deal with a different enemy, as well as a whole chapter devoted to detailing the origins of Orochi and how he became the Serpent King we all love.

There is a butt load of content in this mode with unlocking characters, weapons and abilities. Free Mode basically lets you choose to play any stage with any three characters you have unlocked. Gauntlet Mode is a very interesting mode that I recommend playing after story mode because it can get quite difficult. You get to fight as five characters, and they are all on the field at the same time, but you can change between them at any moment in the action. You can unlock additional officers to join you in the map as you defeat them and trade their crystals in to unlock them. You also gain access to special abilities and formations from your officers. There are many elements in Gauntlet mode that add playability and might be where you would lose most of your time once you are done unlocking stuff in Story Mode for like 50 hours.

Warriors From an Older Age

There is only so much you can do to remaster a game originally made for the ps3 and Xbox 360-generation of games. In terms of lighting and graphical effects, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition looks much better on PC than on any other medium. That includes the Xbox Series X optimized version. However, it still doesn’t help when the battlefield textures is still really poor quality. Character and soldier models look fantastic, but that is where it ends. Trees, rocks, mountain terrain, and environmental graphics look poorly done. It definitely didn’t get much better having those poor textures upscaled and redone in High Definition.

A big problem also is how the pop-in works. Xbox 360 and PS3 had some hardware limitations that required only a certain amount of units on the screen at a time, so it had a lot of pop-in code to let the game run at a steady rate. PCs currently have much more power and can handle much more stress. I have an RTX 3060 and can run many games with my PC. Sadly this title does not allow me to change the pop-in rate or the field of view effect that was hard coded into the game for older consoles. Enemies can disappear and reappear quite frequently, especially with many enemies on the screen. There have also been reports of various particle effects that can turn your units black for no reason when you use special attacks or Musou attacks. I personally never ran into this issue with my 40 hours spent on the game, but it has been reported too often for it to just be made up. Odds are, it depends on your PC build and the settings you are playing with. My PC could keep a solid 60 fps no matter the number of enemies on the screen. I didn’t try going above 60 fps.

The Horns of Victory

The soundtrack and the music in this game are fantastic. Each battle has different songs that help describe the mood of the event you are participating in. The final battle with Orochi X sounds Triumphant. The fight with the Hydra is very sullen and feels like you are fated to lose. Even with the music having a very defined mood, they are all also upbeat and can become a great workout mix or help you feel pumped to kill 1000 demon soldiers to help prolong the end of the world, if only for a few minutes. However, each map can take up to 30 minutes to complete. Thankfully, the soundtrack still keeps you engaged no matter how much it could loop because it is just that good!

Definitive Version 

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition has a lot of added perks being released. It includes almost all the DLC it had on consoles, including DLC maps, costumes, and skins. It has a lot of value in trying out the game for those who already had it just to try out the new DLC levels… There are a LOT of DLC levels, and they are really, really difficult at times! They also give a ton of character experience for leveling up your characters. Sadly not all the DLC was able to get relicensed for this release so we didn’t get absolutely everything. Still, the game received a sizable chunk that makes this purchase worth it.

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition is currently available on PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition was bought by The Outerhaven for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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