Warriors: Abyss review: Addictive, chaotic gameplay, with only a few speedbumps

Koei Tecmo recently shadow-dropped a new game, Warriors: Abyss — a Roguelike set in the overarching Musou universe. It appears to be set in the Warriors Orochi timeline, given that characters from Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and some others converge in a battle through the pits of Hell. It’s a very Warriors Orochi-style game in that vein. While there’s not much in the way of story, the gameplay is incredibly addictive and fun.

Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors characters combine into teams that may have the potential to grind through floor after floor of demonic foes — that’s the gist of Warriors: Abyss. The title also got the timing just right, as Dynasty Warriors Origins recently released, and is proving to be successful.

Warriors: Abyss is an easy-to-play, hard-to-master Musou Roguelike

The gameplay loop for Warriors: Abyss is a simple one — you pick a character from the ones you’ve unlocked, to lead your team. Then you dive into a series of regions of Hell, recruiting more people that synergize with your main character. For example, if you pick Cao Cao, you’ll want to get Ice-elemental characters or ones that are also leaders or members of Wei.

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Things can get incredibly hectic very fast — but even with 2 hp left, there's still hope of survival (Image via Koei Tecmo)

That creates synergy and can help your overall team grow in power. You can put these characters in a variety of formations, and then summon those allies through your charge attacks (Heavy Attack in your standard Musou games), though they have a cooldown. Each region has eight stages, which culminate in a large, powerful boss encounter.

As you go through the stages, you can unlock additional challenges for more currency rewards, or even items that can help/hinder you. Some of the treasures increase the odds of getting Missions in a stage — which may be too hard for the player in the early game— thus a hindrance.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is quite simple. Each character has a combo chain similar to the classic Musou games in Warriors: Abyss. Furthermore, the charge attacks that end combos will trigger your summons — so if you use Charge 5, and Lu Bu is connected to that, he’ll show up if not on cooldown and strike down enemies.

While the enemies all feel very generic, that’s okay — they’re monsters and soldiers of Hell — they don’t have to be that memorable. We’re just cutting through them as soon as they appear with massive, flashy attacks. However, it does lead me to one of my major complaints about Warriors: Abyss.

Boss fights in Warriors: Abyss are remarkably tedious affairs

I love Warriors: Abyss, don’t get me wrong. It’s amazingly fun, and slicing and dicing through hordes of enemies is so incredibly satisfying. But Boss fights are just fun suckers. When a boss appears, they have a health barrier, that you have to wear down. Once that wears down they’ll be briefly stunned during which you can actually damage them. If you don’t manage to kill them, you’ll have to do it all over again.

Make sure to choose your allies wisely for each run (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Each loop seems to get a little harder, and by the third wave, the boss starts to flood the screen with more minions than ever along with tons of large, circular AOE attacks. This is also a good time to talk about your summons. You have a meter that, when full, summons them all at the same time to do a series of attacks.

However, the bosses do make that easier. When they flash yellow, you need to hit them with a combo attack, and that will fill that meter much faster. Unless you’re capable of dealing tons of damage, these fights are remarkably tedious. However, the more you play someone, the higher their base level is, and that will help you deal more damage/progress further. Still, I’m not a fan of the boss fights, at least, when the game first kicks off.

There is a huge collection of characters to unlock, which naturally requires farming

I'm so close to unlocking Tadakatsu Honda! (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Roguelikes need some kind of hook to keep players coming around, and in Warriors: Abyss, it’s unlocking more characters to play as. There are about 100 characters in the base game, and Koei Tecmo has already given out a crew of characters for free, including the primary characters of the Jin faction in Dynasty Warriors 7.

As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock a currency that you can use in the Hall of Bonded Souls, which is attached to the Great Hall — where you start a run. You use this currency to unlock more potential formations, items, and most importantly, characters. Of course, the most powerful characters — Lu Bu, Keiji Maeda, Tadakatsu Honda, and so forth, are spread out, so you have to plot a course.

Honestly, it’s not a bad grind. It's a lot of fun to play through missions, but you'll find yourself returning to the game time and again, as you unlock more and more of your favorite characters throughout the course of your battle versus Gouma.

The visuals are simple but memorable, and the music is fantastic

It's so satisfying to summon your allies to help fight your battles (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Each region of Hell has its own aesthetic, and while it’s simple, it’s also effective. The actual Musou characters all look like they’re using classic forms from previous games, instead of what you’ve seen in the most recent Dynasty Warriors: Origins. It’s a sharp look, that should also be playable on many PCs.

However, my favorite part of the presentation is the music. I’ve been on record in the past saying that I adore the amazing guitar riffs of classic Dynasty Warriors games, and that’s what we’re getting here! The background tracks are so great, and long-time fans of the series will be transported back in time as they play.

Final Thoughts

Warriors: Abyss is a very simple game, that has a lot of potential depth. Figuring out optimal characters, making the most of what you get, from formations to character recruits, and mastering combat are all going to make the game worthwhile. I do think some things would have made it better — perhaps a boss system redesign — though I believe players are eventually going to cruise through this game.

The game feels like it’s designed to get through it in one run eventually, like one would in Hades or Dead Cells. It’s a fantastic, fun Roguelike — not perfect, but certainly a fun Musou experience. For the buy-in cost of around $25, you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth in this one.