Mini Review: Samurai Warriors 2, Samurai Warriors: State of War, and Warriors Orochi

Your resident fangirl is one of those people who have yet to buy an Xbox 360 or a PS3, and is still stuck playing games on her old PS2. It isn't so bad, given that the great games that came out on PS2 are still replayable no matter how old they get.

These past few weeks, I find myself going back to the Koei Warriors series, specifically Samurai Warriors 2, Samurai Warriors 2: Empires, Warriors Orochi (no, I don't even have Warriors Orochi 2 yet, so sue me), and Samurai Warriors: State of War. While I've pretty much finished all of these games, I still go back and play them from time to time to get those fourth weapons and personal items, or even just for the heck of playing the hero and defeating hundreds of opponents in one go.

Samurai Warriors 2 is a lot of fun gameplay-wise, given that there are lots of things to do other than just follow the storyline and kick ass. When I get tired of Story Mode, there's always the pseudo-boardgame Sugoroku and the Survival Mode, which poses various challenges and mildly entertaining scenarios. And the voice acting in the original Samurai Warriors 2 isn't as bad as Orochi or Empires. Empires is always fun because, let's face it, I love taking over kingdoms and hoarding my wealth. The dialogues the officers have are pretty funny too; it's just too bad the english dub sucks big time.

Orochi is rather entertaining despite the really shallow storyline. I mean: big bad demon snake thing appears out of nowhere and somehow merges feudal Japan and ancient China, where the Japanese and Chinese officers work together to either bring down the demon snake or serve him. Never mind how they overcame the language barrier and the below-average voice acting, just bring on the funny dialogues between the warriors and the ass-kicking and I'm a happy camper.

Samurai Warriors: State of War is pretty much what I've been playing on my PSP while waiting for Dissidia to come out. What's interesting about the game is that it's a bit more tactical than the PS2 version, and the dialogues are more drawn-out and interesting given that it wasn't impeded by voice acting.

And aside from the interesting gameplay, I admit that I fawn over some of the characters in the games. My current favorites from the games mentioned above include Ina, Mitsunari Ishida, and Cao Pi. Interestingly enough, Warriors Orochi shows Mitsunari and Cao Pi becoming comrades (NOTE: COMRADES. I despise censortive word so don't even go there), which definitely gets a thumbs-up from this fangirl.