I am going to probably sound like a broken record, especially considering I have played the last three games released by Koei in their Dynasty franchise. Their latest title is Warriors Orochi 2, a PSP port of the PS2, then Xbox 360 game from 2008. You would think that instead of just porting a home-console title, they would have given us an original spin on this spin-off series. Instead, we’re given a re-hash of a game that wasn’t that good to begin with and one that even hard-core fans of the franchise will probably not want to play.

As with previous Dynasty Warriors games, Warriors Orochi takes place in feudal China of the Three Kingdoms Era. In this game, after the results of the first title saw those who associated with the evil Orochi, we see them disband into their own factions in the hopes of succeeding where he ultimately failed. Here you’ll be able to play as a number of different groups, including controlling Orochi in a series of different stories.

On paper, this should sound like a great little basis for a game, but in it just crumbles. In the game’s main story mode, you can play as one of a handful of different groups, each looking to succeed. There is a bit of variety in their stories but the goals are all the same, defeat your opposition.

In Warriors Orochi 2, you control three characters that are tasked at completing the various tasks given to you. Each character available to you has different traits, from being extremely fast to strong. In the beginning, you will only have a small group to choose from, but as you progress, you will recruit new members and have the ability to customize your squad to your liking.

While the combat is the same as with other Warrior games, the ability to quickly switch between your heroes can sometimes lead to great combo attacks if your Musou meters are full. The problem in Orochi is similar to that of other games in the series; it is extremely repetitive and very mundane. You goal is always the same, defeat as many enemies as possible and a key opposition member without losing your main base or an important ally character.

The series in general is in dire need of a re-boot. While the 5 available stories are all very different, the fact that your mission objectives are the same does little to help distinguish any differences. The problems continue with the fact that even with recruiting new members to your side, you never feel any real connection to any of them. Once you begin levellng up your core group, there is no reason to really bother trying to strengthen other members since it feels more like a chore than a pleasure. I know that Koei likes to boast how there are more than 96 characters to choose from, but only the absolutely die-hard of players will care to bother strengthening them all.

On the PSP screen, your characters and the main enemies do look fairly decent, but it’s not the same comment for everything else. The game suffers the same draw-distance issues that have been a problem in previous games. It also hurts that environments are quite often reused and fail to offer any sort of depth to the game. Generic enemies also suffer from the same repetition that has hurt the franchise for such a long time. Enemies will appear out of no-where, get stuck in areas and often act like mindless drones. It can be fun getting to destroy 500 or more enemies but it quickly gets old when 300 of them are generic soldier ‘A’.

There is absolutely only one saving grace in the sound department, the option to play the game in Japanese. The English voice-work here is downright embarrassing. You will be hard-pressed to find anything comical in the delivery in a game that should not be as comedic as it appears. Thankfully, if you turn on the Japanese soundtrack, it at least gives you the impression that the voice-actors took their job serious in adding a bit more atmosphere to the game.

I have questioned in the past why Koei and the guys at W-Force use a cheesy J-techno soundtrack for this game; it just doesn’t work on any level. A game like this begs to be associated with a strong instrumental score. Just imagine watching key a battle-sequence from your favourite film and rather than having a score by John Williams, you have a guy behind a synthesizer delivering the music. It would never pass in a movie and doing it in a game is just robbing players.

Once you’re done with the main storyline, there are a few other options available to you. If you feel like replaying a previously completed mission with a super team, then Free Mode will allow that to happen. Dream Mode puts you in specific situations with a pre-determined squad. As you complete missions you will unlock more.

The last section available to you is the Vs Mode. Here you have four different modes that can be played either against the CPU or a friend over Ad-hoc multiplay. Modes here include a weird steeplechase mode where you race around a track on your horse. The first to complete circuit wins. Then there is Tag Team where you select three characters and battle against three other characters. It does get boring fairly quickly when playing against the computer, but with a friend, you might play it more than once.

It’s hard to tell if Koei and W-Force are simply trying to cash in on gullible gamers or that they really do enough Focus Testing before releasing their titles. Regardless of how you look at it, there isn’t enough here to warrant any fan of the series to pick this up. Fans of the series deserve a quality title that is fresh and innovative and potential players desperately need to see why others love this series. Until that happens, I cannot suggest this game to anyone.