Earlier this year, Koei and developer Omega Force achieved a landmark success with their reboot of the long-running Dynasty Warriors franchise. As we concluded in our Dynasty Warriors: Origins review, there’s no going back for the series now that it has established a strong new gameplay formula – then along comes Warriors: Abyss.
This wonderfully experimental spin on the Musou template offers up a Roguelite remix that apes the action-packed lunacy of Vampire Survivors. From a top-down perspective, you’ll descend into an underworld overrun by demonic nasties, playing as one of the many characters from the combined Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors rosters.
Despite the shift in perspective, Warriors: Abyss will feel instantly familiar to Koei fans. Each of the 100+ heroes have had their own unique movesets lifted from past games in the Warriors series to give them all a distinct flavour. You’ll be met with little resistance against the waves of rank and file grunts who may occasionally try and get a swing in as you clobber them by the dozen. However, as you advance between waves, these enemies will be flanked by an increasingly diverse menagerie of monsters – each run of Warriors: Abyss will inevitably climax with hundreds of foes writhing on-screen beneath a chaotic purple lattice of telegraphed attack indicators.
To help cleave through the madness, players have plenty of loadout options at their disposal. Between phases (in which you’re usually required to KO a set number of enemies or complete a specific mission) you’ll have the option to recruit other heroes into your Formation, each offering stat bonuses and abilities. For your first few runs you’ll likely ignore the finer details of these mechanics, but you’ll quickly find there’s plenty of options to tweak your playstyle, collecting specific heroes to find synergies and unlock powerful upgrades whether that’s an increased attack range/speed or imbuing your weapon with one of several element types.
Recruited heroes can also be assigned to the six attack combos each character comes equipped with. Once you pull off a combo you can hit the special attack button again to summon that designated hero and have them pull off their own flashy move. Naturally, Warriors Abyss also brings back Musou attacks with an additional gauge allowing you to assemble the heroes in your formation and have them wreak havoc on-screen until it depletes.
At its peak, Warriors Abyss conjures a whirlwind of total destruction that can barely be contained from both a gameplay and technical perspective with the PS5 version occasionally dropping frames. Even for seasoned Musou fans whose virtual body counts climb into the millions, this chaotic display will prove overwhelming yet it’s true to the genre. To help master the chaos, you can spend the in-game currency you acquire to unlock and upgrade heroes between each run while also tracking down each of their unique weapons while exploring the underworld.
Your end goal is to make it as far as you can through Gouma’s gauntlet, eventually going toe-to-toe with the game’s main antagonist. Instead of chucking ending waves of enemies in your path, you’ll advance between stages with each area/biome culminating in a boss fight. These are pretty damn tough with punishing attacks that will force you to think carefully, dodging with precise timing and planning your hero summons.
Due to the near unreadable number of effects popping off on-screen at any one time, visual artistry isn’t a primary focus. Each of the Warriors character models are excellently designed (with plenty of costume DLC up for grabs) yet you see very little of them amidst the swarm of demons and a never-ending onslaught of screen-filling attack animations. There’s very little appealing about the enemy or environment designs and though some fans will take an interest in the narrative that weaves together playthroughs, I opted to skip most of the dialogue.