With Koei Tecmo’s Warriors Orochi 4 out in stores for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and Steam, we got a chance to sit down with the producer of the game, Furusawa-san, for a chat about the game, and the lore behind it.
For some of our readers who may not be familiar with the Warriors Orochi series, how would you describe Warriors Orochi 4?
The Orochi series is a dream crossover where the characters from the DYNASTY WARRIORS series and the SAMURAI WARRIORS series appear together and battle. In Warriors Orochi 4, we have the addition of mythological gods such as Zeus and Odin, to feature a total of 170 heroes who borrow the power of the gods as they battle with flashy actions in this exhilarating action game. For people who are not familiar with the two games (DYNASTY & SAMURAI WARRIORS) I referred to, in Warriors Orochi 4 we show the characters’ personalities and ways of thinking so that people unfamiliar with these series can easily follow along.
During the planning stages for Warriors Orochi 4 was there a particular direction that you or the team at Koei Tecmo wanted to the game in?
In fact, the shape that this game took is what I had thought of since the game’s initial concept. Using fantasy as the concept, we added essences of gods and mythology into the story, characters and actions, and as a result were able to create a new Orochi game for the players.
How long did development take, was it a smooth journey, did any part stand out compared to your previous work?
The actual development took about a year and a half. Of course there were parts that did not proceed as planned; we revised the magic system many times to finally come up with the final version.
I have to say congratulations for Warriors Orochi 4 receiving a Guinness World Record for having the most playable characters in a hack-and-slash video game, was this feature something that the team at Koei Tecmo wanted to implement or was this something driven by the fan of Warriors Orochi series?
Thank you very much. Having all the characters appear in the game is the number one thing we wanted to do to meet the wishes of the fans. Every character has fans, so we did not want to narrow down the cast of characters. From the development side, it was tough and we had our concerns, but there’s no meaning to making a game where we can’t please our fans, so we came together as a team and put all our efforts into making this game.
Warriors Orochi 4 is a very high-action, very high-speed game does that mean the game has high system demands? How does this affect the frame rate and resolution that Warriors Orochi 4 run on consoles?
Similar to all the other games in the Orochi series, we do our best to bring the most out of the hardware specs. As you mention, the high-speed aspect is important to this game, so we did have trouble fine-tuning the game during development to stabilize the frame rate.
For owners of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X can they expect any additional features over the PS4 and Xbox One S?
There isn’t a big difference between the systems. It does support 4K output.
Warriors Orochi 4 adds magic to Warriors Orochi series, how does this change how to game playscompared to previous games in the series?
It has increased the tempo of the game. You can attack enemies closing in on you without pausing, and add in even more magnificent combos. We’ve designed it so that it brings out the allure of the base actions, such as being able to pull in enemies closer or being able to warp around, so I think players can enjoy the game using many different characters.
The game features a number of Greek and Nordic gods as original (playable) characters, can you tell us more about them?
Zeus, King of Olympus, created the stage for this game. Spearheading Zeus’ vision is his daughter Athena and son Ares.
At the other end, revolting against Zeus is the hero Perseus. In order to stop Zeus’ motives, the player cooperates with Perseus to help find “bracelets” that wield extreme power.
And then there is Odin, the god who rules over Asgard. It seems that he is concerned about Orochi, the Ruler of Destruction who has appeared throughout the series…
So these are the 5 new characters who appear. The DYNASTY WARRIORS and SAMURAI WARRIORS officers have their own reasons to follow Zeus or Odin, and there are constructs and designs that don’t exist in the original stories.
Can you tell about the online features of the Warriors Orochi 4?
In Story Mode, there is 2 player co-op play. (Offline, there is also split-screen co-op play) And there is also the Battle Arena, which is a 3 vs 3 battle mode. The rule is to capture more bases than your opponents in order to win, so while you can obviously directly attack your enemies, you can be a decoy, or outmaneuver your enemies and try and read your opponents’ actions, all of which make versus battles exciting.
Is there a feature in Warriors Orochi 4 that you are most proud of?
It’s without saying the 170 playable characters. Each have their own unique actions, so I hope people will find their favourite character.
For fans of the Warriors Orochi series, what can they expect from Warriors Orochi 4?
I think we’ve been able to put together a game that fans have been wanting to play. In addition to the new world and story (supervised by the game creator Yoshitaka Murayama), fans can enjoy the flashy and speedy actions enhanced by magic actions. With the standard elements the series has been known for kept in place, we’ve included new elements that bring this game to be one of the best in the Warriors series. I am confident in saying that fans can feel at ease when they take hold of this game.
We would like to say thank you to Furusawa-san for taking to time talk to us and to the team at Koei Tecmo.
