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Last week, Koei Tecmo surprise launched a brand new, heretofore unknown Dynasty Warriors game, and I went through a full gamut of emotions over it in the space of three minutes.
Upon seeing the thumbnail and trailer pop up on my Youtube feed, I was elated. I’ve been a big fan of this franchise for two decades, and they only just released an incredible new reboot of it last month — so what could this game even be? All those instant hyped up hopes were crushed into dust when I pressed play and was treated to two minutes of the blandest-looking Hades clone I’ve ever seen.
I get it. Hades was popular. It helped expand the “roguelite” action genre to its biggest audience of all time. Dozens of clones popped up overnight, from indie studios and known franchises. Heck, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just got a pretty good Hades-a-like, so why shouldn’t Warriors get a crack at it?
Still, Warriors Abyss doesn’t show well, and that’s putting it nicely. The backgrounds are endless strings of bland flat plans rendered in one main color. The character assets are once again recycled from games stretching back many years, last seen in 2018’s largely excellent Warriors Orochi 4. It’s set in a mythical hell so that…
