Warriors Orochi 2

The serpent king once again provides a thin excuse to unite the casts of the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors series in Koei’s latest hack-and-slasher. More than 90 detailed and colorful characters are split between speed, power, and technique disciplines, and there’s a substantial library of abilities, skill upgrades, and customizable weapons to draw from as they progress. You slaughter scrubs and named opponents across more than three dozen missions, and each fighter becomes progressively more powerful.

This system could easily serve as the basis for a gripping action-RPG, but Warriors Orochi 2 offers few improvements over the utterly repetitive action combat of its fl awed predecessor. It’s hardly exciting to swap between three characters and unleash special attacks when you spend most of your time slashing through simpletons who seldom fight back — and losing missions when incompetent A.I. partners die. Koei fanatics might be satisfied, but everyone else will be as disappointed as ever.