WARRIORS: Abyss brings us a new take on the beloved action series from KOEI TECMO America and Omega Force. Are you ready? Then check out our WARRIORS: Abyss review!
WARRIORS: Abyss brings us a new take on the beloved action series from KOEI TECMO America and Omega Force. After a surprise announcement and launch during Sony’s State of Play, it’s now time to take this game for a spin on PlayStation 5. For this new journey, we’ll be playing through a roguelite hack ‘n’ slash action game in which randomly generated stages will test our skills every step of the way. The choices made along the way will allow you to grow stronger in order to extend each run for as long as possible… until you’re eventually defeated. Just be sure to learn from your mistakes so that you can dive in and do it all over again. With over 100 heroes for you to ally with, there are a ton of potential combinations for your parties to take on the endless hordes from Hell.
And what’s the premise for WARRIORS: Abyss? The souls of our beloved heroes have ended up in the underworld. It’s there that they’re informed by Enma – who happens to be the ruler of the underworld – that the evil entity known as Gouma has been unleashed and has now taken over everything. It’s at Enma’s request that our heroes must now dive into the abyss to fight against the undead! As you take on floor after floor of Hell, you’ll need to act fast in order to defeat the hundreds of enemies the game will throw at you in each wave. Given its roguelite nature, each run will be different, since you won’t know what enemies you’ll be fightinig, which items you’ll find, and which companions will join you along the way.
You’ll get to learn the basics during a short tutorial when you begin your journey through Hell. You’ll take control of your heroes with the left analog stick as you attack with the Square button. The Triangle button can be used for a charged attack or a hyper attack, depending on how much energy you have in your bar. Musou and formation attacks will be mapped to the Circle button. Evade incoming attacks by timing your button presses since you can use the X button to stay safe for a bit as you plan your next move. Assemble your forces by pressing the R2 button so that you can unleash all of their might.
Pay attention to your enemies’ movement and attack patterns. Some of them will just rush towards you and try to deal any damage they can. Others will telegraph their moves, acting a bit more slower as they basically let you know what area they’re about to attack and the overall range of their attack. These slower attacks can be deadly if you’re not on high alert, so be careful! Dash away and avoid them while you continue to attack the rest of the horde to stay alive.
As you defeat enemies, you’ll absorb their spiritual energy in one go. This will allow you to gain access to powerful Emblems for your mission. Emblems will enhance the power of your attacks, charged attacks, Musou attacks, and more. A Wisdom Emblem will upgrade your Musou attacks. Grab yourself a Speed Emblem, and you’ll receive a small boost to your running speed while also making you invincible while evading. As expected, an Ice Emblem will upgrade the ice attribute of your attacks. There are also Emblems for Vigor, Skill, Strength, Charm, Fire, Bolt, Wind, and Slay.
You’ll get to collect Karma Embers during your adventure. You can use Karma Embers at the Hall of Bonded Souls to form a pact with more heroes. This will unlock more characters for you to use on your mission to defeat Gouma. On top of that, each hero that you unlock will also grant a special bonus to everyone. Say you unlock Kunoichi by spending 100 Karma Embers. This will boost the attack of all heroes by 1%. After a pact has been set with a hero, it will start to show up at Crystal Saplings, which will allow them to join you and support you in battle. You can also spend Karma Embers to unlock special formations that will grant you additional bonuses that will surely increase your odds of survival.
During your run, you can collect Tears of Blood, which act as the in-game currency. You can spend them at a King’s Cauldron node during your run in order to acquire items that can be of great help. You could purchase an alliance with a hero you haven’t been able to find at a Crystal Sapling. You could also buy formations to change how you take on subsequent challenges during your run. You can even buy some food that can be used to heal your wounds so that you can keep going for a little bit longer. Or maybe you’d like to buy some Spring Water which can then be used to completely fill up your Musou gauge?
This new WARRIORS game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to add to your collection… and since this is a Cross-Buy title, you can download the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game to your PS5 console, and each version will have its own separate trophy list for you to work on. Said lists will be split into 18 Bronze trophies, 12 Silver trophies, and 4 Gold trophies for you to work on. Some of the objectives that you’ll have to complete include making it through each section for the first time, forming 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 81 bonds with heroes, unlocking 1, 5, and 10 formations, being defeated 10, 20, and 30 times, acquiring a total of 5,000 Karma Emberss, obtaining a total of 10,000 Tears of Blood, defeating 5,000 enemies in total, and dealing at least 500,000 damage in one go with Assemble, to name some examples.
WARRIORS: Abyss brings us a new take on the beloved action series from KOEI TECMO America. After a surprise announcement and launch during Sony’s State of Play, it’s now time to take this game for a spin on PlayStation 5. For this new journey, we’ll be playing through a roguelite hack ‘n’ slash action game in which randomly generated stages will test our skills every step of the way. The choices made along the way will allow you to grow stronger in order to extend each run for as long as possible… until you’re eventually defeated. Just be sure to learn from your mistakes so that you can dive in and do it all over again. With over 100 heroes for you to ally with, there are a ton of potential combinations for your parties to take on the endless hordes from Hell.
WARRIORS: Abyss is out on PlayStation 5 with a $24.99 price tag. There’s also the WAThere’s Abyss Hack’n’Dash EditionHack’n’Dash, which, along with the base game, also includes a Costume Set bonus, the Hack’n’Dash LegendaHack’n’DashSet, and 3,000 Karma Embers. And if you want to go all-in, you can get the WARRIORS: Abbyss Ultimate Edition for $79.99, which includes everything already mentioned, as well as the DYNASTY WARRIORS Classic Costume Set, the SAMURAI WARRIORS Classic Costume Set, and an extra 2,000 Karma Embers, for a total of 5,000 Karma Embers.
Disclaimer
This WARRIORS: Abyss review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by KOEI TECMO America.