Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 32: Warriors Abyss

Warriors Abyss (無双アビス) Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC, Nintendo Switch Release date: 13 February 2025 (digital only) Really? Really. You just couldn’t do it, could you, Koei Tecmo? And just as I thought you’d learnt your lessons when you released Dynasty Warriors Origins. Not even a month since that came out and you literally decided to drop this in the February 2025 State of Play; it wasn’t even a “Coming Soon” announcement, you just dropped a whole fucking game for seemingly no reason and refused to elaborate any further. You’re just giving me more work to do for the Koei Warriors Retrospective, aren’t you? When I got the idea to begin this series, I never imagined I would end up covering Origins, and then this just dropped. I’m kind of glad things managed to turn out this way in terms of numbering, but goddamn, the amount of work I have to put in just when I think I’m done with this series. The day before this game was announced, Card-Majin published an idea for a Hades-inspired roguelike game on the r/dynastywarriors subreddit. Little did he know what would transpire. Anyway, I’ve gotta explore this game eventually, so let’s dive in one more time. Warriors Abyss The concept of roguelike games began with the 1980 Unix terminal game Rogue, which was inspired by text-based computer games and the high fantasy setting of Dungeons & Dragons, and ported to other personal computers of the time, like the IBM PC (MS-DOS), Macintosh, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit and the TRS-80 Color Computer. Aww, I miss Alec and Shanna. Don’t you miss them too, the Tandy Computer Whiz Kids? Anyway, Rogue is a game where characters go down levels of a dungeon to seek the Amulet of Yendor in the lowest level, fighting monsters and collecting treasures on the way. A characteristic of this game, and other games like it that would become a genre known as roguelikes, is that there is no interim save mechanism - if your character dies in the game, the game is over and you will have to start again from scratch. Dungeon levels, monster encounters and treasures are procedurally generated for each playthrough (save for bosses at specific intervals depending on the game), so no two playthroughs are the same. With the increasing number of roguelike games being created, not all of them were being created with all the unique characteristics that Rogue had, so elitist enthusiasts started gatekeeping the genre, calling games that didn’t have all the characteristics “rogue-lites” or “roguelikelikes” to differentiate them from actual roguelikes. In 2008, the first International Roguelike Development Conference (IRDC) was held in Berlin, which led to the creation of the Berlin Interpretation, a list of 15 high and low value factors that define roguelike games. It acknowledges that a game missing some of those factors doesn’t mean it’s not a roguelike, but a game possessing some of those factors doesn’t mean it’s a roguelike either. Hades is commonly described as a rogue-lite, so if Warriors Abyss was inspired by it, then it’s technically a rogue-lite as well. Arguably, Koei Tecmo has dabbled in rogue-lite formats in the past with game modes like DW4/5XL’s Xtreme Mode, SW1/2’s Survival Mode, WO3U’s Gauntlet Mode and WO4U’s Infinity Mode, but this is the first game explicitly made as a rogue-lite. After development on Wild Hearts wound up, producer Kōtarō Hirata wanted to pitch a rogue-lite game. He came up with two pitches, with Warriors Abyss being the B pitch, but when he fleshed it out, he found it more interesting since the Warriors games already had a lot of characteristics that made it very compatible for roguelike games, so Hirata ended up pitching Warriors Abyss by itself. This was Koei Tecmo’s first roguelike game so it would be an experiment for them. Development on the game started in February 2024 while Dynasty Warriors Origins was being developed and Hirata aimed to release it as soon as they could, hoping to capitalise on the early-access release of Hades II. The plot of the game is as follows; Hell, the Underworld’s prison for grievous sinners, has been taken over by the villain Gouma, an ancient god banished to eternal slumber in Hell, who has awakened and is spreading his evil will throughout its depths, raising the dead and creating demons. The ruler of the Underworld, King Enma, found himself losing control of Hell and summoned the souls of the heroes to help him regain control. There are four levels of Hell to traverse through; The Blazing Waste (戒焔獄), The Glacial Wilds (白魔獄), The Blood-Stained Realm (血華獄) and The Desolate Expanse (無明獄). There are 8 phases to each level, and in the last phase of each you’ll fight a boss, namely Onigashira (オニガシラ), Magadori (マガドリ), Tamahami (タマハミ) and the Bloodthirsty Warrior (キシンムシャ) based on Lu Bu and/or the Veteran Warrior (トウジンムシャ) based on Tadakatsu Honda. On later levels and higher difficulties, you’ll also see the first three level bosses as mini-bosses, namely the One-eyed Ogre (ジャキ), Skeletal Griffin (キョウコツ) and Dark Wraith (トコヤミ). Once you arrive at the deepest level of Hell, you’ll fight Gouma (ゴウマ), then when you defeat him, he’ll reveal his true form and you’ll have to fight him again to clear the playthrough. On release, about 100 characters from both DW8E and SW4-II were made available; even Masayuki Sanada and Sasuke from Spirit of Sanada were available outside that game for the first time since they weren’t featured in WO4. Not every DW or SW character was available (at the start), DW characters used their configurations from 8E where applicable and even SW characters were divided up into factions when they never were in the original games. The return to the modern era was admittedly jarring, but understandable. The battle mechanics of DW8 and SW4 are compatible with each other, but the same can’t be said for DW9 and SW5 because they had battle mechanics that diverged from the classic system or cut characters from their lineups. Subsequent updates have added additional characters to the game, and hopefully the updates will continue as time goes on. All characters are limited to a 6-hit Charge Attack moveset with 2 EX Attacks for DW characters or a 6-hit Hyper Attack for SW characters, so anyone who had more than that had their movesets rejiggered to fit. Certain DW characters will also have Unique Actions based on their EX weapon gimmicks. Each branch of a Charge/Hyper Charge Attack appears to have an extra input, even for SW characters who normally don’t have C6 attacks. We’ll come back to that later. They’ve also made it so you can just hold down the Square button to perform your Normal Attack string or Triangle to perform your Hyper Attack string. The game is presented in a three-quarter view, that is to say you’re looking at a dungeon in an angled bird’s eye view. You’re looking in the same direction but you can’t rotate the camera. Characters are unable to jump in this game, meaning that attacks that send them into the air will bring them back to the ground. Pressing Cross makes you dash-evade and you can do this an extra two times with upgrades, but each dash-evade requires a cooldown before it can be used again. DW Strikeforce had dash cooldowns that were barely a second and it’s still better than this. As you traverse through Hell, you’ll encounter Crystal Saplings (浄玻璃の若樹) after clearing a stage, where you can choose a hero to join your party. Heroes have their own emblems which can contribute to powering up abilities and attributes, plus they also have their own unique emblems that can contribute to Unique Tactics when they are in your Formation. At the War Banner of the King (大王の軍旗, also ’s exists, you know), you can change your formation and the heroes in it, or you can let Enma recommend a formation that will bring out as much Formation Attack Level. Each different formation has different effects and skills that are activated in an Assemble Attack. Throughout your playthrough you can also gain Karma Embers (業蛍火) and Tears of Blood (亡者の紅涙). Karma Embers carry between playthroughs and allow you to unlock heroes, formations and upgrades in each playthrough along with unique weapons for characters (if not unlocking them in the game) at the Hall of Bonded Souls (魂結の間), while Tears of Blood are exclusive to the current playthrough and you can purchase heroes, formations and recovery items for your party at King’s Cauldrons (大王の大釜). Peach Trees can increase your maximum health on top of recovering some of it as well. Sometimes you can also get Crystal Beads (玻璃のしずく) that allow you to pick an extra character at a Crystal Sapling, or you can obtain extra emblems separate from obtaining them with heroes. If the character you select hasn’t been unlocked in the Hall of Bonded Souls, you can just obtain their emblem instead. The more ability and attribute emblems you obtain, the more powerful your character becomes. You get an additional ability for each emblem you obtain for the first 8, then it’s every 2 emblems until you get 18. If you ask me, it should be every emblem until you get 12 or 13 because I hate gaps. The various emblem types you can obtain, and the abilities they influence on your build (as it is called), are as follows: Vigor: Attack power and range Skill: Attack actions and speed Strength: Defence Speed: Movement speed and evasion Wisdom: Musou Attack power and recovery Charm: Formation skills and Assembles Attributes (Flame, Ice, Bolt, Wind, Slay): Elemental attack and defence I want to point out here that you don’t use your character’s full moveset immediately when you start a run. You start off at 4 hits, then unlock the 5th at 1 Skill emblem, the 6th at 4 Skill emblems, and then the EX Attacks (or elemental effects on Hyper Attacks) at 8 Skill emblems. Sometimes at the beginning of phases, random events known as Memories of the Lost (亡者の記憶) will appear, using images taken from the rest of the series. You will choose from 2 or 3 choices with give you various buffs or debuffs, mostly for a number of phases. A lot of choices are chance choices, where if you select it, the game will roll for what effect you’ll receive and there’s a certain percentage chance you’ll get one or the other. Some choices require you to have a certain amount of a certain category of emblems, while some choices will cost Tears of Blood. So you know how I said that each Charge/Hyper Charge Attack branch had an extra input? Each hero in your formation corresponds to what Charge Attack they can be summoned in, from C2/SS2 to right after an N6. Summoning a hero makes them perform their Summon Skill attack before they go into a cooldown. You can quick summon a hero during a Charge Attack by pressing R1 to instantly trigger their Summon Skill, but there will be an additional cooldown on top of their usual cooldown. Musou Attacks for DW characters are the same as those used in WO4 with some exceptions, while the Musou Attacks used for SW characters are their Frenzy Finishers. The exceptions for DW characters (at least the ones added from the start of the game) are as such: Lu Xun’s Musou Attack 1 (Blaze Kick/炎環腿) adds an extra flourish from the Musou Attack 2 (Volcano Smash/火山靠) like in DW9 Zhao Yun’s Musou Attack 1 (Flying Dragon/飛龍閃) adds the dragon corkscrew seen in Warriors All-Stars Guan Yu uses his Unique Magic from WO4 instead of his Musou Attack 2 (Stormy Rage/天空轟断破) Diaochan’s Musou Attack 2 (Lunar Dance/月李) has her move forward like her Musou Attack 1 (Silver Lotus/銀蓮) Sun Jian’s Musou Attack 1 (Tiger Claw/虎爪) adds an extra flourish from the Aerial Musou Attack (Roaring Fangs/爪牙咆哮) Zhang He uses his Aerial Musou Attack (Peacock Strike/孔雀抱) instead of his Musou Attack 1 (Eagle Talon/鴛鴦襲) The Dynasty Warriors Weapon Moveset Power Rankings have been updated accordingly. If more characters are added in future updates, I’ll have a look when I can and make updates if there are any. There is also a separate Assemble Gauge and when full, pressing R2 will trigger an Assemble (man, fuck that name). Until the gauge runs out, the rest of your formation will continuously perform their Summon Skills, turning the screen into a big epilepsy-inducing cascade of attacks amongst the cascades of enemies. Launching a Musou Attack during an Assemble turns it into a Formation Attack/Assemble Musou, where characters perform their Rage Musou/normal Musou loop before all characters in your formation come together for a 7-man Kamehameha. If you complete the phase before the Assemble Gauge runs out, it will stop where it is and you can continue filling it up from that point. The big issue with Assembles is that you’re not invincible like in Musou Attacks. This becomes a detriment when you’re fighting the bosses because one swipe from them during an Assembly and you’re dead. Plus, depleting a boss’ health is instantaneous and not gradual like with other enemies, so it looks like they’re tanking your attack all at once. Bosses have shields that need to be depleted first, so there is a chance that they will recover your shield just before you get to the Kamehameha bit of a Formation Musou. Honestly, for the amount of damage you deal to bosses compared to the amount of damage enemies deal to players, the player’s health should be 10 times what the game gives us. After defeating a boss, you’ll be able to obtain a special treasure that stays in effect throughout your playthrough. You will get 3 treasures max per playthrough. Clearing playthroughs allows you to unlock higher traversal levels (or should I say lower?). Higher traversal levels allow you to earn more Karma Embers, but enemies will be stronger, less unlocked heroes will appear at Crystal Saplings (which becomes redundant when you unlock all of them), the Tears of Blood cost at King’s Cauldrons will increase and there will be fewer portals to choose from. At Traversal Level 5 (and 6), you will fight both the Bloodthirsty and Veteran Warriors. Before starting a new playthrough, some characters may have a Karma Ember logo on their portrait. These characters are in a Bonus State that will yield an increased amount of Karma Embers. Bonus State characters change with each playthrough. In the Hall of Bonded Souls, bonding with characters will increase all characters’ health, attack and defence, while bonding specific groups of characters will allow you to increase your level cap through Bond Bonuses. Each character has two hero traits, one that is unlocked by default and another that is unlocked by obtaining their unique weapon, which will also increase their attack by 50%. They come in rare drops in treasure chests after completing missions, or they can be purchased in the Hall of Bonded Souls for 50,000 Karma Embers. Further updates would add more modes to the game and make adjustments to character actions on top of the usual bug fixes. In the menu, there are achievements and collection items you can unlock by playing over and over again, including concept arts, Underworld Records and BGMs. The only DLCs for this game are costumes. Selecting a different costume for a character will also change their profile in the character selection menu. On release, there were three costume sets for the 100-so characters that were included at the start. The Legendary Costume Set contains DW3 and SW1 costumes for characters who were in those games. The Dynasty Warriors Classic Costume Set contains: The original costumes from DW8 ROTK 12 costumes for Zhao Yun and Sun Shangxiang Xiaoqiao’s Dengeki PlayStation Politan costume Guan Yinping, Xingcai and Lu Lingqi’s Famitsu fox costumes Qipao costumes for Sun Shangxiang, Diaochan, Xingcai and Guan Yinping WO4 DLC costumes for Lu Xun, Daqiao, Guan Yinping and Lu Lingqi Xingcai, Wang Yi and Guo Jia’s yukata costumes and Xu Shu’s Western costume from WO4 store bonus/pre-order DLC Alternate costumes for Fa Zheng, Chen Gong, Lu Lingqi and Xun Yu from 8E The Samurai Warriors Classic Costume Set contains: DLC costumes for female characters from SW4/4-II Swap costumes for Oichi, Ina, Nene and Nō from SW4 store bonus DLC Mitsunari Ishida without headgear from Famitsu Takakage Kobayakawa as Motonari Mōri from SW4E pre-order DLC Naotora Ii’s idol costume from SW4-II first print DLC Sanada costumes for Kunoichi, Ina and Kai from SW Spirit of Sanada Sasuke’s alternate costume - a red variant unique to this game Old Ieyasu Tokugawa, Mature Nobuyuki Sanada and Young Masayuki Sanada with and without headgear from SW Spirit of Sanada WO4 DLC costumes for Mitsunari Ishida, Gracia, Kai, Kunoichi and Naotora Ii Mitsunari Ishida, Takatora Tōdō and Yoshitsugu Ōtani’s costumes from WO4 store bonus/pre-order DLC Yukata costumes for Oichi, Nene and all male characters from SW4E Man, that was a doozy to list. Two Deluxe Editions of this game were also made available on release; the Hack'n'Dash/Start Dash Edition which includes the Legendary Costume Set, and the Hack'n'Dash Ultimate/Full Costume Edition which adds on the two Classic Costume Sets. DW1 costumes for Cao Cao, Zhou Yu, Lu Xun, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei (which were also in DW8) were available for free until 14 March, but not the DW1 costumes for Xiahou Dun, Taishi Ci, Zhao Yun, Diaochan and Lu Bu (which were in DW7). Of course, thanks to the lower price of this game and the amount of DLC packs, the game ends up costing one-sixth the total cost of the game with all the packs, but if you bought the Hack'n'Dash Ultimate Edition and then all the costume packs for the characters that were released in updates, it actually costs less than if you just bought the game and all the DLCs, provided you don’t accidentally buy them twice somehow. New characters coming out in each update would also come with DLC costume packs containing reused new costumes for those characters. Keep up the money grubbing, Koei Tecmo. As is standard with spinoff games since SWChronicles or DW7E, Warriors Abyss was localised without English voices. However, funnily enough, there isn’t a lot of dialogue from the featured characters, but rather, their generic system lines are reused from WO4 or the respective characters’ games. Koei Tecmo finally took on my idea of using archived voices from WO3U even if it wasn’t as a supplement to newly recorded voices so they don’t have to rerecord them. The only new voices in this game are from King Enma, voiced by Ai Fairouz. Despite this game also being localised by Digital Hearts, there is a lack of macrons in this game for names like Kotarō Fūma or Takatora Tōdō, like it was in SW1. I guess this explains why the big bad’s name is Gouma and not Gōma. But, this is a lower budget game, plus not many people will care about it so I won’t harp on this point for too long. The text languages are the same as for DW9 and Origins save for Portuguese or Arabic. While perusing through the update notes, I noticed that they were finally fixing translation errors in localisations. WHY WEREN’T YOU DOING THAT FOR YOUR OTHER GAMES IN THE FIRST PLACE?! Updates and patches So as stated throughout this post, Warriors Abyss has received updates to add characters, add new features, adjust actions and fix bugs. Originally I had these notes scattered throughout the rest of the post, but with multiple updates continually coming out I decided to move these to a separate section for a less cluttered look. Version numbers follow those of the PC version on Steam. February 2025: Version 1.1.0.0 Released 25 February 2025 The February 2025 update introduces the Jin kingdom to the list of heroes. The rest of the Sima family and Zhong Hui were added, with Sima Yi being moved to Jin. The Jin Classic costume set contains the modern costumes from DW8, the school costumes, fairytale costumes and fantasy costumes from DW7, and Wang Yuanji’s pre-order and DLC costumes from WO4. No new costumes have been added for Sima Yi despite moving to his own faction. March 2025: Version 1.2.0.0 Released 28 March 2025 Sophia, Ryza and Yumia from the Atelier series were added to a new Guest category in the character selection screen. They received vacation and academy-themed costumes in the DLC and I’m not sure if they were used in the original games. April 2025: Version 1.3.0.0 Released 25 April 2025 Mature Yukimura and Chacha from SW Spirit of Sanada were added along with the warlords of western Japan. Of course, adding mature Yukimura means that young Yukimura is no longer selectable as a summon and vice versa. For the DLC costumes, Yoshihiro Shimazu, Muneshige Tachibana and Motochika Chōsokabe receive yukata costumes, Ginchiyo Tachibana receives her 4 and 4-II DLC costumes, Toyohisa Shimazu receives his headgear-less costume from Dengeki PlayStation and Chacha receives her Sanada costume from Spirit of Sanada’s DLC. Young and Mature Yukimura also have a separate costume pack with their costumes from Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening. Traversal Level 6, introduced in this update, prevents you from regaining health when levelling up, enemy attacks will piece through your barriers and deal 50% damage and level bosses will block Summoning Skills. In addition, Thorns of Fixation (妄執の楔) will appear on the first three levels; Gouma is using these thorns to tie himself to the land, hiding them with his aura on lower traversal levels before gradually being exposed with each defeat, meaning that they can kill Gouma for good. Collecting the three thorns will make Gouma’s true form Ruinous Gouma of the Abyss (深淵の災厄ゴウマ), the true true final boss. Also introduced in this update is the Depths of Torment (無間修羅獄); after defeating Gouma in a playthrough, you can save your Soul Record (魂の記憶), which will carry over your hero, your party and your treasures. With each stage of the Depths of Torment come Trials that will make things harder for you as you continue on. Instead of Karma Embers, you’ll obtain Spirit Essence (霊力) and in turn, you’ll earn Records of Sin (閻魔帳) in each run. You can take up to 5 Records of Sin for 20,000 Karma Embers each (if you can still earn Tears of Blood in this mode then why can’t you spend those instead). You can equip one Record of Sin for each playthrough, but if you want to use it in the Depths of Torment, you’ll have to beat Gouma with it first. After defeating Gouma for the first time, you can also create up to 20 of your own BGM playlists for each level and level boss. July/August 2025: Version 1.4.0.0/1.4.2.0 Released 4 July/1 August 2025 The “Master Ninja” characters, namely the Ninja Gaiden characters that appeared in WO3, were added. They also receive formal and legacy costume packs consisting of DLC costumes from their series or WO3. This update adds the Void of Ephemerality (刹那修羅獄), which is the Depths of Torment in a time-attack format; like Survival Mode in Samurai Warriors, you’ll have a limited amount of time that you can extend by defeating powerful enemies. The Training Hall (練磨の門) has also been added, where you can play the game with special effects centred around a specific theme or attribute. After obtaining a unique weapon for a character, you can activate Transcendence (限界突破) on them to grant them additional emblems, boosts to unique tactics and strategies and status enhancements; this can also be deactivated to get back the Karma Embers you spent. Karma Embers can also be used to raise the Cumulative Level of a character. Traversal levels are no longer individual, reducing the need to continually play all levels for all characters. A secret red Traversal Level 6 has been added for characters who have completed the normal variant, making things harder by reducing the time limit for missions, adding bosses and mini-bosses to danger zones and level boss battles, and having enemies swarm at you from the start of level boss battles instead of halfway through. You’ll also fight Ruinous Gouma without having to collect the Thorns of Fixation. In the PC version, ultrawide monitor resolutions are now supported. December 2025: Version 1.5.0.0 Release date: 19 December 2025 Following a survey for additional DW characters in October 2025, Zuo Ci, Lianshi and Yu Jin were added after making the top 4. Dong Bai was the top character in the poll, but she was delayed to the next update in February, which makes her the first DW9 character to be added. Unfortunately, the scene groups were unable to make an update patch for the FitGirl release because it ended up being over 1GB, so they just did a full package instead. I downloaded it and installed it, but when I opened it, it wouldn’t read my save from 1.4.2.0 - I had to start a new game for this version. After doing some investigation however, I discovered that I had to copy over the emulated Steam account ID from the config files of the old version into the config files of the new version. This allowed the save file to work, likely because it was embedded into the save file meaning that sharing saves would become difficult. So yeah, just a note for anyone who’s curious. Anyway, after installing the new update, I wasn’t able to play Zuo Ci, Lianshi and Yu Jin initially; they only appeared in the character selection screen after I unlocked them in the Hall of Bonded Souls. This was the case regardless of whether I had to start a new game or was able to load my old save. Oh, so now you’re doing that instead of just locking them for summons after making everyone playable from the start. February 2026 (1): Version 1.6.0.0 + Origins collab DLC Release date: 13 February 2026 So this game’s been out for a year at this point, but surprisingly, Dong Bai hasn’t come out yet as she was deferred to the next update. Instead, we’ve got the much hyped Origins paid collab DLC, and wow, seeing it up close is a real EA moment for Koei Tecmo with their money grubbing. Let’s start off with the new features in this update. Before you begin your journey into Hell, you’ll be brought to a screen to enter the game’s “original”, or normal mode. There, you can also select some customisation options, such as whether you want cumulative levels or unique weapons to be enabled or disabled. You can also select the option to allow alliances with characters of the same name, which, without the DLC, is just between Yukimura and Mature Yukimura. You can also perform Sealing Ceremonies (封印の儀) to ban certain heroes, formations or treasures from appearing within the game’s modes. You’re given a total of 10 Sealing Points, and banning heroes costs 1 point, banning formations costs 2 points, and banning treasures costs 4 points. OK, given the amount of things that can be banned, that is bullshit. Why not put limits on what individual categories of things that can be banned, say 20 heroes, 10 formations and 5 treasures (and I’m being generous here)? Or even still, you know how you can reroll heroes at Crystal Saplings? Why not add the ability to reroll formations at King’s Cauldrons and treasures after defeating bosses? Trust me, if players don’t like something, they’re not going to select it. While playing, you can also adjust the camera distance closer to your character so you can see their costume a bit better, but why is the camera still locked at the same angle? Well, I suppose it’s so you can see attacks being telegraphed behind you (which was the point of why that was a thing in this game), but give us the option to play this game like a proper Warriors game, goddamn it. OK, onto the real highlight of this update, the Origins collab DLC. We start off with the main content pack. Ziluan is a new character added with the DLC, utilising his sword moveset with a mix of the pike and gauntlet movesets in his Charge Attacks and with it, three different Musou Attacks using those weapons. His EX Attacks are the C3 and C4. A new Origins Mode has been added; with each level of Hell, you play one phase less than the level before it, and at the end of a phase, there is a chance of encountering a character from Origins, who will provide an extra effect. In the final phase of each level, you’ll fight one of 11 characters from Origins as level bosses (Xiahou Dun, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Sun Shangxiang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Diaochan, Zhang Jiao, Yuan Shao, Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu). Zhang Jiao and Dong Zhuo are the final bosses of the fourth level (you’ll fight both of them at Traversal Level 5 and above) and you can choose to fight Lu Bu as the final boss if you encounter Zhang Liao (under the Cao or Dong flags). There are no Thorns of Fixation at Traversal Level 6. It’s actually easier than the normal mode ngl. (Ironically, speaking of rerolling treasures, I found Sun Jian and he gave me three rerolls lol.) Also with the DLC, a new Companion Character system has been implemented, which can be turned on or off in the customisation menu. At the start, you’ll be given 1000 Burning Karma Embers (燃え盛る業蛍火, separate from normal Karma Embers) to unlock companion characters at a cost of 100 each. You’ll select a companion character to take into battle, and they will have two (later three at bond level 3) companion abilities, the second (and third) of which is unlocked after achieving particular conditions. The Swap Gauge (this game calls it the Rotation Gauge, like seriously Digital Hearts, you literally localised Origins as well and this is an Origins-based DLC, I know you’re doing this on the cheap but come on) will fill up as you fight, then when it’s full, you change characters with L2 and you’ll get to control your companion character for 30 seconds before they perform their Musou Attack at the end (which can also be manually triggered) and swap back to your main character. It works just like character swapping in Origins. As you play with companion characters, your bonds with them will increase (or can be increased with normal Karma Embers), and with it, you’ll also earn more Burning Karma Embers, unlock their third companion ability and also earn more sealing points. Okay, they implemented the ban mechanic in the free update and limited it to 10 Sealing Points, then they made it so you can only earn more by making you use the companion mechanic that is exclusive to the DLC. Yes, Koei Tecmo are finally deep into the Western gaming company rabbit hole that they’ve finally started locking new features and mechanics behind paywalls! (insert The Price is Right theme here) Oh, but we’re not done calling out this farcical money-grubbing yet. Separate to the main content pack, there’s another pack that adds the Origins versions of Zhang Jiao, Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu as playable characters. Zhang Jiao uses his Shaman Rod in a new moveset that’s made playable for the first time here, Dong Zhuo uses the Twin Pikes/Axes moveset that was used by Zhang Liao in Origins, and Lu Bu uses his Halberd moveset from Origins. These three characters also fall into the same category as Mature Yukimura when it comes to the customisation options. It’s also available in a bundle with the main content pack. In addition to this, there are separate “Another Character” packs for the “playable” companion characters in Origins plus the faction leaders, with Diaochan and Yuan Shao featured in the pack for the Other faction. These packs add the characters’ costumes from Origins, but when you select them, some of their emblems and abilities/effects will change (along with their voices), but their movesets remain the same. All four “Another Character” packs are available in a bundle. So, you want to know how much the “Another Character” packs cost (in US dollars)? For Wei, Wu and Shu, they cost $12.99 each and the Other pack costs $9.99. The full set costs $38.99. 14 characters makes it out to $2.79 each in the full pack, $3.25 each in the kingdom packs and $5 in the Other pack. The calculation is easier in Japanese yen because each character is 385 yen each in the individual packs (1,540 yen for Wei, Wu and Shu, 770 yen for Other) and 330 yen each in the full pack (4,620 yen). For the record, the main content set costs $16.99 (1,980 yen), the additional playable character set costs $12.99 (1,540 yen) and the combined pack costs $24.99 (2,970 yen). The mechanic upgrades and 4 new playable characters cost more than 14 costumes with adjusted mechanics. The original DLC costume packs that came out on release have more value for money (at 50 cents/60 yen per costume) than the Origins DLC packs. Truly, this is a real EA moment for Koei Tecmo. February 2026 (2): Version 1.7.0.0 Release date: 27 February 2026 After being held back from the last update, Dong Bai has finally been added in this update, and DLC costume packs have been added for her and the three DW characters introduced in the December 2025 update. As stated, Dong Bai’s inclusion marks the first elements from DW9 to be added to this game. She uses the flail but is not a clone of Gan Ning (obviously), her EX Attacks are the C3 and C4, and her Musou Attack is her Aerial Musou from DW9. Records of Sin can now be obtained in the normal mode above Traversal Level 1 (without needing to spend Karma Embers), plus there is also new functionality to change level bosses in the normal mode and the Training Hall to Samurai Warriors characters, which can be more powerful than the original ones. On each level, you’ll fight Kunoichi/Hanzō, Ginchiyo/Muneshige, Yukimura/Takatora and Kenshin/Shingen (both at T5 and up). The fight with Gouma remains the same. You know, when I initially heard of this, I thought you could actually choose the characters you want to fight as level bosses so you could make a more hardcore Origins Mode. I guess they haven’t figured out how to implement level boss attacks for every character, or they don’t want to bother because it’s too much work. They kind of already did the DW characters in the Origins Mode DLC though. Let’s take a look at the costumes introduced in the DW 25th Anniversary Top Characters Costume pack. Yu Jin only gets his alternate outfit from DW8XL. Zuo Ci gets his modern fortune teller outfit from DW8 and his Fury Form costume from WO3. Lianshi gets her school, fairytale and fantasy outfits from DW7 and her modern outfit from DW8. Dong Bai gets her civilian and DLC costumes from DW9 along with her “Mystic” and “Abyss” costumes from 9’s spinoff mobile game. The pack is available as a complete set and individual character packs can also be purchased for what equates to $2 per costume (when it equates to $1.55 each in the full pack). Given how the Origins DLCs were offered I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but why was there a need to have individual character packs now? Warriors Abyss isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s another one of Koei Tecmo’s experiments which justifies the return to modern era nostalgia and money grubbing, but the base game by itself is relatively cheap (at $25) and you really don’t need the DLC costumes to enjoy it (until the Origins DLC comes out because they locked some new mechanics behind the DLC paywall). The game is under 4GB for all versions (excluding DLC) so it is fairly compact, which is something of an outlier for non-indie games when AAA games on Steam need over 100GB on your disk; even DW9 and Origins pass the 50GB mark when most modern era PC ports have been around 20GB. Despite the digital exclusivity, at least it’s not a live service game so it can be played offline and preserved in archives. If you like roguelike/rogue-lite games, if you like grinding and defeating bosses, if you like torturing yourself with constant failure repetitively then you’ll like this game. For me though, I can’t really enjoy it unless I use a trainer, and even then I couldn’t deal with the prospect of continually losing and grinding, especially when bosses have shields and I’m not invincible during an Assemble (unless I have Origins Zhang Jiao aaarrrrrggggghhhhh). The good thing is that Koei Tecmo makes adjustments to characters and mechanics with every update, and with cumulative levels and transcendence the game can become easier for you the more you play it (even if you don’t use a trainer). It’s a fun game if you want it to be, but unfortunately, it’s not really for me, at least in terms of hardcore grinding and refining builds. Finally, after what seems like years of work, the Koei Warriors Retrospective has caught up to all the games and we can close the book on it, at least for now. The Warriors series for me has been an incredible 20-year journey of ups and downs; there are times when I’ve been baffled over Koei Tecmo’s decisions, even getting frustrated and angry over them, and as long-winded as my rants, recounts and research may be, I do everything I do out of love for the series and a hope that things will get better. Not everything has gone the way I liked, but sometimes you have to understand why Koei Tecmo takes the steps they do and the direction they take, so it’s better just to sit back and see what they will do next. The Koei Warriors Retrospective may return when the next Warriors game comes out, but until then, continue to walk the unparalleled path of the warrior and strive to become a True Warrior of the Three Kingdoms. Feel free to follow me on Facebook and Tumblr, and until next time, this is Azuma Yeonchi, victorious in defeat.