I’m the Musou guy. Look at the history of Warriors games reviewed here at Weekly Shonen Jump and chances are you’ll see my name at the bottom. Seriously, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a writer as into this stuff as I am. That said, I don’t know a whole lot about the history of Tecmo Koei overall. I’ve dabbled in Ninja Gaiden over the years, and side-eyed my share of Dead or Alive games. But, I’ve never really dove deep into anything from the company that wasn’t some kind of wacky action game. Suddenly, Warriors All-Stars falls into my lap and I realized my limitations in an existential way. Who are these people? Why do they keep making these games for me? I have no idea, but I'll keep playing them because they're a lot of fun! 

They're fun, but Warriors All-Stars is pretty weird. It’s a bog-standard Musou experience at a time when most Musou games are really trying something new or strange to mess with the usual formula. Berserk tried to tell a long-form story, Dragon Quest Heroes tried to combine a huge overworld and tower defense elements and Dynasty Warriors 9 is going to have an open world somehow. Warriors All-Stars gives you a little hub, a shallow card subsystem and a bunch of levels. It has a branching story that changes based on the characters you pick and interact with, but otherwise it’s the least creative Musou in years, in terms of structure. It doesn’t even seem to care much about sub-objectives during fights; you either have plenty of time to tackle them one-on-one or failing them doesn’t matter.

However, it also has the most bizarre tone of a Musou title that doesn’t have One Piece branding all over it. It’s bright and colorful, with menus full of reds and bright blues, and instead of the usual orchestral or butt rock musical fare the action is often accompanied by whimsical, anime-like brass taking center stage. It’s so bright, cheerful and silly, it felt alien to me. On top of that, the roster is so strange and varied, it’s almost overwhelming for someone who isn’t aware of the annals of Tecmo Koei history. Warriors All-Stars feels like a big bag of cotton candy in the middle of a pile of burgers and hot dogs at a carnival.

But I loved it? Despite the lack of depth and uncharacteristic presentation, Warriors All-Stars is a blast. Even without knowing who all the characters are, it was so much fun sifting through all of them, picking the ones I knew and liked and pairing them with folks I’ve never seen before. It was satisfying to actually feel the need to flip through character bios, Wikipedia in hand, and learn more about the history of a long-lasting, little celebrated developer. I learned about Koei’s history of Otome games, Rio the magic gambling lady and Nobunyaga, the hilarious cat version of Nobunaga Oda from some random mobile game I’ll never play. He even summons little sun hat-wearing, musket-wielding cat soldiers.

When it comes to playing Warriors All-Stars, it feels like going back in time to simpler days, but with modern affectations such as high-quality visuals, more complicated combo strings and a stable frame rate. Also, despite the plot being a nonsense mess about the cast being summoned by fox people to fight a war for them, the non-diegetic parts of the game are almost presented like a Japanese pop idol performance. The signature Big Attack Technique causes crazy filters to appear on the screen paired with goofy music, while you plow through even more enemies than normal while the rest of your team happily cheers you on in the foreground. Warriors All-Stars is confused about a lot, but it knows it wants you to have a good time.

Warriors All-Stars is a lighthearted romp through Tecmo and Koei history, although the game is oddly more concerned with banging the cast against enemies like action figures, rather than celebrating that history in similar fashion to projects like Dragon Quest Heroes or Hyrule Warriors. It feels like something Omega Force did for funsies, rather than a major project at the forefront of the Warriors brand. That said, it’s cute and funny in a way these games usually aren’t, which does make it stand out against Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors entries. This one won’t be for fans looking for a compelling entry point for Musou, but Musou nerds such as myself and video game history buffs will definitely have a good time.

Hint: Just enjoy it! Don't think too hard and let the good times roll! 

by Lucas White