Warriors: Abyss

Warriors: Abyss was provided by Koei Tecmo for review. Thank you!

When it comes to games that I play when I need a break from the bigger experiences, there are two types that I gravitate to. The first is any games from Koei Tecmo's Warriors series (Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, etc.), which is mindless fun killing thousands of enemies. The other is roguelikes, where I can play through an addicting gameplay loop while progressively getting more and more powerful. Never did it cross my mind that these two types of games would come together out of nowhere, but out of the blue, we now have Warriors: Abyss and it may be my favorite roguelike of all time.

Koei Tecmo found a great way to mold the Warriors formula into the context of a roguelike, still making it feel like a Warriors game but with some deeper mechanics that influence you as you keep going down into hell. You have your basic attack and charge attack, as well as a dodge and your usual powerful Musou attack. It's the usual Warriors formula where you have to kill tons of enemies on the surface, but the joy from Warriors: Abyss lies within its roguelike elements.

You start off each roguelike run with a basic character who only has their character trait and four-hit combo, but this will quickly change as you start to encounter the roguelike elements. First, we have hero bonding, where you will choose a hero to bond with. The heroes themselves can be summoned with one of your charge attacks and can be powered up based on the different heroes you have bonded with.

Each hero has Emblems and Titles attached to them, which can power you up further. There are 11 different emblems that can give different benefits the more you have of them. There are five elemental ones that can give your attack attributes, with six that can upgrade your attacks, range, how many summoned heroes you can utilize, Musou gauge, and more. As for titles, these are 1-5 identifiers each hero has.

Each hero has different abilities, and to upgrade them, you may need a specific amount of emblems or heroes with specific titles. For instance, when playing Guan Yu, you have an ability where he gets an extra 5% attack for every bonded hero with the Brave General title. On top of that, if you are bonded with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei, you get an extra 100% attack bonus. If you are bonded with Zhang Fei and have him equipped to use his summon ability, you can make it more powerful if you have also bonded with Liu Bei and have 10 Vigor emblems.

This premise makes strategizing with the heroes you bond with important since each emblem, title, and hero impacts your run. But that's not all. You can also change your equipped formation, which provides its buffs, improves some of your summoned abilities, and impacts a special attack you have that brings in your six equipped heroes for an all-out attack called an Assemble attack. I love this mechanic, and it made each run feel more unique since the heroes I bond with impact how I want to prioritize my upgrades and what kind of elevated buffs I want to go for.

I also appreciate that Warriors: Abyss has an option to automatically optimize your formation and summonable heroes with one button. Sometimes, I do like to manually pick and choose, but it's nice that if I just want something quick, I can press a button and let the game do the work. There is a total power number that goes up whenever you get a new hero or new emblems, and this makes it quick and easy to maximize that.

When you complete a round (or phase), you can choose where you go next. These choices vary between trying your luck to get heroes with a specific emblem, using the currency to buy new heroes and formations to use during your run or healing and increasing your maximum health. When selecting these choices, there will be options to get specific missions, which can give extra currency, and you may even get a text-box choice which can give you extra buffs.

You will keep doing this through four different biomes with eight rounds each, and the last round is the boss battle. I never felt like any run overstayed its welcome or was too short, striking a nice balance overall. If you beat the run, you will also unlock some new difficulty options to continue playing for a chance to get extra currency to unlock new characters.

I was pretty captivated with the gameplay loop, and I found it hard to put down the game once I started playing. I wanted to try new characters, build for different emblems, and find the characters that fit my style of gameplay. I found Guan Yu and Nobunaga Oda were my two favorites, but the other characters are a ton of fun to play with. I can see how the Warriors' gameplay of killing thousands of characters with mindless-ish button mashing isn't engaging, but I felt the roguelike elements made it more strategic.

As you play, you will get special currency to unlock new heroes, new formations, and permanent upgrades. There are 100 characters to unlock, and with each one being playable with different abilities and movesets, I felt there was a good reason to come back and try the different characters. There are also some permanent upgrades you can get if you keep playing as a character and leveling them up continuously, bringing their cumulative level up. You can also find character's unique weapons from completing missions, which can give them a second character trait.

Visually, the game is a mixed bag. While I love the colors that pop when using any charge attack, Musou, or summoned ability, the game overall has a minimalist style. On top of that, the color shooting out everywhere can be a little disorienting. I didn't lose my place often and was able to dodge the choreographed attacks without much issue, but I did get a little lost once or twice. The minimalist style with the neon-like colors is enjoyable, but don't expect the same fidelity we saw in Dynasty Warriors: Origins. However, for a low-budget spin-off, it works.

As for Warriors: Abyss' story, it may as well be nonexistent. There is an overarching story about being summoned to hell to save it from being taken over by some guy named Gouma, but I didn't feel any investment whatsoever. It wouldn't have mattered much to me if there was a story or not, but I didn't mind just skipping through dialogue and getting to the fighting.

Warriors: Abyss - Steam Deck Performance

Warriors: Abyss feels like the perfect portable game, so I was hoping that it would run decently on the Steam Deck, and I am so glad it does. Koei Tecmo has been fantastic when it comes to Steam Deck support for their games, with even the more demanding titles like Dynasty Warriors: Origins running well. This game is no different and even has a specific Steam Deck preset that is great. There are a couple of changes I would make to keep the experience as best as possible, but it will be a great time regardless.

Recommended Settings

I went back and forth with the settings I wanted to recommend, but in the end, nothing beat the smooth feeling of 60 FPS. And with Warriors: Abyss being able to handle 60 FPS at almost the highest quality settings without drops, it ended up winning me over. I do lower the settings a little bit to around medium to keep the game at 60 FPS as much as possible, but there could be some minor drops when using Assemble attacks with all the effects across the screen, but it will hold 60 FPS during general gameplay when it counts.

The only downside is the battery drain, which ranges from 16W - 22W for around 3 hours of battery life on the OLED Steam Deck. Usually, this would be a bit too much battery drain for me, but for a solid 60 FPS, I can't say no. I did try putting on a TDP limit, and while it can hold 60 in the beginning, it starts dropping more with tons of enemies on screen and big attacks with lots of effects going on. Because of this, I recommend not setting any limits.

Balanced Settings

While the 60 FPS settings pushes battery life a lot, I also wanted to find a way to balance that drain and play without sacrificing all of that smoothness. With a combination of the Steam Deck graphics preset and some changes to increase quality, we can play with a lower battery drain at 45 FPS, finding a balance between it feeling smooth and not draining too much. It sticks around 13W - 17W drain, so we get around 3.5 - 4 hours of battery life, which is definitely better.

Just like the recommended settings, I wouldn't set a TDP limit

I was considering a battery savings settings, but this would mean playing at 30 FPS which I feel makes the experience worse. It isn't unplayable, but after playing at 45 or 60 FPS, I can't go back to 30, even if it means saving the most battery or playing at the highest quality settings.

Accessibility

You can toggle the screen shake, showing damage and recovery numbers, displaying enemy health gauges, controller vibration, change keybindings, and adjust volume bars, but that's about it.

There is no 16:10 resolution support, but it does have great controller support and cloud saves. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Warriors: Abyss has become one of my favorite roguelikes that I have recently played. It takes the addicting Dynasty Warriors gameplay loop and adds in roguelike elements to create a fantastic experience that is hard to put down. The progression systems for the roguelike parts are great to play around with, and with over 100 characters from Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, it feels like there's so much to do. The story is near nonexistent, and some areas can look a bit bland, but the popping colors of the effects from your charge and summon attacks inject some much-needed vibrancy to it.

It also runs wonderfully on the Steam Deck. There are some changes to make to maximize the performance for portable play, but when you do, it is a must-have experience I can happily recommend to anyone with a Deck.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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