Game:

Warriors Orochi 4 (2018)

Duration: 33:00

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Having a stage featuring Kotaro Fuma right after a stage with Yuan Shao? If this game wants me to love it, it's pushing all the right buttons.

It's revealed that Kotaro was ordered to search for the serpent bracelets that grant Deity powers by Nobunaga. Considering how important those are, this makes Kotaro a high priority target so our army marches to find him. He's got his duo of lovely Hojo ladies alongside him for this stage, so Kai and Lady Hayakawa will try to protect him with the entirety of their forces. Not that he needs it.

After we take down an officer or two and move into the stage, we get a surprise intrusion from a third force, also looking for the bracelets. The Demon-Lu Bu Army appears with Da Ji, Kiyomori, and Lu Lingqi attacking both forces randomly. They don't really do anything beyond that but it's still three musou officers to deal with. Lingqi is easily the biggest threat due to her being a Power type and having a really fast attack speed, so she can really tear into you if you don't watch yourself.

Once the third party is dealt with, Kotaro will open the gates to his main camp and simply wait for you to arrive. Obviously it's a trap, so once you enter the camp Xiahou Ba will appear form behind and rush you. After his defeat, Kotaro will next appear in three places at once. Normally this is a case of one Kotaro being real and the others being fake, but he seems to have wised up. This time all three Kotaro's are fake and we have to take them all down regardless. Shingen declares this to be cheating.

Kai and Lady Hayakawa also appear, with generics in tow. Kotaro's doubles are still the biggest threat here as they get into battles with your allies and commander so you probably want to prioritize them first. Upon defeating all of the Kotaro clones, the real one appears right next to the main camp which also doubles as his escape point. This is where he'd normally flip us off and laugh as he makes a getaway.

Buuuut, Yuan Shao clearly saw this turn of events playing out and has sat at the main camp the entire time, obviously just waiting for Kotaro to attempt an escape. He most definitely did not intend the entire stage sitting at the main camp doing nothing. Even Kotaro admits he's surprised to see Yuan Shao there. Thanks to the nobles impenetrable defense, Kotaro will be stalled long enough for you to reach him and defeat him for real.

Shingen is quick to celebrate their successful capture of Kotaro, until Kotaro reminds him he's motherfucking Kotaro and can escape anytime he damn well pleases. And he does just that by breaking the siege and taking his leave, despite being surrounded by several powerful officers.

WO4 does a pretty good job at showing off Kotaro's capabilities for once. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. He really shows off in one of the upcoming stages we get to. Still, I rather enjoyed him and Yuan Shao both in this battlefield. Completing this stage gets Kai and Lady Hayakawa both to joins us.

I played as Yukimura, Nobuyuki, and Jia Xu here. A full team of speed characters this time. Yukimura is a Charge type SW character so he's got a solid moveset. Nobuyuki is a Hyper type which is my least liked typing in SW, but his moveset still has a lot of range and hits for some decent damage. He's not bad by any means. Jia Xu is a bit on the slow side for a speed character, but he's got range to back it up. His musou also deals considerable damage, just like it did in DW8 so that's a good fallback if you're ever under pressure. Jia Xu's Normal Magic is a unique one as well. He summons clones of himself temporarily with minuscule health bars rather than perform an outright attack. I didn't figure this out until later, but those clones actually EXPLODE when defeat or enough time passes. You can turn this into a very powerful attack by using it twice in a row, because if you use the Normal Magic again while the clones are out they will explode on the spot. Another good thing about the clones? They stick around even if you switch characters so it's like a permanent buff if you keep activating it.

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