I love it when a game comes along that’s willing to try something a bit different with pre-existing formulas.

Sure, I enjoy a bit of Dynasty Warriors every now and again. I’ve actually found myself gravitating more to the Nintendo variants in recent years, like Hyrule and Fire Emblem Warriors, but these are games I can get my fill on fairly quickly.

For me personally, I enjoy them in short, sharp blasts when I just want to mindlessly bash buttons, defeat lots and lots (and lots) of enemies and love those massive, all-screen encompassing special effects that just give me a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Admittedly, though, I’ve appreciated how Koei Tecmo have managed to keep the games interesting, trialling new things, adding some RPG mechanics in there, a bit of base-building, optional quests. But I did not have a roguelike, Hades-lite on my bingo card in 2025.

Enter WARRIORS: Abyss, then. A game that brings that classic, musou formula to a top-down 2.5D smash em up that somehow brings everything you love about these games into a tighter, lighter formula and makes for a damn compelling video game.

It took me a while to really get to grips with things as that first boss is a bit of a beast and can easily overwhelm you after you’ve mowed through wave after wave of enemies, but it’s just like in true Hades-style, the more defeats you accept, the stronger you’ll inevitably become. You’ll also learn patterns, you’ll fight smarter and figure out that different tactics also play into the field.

Unlike Hades, you’re fighting downwards, to the very depths of hell, rather than trying to escape it. Which is a fun twist. And here’s the other twist, you’ll use fighters from the likes of Dynasty and Samurai Warriors to do it.

From Kenshin Uesugi to Zhang Fei to Sun Shangxiang, Daqiao, Liu Bei and many many more. This game has a ridiculously deep roster of fighters and each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. Stats focus around health, strength, defense and speed, but there are also Player Hero Traits which improve their ability to fight and set them apart from the others.

And the best bit? You can keep unlocking more heroes from the Hall of Bonded Souls, deepening connections, improving existing skills and bringing stronger fighters into the fray. You do this by gathering blue Karma Embers on each run and as you build them up, you can then spend them on the large grid when your run is over. It’s the best and fastest way to fulfil your destiny.

You’ll also gather Tears of Blood during a run which can be spent in specialised shops where you can unlock more powerful characters, gain meat to replenish your health and a jar to replenish your musou meter. But you can also unlock formations.

This is where WARRIORS: Abyss gets quite interesting. You don’t actually just get the power of one hero, but six, and each hero has someone they synergise with. Which makes understanding the connections even more beneficial and vital. Then you can start putting formations together to try and optimise your strength and perform incredibly powerful special moves to devour your enemies.

Each time you press an attack, a different hero uses their skill and at that point it enters a cooldown period. But you can also create synergies to create devastating Assemble attacks that can essentially Nuke a screen of enemies. It’s pretty satisfying (and simple to pull off) and it feels beautiful in this setting, especially when you’ve got unrelenting hordes up in your grill.

I kept thinking I was done with this one, but I found myself coming back again and again for another round and I’m really glad I did. This is a blast! It’s a little more simplistic than Hades in that it doesn’t have the same kind of room variety and most of the choices to make between powerups are fairly easy. Also, once you get through that initial first boss in a run, you can become practically invincible, if you’ve got the right setup, so things become a lot easier.

But it’s also exactly the kind of addition to the genre you’d expect from the franchise. It does bring up some tense combat moments and there is a huge amount of depth between all the characters as you look for favourites to enter battle with and try to work out the best team mates during a run.

And just like with Dynasty Warriors, those all-powerful attacks really feel incredibly satisfying to land! Even if the game does slow down at points when it gets a bit crazy, and there are times when there’s literally nowhere on the ground for you to evade and avoid incoming attacks.

If you’re looking for a fun twist on your roguelike and just absolutely love decimating enemies in the hundreds while constantly growing in power and feeling those upgrades each and every turn you take, WARRIORS: Abyss is a great way to pass the time.

Despite the repetitive feel of everything, the chuggy performance, and how overpowered you can soon become after the brutal early difficulty curve, this one really took me by surprise and I had a mostly great time with it.

Verdict

WARRIORS: Abyss is a really enjoyable rouge-like that offers smart, clever twists on the formula, keeping it fun, fresh and entertaining throughout. Its hack and slash, hectic gameplay filled with a deep roster and entertaining combinations and powerup possibilities, offer tons of replay, but it does suffer from some chuggy performance, a difficulty curve that takes a steep drop off, and a feeling of repetition after a while. Still, it comes recomended if you’re looking for something a little bit spicy on the side of your adventures through hell.

Pros

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WARRIORS: Abyss is out now on all formats.

Played on PS5

Code Kindly Provided by KOEI TECMO for review purposes