Warriors All-Stars (無双☆スターズ Musō ☆ Sutāzu in Japanese) is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Hack and Slash video game developed and published by Koei Tecmo, in the same vein as Warriors Orochi before it. Unlike Warriors Orochi, which focused specifically (and, at first, exclusively) on Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, Warriors All-Stars encompasses more than ten of Koei Tecmo's non-licensed titles. It was released on the Sony PlayStation 4 and Sony Play Station Vita in Japan and Taiwan on March 30, 2017, in North America on August 29, 2017 and in Europe on September 3, 2017, for the PC and the PlayStation 4.
There exists a Magical Land that has long prospered thanks to a miraculous spring. However, the king who controls the spring has died, sending the world onto the path of destruction. To save it, Queen Sayo tells her daughter Princess Tamaki of a legend of a hero from another world that will grant his power to his guide, to help him/her become the new ruler. If the guide is coronated the new ruler of this land, he/she will have the power to revive the spring. Tamaki attempts a ritual to summon this hero, but her spell goes haywire, instead summoning multiple heroes from various worlds, scattering them across their land. To make matters worse, Tamaki's older brother Shiki and cousin Setsuna also have their sights set on the crown, dividing all of the summoned heroes into three opposing factions.
The playable roster consists of the following characters:
- Dynasty Warriors: Zhao Yun, Wang Yuanji, Zhou Cang, Lu Bu
- Samurai Warriors: Yukimura Sanada, Mitsunari Ishida, Naotora Ii
- Ninja Gaiden: Ryu Hayabusa
- Dead or Alive: Kasumi, Marie Rose, Honoka, Ayanenote
- Toukiden: Oka, Horo, Tokitsugu
- Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book: Sophie Neuenmuller, Plachta
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6: Hajime Arima, Darius
- Deception: Millennia, Laegrinna
- Opoona: Opoona
- Super Black Jack: Rio Rollins Tachibana
- Nobunyaga's Ambition/Samurai Cats: Oda Nobunyaga
- Nights of Azure: Arnice, Christophorus
- Nioh: William Adams
Warriors All-Stars has the following tropes:
- Accidental Pervert: In Oka's recruitement mission as Tamaki's team, Zhao Yun is accused of looking at her while she was bathing. In truth he was searching for bandits and was blamed instead of the bandit who was peeking on her. Zhao Yun being Zhao Yun, keeps telling her that he has no perverted thoughts.
- Adaptational Badass
- William, coming from a game inspired by Dark Souls, usually struggles against more than one enemy at a time. Here, he's as much a One-Man Army as a typical Warriors player character.
- Rio's the star of a series of pachinko machines; that said, she wrecks all kinds of havoc with oversized poker chips, dice, and the like.
- Already Met Everyone: Zigzagged; some members of the roster should already be familiar with each other due to prior Crossovers.
- Thanks to Orochi, the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors characters have already met, as well as Ryu, Ayane and Kasumi. There's also a casual tie to the Atelier series thanks to Sterk (who appeared in Warriors Orochi 3), but he does not belong to the same Continuity as Sophie and Plachta (the representatives here). Worth noting is that due to continuum-imploding time-travel abuse culminating in a borderline Time Crash, nobody from Orochi remembers the events that took place.
- Rio made a cameo in Dead or Alive: Paradise, a Sony PlayStation Portable Spin-Off of the Dead or Alive Xtreme games, where she dealt at the casino and can be used to play games with as a non-combatant. Meanwhile, Naotora became a Guest Fighter in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round.
- Played with in regards to the Samurai Warriors cast, Nobunyaga and William: all existed, and at times, interacted with each other during the Sengoku Period in Real Life. However, in Warriors All-Stars, all exist in different iterations of the time period.
- Badass Adorable: Sophie, Plachta, Honoka, Marie Rose, Naotora Ii, Horo and Christophorus to name a few.
- Beast Man: The Original Generation are anthropomorphic beings, specifically of the fox variety. Oddly enough, they refer to THEIR species as "human."
- Beef Gate: Any enemy with higher Bravery than you functions as this.
- Big Bad: Yomi with Sayo serving as her unwilling dragon.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Any battle with William in it, since he's the only character who actively speaks English. Justified because All-Stars keeps his portrayal in Nioh, where Translator Microbes allows him to understand the Japanese language easily.
- Bittersweet Ending: Some of the endings that aren't the True Ending. The Tamaki is Ruler ending has Tamaki becoming ruler knowing that doing this is a sacrifice (while also allowing Yomi to use her massive magic to weaken the seal later on, Setsuna's ending ends with him dying to become the eternal ruler and strengthen the seal, Shiki's ending ends with him destroying the spring hoping it would stop Yomi while also condemning the world to its death. And then, there is some characters ending like Horo and Plachta's ending which ends with them losing their memories trying to stop Sayo and Laegrinna and Millenia's ending which ends with Shiki and Tamaki sacrificing their lives to sent the two Villain Protagonists back to their world (or rather, Laegrinna's world with Millenia stuck here far from Yocal and the Timenoids).
- But Thou Must!: The Bravery System inadvertently lends itself to this on side-maps; rendering enemies otherwise easily contained into Beef Gates simply due to the unique benefits enemies stronger than you receive, thus forcing you to Level Grind to complete what would otherwise be a mundane objective.
- Most of the Hero recruitment maps will result in the Hero joining you no matter how many of their potential requests you squander or ignore. Special mention goes to Kasumi's map, in which you can power through all of the enemies her careful planning tries to help you avoid and the only indicator you'll get is a Death Glare.
- The map "A Formidable Threat" in the True Ending Path results in this. You defeat Yomi, only to discover it was a Body Double they can clone at-will. The other doubles attack you and have complete invincibility to anything you've got. Your victory objective becomes Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The residents of the Original Generation world All-Stars takes place in call themselves "humans", except audiences explicitly see them as fox-like Beast Men.
- Cast from Lifespan: As a ruler, they must sacrifice their life energy to make sure the spring still provides life. Justified because the spring is inhabited by a demon who drains the life of the ruler. This also explains why Shiki acted harshly towards Tamaki since he wanted to not have her large magic energy to fall into the demon's hands.
- Cherry Tapping: The game goes out of its way to avert this. If you attack an enemy that trumps your Bravery by 3 or more, they'll have the added effect of a shield that ends your combo if it hits you.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Setsuna; if one of the Heroes is a beautiful woman, he will aim to drop everything to help her out before doing anything else. Shiki Lampshades this when the option to recruit Honoka opens up in his path."If she's a beautiful woman, then Setsuna will be looking for her. We'll find her first."
- Crisis Crossover: Is one towards Koei Tecmo works, featuring their characters from a bunch of their intellectual properties. However, only first-party Koei Tecmo characters were eligible for the ballot when guests were being decided, thus characters from licensed Hack and Slash games were exempted (no Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, Hyrule Warriors, etc.)
- Downloadable Content: Transformation costumes dresses up one character as another member of the roster - for example, Yukimura as Ryu, Wang Yuanji as Kasumi, Hajime as Yukimura, Millennia as Plachta and Marie Rose as Opoona.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Depending on player choices, Millenia and Laegrinna can end up taking rather poorly to the game's Lighter and Softer nature, leading to the pair defecting and going on a rampage. Shiki and Tamaki end up pulling an apparent Heroic Sacrifice just to send the pair back, reasoning that even if the loss of two "Heroes" lowers the chance of saving the world, there will at least be a world left to save.
- Face–Heel Turn: Laegrinna and Millenia in one ending, Sophie, Wang Yuanji and Oka betrays Tamaki in one ending (though they are doing it for Tamaki's sake), so is Nobunyaga, Arnice, Kasumi and Chris who betray Setsuna in their ending and Lu Bu in his ending.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The roster is nearly split equally between men and women, with 14 males and 16 females.
- Hailfire Peaks: As a result of the Crisis Crossover, elements of each series' worlds have merged with the Original Generation setting. This results in the various battlefields encompassing the various themes taken from the various games, ranging from traditional Chinese and Japanese environments seen in previous Warriors games to the Cel Shaded Animesque fields from Atelier and even, thanks to Rio, a casino. Some of the themes even merge together, especially some of the original Warriors being re-themed for the game's world.
- Irony: Laegrinna ends up fighting enemy armies and Brainwashed victims to stop an ancient evil from breaking its seal and making the entire land suffer. Back home, she's murdering innocent people to cause exactly that.
- Launcher Move: The second Strong Attack in every character's arsenal, no exceptions, is one of these. It is shockingly effective against enemy commanders.
- Laser Blade: Setsuna's Sacred Weapon is a dagger that turns into this.
- Level Cap: Enforced. The natural Level Cap is 50; though any of the game's final battles can be beaten at 20 or under.
- While a character can most certainly be ahead of the pack in terms of hard levels gained, Gold spent at the Practice Arena can only bring another character's Level up to that of the former and no more. note
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to Warriors Orochi - while there is a war, it's for less malevolent reasons. The characters are summoned to restore order to the Original Generation kingdom and the conflict is waged by three heirs to the throne, unlike the world-destroying plots caused by Orochi. Subverted when All-Stars reveal its dark moments - the villain wants to have Tamaki as a ruler for her magical energy to weaken the seal and she's using Sayo as a vessel for her actions, the factions endings are bittersweet, many of the characters' endings are borderline Downer Endings like Horo and Plachta losing their memories while confronting Sayo, Sophie, Wang Yuanji and Oka betray Tamaki to join Shiki even though they are doing it to save her, Laegrinna and Millenia go on a killing spree to return home quicker and Ryu, William and Yukimura keeping Sayo under control knowing they will never meet Shiki ever again.
- Literal Split Personality: Yomi is revealed to be the result of this in the True Ending Route, once the Dawn Tablet is assembled. Yomi was originally am ally to this world's kingdom, which only thrived due to her purifying what was essentially a Crapsack World that only monsters inhabited so said kingdom could prosper. Over time however, she showed signs of The Corruption from all the negative energy she was absorbing and asked to be sealed away. She was then split into Light and Dark sides; the latter of which becoming the game's final antagonist.
- Magic Mirror: Tamaki's Sacred Weapon is a mirror that can fire off Frickin' Laser Beams.
- Sayo uses one as well.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Laegrinna and Millenia don't attack directly, instead using strings of traps to deal damage, meaning their attacks will either be a mostly-harmless poke or a devastating, inescapable combo depending on their spacing. Additionally, Laegrinna's charged attacks lay down hidden traps that have to be activated manually, but if they do land, they do significantly more damage than the setup version.
- Mêlée à Trois: Each of the heroes align with Tamaki, Shiki and Setsuna competing to be king, based on the series they hail from.
- Tamaki has Zhao Yun, Wang Yuanji, Zhou Cang, Lu Bu, Oka, Horo, Tokitsugu, Opoona, Sophie and Plachta.
- Shiki has Yukimura, Mitsunari, Naotara, Hajime, Darius, William, Hayabusa and Ayane.
- Setsuna has Kasumi, Marie Rose, Honoka, Nobunyaga, Millenia, Laegrinna, Rio, Arnice and Christophus.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on who is chosen to start a play-through, which battles are fought, and who is recruited in what order, the story branches significantly. Often times, the main plot can fall by the wayside in pursuit of a character's personal ending.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Laegrinna is a starter option and mandatory for Setsuna's story to transition into the true story. If she appears in cut-scenes at all, it's in the background. When addressed, she displays complete disinterest in what's going on and asks who they want her to kill next, usually in jarring contrast to Kasumi and Arnice's optimism.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: The Player's forces are utterly shackled to the Bravery system, which serves as a game-wide Beef Gate to prevent you from finishing maps too quickly. Attacking an enemy three-or-more Bravery tiers than you grants them a shield that kicks in at random intervals when damaged to stun-lock you out of your combo and encourage you to disengage. (These enemies can still be taken down; though the time consumed and difference in power makes it less than worth it.) Of course, neither you or your forces have that same advantage.
- Mythology Gag: The Three Rulers' Sacred Weapons are all based on the Imperial Regalia of Japan.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Due to the developers trying to keep every characters' original design (if not, outright use the models), all character appearances fit on a sliding scale of "realistic vs. stylized" - for the former, the nearly photo-realistic William tops that end, followed by the "semi-realistic" designs from most of Koei Tecmo's games, like Zhao Yun, Yukimura and Ryu. Cel Shaded Animesque people (primarly from Gust Corporation) like the Original Generation furry people, Sophie, Hajime and Rio start veering towards the other side, and on the "stylized" end are Nobunyaga and Opoona, the complete oddballs.
- No-Sell: Oka's "Barrier" Hero Skill encompasses her (or you) in an orb that invalidates all damage for ten seconds; twenty if Awakened.
- Naotora Ii's "Conviction" ability drops her defense to practically nothing, but quadruples her attack power and gives her a Last Chance Hit Point as long as it's active, rendering her functionally invincible until it wears off.
- Off the Rails: Some story paths end up like this; in particular, one path has Laegrinna and Millennia get sick of a world neither wants to be in and start causing wanton destruction in an effort to get home, which is bad for everyone else since neither has a functioning conscience and they can't be reasoned with. The Heroes' overall plan is sunk and two of them have to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to un-summon them so there's a world left to save, which gives the Deception pair exactly what they want.
- Original Generation: Tamaki, Shiki, Setsuna and other characters debut specifically for this Crossover.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Naturally upon bringing in so many guests into one overall game-play style. In particular, Lu Bu loses a lot of his stage presence due to everyone else being badass enough to keep up with him.
- Railroading: The Bravery System becomes this on repeat playthroughs; as enemies' Beef Gate stauses when you're of lower Bravery renders Level Grinding completely irrelevant and forces you to always complete a map in one very specific, often tedious, way.
- Relationship Values: Everyone has them with every other playable character they could ever share a team with, which unlocks passive skills as they increase from "Associate" to "Confidante".
- Schizo Tech: Outside of the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive themed battlefields (a whole city and a beach party, respectively), at the Hub Level, players can find a lounging room with massage chairs and arcade machines of what appears to be the original Ninja Gaiden in what is supposedly an overgrown South Asian-styled temple.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The spring contains a demon named Yomi who sucks the lifespan of the ruler which explains why the latter have such short lives.
- Shout-Out: In the localization, Setsuna always introduces himself to characters he just met with the phrase "I am Setsuna".
- Support Party Member: Up to four team members can accompany the player's primary fighter. These characters can be called upon to perform special "Hero Skills" or temporarily swapped to for a coordinated assault.
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Spiritual Successor: To Warriors Orochi; in particular, the third game's inclusion of "Collaboration Characters" (such as Ninja Gaiden, Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War and Warriors: Legends of Troy) can be taken as a predecessor to Warriors All-Stars, a full-blown Crisis Crossover. - Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
- Dynasty Warriors and Dead or Alive, two famous franchises made by Koei Tecmo, have four representatives. This doesn't add in representatives from Samurai Warriors and Ninja Gaiden, who are closely associated with both of those series.
- Looking within the game itself, one can be forgiven for assuming Sophie and, to a lesser extent, Plachta of Atelier Sophie to be the intended main characters of the game, being the chosen and supporting characters in nearly every tutorial.
- Token Evil Teammate: Millenia and Laegrinna in Setsuna's team; Lu Bu for Tamaki's faction.
- Took a Level in Badass: Naotora starts off her Hero Battle as The Load and has to be saved from traps or ambushes several times. After being given one last chance and declaring Let's Get Dangerous!, she fulfills her task and becomes a much greater force to be reckoned with.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: More like Wake-Up Call Level. The second battle of the True Ending Path will pit you against an entrenched enemy leader that can spawn high-Bravery enemies indefinitely. The only way to win is to survive until the beginning of the wave, then book it for the enemy commander before your plot-important Generals croak. The battles only ease off a modicum from here on out.
- Weaponized Ball: Shiki's Sacred Weapon is this, with a bit of Flechette Storm thrown in.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: What the card-dealer Rio's worth as a Hero appears to manifest as during her recruitment mission. Once she gets her Casino back, she manages to basically force victory by making good things happen at places the Player is urged to go.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Setsuna and his allies seem to assume the Deception pair are just dour with vicious abilities, cheerfully oblivious to the fact both of them consider the cold-blooded and needlessly painful murder of completely innocent adventurers to be casual. This can lead to him being completely blindsided when they eventually conclude that killing everyone is the quickest way home and commit to that path without warning or remorse; see Evil Is Not a Toy.
- Zerg Rush: One of the first battles on the True Ending Path will pit you against one of these. See Wake-Up Call Boss above.
