You know, I am starting to get a bit fed up with roguelikes nowadays. It feels like one is released every other day, rarely featuring a single gameplay or design element that makes it stand out. I’m trying to say that not every roguelike released in the market is going to be the next Balatro. But an actual roguelike Musou made by Omega Force and Koei Tecmo? Warriors: Abyss is the kind of game in which I had never thought of existing prior to its announcement… but dammit, it just works incredibly well. It’s the perfect match.

I love how they bothered teaching me about the game’s combat system… you just need to mash buttons.

Now, I’m not going to tell you this is a revolutionary game, an ultra innovative roguelike, or even one of the best Musou games of all time. In fact, it’s not even the first Warriors title released this year. In all fairness, if you want to be completely factual (and a little bit cynical) about it, Warriors: Abyss is a blatant Hades clone. Not only is it set in hell, but it features a similar premise, just without the sexy voice acting that has become synonymous with any title released by Supergiant. What makes this game work is pretty simple: it’s the ultra dumb gameplay you’d expect from a Musou, set in an isometric perspective, with roguelike elements.

It works wonderfully. Musou games are best enjoyed as simple, over-the-top, “shut off your brain” games, whilst roguelikes fare the best when they are replayable and easy to jump into. It’s a match made in heaven. As usual, there are tons of moves, combos, and mechanics at your disposal, but the core gameplay is pretty simple: in each new round, you get an increasing amount of foes to kill, and after clearing a gauntlet, you are rewarded with some perks. Most of them revolve around recruiting a new ally to be used as a summon, by holding Y at the end of a chain combo. Given how you can extend your combos for up to six attacks, you can have tons of allies at your side at once.

This is when Warriors: Abyss shines the brightest: when it becomes pure chaos.

And that’s pretty much it. Kill everything in sight, avoid attacks, pay attention to your health in between rounds, acquire new allies, rinse and repeat until you meet a boss or eventually die. Once you do (because you will, trust me), gather your scraps, improve your stats for the next run, pick a new character you will have unlocked by then, and do it all over again. The beauty of the “brain-deadness” of the Musou gameplay loop is that you can hop into a brand new run, with a new character, not care that much about the difference in stats, mash buttons like crazy, and profit.

There’s a plot in here, but you won’t care about it. There is a lot of voice acting stemming from one specific character (a ruler of the underworld), but again, you won’t care about anything that’s going on. I don’t really think that trying to copy Hades‘ innovative usage of a storytelling progression in a roguelike was necessary in Warriors: Abyss. It just gives you a reason for the nonsense happening onscreen, but to be fair, if this game was entirely arcadey in nature, just meant on giving you fanservice, a neat gameplay loop, and tons of content, I legitimately think it would have been even better.

On a portable, this game felt like a no-brainer. Even if the visuals are simple, the framerate still somewhat held up when there were literal (and I do mean, literal) thousands of enemies onscreen, as well as particle effects. There were moments in which the GPU gave up, though, but I do think it was more of a consequence of the base model ROG Ally’s limited horsepower. It was still incredibly intuitive, running well for the most part, with quick loading times, and not burning my hands to a crisp. All in all, it was a perfect fit for it, and I assume the same can/could be said about its Switch counterpart.

Does it try too hard to copy Hades? Well, yes, but I don’t care.

As previously mentioned, I’m still in shock it took this long for Koei Tecmo to publish a Musou roguelike. Warriors: Abyss might possibly be the most fun I’ve had with a Musou game at least since Hyrule Warriors. It’s just a phenomenal fit, perfectly mixing the franchise’s “braindead-but-enjoyable” combat system with the replayability and arcadey vibes of a roguelike. In a year which started with the release of an actual sequel to Omega Force’s long-lasting Dynasty Warriors franchise, the smaller-budgeted roguelike spinoff would eventually become their favorite outing of the year. Nay, of the past few years as a whole.

Warriors: Abyss is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB and Asus ROG Ally.

A copy of Warriors: Abyss was provided by the publisher.