4 series that should get a Warriors spinoff

Warriors or Musou games are an acquired taste for some, but they have a well-established worldwide audience, an astronomical number of different releases from over the course of the last 20 years or so, and plenty of variation between the various titles.

What’s nice about the series to date is that we’ve had a nice combination of fairly strait-laced titles like the mainline Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series, which focus on historical re-enactment (and occasionally speculative scenarios of what might have unfolded if history had gone differently) and joyfully ridiculous nonsense like Warriors All-Stars and Warriors Orochi. Along the way, we’ve had a bunch of licensed titles too, with characters from established franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem and One Piece showing up in their own games.

There’s a few obvious choices for adaptation into the Warriors format that we’re still yet to see, though. So I thought it might be fun if we went through them.

Super Smash Warriors

Super Smash Warriors

This seems like such an obvious choice I’m genuinely surprised that it not only hasn’t happened yet, but that we haven’t even seen a hint of it happening yet. My suspicion is that Super Smash Bros. was already a nightmare to sort out character licensing for, and that anyone who might be up for developing a Super Smash Warriors probably didn’t want to have to go through all that again — but c’mon. It’d be absolutely worth it.

Super Smash Bros. is a game built around characters from an incredibly diverse range of games coming together and making use of some of their iconic mechanics in a new context. There’s absolutely no reason that couldn’t work in a Warriors title as well as a side-on platform fighter. Just picture it: Simon Belmont charging a fortress held by Bowser’s forces in the colourful but war-torn town of Onett, an army of Goombas just waiting to be scattered in all directions after some spectacular whip-cracking action.

Kirby rushes in to support, swallowing the fortress’ officer Wario and taking on his abilities before spitting him out. Simon Belmont smashes a pot and uncovers a Mega Mushroom, causing him to grow to gigantic height and stomp on his enemies. All the while Mario is mumbling something about “that’s-a very good-a strategy!”

Final Fantasy Warriors

Final Fantasy Warriors

This is another seemingly obvious choice that I’m surprised doesn’t exist yet — particularly considering that we have what are essentially two Dragon Quest Warriors games in the form of the two rather entertaining Dragon Quest Heroes games. And with titles like the Dissidia series, Final Fantasy XIV and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, we’ve seen that Square Enix isn’t exactly shy about twisting timelines and dimensions to allow different games in the series’ characters to collaborate and cooperate with one another.

You could even give it a Final Fantasy Tactics twist by following the basic structure of the Fire Emblem Warriors games — but regardless of how it’s achieved, I don’t think anyone would be unhappy at the chance to take the series’ most famous characters into real-time action strategy battles in stages based on iconic locales from the entire range of Final Fantasy titles.

Hell, it’s not even difficult to justify from a narrative perspective. Make it a spinoff of the Omega raid series from Final Fantasy XIV, justifying the heroes being thrown into combat as them being “tested” in various ways, much as FFXIV’s Warrior of Light is. Or just take the simple approach and blame it on Chaos — with the revelations of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, you could even do some really interesting things with the story.

I don’t really care how it happens. I just know that I want this.

Nitroplus Warriors

Nitroplus Warriors

If we can have a one-on-one fighting game based on characters from Nitroplus visual novels, we can most certainly have a Warriors game that allows you to take Saya and Super Sonico into battle against Muramasa, with all of them making full use of their ridiculously over-the-top powers in an attempt to prevail. Couple it with an authentically bleak Nitroplus story about the hopelessness of war and the dangers of throwing your lot in with supernatural entities with potentially world-destroying powers, and you have the recipe for a Warriors game that could really make you think.

Again, I suspect licensing for this one could be something of a challenge — particularly if we wanted all the authentic voice actors for the characters involved — but given the existence of Nitroplus Blasterz, it’s absolutely not something that is beyond the realm of possibility. And while this might be seen as niche interest, I bet it’d sell well — plus it could potentially be a good entry point into exploring Nitroplus works for newcomers.

Sailor Moon Warriors

Sailor Moon Warriors

I mean, come on. The magical girl formula is made for adaptation into the Warriors format. Different characters, each with their own unique abilities? Check. An emphasis on teamwork and the power of friendship? Check. Cooperation against dangerous threats that threaten the very fabric of existence? Check. Shouting things in Japanese while doing magical special moves? Most definitely.

Sailor Moon Warriors could be the ultimate Sailor Moon game. Put it together with some lovely cel-shaded character graphics, add an upbeat retro-style big band soundtrack and provide players the opportunity to battle against some iconic villains — perhaps with a multiplayer mode that allows you to fight as a team with other player-controlled Sailor Scouts — and you’ve already got a great game. Add some fun character interactions and slice-of-life elements between missions and you’ve potentially got one of the best anime games ever created.


What do you reckon? What are your favourite franchises that you’d love to have the opportunity to get all hack and slash with? Let us know down in the comments, via the usual social channels or on the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page!

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Pete Davison
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