Warriors Series

I should put this topic for all of the DW SW WO etc or otherwise I will flood the Board due with the yearly installments of DW alone.

So what do you like more? The classic Warriors or the modern Warriors? I haven't played Dynasty Warriors 9 but I am sure that it is like the modern Warriors but it is open world. I feel like 6 is the middle ground.

Good question, I've never actually played a single game in the series (or even Musou sub-genre to begin with). Only once eyed that Zelda spin-off once. Which would you say is the best one?

Well what systems do you have? Include handhelds too please if you have any.

The only Musou game I’ve played is Ken’s Rage. I thought it was decent, a pretty good challenge from what I remember and a great soundtrack. Plus it’s Fist of the North Star, kind of hard to not like it.

I started with DW3 so back when they hadn't done the concept to death. Got every weapon and rare item. Still have the save.

I'm not too familiar with the mechanics of the modern ones, but DW3 had this thing called push guard, where if you pressed something (forgot which button) while guarding, right as the enemy's attack connected, there would be a shockwave that made them slide back a few feet.

It didn't stop them attacking though, it just pushed them out and they stayed in the animation and could continue. You see this in certain fighting games.

It allowed you to interrupt strings, though I never found it that useful against the AI for the most part. They would use it a lot though. I used to play a lot of Vs mode with my brother and that's where it mattered most.

There was a bit of tech, like how certain attacks in a string would have some kind of property. For example, if you caught a blocking enemy with the last hit of Sun Shang's combo, the one where she spins that ring weapon (whatever it's called) that hits multiple times, the last hit would always hit blocking enemies.

The reason was because of the way it spun around would actually make the enemy starting turning while stuck in block-stun and the final hit would connect behind their guard. Hard to explain. Not sure if a human opponent could do anything about it but it's something I'd like to revisit.

I remember Jiang Wei's jumping attack to be really good. It was a linear downward stab but could be done multiple times and you could jump in with it. You could use it to juggle too.

If I booted it up I'd probably remember a ton of other stuff.

Played DW4 a lot. Loved the bodyguard system though it was pretty basic. You could choose a class, but the stats you gained per level were different. You could get ranks like Phoenix or Tiger, and this determined their element. To get the best one you had to switch between classes to level up like in Dragon's Dogma. Actually, I'm not sure if it there was really a best one.

They removed push block and added a counter instead. While blocking, you pressed something and they'd do this deflect type animation. You had to time this with the enemy's attack and if successful, your character would do a unique attack but it would only knock enemies away and wasn't very damaging. Barely used it.

I quit the DW series around DW5 and Orochi 1. Those added some cool things though.

I really liked Hokuto Musou. Each character was VERY different, especially Mamiya. She was so fun to play.

I've only played Dynasty Warriors NEXT on Vita, it was fun for a few short sessions but it didn't grip me. To any series fans - which titles have the most interesting combat systems/mechanics?

To put it shortly, the classic Warriors games(at least in Dynasty Warriors) has this somewhat realistic feel to it. The Modern Warriors is a fast paced feel with multiple weapons. The one I play and like the most would be: Dynasty Warriors Next(Great imo as long as you can overlook the clones and minigames), Samurai Warriors 2 XL, Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires, Dynasty Warriors 8XLCE, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate(even though Hyper is good as well.), and Hyrule Warriors (even though I only played it once).

Gregorinho wrote:I've only played Dynasty Warriors NEXT on Vita, it was fun for a few short sessions but it didn't grip me. To any series fans - which titles have the most interesting combat systems/mechanics?

I'd say 6 and 8 for different reasons. I only played 6E but it is interesting because it has rolling and parrying.
Not to mention that you can attack forever with the regular attacks. Also no matter how far you press that one button, Square or X, the charge attacks are always the same. I'm not kidding.

As for 8XLCE, you can Switch between two weapons with the triangle system. Not to mention the weapons has various strengths plus the two meters.

To any series fans - which titles have the most interesting combat systems/mechanics?
I only know of the ones I listed. Do you know if push block or bodyguards were in the later games?

DW8XLCE has bodyguards. You can't use them in Story Mode though.

The original Dynasty Warriors was a fighting game on PS1.

Played it many years ago. I remember it had two types of attack; thrust and horizontal, and two types of dodge to counter these.

Here's something that might interest you. Have you played Destrega? When you beat 1p Battle mode (arcade) you get a DW1 skin for that character.

Never played it before.

Is this strictly a Warriors topic? If not I'm going to make a Musou one.

I can rename it to Musou/Warriors series if you want.

Maybe it's fine. It's just that after playing DQ Heroes it seems like 'Warriors/Musou' are a bit different from how they used to be. DQH doesnt even feel like one. Some of their mechanics are actually pretty good despite their reputation.

I've been looking into Berserk and Arslan recently. Berserk seems pretty standard but I learned it has some kind of accessory creation mechanic (something DQH has as well) which could lead to some interesting builds. I find these days I'm really enjoying anything like that where I can build or customize something.

No idea about Arslan. Watched a few videos and immediately didn't like the look of it for some reason. Probably because it looks too similar to DW which I got bored of years ago.

It's interesting how, especially with these anime ones, they've added tons of enemy sizes. DQH gets some pretty large monsters. It's far more interesting than a hoard of human clones, all the same size and roughly the same attack range.

I see Warriors and Musou as the same thing but go ahead!

All good. Just checking because you only listed DW/SW in you opening post so I thought you were focusing on those.

I also listed WO and otherwise. Thinking like that happens.

So what's the opinion on them mechanically? I know they're all different and some are definitely better than others, but I mean in terms of the whole 'one man army' concept.

Keep in mind that I haven't played every Warriors game ever. I also know that I need to play them again so don't quote on this. DW 3-5: It's slower and a bit more realistic. You don't have any flashy moves to move around like crazy or any stat increase. You can't spam any attack unless you equip an elemental orb since in the modern games you can keep them in the air and they take extra damage assuming the weapon has something like fire.

You only have 3 Musou attacks. A regular Musou attack, a true Musou attack, and a bow Musou Attack. A regular Musou attack is basically a special move that you can use at any time. A true Musou Attack is a longer special move that also does fire damage. Unless you get the item to do this, the only way to use this is to get your health down to red(near death).The Bow Musou is just firing a few arrows fast. I don't see that Musou being useful compared to the others.

There is also the Morale system. It's a bit hard for me to explain it but it is a system that is in constant motion. Even if it was stuck, it still moves. The Morale is gauged by stars. At minimum there are zero but at maximum there are 8. The stars increase and decrease by what you do. Given that the regular soldiers are just as deadly as the officers, it can ruin your day. ESPECIALLY ARCHERS. The higher the Morale, the more time you have to spend dealing with them.

I'll continue later.

I only played the first few stages of Berserk, but it was not very fun, dropped it quick. There didn't seem to be any of the depth or flash of later Musou games. It was a very basic combo system and like one super move. Very little customization too.
Didn't feel like guts at all.
Dragon's Dogma with the guts skin is the best Berserk game, Imo.

Though I played on the hardest difficulty and apparently you aren't supposed to do that without grinding. Mooks hit for half my health and I did almost 0 damage.

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Didn't feel like guts at all.
From what I've seen, he looks like he plays like any of the big sword guys in DW, swinging their gigantic blades like feathers.

Very little customization too.
From what I've read, you can customize or create accessories that change things up but not sure how it works or if it's as good as they say.

Dragon's Dogma with the guts skin is the best Berserk game, Imo.
Did you play the PS2 game? In that one you can really feel the weight of his swings and the animations really support this. I especially love how when you fire the arm cannon and Guts goes sliding back, you can do the spinning slash from the the recoil like he did in the manga.

From what I saw, it was accessories that give more attack, defense, etc. To me that is as poor as customization gets. Again, didn't play much though, I was bored to tears. The Zelda Musou looks like the best one yet. Seems like a lot of variety in characters there.

I have not played the ps2 game, it is on my list. The gameplay looks pretty rough, and I am not a fan of Yukes, but I don't fully judge books by their cover. I will play it one day.

Weird. I watched this review and someone was praising the customization but if that's all it is they obviously haven't played many games with it. I'll see if it's available to rent.

I've been told One Piece Warriors 3 is the best Musou game.

Those did look cool. I just know nothing of the manga, don't think I would get much out of it.

Do you want me to continue?

Yes.

4E: This is the first Empires game on the series. It's pretty simple. You can start off with either Historical or Fictional. Then you have to pick somebody or a part of the land. After a cutscene is Policy time for your character that you picked and a couple of generals. Each officer will have a different policy of 2. You can also skip it if you want too. Policy will give you different things such as Gold to do more expensive policies and other things. Troops for making your officers last longer and not get captured. One time bonuses and other things.

Historical and Fictional are different. In Historical you will be asked to go in a special battle. Other things can happen to since it is basically "Story Mode". Fictional is pick and do whatever you want. However, you will always be a ruler. Once you are done with the Policy, the options you have are: Invade, Defend, Joint Attack, Help Ally, and Skip. You can check every territory that isn't yours. The number of officers, who the officers are, the troop strength they have, and the resources they have. You can also make Lieutenants into Generals.

In battle, the morale system is still there. Basically, you just capture the bases and then the main camp. You also need to fight the officers. In the map there are three colors: Blue, Red, and Grey. You are blue and you also need to protect every camp you have. To capture a camp, you have to kill every last enemy that is in the camp range. It is the only way to spread the blue color since you need it. Same with the enemy. Grey is the neutral color. Not to mention you can't use the special ability when you playing what character you have. At least in Dynasty Warriors 3 when you beat 1000 enemies everyone will have an 8-star morale. I think that still works but I never got 1000 in any other Warriors game on PS2. Anyway, once you got your main camp deep in your color, you don't have to worry about it getting captured.

The enemy officers will not stop until they are defeated. If they are high on troops then they will temporally withdraw. If not then they will be defeated. Meaning that they are out of the battle for good. If you beat them enough times then they will challenge you to a duel. I think you just go back to the back the battle since I never decline. If you accept, you and the person who challenged you will be in a small-medium sized arena. The only way to win is beating that officer. If the timer runs out then it will be a draw. Lose the duel and you lose the battle. Once you win, you can hire the officers you captured. If you can't due to funds or maximum limit, then you will have to release them.

Finally, you have a number of turns to unite the land. As for the officers themselves, their weapon levels up as you put them in battle after battle I think. As for their own levels, they are all different for what you need to do. You have to get x points, you need to have y territories and etc.

5E: Best Empires game on the PS2 imo. I need to play this with a new file so take this as someone who played this a lot. The modes for empire has really expanded. It is not just Historical or Fictional. You can play Gathering Of Heroes(Pure Fictional) or any event that the game gives you in Historical. After that you can choose what territory you want. If no one owns it, then you can use anyone who is available. You can even use generic officers! After that is a menu. An adjustable menu of multiple things. Simply it is: Officer limit, Map viewing, Save carrying, Ruler rules which is taking the land that has the ruler and the rest is yours, taking the land that has the ruler but only when isolated, or you can take every last piece of the Ruler's land but you can not get rid of that force. You can also remove the time limit unlike the last game. Finally, you can choose the setting of Officer death. It means that they can die of old age or execution.

Before doing a battle, you have a number of options. However, those options are limited by orders. The only way to gain more orders is to gain more land as you will be given a higher rank. The first option is Consult. It's pretty much DW4E Policy system. It is also the only to gain new things for another option. It also won't change unless you pick someone. Delegate is Consult except that it will not stop until you are out of orders. Pick someone and that person will not stop until the orders are gone. I recommend not using it. The third option is Assign. Assign is using one Policy per order. There multiple things to choose from. It is into sections which is: Commerce, Equipment, Personnel, Foreign, Military, Strategy, Special, and Tactics.

Station is putting your Officers where you want them to go to. It is order free. Info is there just to show you things. There are Forces, Areas, Officers, Weapons, Items, Active, Tactics, and Allies. After that will be the options: Invade, Defend, Joint Attack, Help Ally, and Skip. The menu before the battle is mostly the same. You can rotate the map up and down just like left and right. You can also put in tactics if you have any. The directional buttons all have an individual purpose this time. You can order your officers to Attack, Defend, follow your character, and let them do whatever they want. Once you win, any officer you have can be hired, released or executed but only if you turned the Officer Death on.

Finally, the officers don't need any special requirements to level up. The rank(level) is 16 to MAX. The only way to upgrade your weapons is using any of the four cards of Smithing.

Way more to Berserk's accessory customization than we thought. You have to get further in the game to unlock all the options.  This is on sale now on the NZ PSN store. I'm considering it. One Piece Warriors 3 is on sale too.

Got it for $33, down from $104. Not bad at all.

Some quick notes.

*No jumping. Wasn't expecting that.
*Cooldown subweapons.
*Dodge offset (annoying actually).
*Dash cancels.
*4 starting characters are boring. S/T style combos.
*Lock on only seems to work on officers/bosses. Annoying to target single mobs like gate keepers.

Not the greatest, BUT, Schierke is playable and from what I've seen she's a summoner/traps/range type. I'll play until I unlock her and if she sucks I'm deleting.

Overall, the characters are very fast, except for Guts. His T enders often miss because the enemy has moved before he uses them, unless it's his SSST where he does a 360 spin.

That's why I don't like the S/T system that much because every character usually boils down to finding the best T ender that deals with crowds the most efficiently and spamming it.

Musou All Stars looks interesting. It has characters from a few games I play or have played like Nights of Azure, Kagero/Deception, Nioh, and Dead or Alive. Some of the mechanics are weird and look really interesting.

You know, Musou games aren't bad mechanically at all. They can be a bit simple, and the enemies could stand to be more aggressive but like I said in the Berserk topic, their focus is controlling crowds. You also have to manage the fact that you can't be everywhere at once, enemies are unlimited unless you want to go a bit out of the way to stop them, certain characters or leaders getting killed fails the mission, and time limits. In DQ Heroes, you usually have a stationary target to defend against waves of increasingly tough enemies.

Even then, with these overpowered characters, you can storm the enemy's army and go straight for officers, or at least you could in the old games. At some point I might start going through every Musou title in release order because there are tons I haven't played and I'm finding some of them really good.

I wouldn't mind revisiting DW3 again as that was my first DW game and I played it to death. I still have it along with Xtreme Legends. I wonder how a no upgrade run would go?

There's a demo for Arslan but it's absolutely awful. Can't select character and it's on a very short timer. I can't believe demos like this exist. What a joke. I guess it's not as bad as that RE2 one time only demo, but the fact that I have to even make a comparison like that is disgusting.

I didn't expect everyone to be playable, or even the ranged characters, but I at least wanted to get some grasp of the system. Ok, I'm lying. I'm raging buttmad over this shitty demo. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy it. Luckily it's on sale right now.

Here's what I was able to gather from my short playtime.
It's immediately like regular DW, with the S,T strings, but there's a few differences (at least from what DW games I've played).

You can switch weapons. I don't know how many you can hold, but the guy I was playing had 3. You can't switch during regular attacks, only after a T attack (named 'power attacks' in this game). Press R1 after a T attack and you'll switch weapons and do a different attack with the next weapon. I guess we could call this a 'switch attack'. From there you can start another string into T then switch again.

So it seems you have to switch this one way, and I don't know if you can choose which weapon you switch to. You get some kind of bonuses for doing switch strings too.

Dodging is done by holding guard and pressing the direction you want to dodge. You can cancel normal attacks with this.

Each character has a special attack done with R1 and using a little of your super meter. The guy I was using, when done with the spear, would stab and impale a single enemy, then swing into others and you can control the direction. I remember these special R1 attacks were in one of the older DW games. I think they may have first shown up in Musou Orochi 1.

One feature I've never seen before is Mardan Rush. Not 100% sure on the mechanics, but the basics go like this. When you see a large blue circle on the map, get in there and press R2. The camera then zooms out above the battlefield and you'll be looking down and controlling an army of horsemen. There are other types of Rush but this is all I could do at this point.

Here's a quick video because it's hard to explain properly.


Once they reach that blue area ahead, they do a special attack.
I'm not sure if these are scripted or not. They're cool, but if you don't have to do anything to use them that would kinda suck because the enemy can't do anything about them from what I've seen.

There is some level of customization via skill cards, but I don't know enough about these to speak on them yet.

I'm going to do some serious searching to see how the bow users play. One problem I always had with DW/SW was even when a character had a bow, they didn't use it like one. Half their attacks would be melee with the bow itself, with the odd shot here and there or as a T ender, all done at close range. I hate that. That's not ranged combat at all.

A few of the spin-off Musou titles have really different characters that don't all run on the S,T system.
In Hokuto Musou, Mamiya was freakin' awesome. She had all these charge arrow attacks that you could release at different levels of charge, and her dodge was completely different. She'd roll to the side and go into a lying down position while shooting. She had other moves that put her on the ground too. Reminded me of Arcia from Chaos Legion.

DQH has the boomerang, spell caster, and bow characters with completely different mechanics from the melee users.

Who remembers this? I played it once when I was like 20 I think. Will see if I can get my hands on a copy or just download an ISO.

Some analysis vids on the state of the Musou games.

It's a good point that the ones with less characters are far better. Hokuto Musou was like this where most of the characters played differently, same with Berserk.

He mentions One Piece having more characters than any other and it was still good though. Not sure what's up with that game. I'm more interested in Arslan at the moment.

I agree with 'quantity over quality'. 100 characters don't mean shit when there's barely a difference between them.

I think Zelda is objectively the best because Team Ninja got their grubby hands on it. Everything I have heard points to it being top tier. I'm excited to play it now that I have a switch.

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I want to play it too. I have a WiiU so I might grab it if I see it cheap. The Switch is the 'definitive' edition, combining the WiiU and 3DS content I think. For testing mechanics though, the WiiU version will do.

I will update here whenever I get the Switch version. Could be a bit though, knee deep in Ninja Gaiden 2

6E: This is a very.... interesting game. They put some steps forward and put some steps back. Take note that along with Hyrule Warriors(since I only played the demo once) I played this warriors game the least.

This game goes by a Renbu System. A Renbu is your charge attack level. The Renbu goes to 1 to infinity. Infinity does not go forever though. Your normal attacks do go forever although it slows down on the last attack to redo the entire attack animation. In previous games you can press a different number of normal attacks and get a different charge attack. Sadly, in this game the charge attack is always the same. However you can roll and parry in this game. You can do a surprise attack but make sure that the enemy base is not in the red. It doesn’t happen in every battle but anyone can defect. Even you can defect if you are not a Ruler like in the past Empires. If you are a Ruler then not only can you order people with the d-pad, but you can also order them in the Orders section in the pause menu. Before I go to the main options, I want to talk about the Purchase option.

Purchase is an option that depends on where you are at. There are four things you can do to improve. Store is for buying Gems. Stables are for buying horses and I think that should just be the final thing to improve your character. Forge is where you improve your weapon. Strengthen is improving your attack and your Renbu. Imbue is buying effects that you can add to your character’s weapon. However you need to have the right amount of Gems to get them. Special is where you get even more effects. However, you need to manually press them and they only got a limited amount of time in order to use them in battle. You also need Gems for this too. Not to mention you can upgrade yourself.

You can select through any of the events of the timeline or you can pick Fictional land again. For Fictional land you can choose two options on what you want to play as: Ruler and Officer. There are Bonuses but they are available are you get enough points on what you want. By getting them is by beating the game. During the Historical timeline, you can select any officer that is available.
Let’s start with Officer. You start with a rank and it depends on who you are playing as. As an officer you can increase that rank through points by various means. Every few months or so you will get an assignment. Complete it and you’ll get a reward. After that you can do Mercenary work. It is mostly Escort missions and Kill Missions. They cost Resources which are Orders from DW5E. The option between Purchase and Mercenary is Events. There is always going to be a Step Down option which means you quit being an Officer/Ruler. At least as an Officer there is going to be an option where someone can team up with you but it is limited. There are other Events to try out.

As a Ruler it is almost the same as being an Officer. What is different that you have Resources that can be spent on cards and there are more cutscenes this time. Once you begin as a Ruler, you are taken to the Cards section. It is pretty much the Policy system except it is more strict and randomized. You can gain gold by getting land. As a Ruler, you need to be extra careful with your gold. You have to save some gold to keep your officers. I don’t think it is a major problem but you should save some. In fact, there are Cards that will cost gold. You can get officers by three methods. Have a recruit card and that is randomized. Pick Recruit at the end of battle but they might refuse(I always pick Exchange which is giving the Officer back with money). The last option is waiting. If you wait, someone will join you when you like it or not.

In Battle Preparations, the menu is very basic. You only have Preparation, Conditions, Battleground, Exit, and Start. In Preparation you have your Weapon which you can look at. You can hold down the right trigger and read the descriptions of your Effects and Special. Skills is just looking at the extra buffs you purchased. Cards In Use is to view the cards you use for battle. Conditions is looking at the win and lose conditions. As an Officer, there is an extra job for you to do but it is optional. Battleground is looking at your forces and the enemy forces. You can also look at the bases as well. Finally while you are in Battle Preparations, you can do what you want to do since it loads the battle.

Forgot to mention this: You can summon a horse in this game. Unlike the earlier titles where you have to get the Saddle and you have to go to it every time you need it. Not to mention that the horses only last one battle.

Renbu was weird for me. Overall I think it sucks, but it was fantastic for Sun Shang because she had a bow in this game and I enjoyed it but only as her.

I heard they released this on PS2 as well and it's the version with the most content (DW6 that is, not the expansions).

I'm not done with discussing the mechanics. I see Renbu more fitting on Samurai Warriors but I think that is because I played 2XL. IMO if they just did the Normal and Charge attacks the same then it would have been good. I wish they have carried the rolling and parrying for the future games at least.

DWDS: This was the first Warriors game I have played. I found it odd that they made it for the DS and the GBA and not the Gamecube. It is a very basic Warriors game.

You can only play as 3 characters and the men are color-coded red, blue, and yellow. You can go up to 4 hits and you can't improve it to 6. The 3 characters are Red: Well balanced, Blue: Weak but fast, and Yellow: Slow but Strong. The Officers you play as in the Mainline DW games are demoted to Guards in Cards.  The cards are not only separate in their own factions(Wei, Wu, Shu, Other), they are also color-coded in its own right.  Red cards give you buffs. Buffs that will increase your health, armor, and strength. Blue Cards give you items. I'll tell you that later. Yellow Cards does both but not everyone has a Yellow Card. After a number of battles the cards can be upgraded. They are upgraded by 1 star and 3 stars are at a maximum. Yellow Cards can not be upgraded.

The game starts as a Empires game. In the beginning you will the center since it is the only option. When you press the button to go to the battle you will see the map. The camps you have are associated with the color of your character. If you don't like the map, feel free to go back and press A since the camps are going to be random. There are two optional camps you can take. A Health camp that can increase your Health bar and a Weapon camp to increase your strength. The Officer Cards are different for every stage. Every Stage has its own number of Area. With each space of Area is a Quota. You need to beat the number you are given to proceed. There are 12 stages total.

In battle, the B button is Normal Attack. The A Button is Charge Attack. The X Button is Musou Attack. They Y Button is Item. There are different items to use and it depends on who you have on your card roster. The L button is for Guarding and you can move the d-pad/analog stick to Guard in a direction. The R Button is switching from the map to your main enemy. In battle you can encounter him and duel him. Defeating him will send him to a respawn point. In order to win or lose a battle, the Main Camp must be taken. Until that happens, you will never lose.

DW8E: This is the latest DWE game to date as of this post. I'm using the XBOX ONE The options are expanded from DW6E. It also goes without saying but you can make your own Officers. Even Edit Mode has its own upgrades. You can make your own Scenarios.

Anyway the normal attacks are the same. In the DW8 installments, they have a triangle system. They have a new second meter. I forgot the name but how about we call it the Rage meter. After you fill it up via Musou attacks, you can trigger it by pressing the two analog sticks. You will become stronger and if you hold the Musou button then you will be invincible any enemy you successfully hit will be in the air. You can call and even automatically ride the horse you have by pressing and/or hold the left trigger. The right trigger is your Stratagems. They can help by healing or buffing you or it can hinder your enemies. The RB is for changing your weapon. You can carry two weapons. You can level up and increase your stats, moves, and Musou.

In Empire Mode, you can be a Free Officer, a Common Officer, and a Ruler. You can do many things but you need the three main sources: Resources, Gold, and Troops. You also gain titles which increases your level.

I have been playing some Hyrule Warriors. First off, the combat feels great. Team Ninja really brought some good stuff to this. The attack animations feel very responsive and hard hitting. In all the Musou games I have touched, the combat always turned me off. They always had this.. delay or something that made it all feel stiff. Not the problem here at all, everything is so snappy. The dodge is fantastic too, most things can be dodge canceled, save for a few big animations. Playing on hard and it's not really hard, but that is fine because it just feels so good. There are juggles as well. There is no jump, but every character can do a launch combo with Y,X. For some, like link, that brings him into the air, some characters it doesn't. You can juggle any enemy that is in the air with ground combos. It's really fun coming up with combos and using items, like the bombs, to keep the stronger guys in the air as long as possible, or launching them the moment they stand up.
Really great upgrade system as well, though I have barley scratched the surface.
Also holy shit there are a ton of characters, gonna be a lot to learn.

Surprised to hear there's no jump. Berserk doesn't have jumping either. I think these two might be the only Musou games without jumping.

I like it. It puts more variety in warriors. Some can launch them self in the air with enemies, some just launch the enemies. Allows for some more combo variety. I just got baby link from majora's mask, he is a ton of fun.

Is there anything customizable like Berserks accessories?