Dynasty Warriors' new Vampire Survivors-ish roguelike is maybe the perfect spin-off for a series already known for endless enemy hordes

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Warriors: Abyss is out now

A screenshot from Warriors: Abyss
(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

Dynasty Warriors is already known for how many enemies it can fit on screen for you to hack-and-slash at in any given moment, so it shouldn't have been such a surprise to see the series get a pitch perfect Vampire Survivors-ish spin-off at last night's State of Play show.

Warriors: Abyss was properly stealth-dropped yesterday on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X - and the minute I saw the Musou-fighters face off against hordes of enemies in a top-down roguelike I though, 'Oh, that makes perfect sense.' It's not quite a bullet hell dream and you're definitely not auto-battling here - this is still a hack-and-slasher through and through - but it's chaotic enough to exist in the same space.

WARRIORS: Abyss - Launch Trailer - YouTube WARRIORS: Abyss - Launch Trailer - YouTube
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During runs, you're doing the genre usuals: choosing between upgrades and teaming up with around 100 familiar faces for massive, flashy area-of-effect attacks. The game's Steam description promises there's "over 16 billion battle styles" thanks to how many upgrades you can combine, so "no run is the same."

"I'd never really considered it before, despite being a lifelong fan of Dynasty Warriors, but the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, famous for sporting enormous casts of unique playable characters, are perfectly suited for the roguelite genre," one of the 100 and counting 'Mostly Positive' user reviews writes.

It's a pretty major one-two punch from publisher Koei Tecmo, which just released one of the best games in the series with last month's Dynasty Warriors: Origins. Well, you could probably call it a one-two-three punch if we're including Koei Tecmo's also great Ninja Gaiden 2 remaster.

See what else is coming out this year new games of 2025 release calendar.

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.