YMMV / Warriors All-Stars

• Americans Hate Tingle: Being a Massively Multiplayer Crossover game pulling from various different franchises to build its roster, this was inevitable, especially when the domestic Japanese fanbase was the primary target demographic, with Koei Tecmo collecting data and fan input when deciding which characters to include via an official survey^note The poll was conducted entirely in Japanese, and entrants' locations were only available to Japanese prefectures. Western members of the community have already expressed disappointment towards whom Japanese fans voted in.
• Base-Breaking Character: Given they are already moderate examples of this trope in their own home franchise, Honoka and Marie Rose drew mixed reactions for their inclusions on the roster.
• Broken Base: Like Dynasty Warriors 7 (pre-Empires expansion), All-Stars does not feature a "Free Mode": when it comes to Warriors Spin-Off titles, the lack of a Free Mode is still a point of contention to fans between those who bemoan Koei Tecmo for not including it and those who don't think it's entirely necessary (especially for this game, due to the large amount of sidequests).
• Demonic Spiders: Any enemy with three or more Bravery than you has access to a special shield designed to interrupt your combos and force you to break off and Level Grind until you can take them on. This is infuriating in maps you've already completed due to Bravery Railroading you into playing through every bit of them every time. This was heavily unlike in past games where you merely needed good wits, some luck and an optimal setup just to take on high morale officers in the original Dynasty and Samurai games, Hyper Mode or not; it was basically the fact that high Bravery units just repelled your hits with no way to directly make them flinch.
  • Naotora Ii and Oka are both egregious enemies to fight due to their No-Sell mechanics. Having to wait for Oka's shield or Naotora's Last Chance Hit Point Invincibility mode to wear off can be a detriment in timed missions.
• Difficulty Spike: Transitioning from one of the three Rulers' Routes to the True Ending Route will see battles becoming more reliant on how quickly you can complete/maintain objectives than your raw might.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In a similar vein to Frank West being included in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, William from Nioh getting the last spot on the roster has been lauded by Western fans, even after many had correctly predicted his inclusion before the developers made it official. Not only is Nioh the subject of a lot of goodwill from the Western fanbase as one of the more popular Koei Tecmo titles in recent memory^note It became Koei Tecmo's all-time best-selling video game in North America, the same players consider William a viable choice to stand as a massively stark contrast to the divisive picks from the Japanese fans.
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • In Nioh, fighting crowds of enemies at the same time is discouraged and duels are emphasized, but Warriors All-Stars enables William to slaughter entire armies of Mooks with no problems.
  • Given the Real Life historical context, Ishida Mitsunari and Sanada Yukimura have interacted with William Adams already, but this version of William in All-Stars is loosely based on the factual person; the same holds true for Mitsunari and Yukimura. This also applies to Nobunyaga, obviously not the same "Demon King Nobunaga" these men and Naotara are familiar with.
  • Speaking of Nioh, Mitsunari was a major antagonist in the game, yet in Shiki's route, his Samurai Warriors counterpart and William work together to fight a common foe.
  • Likewise, Darius himself comments how strange it is for him to encounter a version of Ishida Mitsunari in the first place, though most Western players won't get the reference due to the obscurity of his series.
  • In this game Shunsuke Takeuchi voices Oda Nobunyaga. Then SD Gundam World Heroes would give us another Oda Nobunaga-based character, Nobunaga Gundam Epyon, whereas Shunsuke voices Cao Cao Wing Gundam, whom Nobunaga Gundam Epyon tries to convince to join his rebellion.
• I Knew It!: When the developers stated the core characters would be limited to 30 (pre-Downloadable Content), many players guessed the last spot would go to Nioh protagonist William, given the proximity of both games' releases being roughly a month apart, and so Koei Tecmo can promote both. Indeed, William was the last character revealed for the roster following a developer's livestream of Nioh on Koei Tecmo's Youtube channel.
• Narm
  • If one understands Japanese, Naotora's ending quote for her "Special Attack" is non-sensical, as she basically says "How embarrassing!" (which was her original Ultimate Musou attack finishing quote) before performing a full-on Kiai.
  • Millennia and Laegrinna refer to everyone as "humans", even when most of them don't appear to be humans. This is later mitigated when it's explained the inhabitants of the world are actually their version of humans, who conveniently happen to have animal features.
  • William frequently switching between the English/Chinese and Japanese script versions of Lu Bu's name, going from one moment of calling him "Lu Bu" to calling him "Ryo Fu" all while still speaking English.
• Moment of Awesome
  • Just like in Warriors Orochi 3, Ryu Hayabusa knows how to make one hell of an entrance: he snipes a demon that was sneaking up on Ayane from atop a nearby skyscraper, leaps off, and slices the demon in half upon reaching the ground.
  • Ii Naotora and her Let's Get Dangerous! moment in her Hero Battle: after rushing headlong into enemy traps and needing help four times over the course of the level and apologizing profusely every time, the bandits begin taunting her after she volunteers to open a gate. Her response? "I'm sorry, but I can no longer go easy on you!" and proceeds to kick their collective asses.
  • The Hero Battle for Sanada Yukimura mirrors his famous Last Stand battle where the player must protect the Sanada Maru while his intro movie has him charge straight into the enemy camp and challenge Setsuna to a one-on-one duel.
  • "The Eternal Parting" ending is one for all of William, Ryu, and Yukimura: the three of them have realized Sayo is responsible for driving the conflict and take her down. They then stand guard over her for as long as Shiki needs to end the war. She tries to brainwash them, but William is protected by his guardian spirit, Ryu by the Dragon Sword, and Yukimura resists through sheer willpower. It's the only one of those particular "early" endings that isn't considered a Bad Ending.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Players really enjoy the dynamic gameplay and mechanics. But they find the story very boring and tedious and care less on the Original Generation characters.
• Scrappy Mechanic
  • The "Bravery System" seems like a good idea on paper: an individual-based Morale Mechanic where the party leader grows stronger by defeating Mooks and enemy officers and completing sub-missions during stages, increasing their Bravery ranking and improving the four supporting party members' "Hero Skills", without having players go gung ho with the leader, rushing to defeat enemies that have a higher Bravery rating, while risking defeat. Sadly, Unstable Equilibrium is in effect as regardless of game difficulty, it's incredibly easy to turn the party leader from a weakling into a One-Man Army in a matter of minutes; worst of all, Bravery ratings for allied Non Player Characters during battle don't increase, meaning nine times out of ten they will be pitched against stronger foes. This is particularly bad when mission-specific characters who must stay alive for the duration of a stage are in danger of being defeated, forcing players to give up on what they're doing just to assist them - one of the least liked aspects of the Warriors franchise.
  • Unlike traditional "Musou Attacks", Special Attacks in All-Stars don't often freeze enemies within the player's vicinity, meaning that if used incorrectly, it's extremely easy for key targets to simply dodge them or be knocked out of range by another character's attack, rendering the Special Attack wasted (especially with the camera angles during it to make it hard to gauge if you aimed it right without being in point-blank range). It also doesn't help that in order to balance out the raw power of Special Attacks in this game, the SP Gauge isn't as easy to build up like the Musou Gauge in the Warriors franchise and its Spin Offs, and there's only one stock for it.
• That One Level: The final battle for the path leading to the True Ending, as losing either Tamaki, Setsuna, or Shiki results in an instant game over. These characters are spread out over the map while enemy reinforcements are constantly attacking them and allied bases. However, this is greatly mitigated by the 4-supporting characters assembled in the party - players can select all three royals to be supports, making them follow the party leader at all times, ensuring their safety.
• Tough Act to Follow: All-Stars is a follow-up to the popular Warriors Orochi 3 and its Ultimate expansion. Despite a slightly dated character roster and an awkward-to-poorly structured story mode, this installment is generally considered to be the best Spin-Off title in the Warriors franchise to critics and players alike due to the content both games provide along with some of the most polished Warriors game-play. Unfortunately with the lack of DLCs and the announcement of Warriors Orochi 4 which includes all Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires and Samurai Warriors 4:II characters and removes the guest collaborative characters from the roster, All-Stars is quietly swept under the rug and quickly forgotten.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Overlaps with They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
  • Opoona, as explained in one review of the game, has almost no involvement in the main story's cut-scenes or its Multiple Endings, nor does he appear in any of the bonus stages. Despite sharing the intro with Sophie Neuenmuller when selected as the primary character at the start of the game, he isn't even featured in that either.
  • Outside of the friendship mechanic and filling up corresponding gauges for each character, none of the ones who have encountered each other in Warriors Orochi bother to make any sort of nods to the Crossover, let alone mention relationships they've had with people related to the person in question. Even small talk between characters are wasted - take Ryu and Ayane, who don't bother to ask why William's clothed in Samurai armor and weapons, nor wonder how he knows about Japan (where Ryu and Ayane come from).
  • Despite the smaller cast size compared to Warriors Orochi, some characters get far more screen-time than others, with certain stages that could involve specific relationships between the cast not being used, a problem the Warriors Orochi narrative also suffered from.
• Unexpected Character
  • Opoona caught many people by surprise; even after appearing in the initial teaser trailer, many still didn't believe he got in because of how incredibly niche his own game was.
  • Rio Rollins Tachibana comes from a series of "Pachislot" games exclusive to Japan: these games are based around gambling, not Hack and Slash.
  • Most people outside of Japan aren't aware of Nobunyaga, the anthropomorphic cat version of Oda Nobunaga who debuted in the mobile phone social Spin-Off game Samurai Cats, which had a very short-lived Western release.