Samurai Warriors

"More Hack and Slash Madness!"

Samurai Warriors - Reviewer's Notes

Samurai Warriors is the latest game from KOEI based on the Dynasty Warriors engine. This time around the game moved across the ocean (and a thousand and so years later) into the land of Rising Sun. This time around the story evolves during the warring feudal lord period - where the Shogunate is weak, and all the regional warlords are vying for power.

Game Mechanics/GamePlay: 8/10
In this episode there are many new features that are added to the game making this game an advancement over Dynasty Warrior though not completely revolutionary.

The most instant and visible change is the RPG-style leveling up added to all characters. After completing each level, characters are award character points up to how the player completes the quest and then this points can be used to buy power-up abilities. This is an interesting new addition which allows characters to make more customizable additions to their character.

Stats such as jumping, speed, agility are added as abilities that can be increased which makes character development more interesting.

Interlocked with the new advancement system is the new officer system - which allows players to train their new officers. New officers this game are somewhat restrictive in appearance, but to compensate that, you are allowed to use 12 turns to train in various courses - such as melee, burst, riding, archery, deflection, musou, and combo training into the samurai you want them to be - which is essentially playing through 12 mini-games and multiple random events. After the end of the period you have to qualify into one of the ruling lords by taking additional tests.

In the game, the most visible change in the game play is the addition of new internal maps. Most maps we encountered in Dynasty Warriors are external world maps. However in Samurai Warriors, we have at times to storm enemy castles. These maps are internal maps - with no info (no battle map), which the player can automap. In each of these castles there are multiple levels, with no support squad, and no power up after each level making it a huge challenge to finish the stage. At first glance the castle maps are very interesting boasting multiple types of traps and also doors that the player can break down- however after a while the fun wears out as these internal stages are claustrophobic and repetitive after a while.

For external maps, a new addition that is irritating though makes the game more realistic is the addition of fogs. Instead of just fogging the rendered screen the character is in, it also hides all the battle map from the player making it look and sound like the player is fighting blind - which is alittle more realistic (as in Dynasty Warrior - fogs don't do much as we can check the battle map), but somewhat irritating at times.

On playing the game, there player can do a few new tricks on their sleeves. The first addition is the dodging roll - in which players can roll and evade harm in any direction. This movement is nifty for dodging arrows/bullets/attacks. Another addition is the ability to deflect arrows back to attackers by hitting the arrows launched at us directly. That is a nifty move, though somewhat hard to pull out in an open battlefield. Another interesting move is the double jump - in which some characters can double jump in the air making them able to transverse great distances.

The horses in this game have been finally given a long awaited upgrade. Players can ride horses - in which the player will have a horse power meter - which will drop when the player is hit. After the meter hits 0, the player falls to the ground, which is unlike the earlier episode that the horses are too easy to dismantle. Coupled with that, horses can now jump or trample with the Triangle button. The jumping action adds new dimensions to the game, allowing the player to jump over obstacles or jump into a horde of enemy. Also attacks on horseback have been upgraded making fighting on horseback very desirable.

Graphics: 8/10
One of the first comments I had when viewing one of the first few CGs was this comment: Oda Nobunaga looks exactly like Cao Cao!

Having seen the CG, I had some hunch that this game was practically much of a recycle from Dynasty Warrior - until I started to play more into the game and seeing more of the game. As this game was produced by the same team as Dynasty Warriors, we can see that much of the style are consistent making the character design of this game somewhat like Dynasty Warrior - at an initial glance, though at later I have to say that many of the character design here fit quite well with the persona - if you read and visualize much of the Japanese History of this same period.

Otherwise much of this game looks rather similar to Dynasty Warrior in the stages. Most of the same repetitive 3D background - which is rather bland, though visually compelling at times - up to you mood at that time. The main added aspect in the game is the storming of castles in which provides a new visual experience - though will get bland after a while since most of these castles have 3 templates - a modern upkeep castle, a underground cavern, or a wooden style fortification. The graphics here are done in more solemn tone making this game look more like a warfield than a stroll in a park :P

In summary, the graphics here are above average, the game is visually compelling enough, and the character designs are done very well.

Sound/Music: 6/10
After playing many episodes of Dynasty Warriors and this game, I have to admit I never remember any of their soundtrack well. The only thing I do remember is the sound of the swords clashing, and the battle cry/scream. Nothing much to comment on the music.

Regarding the voice actings, there leaves alot to be desired. The voice acting in Samurai Warriors sounded rather odd at times, and this one also. I guess it has to do with some of the rather strange translation done by the crew. The saving grace is that the player can change the voice overs from English to Japanese if they require which adds to the feel of the game.

Replayability: 9/10
As with all the games in this series, this is one of the most addictive action games in the market. This game they allowed more customizable options such adding training to the new officers - making it look like an RPG type of game. Also certain in-game actions creates branched quests on the next episode adding more replay value.

Overall: 8/10
Overall, Samurai Warrior is a good new Hack and Slash type of game from Koei that will keep game players happy and entertained for a very long time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/14/04