Samurai Warriors

"Fun, but sometimes misinterpreted as "Dynasty Warriors.""

Samurai Warriors can be considered to be the Japanese counterpart to KOEI's famous "Dynasty Warriors" titles. The game takes place during the Feudal Warring Period in Japan, whereby one can pick the famous names of Oda Nobunaga and Sanada Yukimura. A worthy adversary to Dynasty Warriors, but is it worth the money?

NOTE: This review excludes any bonus features provided by Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends. Likewise, some references are made to other Dynasty Warriors games. These comparisons are made solely for those who have played those games, and can be disregarded if otherwise.

Story - 9 / 10

Samurai Warriors excels in the story-making department. With a cast of fifteen characters, KOEI decided to give each one an individual story mode, as well as giving each their own individual stories. This means that the story experienced when playing through Yukimura's Musou Mode may be extremely different from that of Kunoichi's Musou Mode. Though two stories may conflict and contradict one another, the stories themselves were made for individual character development, and KOEI did a fine job at that. Likewise, every Musou Mode can be completed in two ways. On a certain stage, a mission will be presented to you, highlighted in green. Depending on how you complete the mission (by failing or succeeding), your character's story will branch one of two ways. This leads to different endings, and adds to each character's story.

Playing stages themselves tell stories, as the missions you complete or fail help unravel the stage's story. Unlike Dynasty Warriors, the goal of each level is to complete the tasks laid before you, rather than defeating all enemy generals and killing tons of peons. By completing each mission appropriately, you unlock various stage sequences and continue to unravel the story behind the character you're playing.

Despite all these benefits and charms of the story, the downside is that every stage is divided up by character. Which means Yukimura's Siege of Osaka - Summer is played differently than Kunoichi's. Likewise, if one chooses to play Yukimura's Siege of Osaka - Summer as a character other than Yukimura, you will be referred to as Player 1, and the story will unravel as though you were playing as Yukimura. This can get annoying at times, since playing as Yukimura tends to limit you to playing to his Musou Mode levels only (unless you don't mind the annoyance of playing other character's levels).

Graphics - 7 / 10

The graphics of each individual character are quite well done; a re-hashing of the Dynasty Warriors 4 graphics. Likewise, during CG sequences, detail is very well done, as can be seen during a CG scene where it is raining, and Yukimura continues to fight. Raindrop splashes as well as mud splashes are made very clear.

In-battle graphics (this means excluding CG sequences) are what caused the somewhat low grade. When traveling throughout a stage, a certain fog appears that limits your vision to a very short distance in front of your character. This is made extremely evident (and gets annoying) on two-player mode, where one can barely see in front of them, and has to rely completely on the mini-map to find where they are going.

The playable character models and generic character models are all well done, each with their own look of individuality. One might even notice that certain, non-playable characters have individual character models of their own (Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hashiba Hideyoshi), which is quite the step-up from the standard Dynasty Warriors method (re-hashing generic generals as leaders).

Gameplay - 8 / 10

Samurai Warriors does a seesaw-like job in the gameplay department. Whereas some areas are well done and fun to toy with, other areas become annoying and tend to lead players to stop playing the game (or those stages). Samurai Warriors has many sections of gameplay to cover.

Let me first begin by stating that Samurai Warriors is a completely different game from Dynasty Warriors. The DW games are purely hack-n'-slash based, with a hint of strategy mixed in on few occasions. Samurai Warriors uses strategy to a much larger extent via a mission system. A mission is given to your character, and deadlines are set. Completing a mission usually results in some sort of advantage for your army, as well as making room for the next mission to appear. These missions tend to guide you through the level, and so killing all the enemy generals and sub-generals tends to become more tedious than in the DW games.

Every character has their own individual Musou Mode, and consequently, their own story. When you begin a Musou Mode, the path you take is straightforward; the first two levels tend to have you completing menial tasks to complete them. Around the third and fourth stages, a special mission comes up, and, depending on how you deal with it, your story will branch off, leading you to different endings each time. The Musou Mode is extremely fun to play because of this, as it means you can complete a story to your liking.

Any of the stages you've completed in Musou Mode can be replayed in Free Mode as any character you've unlocked up to that point. The Free Mode option is basically a method to play whichever level you want without having to go into Musou Mode, and to allow you to play certain characters' stories with different characters. A good addition, but honestly, who would've expected KOEI not to implement this feature?

A major problem of the game lies within its stages. Straying away from the traditional battlefields of the DW series, KOEI decided to make three different kinds of battle maps: Field maps, Infiltration maps, and Castle maps. The Field maps pit you against an enemy on a battlefield; the Infiltration maps sent you to infiltrate a castle; and the Castle maps had you begin on a battlefield and enter an infiltration stage upon defeating the enemy commander.

The Field battles were incredibly well done. Your missions were made quite obvious by watching the battle, and the effects of completing a mission left viewable results on the map, whether it be the advance or retreat of your forces, or the defeat of a foe. Field maps were incredibly fun to play, especially with the new mission system.

The Infiltration, and therefore Castle, maps were the less desirable stages to play. They basically consist of your character running around a castle searching for something in particular, such as an enemy commander or information. These stages were tedious at best, and were in no way fun. Likewise, enemies poured out of un-sealable gates, and followed you throughout the stage regardless of where you went. These were incredibly boring stages to play, and I personally found myself sighing to know I'd play one in Musou Mode.

The inclusion of a "Chaos" mode was made, to provide more experienced gamers with an added challenge. Does the "Chaos" difficulty live up to its name? Absolutely. Playing most of the later stages on hard is quite a feat for decent-leveled characters, even for the most experienced players. However, playing nearly any level on the Chaos difficulty provides you with a challenge, whether it be a mild or extreme one. Facing off against a pumped-up Maeda Keiji on Chaos is never a good idea, but the challenge is enough to draw players into doing so. Chaos mode was an excellent addition to the game, as it provides the gamer with another challenge after completing the game.

The weapon system used in Samurai Warriors is the same as Dynasty Warriors 3's; the weapon retrieval system. Every character begins with their first weapon, capable of only four hits, and they must collect weapon boxes during a stage in order to find and obtain new weapons. A weapon can deal out four, six, or eight hits, depending on its status. Weapons may also have elements equipped to them, allowing you to deal out elemental damage with certain charge attacks.

Fourth, or "ultimate," weapons are also in the game. Ultimate weapons are the hardest weapons to obtain. To get one, you must fulfill a certain task on a certain stage, varying from character to character, on the "hard" or "chaos" difficulties. If you fulfill the requirements, the weapon will appear, at which point you can collect it. Fourth weapons come with predetermined stats, and tend to be the most powerful weapons you can find.

KOEI implemented an air of individuality into each character's moveset. Every character has an arsenal of five foot-type moves. These come about by pressing square a certain number of times, followed by triangle presses. These lead to various combos, straying away from the basic ones found in Dynasty Warriors. A C1 (a single tap of triangle) initiates a move unique to each character. Executing a C2 (STTT) in Samurai Warriors generally makes a character knock the enemy into the air, followed by consecutive mid-air hits, knocking the enemy back down to the ground (similar to a C5 in DW3-4). A C3 (SSTTT) leads to a barrage of attacks that confuses the enemy at the end. A C4 (SSSTTT) leads to a flurry of attacks, knocking the enemy away into other enemies. Repeated taps of the square button leads to a full combo string which usually ends in a powerful killing blow. This foot system is different than the DW system of usual single-hit charge moves. Likewise, since no characters have similar movesets, each character and their charges are unique. Each character also has their own Musou attack; a powerful attack that makes you invincible for a time.

Likewise, fighting from horseback was made unique to each character as well. Every character now attacks on one side of the horse, allowing the player to focus their attacks on single or multiple enemies. The charges on the horse are the same as those on foot (C1 is a jump attack, C2 lifts the enemy into the air, C3 dizzies the enemy, C4 knocks them away, full combo is a... well, full combo). However, again, each charge is individual to the character being used, despite having the same effects in the end. Likewise, every character has a mounted stamina gauge. This gauge refers to how much damage you can take on a horse before getting knocked off. It is separate from your health gauge, and varies from horse to horse. When the bar is depleted, your character will fall from the horse. Remounting a horse refills the gauge, but getting hit deals a lot of damage to it, so one should be careful where and when they mount a horse.

The inclusion of being able to mount a cannon in certain levels is somewhat of a bonus feature not available in the DW's. You can ride cannon-mobiles and shoot fireballs at enemies. Not incredibly useful, but good for a laugh.

Aside from the individuality in movesets, every character has unique stat maximums. This means, unlike Dynasty Warriors (generally speaking), Kunoichi's strength will not match Keiji's. Since Keiji is a powerhouse, his Life and Attack maximums will be relatively high; Kuonoichi is a stealthy, swift character, and so her speed and Musou caps are relatively high. These varied stat maximums further develop a character, giving them a larger air of individuality and allowing you to make certain decisions as to how to use them in battle.

After completing a battle, depending on your performance, your stats will go up. The "better" you complete a stage, the better your stat upgrades will be. Also, you will receive Skill Points you can use to buy special skills. Every skill is unique, allowing you to either increase a certain stat of your character, or allow your character to perform something it normally cannot do (such as auto-blocking attacks). These skills, again, give you the power to further individualize a character to your liking.

Item retrieval is the same as every DW game; collect an item box, and you get an item after completing the level. When you equip these items, your stats will raise depending on the item's description. Likewise, there are unique items, whereby you must complete a certain task on any difficulty and retrieve the item. The tasks are usually menial ones, and the items themselves are useful at times, allowing you to do things you normally cannot do (initiate a True Musou attack when in full health, for example).

KOEI implemented two newer features to the game: Abyss and Tower survival modes. The Abyss stage requires you to complete a floor – similar to infiltration stages – which usually ends with a difficult opponent right before clearing a floor. Tower is somewhat the same as Abyss, but with a different objective. Whereas Abyss demands that you clear as many stages as possible, Tower demands that you clear as many stages as possible within the given time limit. Both new modes can be fun at first, but tend to become extremely repetitive, and once you've completed them, chances are you won't want to go through it again.

The Versus modes in SW differ somewhat from DW's. Rather than your main objective being the defeat of your opponent's character, certain conditions are set in order to defeat your opponent. The Showdown versus option requires you to defeat your opponent's army, down to the last soldier. This is incredibly fun, requiring you to defeat your opponent's army whilst protecting your own. The next option is Pursuit, which pits you and your opponent at odds to capture Goemon Ishikawa. Several fake Goemon's appear, and defeating them over and over will eventually reveal the real one. One of the less fun versus modes, since basically you and your opponent will kill any Goemon's on the map, leaving the match down to luck rather than skill. The Strike versus mode is by far the most fun. Both players complete to get 1000 KO's, the first to get there being the winner. Incredibly fun and somewhat time-consuming, it's a great choice when you want to play against a friend.

KOEI decided to completely overhaul the bad attempt at a Create-a-Warrior in DW4 and came up with SW's CAW system. Incredibly different from DW4, it makes creating a character relatively fun, allowing you to customize his or her strengths and weaknesses at your own accord (depending on your actions). Upon beginning, you must name your character, and choose its outfit. This is the downside of the system, as it is very hard to make fifteen individual edit models when there are only twelve unique models to choose from. No mixing and matching like DW4.

However, the edit character development makes up for it. You begin your training with various challenges that can increase or decrease your character's stats (the challenges will be listed in the next section). Initially, only two challenges are available, and you are given a rank upon completion. As you advance in rank within each challenge, new challenges become available, allowing you to further customize your stats. Once a year (twelve rounds) has passed, you are asked to pledge allegiance to a clan. This is basically an initiation round, confirming that your character is actually worthy or being in the game. You are to choose one of several warlords in the game, and take their challenges. These are themed challenges; for example, joining the Takeda clan requires you to complete the Melee and Riding challenges, riding being an obvious forte of the cavalry upon playing the game. If you pass the tests, your character is successfully created, and you can now use him or her in the game. If you fail the tests, your character is deleted, and you must restart from scratch. Likewise, depending on your stats at certain points in the training, a special character may challenge you, and upon defeating them, you can obtain a special skill.

The Challenge mode of the game consists of challenges requiring you to abuse a special fighting style of the game. These challenges are also in the Create-a-Warrior mode of the game. Melee asks that you defeat as many enemies as possible; Musou requires you to defeat as many enemies as possible using Musou attacks only (Musou Wine appears upon defeating enemies to replenish your Musou gauge); Combo asks that you complete the largest combo possible; Archery asks you to defeat as many enemies with bow attacks without allowing any of them to pass to bridge you are standing on; Deflect asks you to deflect as many arrows as possible back to their shooters; Burst demands that you complete the infiltration stage presented to you as quickly as possible; and Riding asks that you complete the course presented before you on a horse as quickly as possible. Each is challenging in their own right, and makes for excellent competition among friends and training for the game in general.

The character reset feature allows for insane replayability and providing you with a challenge along the way. The feature resets the characters stats, skills, and points, remaking them as a fresh character. Should you wish to learn a special skill you previously did not know, but have maximum points, disallowing you to learn anything more, you can simply reset the character and try again. Should you wish to attempt the final level of a character's Musou Mode with base stats on Chaos mode, character reset lets you do it. All in all, a great addition that wasn't added by an expansion (like DW4:XL).

The bodyguard system in Samurai Warriors is incredibly lacking. With the exception of naming your bodyguards, they are completely un-customizable. You select a type of bodyguard unit from male / female ninja, bowmen, or soldier, and fight with them in battle. Their appearances do not change as they level up, and their final stats are always pre-determined. Likewise, they're near useless on any difficulty setting. Overall, they don't really add to the game and you'll rarely find yourself depending on them.

Summary of Gameplay Pros:
- Branching Musou Modes with different endings
- Field Maps are well-done and fun to play as
- Inclusion of a Chaos, or Very Hard, difficulty setting
- Complete originality in every character's moveset
- Incredible expansion and revamping of horse fighting
- (For DW3 fans) Implementation of the "find a weapon" method
- The Versus Modes are fairly amusing and fun to play as, and don't require you to fight your opponent in a one-on-one duel
- New Create-a-Warrior system is fun to play with
- The Challenge Modes are both fun to play as and useful for practicing / training
- Character Reset option adds to replayability

Summary of Gameplay Cons:
- Free Mode stages are exclusive to each character / using other characters leaves you unfulfilled
- "Fog" can become annoying at times
- Infiltration Maps were poorly made and less desirable to play
- "Abyss" and "Tower" become incredibly repetitive and boring
- Bodyguard system is incredibly lacking

Sound – 7 / 10

The voices in this game are tolerable, though I do find many of them, such as Okuni's, Kunoichi's, and generic officer's, to be incredibly annoying. Usually, they fit the character well, and give you an understanding of that character's personality (Keiji's fiery voice, for example). Nothing spectacular in that department. Note: Those who enjoyed DW3's Japanese voice acting option, or just enjoy Japanese voice acting in general, will be pleasantly surprised to know that a Japanese voice acting feature is implemented in this game.

The music of the game is average as well. They don't make your ears bleed, but they also don't leave you asking, "Where can I get the Samurai Warriors OST?" They're just there, adding to the stages in as little ways as possible. I do give KOEI credit for making the music Japanese-oriented, in a sense. Hints of traditional Japanese music can be heard in some songs.

Replayability – 8 / 10

It's tough to grade this, simply because some aspects of the game make it fun to replay, whereas others make it boring. The Challenge modes are always there should a player wish to break a record of theirs or attain an incredibly high one, and the character reset option allows you to replay a character from scratch as many times as you want. Likewise, branching Musou Mode paths means you'll have to complete Musou with a character at least twice to collect all the endings (several more times with Okuni).

However, the individuality KOEI gave each playable character came back to bite them in the bum with their Free Mode system. Since Kunoichi will be the only one to receive special treatment in her Musou Mode stages, the only stages you'll really want to play her as are her Musou Mode stages. This make playing a character limited eight stages, unless you don't mind being ignored by your commander and having the gameplay look and feel incredibly out of place. You can reset a character as much as you want; the problem lies with how many times you'll want to play the stages over and over.

The inclusion of Infiltration stages make the game less replayable, as well. Rarely will you find yourself wanting to replay an infiltration, since they are incredibly boring and tedious stages to do.

An upside to the stages, regardless of their type, are the missions. It is impossible to complete every mission on a given stage in one playthrough. Some missions require you to fail other missions; some require you to succeed missions; and some require you to do a combination of both. Completing every mission with every single character is time-consuming, challenging, and fun, and adds immensely to the replayability.

Controls – 10 / 10

A category that is not really fair to judge, the controls in this game are extremely simple. Square is to attack normally, Triangle is to use a charge attack, X is to jump, and Circle is to use your Musou (special) attack. If you tap circle, you will still be in a state of Musou-ness, but you can attack normally. You can initiate various special moves if you press triangle after a chain of Square button presses (SSST, for example), and can follow up on those moves easily. Blocking and using a bow is straightforward. Changing your map look and turning on the enemy health bars take a fraction of a second to do. The controls are simple to follow and easy to adapt to.

Average Score – 8.16~ / 10
My Verdict – 8 / 10

It's coincidence (or fate) that the scores coincided, but Samurai Warriors is definitely a good game. Despite its obvious flaws and the difference in people's gaming preferences, the game is fun at any age and easy to adapt to if you're used to a different playing style (Real-Time Strategy, First Person Shooter, etc.). The story, gameplay, and graphics are amazing, and the controls are easy to follow. Despite all this, I'd suggest renting it first. Since many people have bought it thinking it to be similar to Dynasty Warriors, many were disappointed. So, rent it first, and see if it suits your playing style. Buy it if it does, because... if it does... then you're guaranteed to love the stages, replayability, and the other aspects of the game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/05