Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends

"It's not just Extreme, it's "Xtreme""

Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends

The addition to Samurai Warriors, though it can be played as a stand alone game. But it will be more enjoyable as an addition. Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends offers many new aspects to Samurai Warriors. It gives 4 new characters, 1 new stage map, 6th weapons for everyone, 6 new items, 3 new VS Mode stages, and 1 new Survival Mode stage. Plus, it fixes all the problems with the original Samurai Warriors. You can also import the data from the original Samurai Warriors to be able to use all the characters and other modes from that one on the Xtreme Legends game. These two games really work best as a pair.

The four new characters are nice as well. You get Hideyoshi Hashiba, Yoshimoto Imagawa, Tadakatsu Honda, and Ina.

Hideyoshi Hashiba: Ah, the monkey man that we all praise, for building the castle in just one day. Remember him? In the original, his character had a unique model, but he just wasn't playable. I'm actually surprised he wasn't playable in the first one, and I'm even more surprised Ieyasu Tokugawa isn't playable in either of these, and I'm just sad that Nagamasa Azai is not either. Anyway, Hideyoshi is really fun to play with. He's quick and he uses a three-sectional staff which is a fun weapon to play around with. And he's got that genius hidden behind a crazy idiot personality which makes him strangely cool, despite his rather normal appearance.

Yoshimoto Imagawa: Not only does he look like a clown, an ugly one, but he acts like one too. Seriously, Yoshimoto is like a little kid. His weapon is a sword and a kemari ball, and he's always kicking that ball around in his cutscenes. He's not the type of person you'd take seriously in a war. He doesn't even seem to be serious about the war either, but he's still kind of fun to play with for a little while.

Tadakatsu Honda: Tadakatsu is quite the powerful man. Tearing up the battlefield with him is like a lion preying on a pack of gazelles. There's nothing really special about his personality, but he looks awesome. He's got horns. Horns! Tadakatsu is often compared with Keiji Maeda, but I feel that Tadakatsu is even better than him.

Ina: She is Tadakatsu's daughter and she is an interesting new character. Her outfit is pretty nice and she uses a bow as her weapon. She seems to be fighting to discover the meaning of battle and what lies beyond it, but she will also seem to be driven by the glory or the sheer excitement of battle. Her move set isn't particularly good, but once you get used to it, it won't be that bad. Using the bow seems to make it a little awkward.

Gameplay: 10

The gameplay is still the same as Samurai Warriors, in that you run through stages and kill the enemies while completing missions. But remember all that stuff that was frustrating? Well, it's not anymore. In multiplayer, both you and your partner can have two separate Musou gauges. The enemies no longer get stronger as you do. You can continue to achieve skill points even after you max your character out. And even castle stages are easier. You can seal off the gates in the castles, you'll find health pick-ups more often, and the general feel of castle stages is easier and even enjoyable now. And it is also easier to obtain the 5th weapons, given that the enemies don't get stronger as you do, but you can unlock a feature to allow you to obtain 5th weapons on the Normal difficulty and that makes it much easier. The same goes for 6th weapon except they can only be made to be obtained on the Hard difficulty. All the major annoying aspects of the gameplay have been adjusted in this game and it is now almost perfect.

Graphics/Sound: 10

I group these together since there isn't much difference with them from the original. The graphics are still pretty good and still detailed. The music is still nice for setting the mood of the gameplay and the voice acting is still surprisingly well done. There is a different voice actor for some of the characters that appear in the newer character's stages, but there isn't a big difference in them.

Replayability: 10

Now that all the little tweaks and messes have worked out and perfected, the replay value of this game goes higher. Now it will be easier to complete all the missions and obtain all the weapons so the frustration of failure won't drive you away as much. Though it still isn't a walk in the park. You'll still find a bit of a challenge.

Overall: 10

Samurai Warriors was great enough even with all the little irritating aspects of the game. But now that they are fixed, this game is nearly perfect. However, it still needs the original Samurai Warriors to be fully appreciated and enjoyed. If you buy this game, I highly recommend you also get the original. And if you have the original, I highly recommend you get this one. If you like this type of game, this will provide hours upon hours of entertainment for you.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/06