Familiar, yet somehow different

I can still remember the first time I played a Dynasty Warriors game; my brother had borrowed Dynasty Warriors 2 for PS2 from a friend and I was immediately in love with the overall experience as someone who enjoyed sword/shield battles. The whole vibe of the game, having that ‘1 vs an army’ feeling in battles was amazing. I have played a lot of Musou games over the years, (I particularly enjoyed the Gundam and Legend of Zelda variety) but I never played the Dynasty Warrior spin-off Samurai Warriors. Which in hindsight makes no since because I am a huge fan of Samurai and especially the Sengoku period, primarily because of my fasciation of Oda Nobunaga. As luck would have it, Samurai Warriors 5 takes place during this period in Japan, and not only that but focuses on my boy Nobunaga and his friend/future assassin Akechi Mitsuhide. Its funny because I always say I am done with Musou games, but much like Michael Corleone… “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”

Koei Tecmo revamped the Samurai Warriors franchise with its fifth entry. There is going to be changes that I’m sure will be welcomed by old players but I really enjoyed as a new player to the series. First off is the graphics and art style, much like Capcom did with Street Fighter 4 the team at Omega Force went with a ‘Japanese painting’ style of graphics that is beautiful to see in motion. The colors are all very bright and vibrant, and as you move and attack through the world you really get a sense of a beautiful painting. This of course carries over into the cutscenes, which aside from a bit of noticeable compression moves as seamlessly as possible between it and gameplay.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, Switch
Price I’d Pay: $59.99

Speaking of gameplay, the combat is fluid and as satisfyingly over-the-top as the series is known for. Wading into battle with my katana and quickly devolving into a deadly dance of slashes and special attacks, my combo counter quickly jumps to 345 vanquished foes. Personally, I always try and get that counter up as high as I can, I even can recall my brother and I used to play co-op in which we would try to beat each other’s score. Combat is easy to pick up, with one face button dedicated to light/normal attacks and another your new to the series, hyper attack. What this does is dash you forward while also attacking. So, you can use it to move quickly across the battlefield, while gathering up enemies into a combo along the way. While the movement part of the button is new, it basically is the heavy attack button. By mixing those buttons up you will be able to pull off various combos, each with bone crunching results. You can further tweak your combat abilities by applying various augments that can add lighting to your attacks, or refill your ultimate gauge quicker. All of these augments can be leveled up and really help you define the character you want to play as.

One of the unique things I love about this game is the ability to customize your chosen character. Samurai Warriors 5 has 37 different characters in all for you to unlock and choose from. All of them come equipped with a weapon, but unlike other games in the series that I’ve played you can change their weapon whenever you want. So if you want to fight with a bow, or a great staff then you can do that. As you fight through each level you will pick up various weapons/gold and items used for crafting (more on that in a bit). The weapons all have levels/rankings with the lowest being rated E and the highest being S. Initially you will pickup up lots of E rank weapons/augments but as you progress you will start to get better drops for weapons as well as augments.

While the main game takes place in the Musou Mode, I would recommend spending some time in Citadel Mode. In Citadel Mode you can earn materials that are used to upgrade your weapons, augments and castle buildings. In this mode you will mostly be defending your castle from enemy attack or tasked with wiping out an invading force. These missions are scored based on how quickly and efficiently I finished each level. While these missions can start to be repetitive, the game does what it can to shake up objectives and keep things fresh. Sadly, there is just only so many times you can beat up the same looking guys before it gets old; that’s usually when I know it’s time to take a break. Another thing that’s different in Citadel Mode is that I could utilize troops instead of items, to summon spearman, or archers that will fight and defend the area in which I put them. Of course, all of my troops could be upgraded, just everything else in the game. Also new to this game you can earn mounts each with their own levels that can be improved. With the touch of a button I could summon my horse on the battlefield and attack from atop it. Mounts are usable and earnable in Musou mode as well, its not just exclusive to Citadel Mode.

I was able to upgrade my buildings as well, with the resources recovered in the Citadel Mode. The various buildings consist of the Dojo (which is used to upgrade samurai), Blacksmith (upgrading weapons) and Stables (for upgrading mounts). In the Dojo there are several types of skills that can be used to upgrade samurai; ones that will enhance abilities, while others might make it easier to find a specific item, the freedom to tweak these aspects of the playable characters really helps get into the game. The Blacksmith and Stable buildings provide upgrades for weapons and mounts, respectfully. Mastery levels are gained as I played through the game which in turn aids in combat ability. This can be seen through more combos being added, or an increase in how much damage is done with a specific weapon.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Samurai Warriors 5 and cannot wait to get back into it. The power fantasy that these games provide just cant be beat, it truly is a 1 v 1000 scenario which is loads of fun to play. Not only that but while I was enjoying the gameplay it is actually teaching me about Japanese history. It is amazing to see how they weave in historical facts with some things that they added for spice. One of the things I wish they would do with these games, is add an English voice track. As I fought the character and other generals will banter and talk, well it’s all in Japanese and I didn’t have enough time to read the captions sadly. So, if you don’t speak the language you may miss out on some conversations because you are busy trying not to die. As I said before Samurai Warriors 5 is a beautiful game, and not to be missed if you enjoy the genre. The team has done a fantastic job of refreshing this franchise, and I am hopeful that they garner some new fans to keep this series of games going for years to come.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Beautiful Graphics
  • Fluid and responsive combat
Bad
  • Citadel Mode can get repetitive
  • Really wish it had an English vocal track
8.5
Great
Written by
Terrence spends his time going where no one has gone before mostly. But when not planning to take over the galaxy, he spends his time raising Chocobo and trying to figure out just how the sarlaac could pull Boba Fett’s ship with its engines firing FULL BLAST into it’s maw with relative ease; yet it struggled with Han Solo who was gripping *checks notes* SAND!