While the Samurai Warriors series isn’t as long as the Dynasty series that inspired it, the spin-off has already made it to entry number four to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the series. The same quick fix gameplay is back, with some twists.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it sets itself apart from Dynasty Warriors by featuring stories and character’s from Japanese history during the Sengoku period, as opposed to Dynasty’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms setting: Although it’s still loosely based on those events. It is an action game where you take a character in a Hack and slash map to lead your chosen faction to victory. There are a number of different victory conditions, but they are merely variations of ‘defeat this officer’. There are also sub-conditions that earn you bonus points that boost your ranking. Leveling up characters earns new combos and skills. Like the more recent Dynasty games, you play campaigns in story mode with factions as opposed to being stuck with a different character. What is new however, is the ability to bring in a second character and switch between in the middle of battle. In addition, you have two new moves to use. Hyper attacks let you rush through large swaths of enemies, but they are mostly ineffective against officers. There is also Rage mode, which gives you a temporary power boost at the expense of orbs that recharge with normal attacks when not in use. You can step out of the story if online multiplayer isn’t your thing, and make your own character: These custom characters can then be used for Chronicle mode, which acts somewhat like an RPG.

The music does feature some metal tracks which is one of the series trademarks, but there is a decidedly more Japanese themed fare on display. The voice-acting is exclusively in Japanese, with English subtitles. Visuals are decent, but they are definitely showing their age. It’s time to move on to the current generation. At least this provides Omega Force the ability to make even the PS3 version run in a constant 60 frames. The game also seems to be less buggy than other entries, so that’s great. Much like the other Warriors games, your interest in it is best served playing the game in spurts. Otherwise you might get bored of its repetition easily. It’s a game that’s simple and serves as a quick fix for that action hack and slash craving. And the best thing of all is that I wouldn’t expect an Extreme Legends of this game to come out. So you likely wouldn’t be hastily spending your hard earned money. Still worth a look for Warriors fans.

Gameplay

Graphics

Sound

Overall