For over fifteen years, Koei‘s Samurai Warriors series has been letting people cleave their way through wave after wave of disposable infantry. In that time, the series has let players feel like the legends from history you’re portraying onscreen. Much like its sister series Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors is a hack’n’slash action game. Latest entry, Samurai Warrior 5 follows a similar path.
The player will run around battlefields, swatting away the majority of your enemies like flies whilst gaining control of various areas, only to eventually come face-to-face with an enemy commander. One who, much like ourselves, towers above the rank and file.
Thus begins a battle between two heroes, but does Samurai Warriors 5, as a reboot of the series coming seven years after its most recent release, deliver this satisfying experience?
Narrow Focus
The game’s story continues the series’ focus on the Sengoku period of Japanese history. Known as the Warring States period, the Sengoku era was a time of great change in the history of Japan. The story of Samurai Warriors 5 follows two of its most iconic figures, Oda Nobunaga and Akechi Mitsuhide.
Unlike previous entries in the series, the story is more centralised and narrows its focus more on these events, as opposed to earlier series entries which had a more widespread story that presented various parts of the time period.
With the focus on Nobunaga and Mitsuhide, this allows for a more fleshed out narrative that feels much more involved and was fun to play through.
Cast
The cast of characters is rather diverse, from the self-assured and overconfident Nobunaga, to the devoted yet timid Ieyasu. Playing through both Nobunaga and Mitsuhide’s paths was rather enjoyable.
Players may derive particular fun to learn tidbits from this inherently interesting period in time. Also, for any Japanese historians out there, the story follows the events leading up to the Honnō-ji Incident, so if you know, you know.
Moving onto what Koei’s Warriors games are known for; the gameplay and visuals of this entry are superb. As a reboot, Koei took the opportunity to rebuild the visuals from the ground up and fine-tune many aspects of the combat and it makes this experience all the more engaging.
Striking Visually
The visuals have all been revitalised with a stunning Japanese Ukiyo-e style. Many of the visual assets during cut-scenes and gameplay look like they have been pulled right off of an old painted handscroll. While Samurai Warriors 5 isn’t the first game to take this aesthetic route, it offers the series a fresh look that is often eye-catching in its beauty.
Not looking to be outdone by the graphics, the gameplay is dynamic and an absolute pleasure. As mentioned previously, the Warriors games and their 1 vs 1,000 gameplay can make you feel like a living legend. I am happy to tell you that Samurai Warriors 5 carries on this tradition in near-perfect fashion.
Staged Battle
Battles take place in a number of different stages, where the objective is to capture the various sections of the map and defeat the enemy commanders. Ride into battle on horseback and cleaving your way through hordes of soldiers. Strike them down with your new Ultimate skills and ever-impressive Musou attacks. Then go head-to-head with another hero of old in combat. These climactic battles tend to be either exhilarating and infuriating. Sometimes both. They are uniformly satisfying, though.
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 is this writer’s personal favourite entry of all the Warriors games and none of the other entries ever properly measured up to it in terms of gameplay, until, perhaps, Samurai Warriors 5.
Variety
In terms of variety, the game features two different modes, Story and Citadel. The story mode features two paths, Nobunaga’s and Mitsuhide’s. These paths include a number of main story missions, but also several side missions focusing on the supporting cast. These give players a bit more to do whilst working through the story. Players can choose to do these auxiliary stories on your own or alongside a friend, online or on couch.
In Citadel Mode, players play tower defense-esque battles. Each player chooses two characters to defend a base on a small map. Players can summon troops to defend the base or to ambush unsuspecting foes. Victories here will unlock some unique interactions and provide you with materials with which to upgrade your castle base.
Alongside your base, each character comes with their own levels, skill trees and weapon proficiencies to spend universal points on. This means you will either want to focus on one or two characters in particular, or spend a lot of time playing to level up every member of this expansive roster, featuring 37 playable characters.
Levelling up not only this roster, but your various buildings and weapons, gives you a lot to do and will leave you with more than enough to keep you interested once the story is done.
Camera Fight
The only issue I found with the gameplay is that the camera doesn’t always know what to do. There were times when I was on the receiving end of attacks from an enemy commander and knocked into a corner, in which case the camera would struggle to adjust itself. This occasionally caused a rather unpleasant interruption of the flow of gameplay.
Return to Battle
Samurai Warriors 5 had a lot to live up to. Not only did it have to contend with the success of the series’ previous entry, but it also had to cement itself as an enjoyable and engaging title on its own. I can safely say it does both of these in style.
With its cast of characters, unique weapons and beautifully over-the-top battles, you’ll find an experience that will repeatedly satisfy both your hack AND slash needs for hours. If you’re new to the Warriors games, this is an ideal entry point as it sets the benchmark for what is to come in the future. If you’re a returning fan then you’ll find a lot of what you loved and more in this entry.