Samurai Warriors 4 DX is the “ultimate” version of the original title, previously only released in Japan but is finally seeing a translated release in the States. When I say ultimate, I mean it because this entry in the Musou genre is absolutely packed full of content, with the original release already being content rich, 150 pieces of DLC being added to this release makes this one of the densest entries in the genre.
Samurai Warriors 4 DX
Developer: Omega Force
Price: $49.99
Platform: Steam (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with Steam code for review
Musou games were born with Dynasty Warriors, and if you aren’t familiar with the genre it is often described as one man versus an army, featuring your player character mowing through hundreds of enemy foot soldiers as you dictate the pace of the battle by your actions. I’ve always felt this was a little diminishing to how many times I’ve attempted to just plow through a battle and lost due to failing the objective. Playing on anything higher than easy adds a lot of meaning to being conscious of the battlefield and making sure to not ignore the rest of the battlefield.
Samurai Warriors tells a very much glamorized version of Japanese History through the medium of anime-styled action and drama, which while never exactly high art, is at least full of some good action, and some silly voice acting and tends to just be a blast while it does it’s own thing. You have your usual main story mode where you play through the stories of various factions, Create your own character, and tackle Chronicle Mode, an entire strategy mode that has you leveling up, building up your army, and working towards conquering the lands. Of course, there is also a Free Mode that lets you tackle whatever stage you want with whatever character you want to use, including your create a character.
Another welcome addition was the online co-op. The only thing better than beating down entire armies is doing it with a buddy and I am happy to report it functioned quite well! Sometimes musou games have some issues with this and often limit it to couch co-op, but I did not run into any lag or connection issues whatsoever. My only sad point regarding the co-op was that we couldn’t do Chronicle mode together, we really wanted to make our own characters and both do one of the more content rich parts of the game.
I really enjoyed that in addition to your usual light and heavy combo you tend to have, this also has a “Hyper Attack” that is for clearing out normal soldiers while moving forward. It felt satisfying and added more variety to the gameplay in a more traditional Musou compared to some of the newer takes on the genre from other companies. Every single character also had a unique skill they could use to do a variety of things. Some characters had simple buffs, while others were nearly defined by what they could accomplish with that button. It was very cool to see and it led to every character feeling very unique in their own right while still maintaining a MASSIVE cast of characters without resorting to cloned movesets like some games in the past have done.
There is a bit of repetitiveness that is just part of the genre that some people might not enjoy, but the dopamine hit keeps my brain happy, as well as many other genre fans. I think the variety in characters really kept me feeling fresh because I kept trying everyone, excited to see another playstyle or another particularly flashy and cool combo. Even beyond that, as you rank up the difficulty, you are going to have to grind out some fancy weapons and items if you want to stand a chance. The hardest mode is as hard as the series tends to be, you will die in a few hits and you really have to prioritize objectives, but it still manages to be very satisfying to get a win against such odds after a lot of careful preparation for it.
The Final Word
Samurai Warriors 4 DX was a great choice to bring over, it is a game absolutely bursting at the seams with content. It serves as both a great entry into the Samurai Warriors franchise as much as it is a great introduction to the Musou genre for newbies, with enough things to do that you will be prepped and ready to take down some of the more complex entries in the genre. The addition of good working online co-op is a big plus as well because I think these games are best enjoyed with a friend.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
