The upcoming Samurai Warriors 5 is the latest entry in Koei's Samurai Warriors series. Debuting in 2004, the series is a spinoff of the popular Dynasty Warriors games and broader Warriors umbrella, though it switches out feudal China for Sengoku-era Japan. Typically featuring dozens of historical figures, the games allow players to use them in high-octane hack-and-slash action.
Much is the same for the upcoming sequel, but with an entirely new look and design scheme. Released seven years after the original version of the previous game, Samurai Warriors 5 keeps the classic mechanics intact while sprucing up and refining everything else.
Plot
The game's storyline will recall that of the original in the series while also being somewhat smaller in scope than more recent entries. It is set during the tail end of the Sengoku era and focuses mainly on two generals, Nobunaga Oda and Mitsuhide Akachi. The key battles involved are set after the Onin War, with a young Nobunaga and his allies attempting to save a hostage. This will be the story's focus and won't detail the broader battles afterward like many of the series' games. This tighter focus is similar to the previous spinoff game, Spirit of Sanada.
Release Date
The game was announced during a Nintendo Direct on February 17th of this year, but the game is still a few months away from release. It comes out in Japan on June 24 for the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 and releases over a month later in the West on July 27th. Western fans will be able to enjoy it on the Switch, PS4, Xbox One and Steam.
Trailer and Gameplay
As shown in the trailer, the game maintains the series' signature hack-and-slash gameplay, refining it to its zenith. Players make their way through the battlefield, slicing and dicing at hordes of enemy combatants. There are occasionally specific goals within a level, but it usually involves taking down every enemy and their respective captain or general to win. Each character has its own unique weapon and attacks, differentiating them enough to make a player want to try each one. There are also crowd clearing Hyper Attacks, which take out swathes of enemies at a type once the appropriate gauge is filled. This game also adds Ultimate Techniques, which are even more powerful moves for a respective character.
These gameplay mechanics are a welcome change of direction from the most recent entry in the Dynasty Warriors series. Dynasty Warriors 9 notoriously added open-world mechanics to the gameplay, which didn't earn any new fans and alienated longtime fans for how poorly implemented these changes were.
In keeping in line with the scaling back of the story, the same is being done with the list of playable characters. 13 playable characters have been shown so far, with almost all of them coming from the first two games. Two new characters are original female warrior Mitsuki and real-life samurai Toshimitsu Saito. The entire cast will consist of 27 different characters, half of the 54 playable characters in Samurai Warriors 4.
One trend continued from Samurai Warriors 4 is the art direction. The series initially had far more muted and realistic designs when compared to the more colorful Dynasty Warriors, creating a more solemn experience. However, since the previous game, the art style has been much more colorful, with more of a stereotypical anime look. The art is specifically meant to emulate Japanese paintings and make the game resemble more recent entries in both the Street Fighter and the similarly set Samurai Shodown games. The characters are all redesigned from previous games to match this art style.