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Samurai Warriors Hands-On
Dynasty Warriors goes to Japan, but maintains the same style. One guy against hundreds. Hop on board.

May 24, 2004 - Koei's Dynasty Warriors series is one of the more popular in Japan and has a strong following in America. Looking to change things up a little bit, Koei released Samurai Warriors, a similar idea in a Japanese setting, earlier this month on PlayStation 2. Though the Xbox version is a little bit behind, it too will ship this year. Fans of Dynasty need not fear, Koei has kept the same principles, creating a game that feels much like a sequel then it's own separate title. If you like killing hundreds of enemies with non-stop button taps, then you've just found your new favorite game.

There are 15 playable characters in Samurai Warrios, though only five are available from the get-go, with the others needing to be unlocked by completing the various Story Missions for each warrior. Though each character has different styles, weaponry, and missions for each map, the controls are the same for all, so it's easy to hop from one to the next. There's a spoiled princess, a ninja, and a bruiser samurai among the selectable characters. You can jump, fire a ranged shot, perform a quick attack, a charged attack, or a special Musou attack.
The Musou attack is more impressive and can only be used when your Musou meter is filled -- which is done by landing blows and when you take damage. The more injured you are, the more powerful the Musou attack (and accompanying quick cut-scene). Each character has a different type of Musou attack, but all are exceptionally cool, especially when you're surrounded by enemies with no apparent hope of survival.

And you will be surrounded by enemies often. That's part of what makes this a cousin to Dynasty Warriors. You can't go far before 20 or more enemies are surrounding you. Though often not particularly aggressive, the sheer numbers can be overwhelming, making for a lot of bodies to slice and dice with a slew of different combos. If you've played a Dynasty Warriors game before, then you can expect more of the combat goodness. Just as with its cousin, there's also some tactics to some of the later stages. There are just too many enemies not to be tactical and you are given a look at a map with allies and major enemy locations, so that you can plan your attacks before heading out and slapping the X button a whole lot of times.



What I really dig about Samurai Warriors is the number of different gameplay options. There's the Story Mode, which is the main mode for the game, taking you through the different stories of over a dozen character. But that's just the beginning. There are time trials, survival tests, and two-player competitive modes as well. The coolest is the ability to create a warrior and take him through training. It takes about an hour of going through different challenges before you get to a final test. Pass and the character becomes available for use in most of the game modes. Fail and the character is erased. That's a lot of risk, but worth the reward.

Samurai Warriors has a good chance of rocking it hardcore with massive battles. The gameplay won't change at all since it's already locked in from the PS2 version (and no, there are no upgrades or Xbox), but currently the framerate is pretty bad. The overall visuals are not improved over the PS2. But since the PS2 version had a pretty solid framerate, it's likely by the time Samurai Warriors ships for Xbox in July, the game won't be running at 20 frames per second the majority of the time.

If you love Dynasty Warriors, mark your calendars. If you've never played but what a hack-n-slash with some smarts, a lot of replay value, and dozens of enemies on screen at once, make a date for Samurai Warriors this July. Look for more soon.

-- Hilary Goldstein