Samurai Warriors 5 - Review

As a 20+ year long Musou fan, there have been times in my life where I’ve moved on to the latest Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors or Warriors Orochi game and thought to myself, “yeah it has a few extra characters, some new maps and it is still great fun, but can the team spend an extra couple of years and inject something unexpected into the series?”. I’ve certainly felt this fatigue more than once, and then occasionally a title like Dynasty Warriors 9 comes along (yes, I’m a fan) and turns the series upside down and breathes new life into the franchise. Samurai Warriors 5 is that game for the Samurai series.

The most glaringly obvious change in the game is the scope of the narrative. Previous entries have showcased roughly 60+ years of the Sengoku period of Japan and almost every soldier and generation within that period. As a result, this led to most characters being lost in the shuffle, only being touched upon and the game not being able to go deep enough into the individual stories of the soldiers that defined the Sengoku period.

Samurai Warriors 5 covers only a thirty-year period, and focusses mostly on the lives of Oda Nobunaga and Akechi Mitsuhide, the relationships they forged in their lives and the campaigns that they were involved in. This has allowed Omega Team to really take a deeper dive into the battles of the Sengoku period, as well as allowing Nobunaga and Mitsuhide to have their stories told in a more authentic way.

The roster itself as a result is much smaller than in previous entries. Samurai Warriors 4-II had a roster of 56, and we’ve now been pared back to 39. While a smaller roster may feel like there’s not as much effort put into animations, weapons and attacks, the 39 that are included feel much more fleshed out and personable than they had in prior entries. Most that have been cut were only trimmings that didn’t add any real value to the narrative anyway, so not seeing them here isn’t a great loss overall.

As mentioned before, the game focusses mostly on Oda Nobunaga and Akechi Mitsuhide. Previous entries painted Nobunaga as an evil entity hell-bent on domination (or Samurai Warriors’ answer to Lu Bu). This time around we actually get to see Nobunaga the human being, complete with his motivations for combat, his goals and achievements, and the emotional journey he goes through with each conversation and battle he has for the duration of the game. It is almost like one of those Disney moves about the villains that aim to show us that deep down we are all human and we all have good reasons behind any perceived ‘evil deed’.

Mitsuhide Akechi is also fleshed out. Despite historians still debating the reasons behind his actions, the team behind Samurai Warriors 5 did their best to tell a great story and show players what may have been the motivations behind some of the actions he undertakes throughout the game. He is just as much important to the game as Nobunaga, and as his right-hand man, it’s good to see that they have tried their best to tell his story with as much accuracy as they possibly could with all the historic controversy surround him (to look this controversy up on Google will surely spoil the end of the game, so don’t do it just yet!).

Through all of this, the game still plays fantastically like a Musou game. I’m not sure if the PlayStation 5 improves anything on the game as it is a PlayStation 4 title, but the combat is smooth as butter, and most of the annoying pop-in of enemies appears to have been fixed. I’ve always had fun with destroying horde after horde of enemies, building my K.O. count to over 1000 a level, but for Samurai Warriors 5, the consistent stream of enemies makes the game feel like you’re facing an army of soldiers instead of ones that magically appear when the console loads them up.

The weapons are wide and varied, and characters can thankfully wield any weapon you choose them to. While not “historically accurate”, it does mean that you’re not forced to play levels with a character and weapon you can’t stand. If you feel as though Musou games are too repetitive, there’s not much that I’ve said so far that Samurai Warriors 5 is likely going to alleviate there for you.

Previous entries have allowed some of the same battles to be played from the perspective of the warring sides, this time there are multiple perspectives, but from the eyes of Nobunaga or Mitsuhide. This has shown to be a good way to replay certain levels, but also allows you to go even deeper into the narrative and look at how each character sees the current situation they are in.

Missions do stay rather varied throughout the game, as you take keeps and build up your army, the game tasks you with charging head-first into battle, or if the enemy is taking over, going back to your base and saving your troops is often the task needed to carry out. Running through and killing everybody isn’t always the best or easiest route to take, and the game does keep itself interesting by throwing unexpected obstacles like a blocked path or an ambush. You’re always encouraged to keep an eye on the messages given throughout each level, as they often contain vital information to gain victory.

Outside of battle, you can upgrade weapons and horses to build up your roster of warriors. Each warrior has the seemingly compulsory RPG skill tree to build up as well. Skills, materials and weapons can all be grinded in Free Play mode, where levels are played without a story and just for the fun of killing thousands of people at once. While I enjoy building up my characters and giving them weapons and horses fit for gods, grinding away in Free Play isn’t very appealing as it strips away the narrative that makes the battles engaging. Once you’ve completed each level from multiple perspectives, there isn’t much reason to come back to the game at all.

Finally, we can’t ignore the brand-spankin’ new art style that Samurai Warriors 5 showcases. The pseudo cel-shaded style allows for a much nicer visual treat than previous games. The game doesn’t look cartoonish in the least, and actually looks like something out of a respectful manga that aims to retell a point in history that is significant to the people living on the land. It feels somewhere in the middle of a regular Samurai Warriors game and Okami, and I think it’s hit the right balance here.

Combining the improved storytelling with the classic Musou combat has really given life to what I believe was a stagnant series. If Omega Team can continue each entry by focussing on a set period and a smaller roster of soldiers, I think they may be on to a winning formula that may indeed improve all their major Musou series.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Koei Tecmo

The Pros

+Concise narrative

+Beautiful art-style

+Deeper look into the Sengoku Period

The Cons

-Additional modes don’t add anything

-Once it’s over, it’s over