Samurai Warriors 5

Genre: Action Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Spliscreen, Online)

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Review:

Samurai Warriors 5, released in 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is the first game in this Japan-centric spin-off of the Dynasty Warriors franchise of “musou”-style Action Brawlers to reach the Nintendo Switch, with this game’s focus being on the exploits of a young Oda Nobunaga, as told through the Warriors franchise’s typical anime-esque exaggerated fictionalized take on the historical figures and conflicts of the era.

I can’t help but feel like you have to be a Japanese history enthusiast to appreciate this game’s story, because while Samurai Warriors 5 spends plenty of time in cutscenes where characters talk strategy and forge alliances, I just could not care about any of them. Very little time is spent here building up their personalities and motives, and while the plot is hardly the point of a Musou game, I would hope that if the game is going to spend this much time on it, it would actually be compelling. ‘Fraid not.

It also doesn’t help that much of the conversation in this game happens in the midst of battle, and while it is all voiced, it’s voiced in Japanese only, meaning that anyone who doesn’t speak that language wanting to follow along needs to tear their attention away from the gameplay to read the small text box that appears at the bottom of the screen. And look, I get that there’s a desire to retain some of the Japanese authenticity here, but that can’t come at the cost of players trying to understand what’s going on.

The rest of the presentation here is good, with nicely detailed and subtly cel-shaded 3D character models and the franchise’s signature hundreds of enemies on-screen without any noticeable hiccups that I could detect (a far cry from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which often struggled with the amount of action onscreen. If only the 3D environments weren’t so bland, this game might have been visually impressive instead of… well, yet another Musou game.

Okay, but getting to the gameplay, is that all this is, just another Musou game? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, there are absolutely some changes and advancements made here that are solid additions to the formula, such as interchangeable “Ultimate Skills” you can assign to button combinations, each with their own cooldown, and along with this there are stronger RPG elements here than prior games. There are also more enemies that players can’t just plow through mindlessly, such as shield-bearers who have to either be attacked from behind or using one of the aforementioned Ultimate Skills.

On the other hand, I’m going back to review this game after having played cross-franchise games like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, two games that not only nail the story elements that this game fumbles, but that add some truly creative gameplay mechanics like Age of Calamity’s rune system, or Three Hopes’ paired units and weapon triangle mechanics. And while Samurai Warriors 5 is still a good game, I just can’t imagine wanting to play this game when I could be playing a different Musou game with characters I care about in a story that interests me, with fun and interesting gameplay mechanics that truly set those games apart. And all of this is, of course, on top of how repetitive Musou games already are.

If you’ve exhausted those other Musou games, if you hate Zelda and Fire Emblem, or are genuinely excited by highly-exaggerated fictionalized takes on Japanese history, Samurai Warriors 5 may still be worth a look for Musou fans. But that’s a lot of “ifs” in a genre that already doesn’t appeal to everyone.

tl;dr – Samurai Warriors 5 is a “Musou”-style Action Brawler following a young Oda Nobunaga, with this game bringing deeper RPG mechanics and customizable skill loadouts to the genre. Unfortunately, despite a large focus on story, it feels extremely disposable here, and the game mechanics aren’t quite as memorable as what we saw in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity of Fire Emblem: Three Hopes. Musou fans may still want to give this a look, but those looking to dip their toe into the genre have better options on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: B-

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