Samurai Warriors 4 Review - The Way of The Warrior
Action games are making a comeback this year. Not too long ago we were plagued with shooter after shooter, and although the shooters are still releasing in full force, we’ve seen action games making resurgence – Bayonetta 2 released to huge acclaim, Hyrule Warriors was a surprise star, and now we have Samurai Warriors 4, obviously another Musou game, stepping in and hoping to attract some attention. Can it pull players away from the other huge releases the year has already seen?
Samurai Warriors 4 is the fourth Samurai Warriors game and yet another in the incredibly long line of Warriors titles we’ve seen from Koei Tecmo and Omega Force. For those who aren’t already versed in how these games work, you are a soldier or general of some sort fighting with a giant army, tasked with running about a large battlefield clearing out enemy barracks, defeating enemy generals and completing a range of miscellaneous tasks you get bombarded with during the course of the war.
Warriors veterans will not need any sort of introduction to the series – games in the series rarely change the formula by much. You will be running headfirst into huge swathes of enemies and using all variety of attacks. On first play, the combat is so much more slow and unimpressive than it has been in so many other Warriors titles it can be disappointing – but this is short lived. The characters you use level up, and by doing that they unlock multiple levels to their combos: a standard three-button mash quickly turns into complex combos which you will perform just so you see how powerful each resulting move can be – some of them being very visually impressive and fun to perform.
There are two basic attacks, the standard attack and Hyper attack. Hyper attacks can literally send your character flying about the battlefield, dealing small amounts of damage to potentially hundreds of enemies at a time. These attacks look awesome and feel just as good as you push back huge armies – however, they are not effective long-term. The damage done by them isn’t enough to properly finish most enemies, and you would be simply weakening foes instead of clearing them out. This is where the game forces you to learn combos and the resulting Power attacks they result in. Enemy generals also will not stand for your flashy hyper antics – when attacked with a hyper attack, enemy generals will stand entirely still and effortlessly block your attack, forcing you to think more tactically about how you will defeat them. Couple the easy to learn, hard to master combat system with Special attacks and a move that seemingly freezes time and you have an engaging war.
During battles you can complete optional tasks, which include luring enemies into ambushes, making sure they do not approach a certain point on the map or even protecting a specific ally while they make their way across the large field. These tasks can be easy to miss if you’re in the heat of battle, but completing them will improve your score for the level, making it well worth experiencing.
The variety in characters and options is truly staggering. With 55 characters, custom characters, online modes and Free Play, there is a ridiculous amount to get done here. Each character levels up individually and has their own unique moveset, giving each character a reason to use them. Samurai Warriors 4 is packed with potentially hundreds of hours worth of content for the completionist and a sizeable campaign for those interested in just playing through the game once.
It’s worth mentioning that this is a game best played on a PlayStation 4. Samurai Warriors 4 is also available for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, and on both platforms it is a completely acceptable and enjoyable game, but on PS4 the game is at its best. With massive amounts of enemies on screen and a silky smooth 60FPS framerate that rarely dips, the benefits of a more powerful console are clear. The amount of enemies really gives the battles a feel of scale which can be lost on lesser systems.
Customisation is fairly deep, too – creating custom characters is enjoyable in its own right and has an extra level of customisation with certain assets being importable from USB. You can make a variety of characters with distinct appearances, with different costume styles, emblems and more. The number of possible combinations is seemingly infinite, with even minor details like adjusting the pitch of your selected voice type available.
And finally, I have to say that Samurai Warriors 4 looks just impressive. The framerate is smooth as I already mentioned, the number of models on screen is fantastic, playable characters look nicely detailed… If I wanted to get pedantic I could say that environment textures don’t look great and seeing identical human enemies and allies everywhere you go can seem a bit odd, but you’ll be so caught up with the frantic combat, riding your horse across the battlefield that you’re unlikely to be distracted by the few flaws the game does present.