Samurai Warriors

THE BAD:
Colors, music, character relationships

SUMMARY:
On a superficial level this game might seem to be a clone of Dynasty Warriors 4 set in Japan instead of China. That would be a injustice to a good game that stands alone from Dynasty Warriors 4. One difference is the combat system. For example horses no longer exist to take your officer from one point of the battlefield to another or give a mild boost affect. Their role is much bigger than that. They can leap,stomp,and hit enemies. Also they have a hit point bar. There is no weapon level exp any more. Instead you start of with a basic level weapon and then getting higher level weapons by finding them in treasure chest and defeating enemy officers. The level of the weapon depends on how well you finish a battle and settings of the game difficulty. Also the weapons carry random abilities like elemental attacks, agility, jump, speed, horse defense, etc. Next is character developement. In Dynasty Warriors 4 you had no control over the how the officer you play develops. In Samurai Warriors at the end of a battle you are awarded points to spend on different skill trees that effected wether your officer will be a offensive, defensive, or tactical support type. Then there is the new innovative officer creation mode. In dynasty warriors 4 officer creation mode you would choose the gender and had a limited choice of color,garemnts and weapons. When you make a series of officers they did not differ very much from each other because the game would give the same preset stats each time. In Samurai Warriors 4 you can create a character from a choice of over 8 models and the stats depend on how well you perform in series of mini games featuring bouts of archery, melee, riding, burst, combo, and deflect training. Which make your officers unique. Despite all the new stuff I found in this game there are a few things I didn't like. One thing is the lackluster music. The music is not bad but after hearing the music in Dynasty Warrior 4 I feel the game developers could have done better. I found the grayish, brownish background colors to be unattractive. Which is surprising because the graphical details are pretty good. The only conclusion I could make is that either they were trying create a sombre, moody effect or they getting were running out of time and was in danger of going over budget( a common problem with lots of games these days. My last complaint is not technical but that little something that has do with the synergy in the game. What I mean by this is the rivalry, friendships, kinships and historical connections between characters that make a neverending story. There is lots of synergy in Dynasty Warriors 4. Examples are Cao Cao and Lei Bei and their relationship with each other or Zhao Yun and his devotion toward Lei Bei or Cao Cao with Lu Bu or Zhuge Liang rivalry with Sima Yi. When you play a Dynasty Warriors 4 character you feel the emotional intensity in the relationships which makes you want to play the game over and over again. There is a little bit of this in Samurai Warriors but not a lot. Overall this a game worth buying. Hopefully Samurai Warriors will be a long running series.