Fun history battles or boring button mashing?

Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: KOEI
Release Date: March 27, 2011
Score: 4.7 / 5

As a note, I've never played any of the Samurai Warriors game, but I did briefly get into Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.  Since I've not played others, I have no point of reference from previous installments.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into Samurai Warriors: Chronicles except perhaps tons of hack and slash.  What I received besides that was strategy along with a glimpse into history.  At first, I didn't care for the history portion, but as you move through the game it grows on you.

Samurai Warriors: Chronicles is action game that takes you through history via blades and other weapons.  You begin the game by choosing a game slot, which notably there are two as well as picking a gender.  Whichever you choose will have an impact on what weapons you will use for the entire game with your character.  Female players will dual-wield blades while males receive a two-handed sword and rifle.  I did my entire play-through with a female character, but went back to try a male and found the longer blade to be easier to play with.  Had I known that it would make a difference, I would have chosen male.  Once you do begin the game, you're asked a series of questions in regards to war and your opinion.  Once you finish the selection, it tells you what type of person you are and starts the game.

You're not immediately thrown into battle, but instead before each battle is time to chat with those who you've got growing relations with.  These dialog bits help in the game because if you're able to befriend those who you fight with, you'll be able to fight as them later on.  Mixed into these sections is a bit of history and basic information as to why warring factions were going up against each other.

After all the chat is finished, you are really given the tools to prepare for battle.  First is a battle plan and the conditions of victory and defeat.  Once this is finished you can equip your characters that you'll be battling with on the field, two to start, but four later on.  The equipment isn't just weapons, but armor and mounts as well.  Each piece of armor and weapon has stats on it which help make you more powerful.  There is a shop that you can upgrade weapons and armor at, but it requires you to have spares to do so.  Once you're happy with equipment and understanding what the goals are, it's to the actual battle.

When you finally get to the location of where you're battling, there's usually enemies around.  Basic attacks can be done with Y while combos can be done with X and Y.  Character specific attacks are done with the R shoulder button.  Each character has different attacks and combos, so it's not all the same button mashing, though most of the time it is.  When fighting, there are regular enemies with small health bars, guards, who have slightly higher health and also block, and mini and big bosses.  The bosses are commanders of their area and taking them down can yield better morale for your side.  The higher your morale at the end of battle is, the more your characters benefit both from equipment as well as leveling up.

While battling through, you have two gauges aside from the health bar which are the Spirit and Musou.  When either get full, you're able to perform special abilities.  When the Spirit gauge fills up, there are moves that are performed by others on the field or yourself that can be scrolled through on the bottom screen.  These are generally more indirect powers and don't always attack the enemy.  When the Musou gauge fills up however, you're able to perform Musou attacks that are much stronger than regular.  This is also helped if you have another officer on your side in the area, which then both of you can team up and attack.  If both the Musou and Spirit gauges are full, you'll be able to perform that character's Ultimate Musou Attack.  Just as regular attacks can differ from person to person, the Ultimate Musou's have this in common as well.

Although it may seem as if the game is simply go here and beat down this enemy, it actually has strategy involved.  While you're on the field of battle, you can switch to any of your characters, provided you're not in the middle of combat.  This ability at first may seem trivial, but later on it's necessary to finish the conditions of victory in each level.  For example, one character is clear across the map and can't catch an enemy that is headed to an objective you don't want them near.  You'll want to switch to someone near by to cut them off before they do so.  Some of these objectives are difficult, but optional and give you more gold and occasionally bonus items in return.  Speaking on difficulty, each level has three settings, easy, normal, and hard.  Going through the game even on easy, I found the difficulty ramps up.  This is especially true for the last chapter in the game where the levels are full starred difficulty.  If you're looking for a challenge, I'd say start with normal and see how you fair first.

Once the battle has concluded, you are presented with a list of goals you completed through the level.  Afterwords, your characters are given experience and may or may not level up.  The loot gained is also distributed, though each character can only hold eight weapons at a time.  This is important to note because if you accidentally select a character, who has 8/8 weapons, you'll have to delete one to make room for the new one.  After that business is concluded, there's a lull in the action where you'll be able to speak to those involved in the battle.  Although before the battle you get to listen to what the characters have to say, here you'll actually be answering questions they ask.  Your answers will impact how they feel about you and thus your friendship levels.  Choose wisely and be rewarded, choose poorly and be shunned by your comrades.

Visually with the stereoscopic 3D, the game looks decent.  The 3D didn't feel inserted for the sake of it, but instead helped me to gauge where an enemy was in relation to my own position.  Each cut scene I was shown also seemed better in 3D, though the rendering looked good in 2D too.  While listening with what I was watching, I was quite impressed.  Voices in the game are all Japanese, though you're provided with subtitles.  Each voice was believable and each I could feel something for.

With the StreetPass functionality, you are able to form squads to battle those you come across.  This isn't like the main game and is more of a Risk meets Stratego venture in a way.  You setup your team and formation and face other teams.  Win or lose, you'll be given whatever weapon your opponent attached for you.  Attaching weapons does not make it leave your own inventory, instead it's duplicated and sent over.  There's also the downloadable content that has been going on weekly since the game launched.  These DLC goodies include playable scenarios and opponents to fight via the mini-game described above.  Great add-on value for a game that already is long and has me clocked in at about seventeen hours played.

The game does have faults however.  When running towards enemies and objectives, the draw distance is horrible.  That is to say, enemies tend not to start appearing until you're nearly on top of them in some cases.  There's also my own personal issue with how difficult this game can get, though many may find that to their liking.

Still, with the amount packed in here, it's hard not to enjoy the experience.  I was able to learn and kick some butt while doing so.  If you've got a Nintendo 3DS, you owe it to yourself to at least check this game out.

Thanks to KOEI for providing us a copy of the game!