Samurai Warriors

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This article is about the video game. For the historical Japanese warrior caste, please see Samurai.

Samurai Warriors 2 (Sengoku Musou 2) PS2 Japanese game cover.
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Samurai Warriors 2 (Sengoku Musou 2) PS2 Japanese game cover.

Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) is a series of video games created by Koei's Omega Force team based loosely around the Sengoku ("Warring States") period of Japanese history and is a spinoff of the Dynasty Warriors series. A port of this game called Samurai Warriors: State of War has been released for the PlayStation Portable, which includes additional multiplayer features.

Contents

[edit] Games in the series

To date, there are five games in the series:

  • Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) [2004] (PS2, Xbox)
  • Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends (Sengoku Musou Moushouden) [2004] (PS2)
  • Samurai Warriors: State of War (Geki Sengoku Musou) [2005] (PSP)
  • Samurai Warriors 2 (Sengoku Musou 2) JP=February 24,2006, US=November 2006 (PS2, Xbox 360)
  • Sengoku Musou Wave [TBA] (Wii)

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Fighting

Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) American game cover.
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Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) American game cover.

The basic gameplay of Samurai Warriors is similar to the hack and slash style of Dynasty Warriors in which the player takes the role of a single officer in battle and must fend off hordes of enemy soldiers and defeat the enemy commander. The characters have three basic attack types: normal, charge and Musou. When the characters are inexperienced they only have a basic string of four normal attacks but as the characters earn new weapons, their attack strings lengthen to six attacks and eventually eight. The player can enhance their character's attacks by using a charge attack after any of the first three attacks in the normal attack string. Every character's charge moves follow the same basic pattern, as follows:

  • No previous attacks: Character specific attack, usually breaks your opponent's guard.
  • One previous attack: Knock your opponent high into the air.
  • Two previous attacks: Temporarily daze your opponent, leaving them vulnerable.
  • Three previous attacks: Wide-range attack that clears away enemies from you.

As the normal attack string lengthens the charge attacks also lengthen, allowing to the player perform even longer combos by tapping the charge button (up to three times; for example, one could press Charge three times, or do so after up to three previous Normal attacks).

Finally the characters each have a powerful Musou attack, which can only be unleashed once the player has inflicted or taken enough damage. Additionally, if the player is low on health they can use their special True Musou attack which in addition to the regular damage also burns the enemies the player is attacking. New to Samurai Warriors there is an additional 'free-style' Musou attack mode, where instead of using the default Musou attacks players can make their own combos using normal and charge moves. This Musou works much like bullet-time; common soldiers move very slowly, however generals are unaffected.

An option unavailable in the Dynasty Warriors series, is the ability to roll in combat to dodge attacks. On the Xbox version you press the black button to roll in the direction you are facing. Enemies often use this new ability to dodge your ranged attacks. Another SW exclusive technique is the ability to deflect arrows by attacking incoming arrows with your weapon. However no matter what angle you hit the arrow from, it will always deflect back to the sender. Deflecting arrows is helpful for slowing down bothersome enemy archers. Bullets cannot be deflected.

In Samurai Warriors 2, this is modified in three ways. First, the R1 button is no longer used for the basic ranged attack, but is held in conjunction with Normal or Charge attack to perform one of the character's two special abilities, varying by character (some are unique, some shared). Also, characters have one of three movesets (the aforementioned "Charge" moveset, a "Combo" moveset that extends the attack possibilities to a twelve hit attack string with eight possible charge attacks but does not allow the charge attacks to be extended, or a "Special" moveset that allows two presses of Triangle during attacking but up to three consecutive uses of each Special Ability, in the same manner as performing a Charge-type attack combination). Finally, the Musou bar is divided into three parts, each allowing a Musou attack (whether the predetermined attack or "freestyle") and a different but stronger one if one lets it reach Level 3 before use. (A "flame" indicator under the bar shows how many levels have been filled).

[edit] Stages and Missions

Similar to Dynasty Warriors 3 and 5 each character in Samurai Warriors has their own unique Story mode, five stages long. There is, however, a point in each character's story where, depending on the actions of the player, the path of the story splits and different stages become available. This means that each character in fact has between five and eight different stages.

In Samurai Warriors there are three types of stages: The first two are Field and Castle. Field battles take place outside, pitting one army against another (or in a few rare cases, two other armies), and the player must lead their forces to victory through the completion of missions and defeating the enemy commander. Castle battles place the player alone inside an enemy castle without any bodyguards or other allies. They must fight through the enemy troops until they get to the top or bottom of the castle and defeat the enemy commander in a duel. The third type, Siege, is a combination of the other two types of stages. A Field type battle takes place, with some characters(depending on where in your character's storyline you are), being defeated in battle instead of being killed. Once the character has finished the Field part of the Siege, the game asks if you would like to save your progress. Also after finishing the Field part, if your character gets killed inside the castle during the Castle part of the Siege, you may still continue when you return to the "Fight" menu screen. It's just like saving and then continuing a regular game. In the Castle part, those characters you have defeated in the Field part, including the Daimyo or main enemy at the end, die if defeated, instead of just walking away.

In Samurai Warriors 2, this is changed so that characters have a single path, plus a "side story" (gaiden) that effectively asks "what if". (For example, while Tachibana Ginchiyo's 4th stage is Sekigahara, her 5th stage is after the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu's army at Sekigahara, while her gaiden is at Edo Castle after a hypothetical defeat for Ieyasu at Sekigahara.) Also, the difference between Field and Castle stages has been eliminated; both are on the same map, both eliminating the loading time difference.

[edit] Character Growth

The other significant change is the way in which characters grow stronger. There is a new ranking system after battles which depends on four categories:

  • The speed in which you clear the battle
  • The amount of Experience earned from pickups in battles
  • The missions you successfully completed in battle
  • The amount of enemies you defeated while using a Musou attack.
  • The amount of enemies you kill.

Each of these categories is given a letter rank (from lowest to highest: D, C, B, A, S) depending on your performance and then you are given an overall rank. The higher you rank and the harder the difficulty setting of the game, the more your character's attributes will increase after the battle. In addition to the growth of your stats you are also awarded Skill Points, likewise getting more the better your rank. With these Skill Points you can buy skills that enhance the abilities of your characters. Such skills include the ability to increase your health and Musou meters, strengthening your attacks with elemental attributes and increased guarding and evasion techniques.

In the original Samurai Warriors, there was a limit to the strength your characters could obtain through battle. Once your character had reached rank 20 it was impossible to gain any more Skill points and the character attributes were locked. However, there was a way to maximize the growth of the characters via the Character Reset function. With this function you could completely reset the rank, attributes and skills of a character but keep any weapons you had found with them. By playing the game on the hardest difficulty, Chaos, and with a very powerful weapon you could gain higher attributes and more skill points from battle.

This was changed with the release of Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends. There was no longer a limit on the strength that characters could reach. Even after they had reached rank 20 characters could still gain skill points and increase their attributes without having to the reset the character to default.

One of the two most significant changes over Dynasty Warriors is the introduction of the mission system in battles. Each stage has a number of different missions which become available depending on which character the player is currently controlling and the success or failure of previous missions. Such tasks include eliminating specific enemy officers, launching sneak attacks on enemy bases or thwarting the strategic plans of the enemy. Success in these missions can be crucial to the outcomes of many battles as failure often results in a massive loss of morale to your own forces.

[edit] Items and Weapons

Each character can equip up to five items before each battle, which will affect their attributes or give them additional abilities. Like in the Dynasty games, players can find items which affect their attributes through normal battle by defeating enemy officers or breaking open crates to find them. The items which give characters special abilities are harder to come by. Players must fight a specific battle and complete or fail specific missions to cause an enemy supply team to appear. Defeating this supply team will cause the item to appear.

Like items, players can also find weapons in battle. Each character has four different types of weapons they can find randomly like this, with increasing power and attack limit. In addition to these base attributes, weapons will also randomly have other attributes attached to them. The value of these bonuses depends on three things: the difficulty the game is set to, the stage the player is on and the ranks the character has in the Discern skill.

In addition to these random weapon drop there are other special powerful 5th weapons to find. These 5th weapons have randomly determined attributes like the other weapons, but will always have specific (usually very high) bonuses attached to them. Like the rare items, the player has to play a specific stage and complete specific task to get a supply team to appear. However, unlike the rare items, in order to get the weapon the game must be on either the Hard or Chaos difficulty level. Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends extended this further, by adding even more powerful 6th weapons to earn. These can only be discovered by playing on Chaos mode. (However, paying 100,000 bonus points -- acquired through playing the game repeatedly and unlocking weapons, items, etc. -- allows one to find them on Hard, and 5th weapons on Normal.)

In Samurai Warriors 2, there are up to 4th weapons, while the item system has been replaced with a Skill system; players can have weapons forged by a blacksmith, buy skills from a Shop, acquire skills upon leveling up or "steal" them from enemy officers who have them by defeating the officers.

[edit] New Officer Training

Samurai Warriors gives players the opportunity to create new characters via the officer training mode. In this mode players must study under a mentor and complete 12 training sessions and a final exam. The first thing the player must do is choose the look of their character, from an initial selection of eight different models. The initial stats of the character are dependent on which model chosen. The certain stats can also be boosted by inputting the names of famous Japanese warriors in folklore and history. The stats evident in the stories featuring the name of the warrior inputted will be increased when the officer is created (For example, entering the name Damascus.) The player must then choose to partake in a test and one of three weapons they will use for the test. The different tests are as follows:

  • Melee: The player must kill as many enemy troops as possible within the time limit. Extra time is awarded after every 50 kills and for high combos.
  • Burst: The player must run through a castle environment in as fast a time as possible.
  • Combo: The player must perform the highest combos they can within a time limit. More time is awarded for high hitting combos.
  • Deflect: The player must kill as many troops as possible by deflecting arrows fired at them back towards the enemy.
  • Archery: The player stands motionless on a bridge and must defeat as many enemies as possible using just his bow before the time limit expires. The player automatically loses if an enemy crosses the bridge.
  • Musou: The player must kill as many troops as possible in the time limit using just their musou attack. The timer stops whenever a musou attack is underway and enemy troop leaders drop items which refill the musou gauge.
  • Riding: The player must use a horse to ride around a track in the fastest amount of time possible. A number of obstacles such as mines, barriers and troops are placed in their path to slow them down.

Each of the different tests affects different attributes of the character. In order to make a well balanced character the player must partake in a variety of tests. After the completion of the test the player will be ranked out of a score of 100 points, by getting more points the character's attributes will increase by a greater amount. If the character should be defeated during the course of a test, they will automatically fail the test and will have to spend one training session resting.

After 12 test sessions have passed, the character must take a final exam. This exam consists of two training sessions back to back. The player has to score a total of 100 points between these two tests in order to pass the exam. If the player completes the final exam successfully then they will be able to use their new officer in all the other game modes, however if the player should fail then the character will be lost and the new officer mode will have to be started over from scratch.

There are also a number of events that can take part during the course of the new officer training, some good and some bad. These include the original playable characters challenging the player for a special skill, weapons going missing from the training hall (limiting the player's choices in the next session) and various effects on the player's attributes. Some events will also allow the player the chance to earn new officer models for creation and items for use in main gameplay.

There is no "New Officer Training" or "CaW" (Create a Warrior) mode in Samurai Warriors 2. However, it's confirmed that the upcoming Samurai Warriors 2 Empires will have the option to create new officers.[citation needed]

[edit] Bonus Points

Exclusive to Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends, through the completion of special tasks you can earn Bonus Points in order to purchase special features. These features additional costumes for characters, voice sound tests, lowering the difficulty required to unlock the 5th and 6th weapons and the ability to break the default limits for characters stats. Methods of earning bonus points include the following: earning all of a character's endings, unlocking rare items and weapons and successfully creating new characters.

[edit] Xtreme Legends

Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends is a PS2 expansion disc for Samurai Warriors . Once this game is loaded, you are prompted to insert the original SW disc in to load that data, and to combine both games for the best experience. While Xtreme Legends can be played alone, you can't utilze any of the features of the original.

Unlike the Dynasty Warriors Xtreme Legends games, this offers four new characters and a brand new mission and map. This also offers new weapons for everyone, a new survival mode, and fixes a few bugs (most notably, you can continue to earn experience even after you max out your character).

[edit] Characters

All historical personages are listed in Japanese name order, as per WP:MoS.

Samurai Warriors has a lineup of sixteen playable characters:

  • Kuwahara Shuntaro (桑原 駿太郎), the main character of the game as it was based on his life. His main weapon of choice is a zanpakutou. He is the weilder of all Darkness. Voice credit: Kuwahara Shuntaro
  • Sanada Yukimura (真田 幸村), vassal to Shingen until his death. Afterwards he joined the Toyotomi against the Tokugawa forces. He wields a jumonji-yari (spear). Voice credit: Takeshi Kusao
  • Maeda Keiji (前田 慶次), served under Nobunaga until he became a wanderer. He wields a two-pronged spear. Voice credit: Yuji Ueda
  • Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長), a powerful warlord who seeks to rule Japan. He wields a two-edged straight sword imbued with evil energy. Voice credit: Jurouta Kosugi
  • Ishikawa Goemon( 石川五右衛門), a professional thief seeking the Plover Urn. He wields a large metal club and carries a powerful cannon upon his back; he was not included in Samurai Warriors 2. Voice credit: Hisao Egawa
  • Okuni (阿国), a travelling miko seeking funds for her shrine. She uses an umbrella as a weapon. Voice credit: Wakana Yamazaki
  • Kunoichi (くノ一), a female ninja in service of the Sanada and Takeda clans. She wields dual kunai. A non-historical character who is based on the Sanada Ten Braves that accompanied Sanada Yukimura (Anayama Kosuke); she was not included in Samurai Warriors 2, though due to Hattori Hanzo's reaction to her, one could assume that she is Nene. Voice credit: Yuko Nagashima
  • Saika Magoichi (雑賀 孫市), a mercenary with a grudge against Nobunaga. He wields a musket. Voice credit: Hiroshi Isobe
  • Date Masamune (伊達 政宗), young ruler of the Date clan who seeks control of the land. Known as the One-Eyed Dragon. He wields a pair of bokken or suburitou (wooden swords). In Sengoku Musou 2 however, he wields a western-style saber and a pair of pistols. Voice credit: Nobuyuki Hiyama
  • Lady Noh (Nouhime) (濃姫), wife of Nobunaga, she is torn between the love of her husband and her promise to her father to kill Nobunaga. She wields a pair of claws, or daggers hidden in her sleeves. To the contradiction of history, she and Nobunaga are close. Voice credit: Mariko Suzuki
  • Hattori Hanzō (服部 半蔵), ninja in service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He wields a kusari-gama (chain & scythe). Historically, he wields a yari (spear/lance). Voice credit: Takaya Kuroda

Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends introduced an additional four playable characters to the roster:

  • Imagawa Yoshimoto (今川 義元), eccentric ruler who wishes to play Kemari in Kyoto. He wields a katana and a kemari ball; he was not included in Samurai Warriors 2. Voice credit: Takahiro Kawachi
  • Honda Tadakatsu (本多 忠勝), general in service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He wields an exceptionally large spear. Historically he wields the Tonbogiri, but as it is occupied by the CAW Spear's fourth weapon, he must settle for this. Voice credit: Akio Ohtsuka

Samurai Warriors 2 has ten new characters listed:

  • Tokugawa Ieyasu (德川 家康）, a loyal ally to Nobunaga and the third of "The Three Unifiers". He wields a spear with a cannon hidden inside. Voice credit: Jouji Nakata
  • Tachibana Ginchiyo (立花 誾千代), daughter of Tachibana Dosetsu and wife of Tachibana Muneshige. She wields a serrated sword. Voice credit: Naomi Shindou
  • Azai Nagamasa (淺井 長政), daimyo of Northern Omi and husband of Oichi. He wields a jousting lance. Voice credit: Hiroshi Kamiya
  • Nene (ねね), wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. She wields a pair of daggers. She seems to take the place of Kunoichi, who was taken out of this version, using the same ninjutsu style with a few different moves such as shapeshifting. Voice credit: Wakana Yamazaki
  • Naoe Kanetsugu (直江 兼續), vassal of Uesugi Kagekatsu. He wields a Taoist sword and paper charms. Voice credit: Masaya Takatsuka
  • Shima Sakon (島 左近), elite general whom in the service of Ishida Mitsunari. His remarkable skills in coordination of military deployment that often rivaled Honda Tadakatsu. He wields a two-handed falchion. Voice credit: Shinichi Yamada
  • Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵), a master of kenjutsu and a rival of Sasaki Kojiro. He wields dual katanas. Voice credit: Hidehiko Kaneko

It should also be noted that characters' backstories were often non-historical (Ranmaru was born two years before Inabayama Castle fell, instead of defending it alongside Mitsuhide), but that many of the relationships (such as what seem to be strong implications of more than a friendly relationship between those two) are greatly changed in Samurai Warriors 2 (the battle of Okehazama, the siege of Inabayama castle are omitted; Hideyoshi and Magoichi are best of friends; Ranmaru and Mitsuhide are practically indifferent to one another, while Nobunaga and Mitsuhide are particularly close).

[edit] Non-playable characters

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Many other officers and and generals that fought in wars during the battles of Samurai Warriors appear but are not playable in any of the games in the series. Here is an ongoing list of generals and their officers who are featured in this series. Names in parentheses are variants that are used in the games.

Despite initial images being released, Sasaki Kojiro (voiced by Yuji Ueda) and Shibata Katsuie (voiced by Eiji Takemoto) were only special NPCs (with their own character model) as Imagawa Yoshimoto, Kennyo Honganji, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Azai Nagamasa were in the original Samurai Warriors. If the player completes certain objectives in the game's Survival Mode, however, Katsuie and Kojiro may be unlocked as special Sub-Officer characters. Also, Okuni and Ranmaru do not have Story Modes in Samurai Warriors 2.

In Samurai Warriors 2, Imagawa Yoshimoto & Honganji Kennyo were completely removed due to conflicting time periods; for the same reason, the battles of Inabayama, Ise-Nagashima, and other battles featuring the Imagawa or the Ikko-ikki are removed. The Battle of Okehazama exists solely in the opening movies of Nobunaga, Noh (same as Nobunaga's), and Mitsuhide.

The first Samurai Warriors also featured Lu Bu from Dynasty Warriors as a hidden boss in the Deep Abyss Survival Mode. However he cannot be played by any normal means. In Xtreme Legends, Lu Bu was also featured as a super enemy during certain Challenge Modes, but he still remained non-playable. It is possible to use Lu Bu and his moveset using a cheating device known as a Gameshark, however, this is not normally considered a legitimate way of unlocking a character. His moves are almost exactly the same as in Dynasty Warriors, only minimally edited to better suit the Samurai Warriors engine. A video of Lu Bu gameplay in Samurai Warriors can be viewed here: [1]

[edit] External links

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