Samurai Warriors 4-II Review

Not quite a sequel and not quite an expansion, Samurai Warriors 4-II is, in many ways, a follow up to last year’s brilliant Samurai Warriors 4 – but it’s certainly not Samurai Warriors 5. It copies and pastes most of the characters, stages, music, mechanics, voice acting, and even artwork from 2015’s historical hack and slasher, but to call it an enhanced edition isn’t accurate either, since its structure is totally different.

Survival mode has plenty of reason to keep you coming back. Clearing particular levels of the castle grants you bonuses, and as you work your way up, you’ll uncover more and more additional stuff. All the while, you’ll be looting increasingly rare weapons and items that can be used across the whole game, which means that it’s an efficient and enjoyable way to beef up your favourite characters.

Story mode and survival mode combine to create a neat package, but it doesn’t quite feel like 4-II’s offering is on the same scale as Samurai Warriors 4’s gigantic amount of content, which included the incredibly lengthy chronicle mode.

There are things that this latest outing does better than its predecessor, however. While gameplay is mostly the same as you switch between two selected characters, complete objectives during battle, and carve your way through hordes of enemy troops, refinements have been made to one-on-one duels, and by and large, the game demands a slightly more methodical approach.

Naomasa li, the new playable character

As with the previous instalment, 4-II differentiates fights with tough samurai from brawls with lesser soldiers by giving you two separate means of attack. Mapped to triangle, hyper attacks cut through standard troops, but officers will parry them. Against these enemies, you’ll have to push square for normal attacks, and utilize triangle to unleash more powerful charge attacks to create your combos.

This system forces you to actually think about what moves you’re using rather than just mashing the controller, and this is taken a step further with button prompts that pop up during the heat of combat. While blocking, for instance, your foe may attempt to break your guard with a dash, and at that point, time will slow for a split second, and you’ll have an opportunity to hit the displayed input and smack them away, or you might even be prompted to perform a counterattack if your adversary is about to unleash a special move. It’s a simple mechanic that’s not quite prevalent enough to have an impact on the game’s balance, but it keeps duels feeling enjoyably tense, particularly during high difficulty missions.
4-II also does away with the last title’s somewhat convoluted weapon upgrade system. Jewels that were used to power up certain armament attributes are cast aside, and in their place is the ability to fuse weapons together (similar to Warriors Orochi) in order to forge stronger versions. This system creates a much more satisfying progression loop, and stumbling across an especially rare weapon feels great since you know that it’s going to be put to good use one way or another.

Very questionable DLC costumes

In conclusion, I’d highly recommend this title for fans of the Warriors series, but likewise probably wouldn’t recommend it for new players. The best new addition is by far the Survival mode, but it’s a little shame Koei didn’t bring a whole lot more to the table.

The latest iteration of the 10th anniversary "SAMURAI WARRIORS" series is here at last! Naomasa Ii appears as a playable character for the first time, and the various personalities of the age are explored in more depth in "Story Mode", which is now focused on individual characters.

Graphics & VisualsMusic & SoundsFun Factor Game is very good, but doesn't add too much from the last instalment. For fans only.

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