Hey man, really enjoyed this video. I want to add a little more information about some of the games that you wouldn't know after only playing them for a few hours. The biggest issue with Samurai Warriors 1 is the way in which your characters level. The system they used involved maxing them out, then reincarnating them as if this were friggin Disgaea. This was convoluted and massively unpopular, and the leveling system we know today was introduced in Samurai Warriors: XL in order to rebalance the original game. Speaking as someone who enjoys both games, I can say this is one of the biggest reasons to get the original XL, and makes OG XL stand above others in the Moushoden line. Samurai Warriors: Chronicles is a really fun game that has a nice, smooth difficulty curve - it is definitely not "too easy," as first impressions indicate. The first three missions are easy, but they get progressively more difficult and it's very easy to die in it, even as early as late Part 1. The game is divided into 4 parts and every scenario is very hectic if you're doing the missions. If you don't do the missions, you'd better have overpowered characters, because as your enemy army morale stays high, the harder it is to deal damage to them. The unlocks and progression in the game are also really engaging. Otherwise I think your impressions and criticisms were pretty spot on. I enjoy Samurai Warriors 5 despite the backwards steps, and I do think it's easier to show off to someone who has no idea about SW or Japanese history and get them interested in it compared to the earlier titles.
@@WildcatWeather Thanks! I wrote that kind of hastily and realized just now part of it wasn't totally accurate. In Samurai Warriors 1, it's not that you HAVE to reincarnate, but it is entirely possible to screw over your character and be unable to max them out. This necessitates a character reset if you want to eventually max them out. The whys and wherefores of how you "screw over" your character is too complicated for a UA-cam comment, but if you're interested there's a good guide on GameFAQs about it. Suffice to say, the system in XL and future games is way, way better.
When he said it was too easy I actually laughed. Especially if you're playing the female character who's moveset has abysmal range, going for objectives the first try on many battles can be super difficult. It's difficulty was honestly refreshing after having only played newer Warriors games the past couple years. I felt like SW4 made morale too lenient with you being able to kill flag bearers to bring it down, so I loved how tough it was in this one. Miss a few missions and much of the map will start to turn red, it really was a fun change of pace.
1,000% on point information. SWXL completely changes the first game more than I think any XL has modified a Warriors game into a great game and this sets the foundation for SW2 and the rest of the series
Fun Fact for SW1: Completing the Abyss mode (which was clear floor 30) gives you each book of the elements( Earth, Fire,Water,Wind,Air) and equipping them gave you a "Extreme Death" element to your charge attacks and true musou attacks, they would likely 1 shot peons no matter lvl and/or difficulty and inflict massive damage on officers ..... but there was a catch in the form of a Easter Egg. To clear floor 30, you had to fight Lu Bu .... literally pulled straight out of DW4 and he .... is .... brutal, there's even a SW OST style remix of his theme.
It goes to show the power scale of dynasty warriors characters vs samurai warriors considering how many can fight him head on. Even though it's easier in xtreme legends because enemies don't get stronger as you do in that game.
@Doortrash was replaying DW5 recently and i was shocked that allies are not only useful, but normal peons and generals can mess you up if you play on anything above normal. hell, a max level Lu Bu can still easily die to a gruop of peons in chaos difficulty if your not careful. even DW got easier as time went on. DW8 made peons more useful then a threat, by giving you weapons that gives you health for killing them.
Agreed. When I was younger I enjoyed it in the Dynasty series because my favorite character was Zhuge Liang but I didn't like the fan as a weapon. As I got a bit older I kind of understood that it makes the characters feel more unique if they are tied to their weapon
I disagree because being able to change a character’s weapon you don’t like to one you do is a positive. And if you do like there original weapon they start with you can keep it so it’s a win win. Having the option to change weapons is just that an option it doesn’t ruin the game or the characters.
I played Samurai Warriors SO MUCH when I was younger. Being able to make your own character for story mode / branching paths / the dungeons / the extra modes. Game was so good.
I love those games but nothing will ever top Dynasty Warriors 3, that game is still amazing to this day and a testament to great game development. I'm not even nostalgic about it either as Dynasty Warriors 2 was the first Warriors game I ever played when I got a PS2 for Christmas 20+ years ago.
If there’s anything the Warriors series did right, it’s the music. They all kickass; Dynasty, Samurai, all the spin-off titles, the songs are either good or ABSOLUTE BANGERS.
out of all, I loved 2 empires, and 4 empires but I never really liked the demon king portrayal of Nobunaga persistent until 4. Thats the biggest advantage of 5. I also wish they'd bring back 1's new officer mode into more recent games because it just feels like you're important but would be better for there to be unique campaign mode for whatever clan you choose. The best portrayal of Nobunaga so far is Kesen 3
Me and my brother quite possibly played over 1,000 hours of sw2 + xl during our childhood. Its characters, stages and etc live rent free in my head, probably forever.
I have the same story with my brother, over a thousand hours playing the base game and Empires. We especially loved playing the Sugoroku mode. Bad thing I never found a way to get XL at the time... I'm from Costa Rica btw
The SW1 training mode is lowkey really good. There are tons of secrets that encourages you to perform perfectly, Mastering cavalry allows you to have the best horse in the game along insane mounted stats, the agility parkour training makes your speed faster, and if you flawless all your runs, you get the double jump ability only available on Kunoichi and Hanzo, allowing your character to use the few ninja path in levels, it has so much dept and I love it's concept.. Also Lu Bu being a secret boss on the last stage of Survival mode is the coolest thing ever.
It was pretty cool, i wish there was less of a harsh penalty than character deletion if you failed the trials though. Some such as combo and deflect were pretty tough compared to melee, ride or burst for instance.
Yeah, the concept is cool, i heard some rumor that if your character arrow level is high, you get a chance to fight againts magoichi, and if your character wins your character will get musket as their ranged weapon.
There's also a secret item that you can only get there by meeting certain requirements, which can then be used in the normal mode. There are tons of characters you can meet and fight in training. You can unlock an additional four more edit models as well, two male, two female.
So, my take on SW3. I do agree that the Wii Exclusivity killed the game, in fact I think that was one of the worst decisions Koei-Tecmo made, however I disagree with alot of other things fans say about the game. As someone who has beaten all 30 story mode, completed Historical Mode, and Normal Mode on Murasame Castle, it is probably one of the most challenging warrior games in the entire franchise. Probably not THE MOST CHALLENGING, but I would say it is pretty high up there. The most challenging part of the game however hands down goes to Murasame Castle. There are two difficulties, Normal and Nightmare. You unlock Nightmare after beating the mode once... IF you can beat the mode once. It took me several years to beat Murasame Castle because the demons in that mode become absolutely insane to defeat. You gotta make sure you have a very beefed up character in order to beat the mode. I have tried Nightmare Mode a bit and... I might try to beat it, but I doubt I am going to get it done anytime soon. I am sorry to say this, but alot of Warrior Games nowadays are too easy IMO. While games like SW4 and DW8 are great games with alot of pros. They feel too easy and make me appreciate SW3 more for how challenging it is. In older warrior games, you couldn't take on higher difficulties without leveling up. There is something to be said about making all difficulties accessible right off the bat, However if I can beat the entire game on hard without losing once in the ENTIRE GAME *Glares at SW4*, then there is a problem with your difficulty balancing. That's my take on SW3.
I agree with this take, ir remember going from samurái Warriors 3 on the Wii to dynasty Warriors 7 when i got a 360 AND thinking it was too damn Easy AND almost automated to a degree, except lu bu regardless of the game you do not pursue Lu bu
As a kid I managed to beat nightmare mode as Kotaro even he struggles with the defense drop he gives. I shudder to see how non ninjas do. The only levels I never beat in nightmare mode I takamarus stages cause I always ran out of time.
I'm honestly really surprised to hear you weren't into Samurai Warriors 2's OST, I love that game's OST. I might just have some bias from my history of playing SW2XL a lot as a kid. This was pretty interesting to watch as someone who's only played SW2XL and SW5.
It's so good to see someone acknowledge the gem that is Spirit of Sanada! The fact that they focused exclusively on Story Mode made that so unique and detailed. Also HUB shenanegans and sidequests are actually kinda fun for once. They also managed to give at least one battle for each other SW4 characters in which they shine, so you can still use them and get their special weapons. The only bit part is one of the final chapters (third to last or something like that) where you basically have no important battles and are forced to run around with Chacha, and also the fact that for whatever reason they cut Hideyori Toyotomi, an extremely interesting character and basically the central point around whom the whole Osaka siege incident revolved. The final battle of SoS is probably the best stage Koei has designed, I really hope you finish the game
Oh dear sw2 I miss the childhood I grew with you 😢 magnificent and one reason was that each character was unique each story unique each face was unique but you maybe I loved it bcz it was my childhood game
You're incorrect about the bodyguards in State of War. Many of them do in fact have special abilities that effect the game. There's one that makes your officers drop full musou every 20 seconds, and one even adds death element to your charge attack (this is the only way to get this element). Awe is a great one, allowing you to capture officers easier. All the Dynasty Warriors 4 characters appear in the game as well.
One thing you didn't mention about SW1 is that because of how items and weapon stats interacted with enemy stats, it was actually not worth levelling up characters. Your enemies would actually level up faster than you so you gradually got weaker over time. You were also stopped receiving skill points if your character reached max level. SW1XL changed all these things so levelling up characters felt appropriately rewarding and was worth doing. It also added a new difficulty and a new ultimate weapon for each character which could be unlocked on that difficulty.
was looking for this! sw1 leveling was terrible. my brother min-max a route for battle of nagashino in order for me and my other brother to get maxed out stats for characters
I cry my eyes out when i finished SW spirit of sanada even im playing it at internet cafe, such an amazing game. I also wish we get more SW game like SW SOS in the future Im still get chill when i remember the last stage of SOS till this day
Chronicles 3 will always be my favorite. I was a huge fan of the way the original Chronicles integrated you as a core player in the Sengoku-era story and let you see more personal sides of the characters, so Chronicles 3 building upon that as well as having 4's gameplay easily makes it my top SW game.
I dunno, I actually quite like the story direction of SW5. It wasn't revolutionary or anything, but focusing almost completely on Nobunaga's story did a really good job of humanizing him. I love that we can see him go from a brash, brilliant and charasmatic leader into a warlord so cold and disconnected that his only real connection left is with Yasuke, a practical outsider and political non-entity. The voice actor did an excellent job depicting that transition as well. I do hate how some characters were depicted or just woefully underutilized (like Nohime) but SW5 being Feudal Scarface is not a bad thing at all. What needed was SW5-2 that focused on the power struggle between Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. And ideally added an actually good side mode
Thank you for this video. One thing to add regarding the first Samurai Warriors is its unusually dark atmosphere. I suppose it has something in common with Dynasty Warriors 4 in that regard but it's a little more violent in its cutscenes and generally quite self-serious.
I was under impression that back in the day it was made with DW's "darker spinoff" in mind. As the time went on they just become sister series and got crossover so the tone just eventually became similar.
Sw2 just had a higher level of engagement and believable interaction and you felt you were in a generational conflict. Upto spirit of Sanada, the characters just felt more sad and semi crying. Don't forget the best English dub and best Musuo attacks.
I'd just like to point out that there IS a free mode in Spirit of Sanada. Sort of. It's accessed through an NPC in the story mode (first available around the mid-point), and you pay a specific item to unlock basically any SW4-series character to use in previously played battles.
@@Kerrfuffle I haven’t played the WO games past 2 but it’s nice that DW8 and WO3 are at least available on PC. I still prefer the empires games over all the regular ones because of the tactical side (I have always been a huge Total War fan until the recent games). DW5 Empires was the best implemented but unfortunately it is hard to even play these days because I think it was an Xbox 360 exclusive…
I had the same thing happened with SW5 lol. At first, I was so against it, but when I played it, it was pretty amazing, gameplay wise. I had a very weird relationship with the game, I enjoyed it a bit too much but at the same time I wouldn't recommend it to anyone especially because the lack of some of my favorite characters from the franchise. That being said, my top tier would be SW2, 2XL and 4. And SW4 music is just *chef kiss*
Just got recommended this video and gave it a watch, and it's nice to see SW1 ranked so highly. I genuinely think SW1 is one of the high points of the series. It had some issues, but so do they all. Between all the various routes and the limited characters, it felt like most got fleshed out a lot better than later games, although I've never played the Chronicle games so can't compare there. Not that all were particularly complex, but they definitely tried to make them proper characters rather than just sticking to specific tropes like some became in later entries. I also love how the game is both a darker, more serious tone a lot of the time, while also not being afraid to have fun with it. You look at Okuni or Goemon's campaigns, or even Masamune's and you can tell the latter for sure. If you've not played SW1XL I'd recommend it just for Yoshimoto's campaign too, me and my brother still reference that because of it's ending, although you'd probably need to have played Kenshin's campaign in the original for it to work as well. And honestly for all people cricicise the kind of backwards leveling mechanic, while I'd reset levels sometimes to unlock weapons because they could be rough max leveled, I actually appreciated the increasing challenge as you progress. I amn't sure I would so much these days, but at the time the level of challenge at max level hardest difficulty was what kept me playing SW1 so much. Also your faults with the create a character mode are defintiely fair, but the amount of hidden content that would let you get skills or other perks (could get Magoichi's musket, or the Ninja's kunais) was just really cool. I remember playing that mode constantly trying to figure out all the requirements to get them all, though I never did figure out a surefire way to get the Ninja's double jump, which would've been the best one to try and make sure you get I think.
I played through samurai warriors 5 last year and when I heard your intro I thought "ah man he doesn't get it". But actually listening to your reasoning, I 100% respect and support your decions to review it the way you did. Moreover, you hit the nail on the head with the review. Personally I found the redesign jarring at first with everyone looking like k pop pin ups but eventually you get used to it. Despite it being so heavily focused on a shorter period, I found more connection with the characters somehow and got more involved emotionally with previous iterations, which surprised me somewhat. Great review though! I kinda hoped they would make 6 more like 4 but with the mechanics of 5.
I'd love to see your take on the Warriors Orochi series! That and Warriors spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes, etc
You have no idea how happy I am to see this video! The DW video you made is something I usually have on while laying down for bed. You're really chill dude. Perfect videos to relax and enjoy!
Really cool seeing these types of vids! The dedication to the time it takes to go back through said games and the editing is awesome! These vids of yours covering these games has been a personal fave of mine! Can't wait to see ya tackle the Orochi series next too! Keep up the great work! ✨
Thanks for the nostalgia trip and amazing review. My biggest disappointment with the franchise is the fact that they stopped dubbing. Playing SW 2 - Empires with the English dub was so much fun for me. I don't like trying to read subtitles during an intense action battle and tend to miss most of the dialogues in the newer games...
SW5 is legit. I just purchased it off the cuff. Haven’t played a warriors game in awhile and I’m impressed. It’s fresh look for the series. The moves you use matter in the fights now. I haven’t beat it yet but I totally recommend the buy. 👍🏾
Yeah but no originality of moveset. Anyone can use same fighting style just using same weapon, example i like oda but i like how ieyasu fight, then i can use anyone with ieyasu fighting skills.. N some character using same weapon, this is the biggest letdown in the game for me. Other than that, its good. As for design, they made all of character much more anime-ish and a of them has to be handsome or pretty man .even katsuie who known to be like kinda bald
I really really hope to see more like this, be it spin offs warrior games, tokuden games, etc etc. I appreciate your work and thank you for putting the time and effort into it!
yeah, it was always going to be a rough transition for alot of long time fans but i think it was a necessary move, and will lead to the series being alot stronger in the future
Samurai Warriors 1 is actually the hardest game in the series by far, the thing is only once you play it enough. It has a difficulty that scales up with your player level, if you start getting into the higher level ranges the game absolutely bodies you, as a kid I had to go into the reset option to reduce my levels back down to 1 to keep playing, 2 can SEEM harder but will become much easier with levels, 1 is the exact opposite.
Sugoroku and the Survival Tower from SW2 are legit my 2 favorite gaming experiences from KOEI ever, followed very closely by DW5 XL Destiny Mode. The late 2000's were a fantastic time to be a Warriors fan.
SW1 vanilla also had a weird scaling difficulty depending on your character’s level, which could be exploited to get 5th weapons much more easily (such as Yukimura’s lol). SW1XL fixed this along with fixing the character leveling system to how it is in future titles and like most warriors games, with stage difficulty being set per stage.
I should mention the scaling difficulty was also annoying and unpopular because combined with the leveling system unless you did some convoluted and super grindy resetting and leveling then you would get significantly weaker in the game as you leveled up, with missions just becoming harder and harder. Counter-intuitive. Really don’t understand Koei’s thinking. SW1XL is a MUST BUY to truly enjoy the unique SW1.
Man, just hearing "God of War" at 30:39 got my blood pumping instantly! Played SW1 as a teen and recently picked up the series with SW4 while looking for something to play on my vita. And I fell in love with this game, more than ever before. The speed and the flow of the new charge attacks and getting on the hors with the press of a shoulder button, even when sprinting, just felt right. Finished Spirit of Sanada since and am eager to try SW5. Thank you for your work!
Samurai Warriors 2 and its expansions are the best for me. If only Empires came out after XL, we could've played as Toshiie, Gracia, Kojiro, and Katsuie with their new weapons
Unpopular opinion, the SW1 castle/dungeons were the best of all 5 games. The open layout of the newer games made the castles feel the same as outdoor battles to me.
After hundreds of hours on both SW1 & SW2, I still think SW1 is harder. SW2 is a sudden death type of difficulty but that only backs you into spamming musou. SW1 is a more sustained and tactical difficulty.
Just discovered your channel this week through your Dynasty Warriors vid, love your stuff. It's a lot more thorough than most gaming youtubers. Solid subscription.
my favorite franchise! i could never choose between them! Nene, Mitsuhide, Nobunaga and No, Inara and Mitsunari , Shingen ! lord my childhood!!! Yukimura! Musashi!!!! Lawd im gonna cry!!!!
SW1 and SW1XL are my absolute favorite. For me they could never top SW1. I tried liking 2-4 but they just didn't get it right like 1. They went all out and put their heart and soul into that game. The music, weapons, items, abilities, characters, stages, modes, atmosphere, story. I still love it to this day. I wish Koei didn't sell their soul with Tecmo and started whoring out everything as DLC. Warriors Orochi Z was the last genuine Koei game.
Agreed. SW1 will always be peak musou for me. It really felt like such a cohesive and put together experience. The character design, the art, the battlefields. I even found some enjoyment from the repetitive castle levels. The battles felt so real to me as a kid, and even today the battles still have a charm that I haven't found in any other musou game.
I really enjoyed your playthrough of all the games and a lot of what you said and had criticism on was honestly spot on. I been a Samurai Fan boy since literally the release of SW1. I got it when it released when I was a kid and I played it and every game that followed with my brother up until the current game. And obviously 3 because fuck that Wii shit. We maxed out the characters we found all the secrets we would play the games on the hardest difficulty and it was amazing. But I will say that Samurai warriors 1 and more specifically XL Will always be the absolute best that Samurai Warriors has and ever will offer. It was a perfect mix of story telling Music Voice acting And combat Most specifically the A.I It was difficult yet only if you charged head first like a idiot Even the chaotic Chaos difficulty that these days just has Peons one shotting you Was amazing and the perfect difficulty A mix of having to fight through every enemy and challenging officer battles To still being able to completely mow down the enemy when you have maxed out characters. You weren't getting one shot and you felt on par with your Enemy And your Allied soldiers and officers where at the same difficulty Being able to handle their own Clear out mobs of Peons And unleash combos and Musou attacks of their own that they sometimes are saving your ass. The golden era of Samurai warriors. Where the AI actually had combos and did more then single attacks. Now a days. I can't even call these warrior games anymore.
I loved your Dynasty Warriors video so I appreciate the follow-up with this. Samurai Warriors is such a great series and I feel like it deserves not being treated as a 'side series' to Dynasty. SW4 remains one of my favourite games, it's so good and the music is really epic.
I bought Spirit of Sanada cheap with low expectations during the pandemic, having heard virtually nothing about it. I was honestly shocked at how good it was. It was fun to play, fun to grind (important for anyone's pandemic needs), and nearly all of the characters were in it (which you'd never expect if you thought it only focused on the Sanadas). The new characters were very likable and despite knowing the history and how things would go, it still left me an emotional wreck by the end. The game is criminally ignored.
I started with SW4, but played with the older versions of characters in the Warriors Orochi series. I played SW4, SW4-II, Chronicles 3, SW4E, SoS and SW5. From top to bottom the base version of SW4 and Chronicles were the best overall. I like the Survival Mode in SW4-II, but didn't play it long. I hated SW4E, the problems I had were battle timers were too short and having to change around the retainers positions so often, because they would randomly get bad at their posts. I think I started a few campaigns, but I'm not sure if I ever finished more than 1. It also was annoying that I could never get Kai to marry. SoS was one that I was going to skip, since I never liked the poster boy, but I did eventually get it. I really liked Masayuki and was disappointed that he and Chacha never made it into WO4. I actually did like the exploration maps that the ninja-types could jump up to access places that others couldn't get to. If only DW9 could have just expanded on that instead of going full open world, it could have helped the DW series. SW5 was actually the best for the story and combat. I think the re-imagined version of Yoshimoto was 100 times better than the kemari-lover from previous games. The only problem I had with it was the extra mode(Citadel Mode) was only defensive missions. I don't mind having a protect mission here and there, but not a full mode of them. I didn't like the cut characters, like Kai and Nene being fully removed, but I really liked Mitsuki.
I've been replaying SW2,Xl,Empires off of a PS2 Emulator and its been super fun. SW2 might be my favorite from the Samurai Warriors franchise excluding the newest 5 as I haven't played it yet.
Great video as always. In regards to Samurai Warriors 5, I need to say the game seriously has the same problems as Dynasty Warriors 6. I find it really ironic for people who shit on Dynasty Warriors 6 for having problems, yet they praise Samurai Warriors 5, even thought the game has the same problems. The following problems are: - Cut roster, yet cloned moveset. In fact Samurai Warriors 5 has more clones than Dynasty Warriors 6 (SW5: 37 characters/15 movesets; DW6: 41 characters/29 movesets), completely defeats the purpose of having roster cut. - Cut roster, yet some characters are barely playable in the story mode like Saika Magoichi, Imagawa Yoshimoto, Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, Mori Motonari, Kobayakawa Takakage, and others. Again, completely defeats the purpose of having roster cut. - Cloned map layouts, a lot of the stages are copy and paste maps from other stages. Koei-Tecmo tried to hide that it's a cloned map, by rotating the map layout. - You can't play as the opposing side in some stages like Anegawa (Azai), Nagashino (Takeda), Tetorigawa (Uesugi), and Kizugawa (Mori). Once again, this completely defeats the purpose of having roster cut. - Moveset distribution between weapons are not balance. Some moveset has more moves than other, with no valid explanation whatsoever. - Lack of gameplay modes, the game only has 3 modes musou mode, free mode, and citadel mode. - For the first time in a Warriors game, free mode is restricted in terms of the characters you can use. Completely defeats the entire purpose of a free mode.
@@ruthmcnally310 You can't play as certain characters in certain stages. For example, you can't play as Nobunaga in the Battle of Muraki Garrison, because your mission there is to escort Nobunaga.
If I could discuss about SW5 movesets, I think one thing that does get overlooked is the variety and distinction between each weapon. Each weapon is SW5 is very distinct from each other, in terms of what they focus on, how their moveset is structured. and what moves they have available to them. I think that's something both DW and SW have long needed to do, since even though they had all these dozens of weapons and characters, they all still followed the same moveset structure, like having C2/C5 be aerial launchers, C4/C6 be AOE etc. SW was slightly better given there were 4 moveset structures by SW4, but the same issue still applies. Now admittedly, some weapons turned out way better than others, I think the spear is the most glaring for how neutered its ground moveset is. But ultimately, I think this is still the right direction to move in and I hope they keep improving on it.
I mean, it doesn't have the Renbu system, so that's one big plus it has over DW6. The actual story mode of the game is enjoyable and in-depth enough that people who are unfamiliar with Sengoku-era history can actually follow it. Finally, DW6 didn't introduce ANY new characters at all - it just removed a few. Those are all points over DW6. That being said, I totally get your disappointment with the game. It isn't a strict improvement over SW4, so it is a disappointment. In that way, it's very much like DW6.
SW3 voice acting is so underrated. SW3 is one of the few Musou I've ever played, and I agree with a lot of the problems the people have with this game, but the VA, I don't understand why so much people hate it.
People complaining about Samurai Warriors 3 and Dynasty Warriors 9 voice actors is the reason they stop doing them fans ask for English to be in warriors games than when they get what they want they crap on it same thing about them wanting realistic weapons than when Koei did that for Dynasty Warriors 9 American fan base wine and cried cuz they said realistic weapon ruin the game people wanted the game to be open world the moment Koei give what people want people complane they worst than WWE and Aew fans who are never happy
I wish koei would like to remaster their old series and re-released it on steam. Especially the older Empires and Xtreme Legends. I like every Empires installment for SW and the "Destiny Mode" feature in DW5XL are absolute banger for me.
I think the warriors series as a whole consists of incremental changes across titles. So, as someone whose only experience was sw2, wo2, and a bit of sw3, I was really impressed with sw5 especially with the way it was telling its story. I might also be part of the minority that liked the weapon changes (but I may change opinion as I try to finish the game) My big big problem with Koei Tecmo's model tho is they're kinda predatory with the prices. On switch eshop I'm seeing sw5 at 90 usd, wo4 at around the same price, both with dlc. I consider myself lucky that I got to buy sw5 with dlc in my region for about 35 usd on Steam (probably due to regional pricing)
SW 1 Series was just the original best. The castle mode, the dark foggy graphics, the japanese atmosphere the 3rd opposable party that fights against you and the enemies. it has that "deep set" japanese island history feel. it has classic appeal indeed.
I played SW Katana and I only enjoyed it because I was happy seeing the Samurai Characters. As I can remember, it didn't really add lore but had funny interactions between the player and charaters.
Mercenary Mode was a grind to finally be able to customize your weapon as you please. I was really happy with it because back then, because only Warriors Orochi had fully customizable weapon effects. Things like this are why I just treat the XL games as improvements patches. Their only flaw is having to buy the game again.
This series is incredibly addictive much more than dynasty warriors. My favorite is 2 and my main save has 165 hours every character story beaten and all at least in the 20 except for okuni who is a character you unlock after beating certain stories. Sadly she has no story. That game has gotten me through long periods of time where I had no idea what to play and just wanted to burn some time or wanted to just not think. You can get sucked into it super easily. Very few games work as true staple to a collection like this. The music is incredible! Odawara Castle Lu Bu. Fight me :D It's exciting to see a video on these games so thanks :)
Johnny Yong Bosch aka Adam from the Power Rangers series has the distinction of voicing Sanada Yukimura in two different Sengoku Era based video game series: Koei's Musouverse and Capcom's Sengoku Basara aka Samurai Warriors on steroids!
Wow, Just subscribed because this because playing through all these games must have been a lot. Nice video though. I played SW1 first and for me it still is the gold standard of the mission structure, difficulty and some other aspects. I played 2, 3 and 4-II as well. I feel most other games feel very linear when compared to 1's missions structure, as I feel there were many different outcomes for the battles. 2 still has it, but not as strong as 1, now 4 has none of it, IMO, I feel the missions in 4 were just what I was already doing or some kind of "defeat the officer that just appeared". It's what you said, padding. I like that in 1 and 2 you feel part of a bigger army, and the allies really do help gaining ground and defeating enemies. I really enjoyed watching the battle resume video after each battle and seeing the movement of my allies towards the main camp or the opponents. Now, the mooks went from terrifying in 1 to pretty much nothing in 4. In 3, they added some animations were the enemies just lie on the floor or awkwardly run for their lives, which I'm not really a fan of. I remember in 1 I'd always target Strike, Fire or Sky ninjas because I knew they could present challenge to me or my allies, and I needed as much help from my allies as I could so it'd be useful. The hyper attacks really add to that offense because you can just mash that button to wipe out a lot of regular, meaningless enemies. Lastly, I liked the "Reserve Captain" system in 1. Taking those points would help a lot in ally movement because enemies would no longer spawn in that area. They would help further morale as well which was pretty meaningful in 1. One cool thing about 1 is that the characters aren't very fast, so you had to commit to your decision making in terms of objectives and targets just because you couldn't cover a lot of ground that quick. I know my comment seems like bashing every other game but really I'm just sad that the game got too far away from 1 and 2 style of gameplay. I love the music from 4, the character creation mode and the character designs, the ability to switch characters and issue commands but it's sad in terms of gameplay just because I felt 1 got it just right in a lot of aspects. There was a lot of decision making and the combat felt a lot more strategic.
Samurai Warriors 5 is definitely one of the better SW games out there gameplay wise especially. I don't really mind the clones moveset, cause the "EX" attack for every character is quite different, for example like the Katana, there are 5 different moveset for it (The generic, Nagamasa, Nobunaga, Mitsuhide, and Takakage) evethough it JUST the EX attack, but those EX attack is so different than the one we got on the DW series. On the DW series the EX attack was more of an extension of the moveset, while in this game it's more of an it's own moveset, for example, Nagamasa and Mitsuhide both had their EX on their C5, and those 2 moveset perform really different to one another, that it almost made a unique play style not just a unique moveset. So even though a character might had the same preferred weapon, their play styles might plays a bit different. But still, i wish they didn't do that. There is also alot of stuff in the game, you had basically 13 chapters, 6 chapters each for Nobunaga and Mitsuhide, and also an additional what-if chapters. The story itself it's fine i guess, nothing to spectacular. A completion reward for getting an S Rank for every difficulty (TIME, K.O,and 2 other that i forgot) although u can just play on the Nightmare difficulty and get the rewards for every other difficulty. Unless u had an all level 7 Weapon (at least), the nightmare difficulty itself is really hard. You need to play every stage at least 2 or even 3 for some stage that had a unique objective to 100% it. Some stage also had a character specific objectives that actually made the stage plays a bit different, but not like SW4 where the stage itself is literally different (Sakon's and Mitsunari's Sekigahara). Citadel mode is ass, is not good at all, got boring reallly fast, but the game force u to play it in order to speed up leveling your Dojo, Shop, Blacksmith, etc. It gives you horse i believe if you complete all of the stage, and also had some friendship bar to unlock some scenes, but that's about it. If there is one thing that got me really disappointed with this game is that the game is not fun anymore when u already finish the story and citadel mode, other than replaying the stage to get all objective. Normally you can still do a lot of stuff even when u already completed 80% of the older games, this time is not, when you finished the story and citadel mode, the game got boring really fast. Well, Citadel mode is also disappointing, but i'll let it slide cause it's "the other" game mode. Reason why i am disappointed by it is that, with the weapon systems that they implemented, your weapon is to powerful and that makes you REALLY STRONG when u are at the endgame, way to strong even for nightmare difficulty. And the character gains level really slow too, like u could play 4 stage of Honnoji and still didn't get to max exp from lvl 50 (like in SW4, u can max out the stats after u hit level 50) which make the game a bit more tedious. I believe it needed around 700k plus exp to fully maxed out your character from Level 50. Last thing is about the rare weapon and stuff. Rare weapons is definitely not good, they're worthless pretty much, because u can make a better weapon with the crafting weapons system that this game had. And since almost all rare weapons are on the later stage of the game, your weapon going into that battle is probably already better than the Rare Weapon itself. And the process of acquiring it also feels way to short, this is also counting the fact that you need to do 2 stages to get the rare weapons itself and it's still feel boring and not worth it. I wish they go the route of instead having a rare weapon for every weapons type, every character had their own unique weapon, they can exclude the generics if they want and it's fine as long as the og character got their own weapon. Overall this is a really good game when you are underpowered or even matching the power requirements, the stage feels much longer, bigger, and bette, basically when you had your first playhrough of it. But when you do actually got stronger the game became way to easy and it just become really boring, the weapon system is too broken that you don't even need to maxed out your character, which was some of my favourite things to do on the older warriors game, and also one of the reason that i keep playing the older game.
I will say for samurai warriors 5 is more accurate to the historical lore of characters in terms of design. Like ieyasu being a child/teen while serving nobunaga, the discovery of guns for some characters etc
Hey man, really enjoyed this video. I want to add a little more information about some of the games that you wouldn't know after only playing them for a few hours.
The biggest issue with Samurai Warriors 1 is the way in which your characters level. The system they used involved maxing them out, then reincarnating them as if this were friggin Disgaea. This was convoluted and massively unpopular, and the leveling system we know today was introduced in Samurai Warriors: XL in order to rebalance the original game. Speaking as someone who enjoys both games, I can say this is one of the biggest reasons to get the original XL, and makes OG XL stand above others in the Moushoden line.
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles is a really fun game that has a nice, smooth difficulty curve - it is definitely not "too easy," as first impressions indicate. The first three missions are easy, but they get progressively more difficult and it's very easy to die in it, even as early as late Part 1. The game is divided into 4 parts and every scenario is very hectic if you're doing the missions. If you don't do the missions, you'd better have overpowered characters, because as your enemy army morale stays high, the harder it is to deal damage to them. The unlocks and progression in the game are also really engaging.
Otherwise I think your impressions and criticisms were pretty spot on. I enjoy Samurai Warriors 5 despite the backwards steps, and I do think it's easier to show off to someone who has no idea about SW or Japanese history and get them interested in it compared to the earlier titles.
You've earned the pinned comment, my friend. :)
@@WildcatWeather Thanks! I wrote that kind of hastily and realized just now part of it wasn't totally accurate. In Samurai Warriors 1, it's not that you HAVE to reincarnate, but it is entirely possible to screw over your character and be unable to max them out. This necessitates a character reset if you want to eventually max them out.
The whys and wherefores of how you "screw over" your character is too complicated for a UA-cam comment, but if you're interested there's a good guide on GameFAQs about it. Suffice to say, the system in XL and future games is way, way better.
SW Chronicles was really good. It's a solid SW and it should have been ported over to PS4.
When he said it was too easy I actually laughed. Especially if you're playing the female character who's moveset has abysmal range, going for objectives the first try on many battles can be super difficult. It's difficulty was honestly refreshing after having only played newer Warriors games the past couple years. I felt like SW4 made morale too lenient with you being able to kill flag bearers to bring it down, so I loved how tough it was in this one. Miss a few missions and much of the map will start to turn red, it really was a fun change of pace.
1,000% on point information. SWXL completely changes the first game more than I think any XL has modified a Warriors game into a great game and this sets the foundation for SW2 and the rest of the series
Samurai warriors 2 for me is the peak of this franchise every character has a story mode and god the designs!
Fun Fact for SW1: Completing the Abyss mode (which was clear floor 30) gives you each book of the elements( Earth, Fire,Water,Wind,Air) and equipping them gave you a "Extreme Death" element to your charge attacks and true musou attacks, they would likely 1 shot peons no matter lvl and/or difficulty and inflict massive damage on officers ..... but there was a catch in the form of a Easter Egg.
To clear floor 30, you had to fight Lu Bu .... literally pulled straight out of DW4 and he .... is .... brutal, there's even a SW OST style remix of his theme.
That's so badass i would have fan boyed cause he's my fav
sadly i never got that far in the towers.....i'd get destroyed by level 10 or so....between 10-15 at the highest....
And lu bu was just as strong as u would think he WASENT a push over I remember having to run into circles at low HP alot
legit completed once. lubu is no joke
It goes to show the power scale of dynasty warriors characters vs samurai warriors considering how many can fight him head on. Even though it's easier in xtreme legends because enemies don't get stronger as you do in that game.
replayed SW2 recently and i still think its one of, if not the best game in the series.
@Doortrash was replaying DW5 recently and i was shocked that allies are not only useful, but normal peons and generals can mess you up if you play on anything above normal. hell, a max level Lu Bu can still easily die to a gruop of peons in chaos difficulty if your not careful. even DW got easier as time went on. DW8 made peons more useful then a threat, by giving you weapons that gives you health for killing them.
I grew up on SW2 and yeah, it freaking rules
4 was kinda close, but I just don't like the Kill All Peons button
I really am not a fan of "weapon" switch , I much prefer the like SW4 did character switching , weapons should be tied to their identity
100% agree
Yeah it really took me out of 5 when I realized that they weren’t unique
Agreed. When I was younger I enjoyed it in the Dynasty series because my favorite character was Zhuge Liang but I didn't like the fan as a weapon. As I got a bit older I kind of understood that it makes the characters feel more unique if they are tied to their weapon
I disagree because being able to change a character’s weapon you don’t like to one you do is a positive. And if you do like there original weapon they start with you can keep it so it’s a win win.
Having the option to change weapons is just that an option it doesn’t ruin the game or the characters.
STRONGLY AGREE!!!!!
I played Samurai Warriors SO MUCH when I was younger. Being able to make your own character for story mode / branching paths / the dungeons / the extra modes. Game was so good.
I love those games but nothing will ever top Dynasty Warriors 3, that game is still amazing to this day and a testament to great game development. I'm not even nostalgic about it either as Dynasty Warriors 2 was the first Warriors game I ever played when I got a PS2 for Christmas 20+ years ago.
@@Travybear1989idk 4 & 5 can give 3 a run
SW2 is by far my most favorite, the BGM is top notch and the storytelling is great
same here
My very first proper musou, I say proper because I played DW1 on the ps1. Up to this day, still a musou fanatic.
Same. Played SW2 from 2008 to 2010. Literally my childhood game.
If you’ve never played any of them, is SW2 the best place to start?
@pteGmoney it's the best Samurai Warriors game Period!! I started with Samurai Warriors 2.
If there’s anything the Warriors series did right, it’s the music. They all kickass; Dynasty, Samurai, all the spin-off titles, the songs are either good or ABSOLUTE BANGERS.
out of all, I loved 2 empires, and 4 empires but I never really liked the demon king portrayal of Nobunaga persistent until 4. Thats the biggest advantage of 5. I also wish they'd bring back 1's new officer mode into more recent games because it just feels like you're important but would be better for there to be unique campaign mode for whatever clan you choose.
The best portrayal of Nobunaga so far is Kesen 3
Me and my brother quite possibly played over 1,000 hours of sw2 + xl during our childhood. Its characters, stages and etc live rent free in my head, probably forever.
I'm impressed that someone on the other side of the world has the same story with this great game, incredible greetings from Argentina
I have the same story with my brother, over a thousand hours playing the base game and Empires. We especially loved playing the Sugoroku mode. Bad thing I never found a way to get XL at the time... I'm from Costa Rica btw
@@vingalmo536 El modo sugoroku era buenísimo hermano
Samurai Warriors 4's music is absolutely amazing to me, I'll always rate it as one of my top favorite Warriors games because of that
Ur here too...I see u every time I click a video...grre
Couldn't agree more!
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The SW1 training mode is lowkey really good. There are tons of secrets that encourages you to perform perfectly, Mastering cavalry allows you to have the best horse in the game along insane mounted stats, the agility parkour training makes your speed faster, and if you flawless all your runs, you get the double jump ability only available on Kunoichi and Hanzo, allowing your character to use the few ninja path in levels, it has so much dept and I love it's concept.. Also Lu Bu being a secret boss on the last stage of Survival mode is the coolest thing ever.
It was pretty cool, i wish there was less of a harsh penalty than character deletion if you failed the trials though. Some such as combo and deflect were pretty tough compared to melee, ride or burst for instance.
Yeah, the concept is cool, i heard some rumor that if your character arrow level is high, you get a chance to fight againts magoichi, and if your character wins your character will get musket as their ranged weapon.
There's also a secret item that you can only get there by meeting certain requirements, which can then be used in the normal mode. There are tons of characters you can meet and fight in training. You can unlock an additional four more edit models as well, two male, two female.
Mmmm
So, my take on SW3.
I do agree that the Wii Exclusivity killed the game, in fact I think that was one of the worst decisions Koei-Tecmo made, however I disagree with alot of other things fans say about the game.
As someone who has beaten all 30 story mode, completed Historical Mode, and Normal Mode on Murasame Castle, it is probably one of the most challenging warrior games in the entire franchise. Probably not THE MOST CHALLENGING, but I would say it is pretty high up there.
The most challenging part of the game however hands down goes to Murasame Castle. There are two difficulties, Normal and Nightmare. You unlock Nightmare after beating the mode once... IF you can beat the mode once. It took me several years to beat Murasame Castle because the demons in that mode become absolutely insane to defeat. You gotta make sure you have a very beefed up character in order to beat the mode. I have tried Nightmare Mode a bit and... I might try to beat it, but I doubt I am going to get it done anytime soon.
I am sorry to say this, but alot of Warrior Games nowadays are too easy IMO. While games like SW4 and DW8 are great games with alot of pros. They feel too easy and make me appreciate SW3 more for how challenging it is. In older warrior games, you couldn't take on higher difficulties without leveling up. There is something to be said about making all difficulties accessible right off the bat, However if I can beat the entire game on hard without losing once in the ENTIRE GAME *Glares at SW4*, then there is a problem with your difficulty balancing.
That's my take on SW3.
SW3 is the best game in the series.
I agree with this take, ir remember going from samurái Warriors 3 on the Wii to dynasty Warriors 7 when i got a 360 AND thinking it was too damn Easy AND almost automated to a degree, except lu bu regardless of the game you do not pursue Lu bu
As a kid I managed to beat nightmare mode as Kotaro even he struggles with the defense drop he gives. I shudder to see how non ninjas do. The only levels I never beat in nightmare mode I takamarus stages cause I always ran out of time.
I'm honestly really surprised to hear you weren't into Samurai Warriors 2's OST, I love that game's OST. I might just have some bias from my history of playing SW2XL a lot as a kid.
This was pretty interesting to watch as someone who's only played SW2XL and SW5.
It's so good to see someone acknowledge the gem that is Spirit of Sanada! The fact that they focused exclusively on Story Mode made that so unique and detailed. Also HUB shenanegans and sidequests are actually kinda fun for once. They also managed to give at least one battle for each other SW4 characters in which they shine, so you can still use them and get their special weapons. The only bit part is one of the final chapters (third to last or something like that) where you basically have no important battles and are forced to run around with Chacha, and also the fact that for whatever reason they cut Hideyori Toyotomi, an extremely interesting character and basically the central point around whom the whole Osaka siege incident revolved. The final battle of SoS is probably the best stage Koei has designed, I really hope you finish the game
I feel like they didn't add Hideyori because of the fact they wanted to focus on the relation between Yukimura and Chacha.
My best memories are from Samurai Warriors 2. It's the one that really made me fall inove with the series
literally just watched this video yesterday and KT shadow drops Samurai Warriors 4 DX on pc the same day. Truly a sign
Oh dear sw2 I miss the childhood I grew with you 😢 magnificent and one reason was that each character was unique each story unique each face was unique but you maybe I loved it bcz it was my childhood game
2 Empires is my personal favorite. So many things to uncover, which makes the game highly replayable. Playing as the generic officers is also fun.
You're incorrect about the bodyguards in State of War. Many of them do in fact have special abilities that effect the game. There's one that makes your officers drop full musou every 20 seconds, and one even adds death element to your charge attack (this is the only way to get this element). Awe is a great one, allowing you to capture officers easier. All the Dynasty Warriors 4 characters appear in the game as well.
One thing you didn't mention about SW1 is that because of how items and weapon stats interacted with enemy stats, it was actually not worth levelling up characters. Your enemies would actually level up faster than you so you gradually got weaker over time. You were also stopped receiving skill points if your character reached max level.
SW1XL changed all these things so levelling up characters felt appropriately rewarding and was worth doing. It also added a new difficulty and a new ultimate weapon for each character which could be unlocked on that difficulty.
was looking for this! sw1 leveling was terrible. my brother min-max a route for battle of nagashino in order for me and my other brother to get maxed out stats for characters
I cry my eyes out when i finished SW spirit of sanada even im playing it at internet cafe, such an amazing game. I also wish we get more SW game like SW SOS in the future
Im still get chill when i remember the last stage of SOS till this day
i remember playing SW2 as a kid on our PS2 and me my little brother grinded this game for like 400 hrs. good times!
My favorite SW game is SW1. Smart AI (smartest in the series), good music, and good move sets.
Chronicles 3 will always be my favorite. I was a huge fan of the way the original Chronicles integrated you as a core player in the Sengoku-era story and let you see more personal sides of the characters, so Chronicles 3 building upon that as well as having 4's gameplay easily makes it my top SW game.
SW2 is easily my favorite I'm the series. Best main game, best expansion and best empires in this specific series. SW 5 is super awesome however
I dunno, I actually quite like the story direction of SW5. It wasn't revolutionary or anything, but focusing almost completely on Nobunaga's story did a really good job of humanizing him. I love that we can see him go from a brash, brilliant and charasmatic leader into a warlord so cold and disconnected that his only real connection left is with Yasuke, a practical outsider and political non-entity. The voice actor did an excellent job depicting that transition as well. I do hate how some characters were depicted or just woefully underutilized (like Nohime) but SW5 being Feudal Scarface is not a bad thing at all. What needed was SW5-2 that focused on the power struggle between Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. And ideally added an actually good side mode
Thank you for this video. One thing to add regarding the first Samurai Warriors is its unusually dark atmosphere. I suppose it has something in common with Dynasty Warriors 4 in that regard but it's a little more violent in its cutscenes and generally quite self-serious.
I was under impression that back in the day it was made with DW's "darker spinoff" in mind. As the time went on they just become sister series and got crossover so the tone just eventually became similar.
Music in SW1 were bangers. I played it when i was 11 or 12 yo and i still remember them today.
Sw2 just had a higher level of engagement and believable interaction and you felt you were in a generational conflict. Upto spirit of Sanada, the characters just felt more sad and semi crying. Don't forget the best English dub and best Musuo attacks.
🇨🇦
Damn, didn't know we Canadians were active during the sengoku era 😂
Spirit of canada? Wth is that
The Samurai Warriors 1 English VA of Nobunaga is the same fella who voiced Cao Cao in the Dynasty Warriors games from 5-8.
@@Mickey-v7pThat just ties their similarities even further
I'd just like to point out that there IS a free mode in Spirit of Sanada. Sort of. It's accessed through an NPC in the story mode (first available around the mid-point), and you pay a specific item to unlock basically any SW4-series character to use in previously played battles.
Fun fact: Yukimura's alternate armor in SW1 is based heavily on his real life armor.
SW2's metacritic score is proof metacritic scores are bogus. DW5/WO2/SW2 are my classic Warriors GOATs.
I agree but I prefer the Empires version of DW5 and SW2. Still, that was the best era (I think they released around the same time)
@@disillusioned8686 Definitely the best era. When I'm not down for the jank though I love me some WO3u/DW8XL which are my favorite from the new era.
@@Kerrfuffle I haven’t played the WO games past 2 but it’s nice that DW8 and WO3 are at least available on PC. I still prefer the empires games over all the regular ones because of the tactical side (I have always been a huge Total War fan until the recent games). DW5 Empires was the best implemented but unfortunately it is hard to even play these days because I think it was an Xbox 360 exclusive…
It may be a lot of work but keep doing a series like this with honest unbiased reviews. its so helpful and also nostalgic!
It’s sad that XL got trademarked, kinda lame to say 4-2 instead of 4 Xtreme Legends.
SW2 and SW1 (and the expansions) are GOATED!
As a warriors fan I must say your videos are amazing. I enjoyed listening to them and admire your dedication to the "saga"
I had the same thing happened with SW5 lol. At first, I was so against it, but when I played it, it was pretty amazing, gameplay wise. I had a very weird relationship with the game, I enjoyed it a bit too much but at the same time I wouldn't recommend it to anyone especially because the lack of some of my favorite characters from the franchise. That being said, my top tier would be SW2, 2XL and 4. And SW4 music is just *chef kiss*
As a diehard Warriors fan, I can safely say SW2XL is my fav Warriors game.
Just got recommended this video and gave it a watch, and it's nice to see SW1 ranked so highly. I genuinely think SW1 is one of the high points of the series. It had some issues, but so do they all. Between all the various routes and the limited characters, it felt like most got fleshed out a lot better than later games, although I've never played the Chronicle games so can't compare there. Not that all were particularly complex, but they definitely tried to make them proper characters rather than just sticking to specific tropes like some became in later entries.
I also love how the game is both a darker, more serious tone a lot of the time, while also not being afraid to have fun with it. You look at Okuni or Goemon's campaigns, or even Masamune's and you can tell the latter for sure. If you've not played SW1XL I'd recommend it just for Yoshimoto's campaign too, me and my brother still reference that because of it's ending, although you'd probably need to have played Kenshin's campaign in the original for it to work as well.
And honestly for all people cricicise the kind of backwards leveling mechanic, while I'd reset levels sometimes to unlock weapons because they could be rough max leveled, I actually appreciated the increasing challenge as you progress. I amn't sure I would so much these days, but at the time the level of challenge at max level hardest difficulty was what kept me playing SW1 so much.
Also your faults with the create a character mode are defintiely fair, but the amount of hidden content that would let you get skills or other perks (could get Magoichi's musket, or the Ninja's kunais) was just really cool. I remember playing that mode constantly trying to figure out all the requirements to get them all, though I never did figure out a surefire way to get the Ninja's double jump, which would've been the best one to try and make sure you get I think.
I played through samurai warriors 5 last year and when I heard your intro I thought "ah man he doesn't get it". But actually listening to your reasoning, I 100% respect and support your decions to review it the way you did. Moreover, you hit the nail on the head with the review. Personally I found the redesign jarring at first with everyone looking like k pop pin ups but eventually you get used to it. Despite it being so heavily focused on a shorter period, I found more connection with the characters somehow and got more involved emotionally with previous iterations, which surprised me somewhat. Great review though! I kinda hoped they would make 6 more like 4 but with the mechanics of 5.
I'd love to see your take on the Warriors Orochi series! That and Warriors spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes, etc
Sengoku Musou was the first game that exposed me to Japanese culture when I was a wee lad.
Luckily, I played SW1 first.
You have no idea how happy I am to see this video! The DW video you made is something I usually have on while laying down for bed. You're really chill dude. Perfect videos to relax and enjoy!
Really cool seeing these types of vids! The dedication to the time it takes to go back through said games and the editing is awesome! These vids of yours covering these games has been a personal fave of mine! Can't wait to see ya tackle the Orochi series next too! Keep up the great work! ✨
Yoo it's Nube! I enjoyed your Dynasty Warriors videos! :D
Thanks for the nostalgia trip and amazing review. My biggest disappointment with the franchise is the fact that they stopped dubbing. Playing SW 2 - Empires with the English dub was so much fun for me. I don't like trying to read subtitles during an intense action battle and tend to miss most of the dialogues in the newer games...
17:35 Being connected to the Takeda clan by my mothers side, I took the "obliterated the Takeda Clan" personally LOL.
And I took it personally meme intensifies
SW2 was the only samurai game I truly got interested in. Sugoroku was extremely fun with friends, unfortunately, it's not as good against bots
i love sugoroku beyond 3000 man :D
SW5 is legit. I just purchased it off the cuff. Haven’t played a warriors game in awhile and I’m impressed. It’s fresh look for the series. The moves you use matter in the fights now. I haven’t beat it yet but I totally recommend the buy. 👍🏾
They just drop mary j blige trailer for samurai warriors 5 in she the strongest character in the game lord her ultimate no more drama devastating
Yeah but no originality of moveset. Anyone can use same fighting style just using same weapon, example i like oda but i like how ieyasu fight, then i can use anyone with ieyasu fighting skills..
N some character using same weapon, this is the biggest letdown in the game for me. Other than that, its good. As for design, they made all of character much more anime-ish and a of them has to be handsome or pretty man
.even katsuie who known to be like kinda bald
there also is a lock on
ive heard from many people who actually played SW5, that its among the best samurai warriors game, if not the best.
I really enjoyed Samurai Warriors 5, it's my first SW game that I played.
I really really hope to see more like this, be it spin offs warrior games, tokuden games, etc etc. I appreciate your work and thank you for putting the time and effort into it!
Great video! i hope for future Samurai Warriors they go back to the kinda realistic graphic design like 1 and 2 were and less anime.
ok really glad you touched on the music because the people who make the music for these games REALLY add a lot to the fun.
Samurai Warriors 5 is amazing and I think they made the right choice revamping it. I do hope that they do the same with Dynasty Warriors 10
yeah, it was always going to be a rough transition for alot of long time fans but i think it was a necessary move, and will lead to the series being alot stronger in the future
Samurai Warriors 1 is actually the hardest game in the series by far, the thing is only once you play it enough.
It has a difficulty that scales up with your player level, if you start getting into the higher level ranges the game absolutely bodies you, as a kid I had to go into the reset option to reduce my levels back down to 1 to keep playing,
2 can SEEM harder but will become much easier with levels, 1 is the exact opposite.
And “that” is the secret to beating Abyss mode….
Ah so that's why i always found it incredibly hard as a kid while i found 2 to be very easy in comparison.
Sugoroku and the Survival Tower from SW2 are legit my 2 favorite gaming experiences from KOEI ever, followed very closely by DW5 XL Destiny Mode. The late 2000's were a fantastic time to be a Warriors fan.
SW1 vanilla also had a weird scaling difficulty depending on your character’s level, which could be exploited to get 5th weapons much more easily (such as Yukimura’s lol). SW1XL fixed this along with fixing the character leveling system to how it is in future titles and like most warriors games, with stage difficulty being set per stage.
I should mention the scaling difficulty was also annoying and unpopular because combined with the leveling system unless you did some convoluted and super grindy resetting and leveling then you would get significantly weaker in the game as you leveled up, with missions just becoming harder and harder. Counter-intuitive. Really don’t understand Koei’s thinking. SW1XL is a MUST BUY to truly enjoy the unique SW1.
SW 2 XL was my first ever warriors game and still my favorite, GOAT game
I miss how much content was packed into older DW/SW games. The newer entries feel so hollow in comparison
Dude 5 is like 100hrs long
Man, just hearing "God of War" at 30:39 got my blood pumping instantly!
Played SW1 as a teen and recently picked up the series with SW4 while looking for something to play on my vita. And I fell in love with this game, more than ever before. The speed and the flow of the new charge attacks and getting on the hors with the press of a shoulder button, even when sprinting, just felt right. Finished Spirit of Sanada since and am eager to try SW5.
Thank you for your work!
Samurai Warriors 2 and its expansions are the best for me. If only Empires came out after XL, we could've played as Toshiie, Gracia, Kojiro, and Katsuie with their new weapons
Unpopular opinion, the SW1 castle/dungeons were the best of all 5 games. The open layout of the newer games made the castles feel the same as outdoor battles to me.
After hundreds of hours on both SW1 & SW2, I still think SW1 is harder. SW2 is a sudden death type of difficulty but that only backs you into spamming musou. SW1 is a more sustained and tactical difficulty.
Just discovered your channel this week through your Dynasty Warriors vid, love your stuff. It's a lot more thorough than most gaming youtubers. Solid subscription.
Was really excited for this.
Very much worth the wait.
my favorite franchise! i could never choose between them! Nene, Mitsuhide, Nobunaga and No, Inara and Mitsunari , Shingen ! lord my childhood!!! Yukimura! Musashi!!!! Lawd im gonna cry!!!!
SW1 and SW1XL are my absolute favorite. For me they could never top SW1. I tried liking 2-4 but they just didn't get it right like 1. They went all out and put their heart and soul into that game. The music, weapons, items, abilities, characters, stages, modes, atmosphere, story. I still love it to this day. I wish Koei didn't sell their soul with Tecmo and started whoring out everything as DLC. Warriors Orochi Z was the last genuine Koei game.
I missed everything after DW4 until 8. I need to go play everything I missed. Especially SW
Agreed. SW1 will always be peak musou for me. It really felt like such a cohesive and put together experience. The character design, the art, the battlefields. I even found some enjoyment from the repetitive castle levels. The battles felt so real to me as a kid, and even today the battles still have a charm that I haven't found in any other musou game.
I kinda agree with this, but I’d add Samurai Warriors 2. It was also amazing imo, and basically had all the features of SW1XL
I really enjoyed your playthrough of all the games and a lot of what you said and had criticism on was honestly spot on. I been a Samurai Fan boy since literally the release of SW1. I got it when it released when I was a kid and I played it and every game that followed with my brother up until the current game. And obviously 3 because fuck that Wii shit.
We maxed out the characters we found all the secrets we would play the games on the hardest difficulty and it was amazing.
But I will say that Samurai warriors 1 and more specifically XL
Will always be the absolute best that Samurai Warriors has and ever will offer.
It was a perfect mix of story telling
Music
Voice acting
And combat
Most specifically the A.I
It was difficult yet only if you charged head first like a idiot
Even the chaotic Chaos difficulty that these days just has Peons one shotting you
Was amazing and the perfect difficulty
A mix of having to fight through every enemy and challenging officer battles
To still being able to completely mow down the enemy when you have maxed out characters.
You weren't getting one shot and you felt on par with your Enemy
And your Allied soldiers and officers where at the same difficulty
Being able to handle their own
Clear out mobs of Peons
And unleash combos and Musou attacks of their own that they sometimes are saving your ass.
The golden era of Samurai warriors. Where the AI actually had combos and did more then single attacks.
Now a days.
I can't even call these warrior games anymore.
I loved your Dynasty Warriors video so I appreciate the follow-up with this. Samurai Warriors is such a great series and I feel like it deserves not being treated as a 'side series' to Dynasty. SW4 remains one of my favourite games, it's so good and the music is really epic.
I bought Spirit of Sanada cheap with low expectations during the pandemic, having heard virtually nothing about it. I was honestly shocked at how good it was. It was fun to play, fun to grind (important for anyone's pandemic needs), and nearly all of the characters were in it (which you'd never expect if you thought it only focused on the Sanadas). The new characters were very likable and despite knowing the history and how things would go, it still left me an emotional wreck by the end. The game is criminally ignored.
I LOVE the idea of a video about Japan-only Samurai Warriors games!
Still the best retrospective on the series out there. Thank you!
the first game had the best atmosphere and felt the most grounded
I started with SW4, but played with the older versions of characters in the Warriors Orochi series. I played SW4, SW4-II, Chronicles 3, SW4E, SoS and SW5. From top to bottom the base version of SW4 and Chronicles were the best overall. I like the Survival Mode in SW4-II, but didn't play it long.
I hated SW4E, the problems I had were battle timers were too short and having to change around the retainers positions so often, because they would randomly get bad at their posts. I think I started a few campaigns, but I'm not sure if I ever finished more than 1. It also was annoying that I could never get Kai to marry.
SoS was one that I was going to skip, since I never liked the poster boy, but I did eventually get it. I really liked Masayuki and was disappointed that he and Chacha never made it into WO4. I actually did like the exploration maps that the ninja-types could jump up to access places that others couldn't get to. If only DW9 could have just expanded on that instead of going full open world, it could have helped the DW series.
SW5 was actually the best for the story and combat. I think the re-imagined version of Yoshimoto was 100 times better than the kemari-lover from previous games. The only problem I had with it was the extra mode(Citadel Mode) was only defensive missions. I don't mind having a protect mission here and there, but not a full mode of them. I didn't like the cut characters, like Kai and Nene being fully removed, but I really liked Mitsuki.
SW2 Empires also added the formation system which would boost yours or the enemies army.
The good ole days sw1 and xtreme n sw2 the rest havent played, played the latest sw just didnt hit like the old school one 😂
I've been replaying SW2,Xl,Empires off of a PS2 Emulator and its been super fun. SW2 might be my favorite from the Samurai Warriors franchise excluding the newest 5 as I haven't played it yet.
Great video as always. In regards to Samurai Warriors 5, I need to say the game seriously has the same problems as Dynasty Warriors 6. I find it really ironic for people who shit on Dynasty Warriors 6 for having problems, yet they praise Samurai Warriors 5, even thought the game has the same problems. The following problems are:
- Cut roster, yet cloned moveset. In fact Samurai Warriors 5 has more clones than Dynasty Warriors 6 (SW5: 37 characters/15 movesets; DW6: 41 characters/29 movesets), completely defeats the purpose of having roster cut.
- Cut roster, yet some characters are barely playable in the story mode like Saika Magoichi, Imagawa Yoshimoto, Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, Mori Motonari, Kobayakawa Takakage, and others. Again, completely defeats the purpose of having roster cut.
- Cloned map layouts, a lot of the stages are copy and paste maps from other stages. Koei-Tecmo tried to hide that it's a cloned map, by rotating the map layout.
- You can't play as the opposing side in some stages like Anegawa (Azai), Nagashino (Takeda), Tetorigawa (Uesugi), and Kizugawa (Mori). Once again, this completely defeats the purpose of having roster cut.
- Moveset distribution between weapons are not balance. Some moveset has more moves than other, with no valid explanation whatsoever.
- Lack of gameplay modes, the game only has 3 modes musou mode, free mode, and citadel mode.
- For the first time in a Warriors game, free mode is restricted in terms of the characters you can use. Completely defeats the entire purpose of a free mode.
Wait, free mode is restricted? How so? I’ve never actually seen that.
@@ruthmcnally310 You can't play as certain characters in certain stages. For example, you can't play as Nobunaga in the Battle of Muraki Garrison, because your mission there is to escort Nobunaga.
If I could discuss about SW5 movesets, I think one thing that does get overlooked is the variety and distinction between each weapon. Each weapon is SW5 is very distinct from each other, in terms of what they focus on, how their moveset is structured. and what moves they have available to them. I think that's something both DW and SW have long needed to do, since even though they had all these dozens of weapons and characters, they all still followed the same moveset structure, like having C2/C5 be aerial launchers, C4/C6 be AOE etc. SW was slightly better given there were 4 moveset structures by SW4, but the same issue still applies. Now admittedly, some weapons turned out way better than others, I think the spear is the most glaring for how neutered its ground moveset is. But ultimately, I think this is still the right direction to move in and I hope they keep improving on it.
I mean, it doesn't have the Renbu system, so that's one big plus it has over DW6. The actual story mode of the game is enjoyable and in-depth enough that people who are unfamiliar with Sengoku-era history can actually follow it. Finally, DW6 didn't introduce ANY new characters at all - it just removed a few. Those are all points over DW6.
That being said, I totally get your disappointment with the game. It isn't a strict improvement over SW4, so it is a disappointment. In that way, it's very much like DW6.
I like DW6, hate SW5 xD
SW3 voice acting is so underrated.
SW3 is one of the few Musou I've ever played, and I agree with a lot of the problems the people have with this game, but the VA, I don't understand why so much people hate it.
Because it's english voice acting and people have to act like it's bad just because it's in English.
I think because it had a downgrade comparing to SW2's English voice acting.
it's not underrated, it got what it deserved compared to SW2 english VA. the difference is like a day and night.
People complaining about Samurai Warriors 3 and Dynasty Warriors 9 voice actors is the reason they stop doing them fans ask for English to be in warriors games than when they get what they want they crap on it same thing about them wanting realistic weapons than when Koei did that for Dynasty Warriors 9 American fan base wine and cried cuz they said realistic weapon ruin the game people wanted the game to be open world the moment Koei give what people want people complane they worst than WWE and Aew fans who are never happy
Pretty sure that is not why they stopped doing the voice acting, probably has more to do with sales.
Ooo, I’ve been looking forward to this one
I wish koei would like to remaster their old series and re-released it on steam. Especially the older Empires and Xtreme Legends.
I like every Empires installment for SW and the "Destiny Mode" feature in DW5XL are absolute banger for me.
I think the warriors series as a whole consists of incremental changes across titles. So, as someone whose only experience was sw2, wo2, and a bit of sw3, I was really impressed with sw5 especially with the way it was telling its story. I might also be part of the minority that liked the weapon changes (but I may change opinion as I try to finish the game)
My big big problem with Koei Tecmo's model tho is they're kinda predatory with the prices. On switch eshop I'm seeing sw5 at 90 usd, wo4 at around the same price, both with dlc. I consider myself lucky that I got to buy sw5 with dlc in my region for about 35 usd on Steam (probably due to regional pricing)
They should make a Warriors game with Character Creation. And it can focus on the character you made.
in samurai warriors, using the OP character Tadakatsu Honda is a must for me
SW 1 Series was just the original best. The castle mode, the dark foggy graphics, the japanese atmosphere the 3rd opposable party that fights against you and the enemies. it has that "deep set" japanese island history feel. it has classic appeal indeed.
I played SW Katana and I only enjoyed it because I was happy seeing the Samurai Characters. As I can remember, it didn't really add lore but had funny interactions between the player and charaters.
Mercenary Mode was a grind to finally be able to customize your weapon as you please. I was really happy with it because back then, because only Warriors Orochi had fully customizable weapon effects. Things like this are why I just treat the XL games as improvements patches. Their only flaw is having to buy the game again.
I've been waiting 7 months for this!!!! :D
Samurai warriors 1 Co-op with a friend was a great time back in the day.
I have been blessed with YT recommendation. Bless the ominosi
This series is incredibly addictive much more than dynasty warriors. My favorite is 2 and my main save has 165 hours every character story beaten and all at least in the 20 except for okuni who is a character you unlock after beating certain stories. Sadly she has no story. That game has gotten me through long periods of time where I had no idea what to play and just wanted to burn some time or wanted to just not think. You can get sucked into it super easily. Very few games work as true staple to a collection like this.
The music is incredible! Odawara Castle Lu Bu. Fight me :D
It's exciting to see a video on these games so thanks :)
came here from the WREPS2GOG and subbed :) what a crazy thing to put together here. Excellent job dude
Johnny Yong Bosch aka Adam from the Power Rangers series has the distinction of voicing Sanada Yukimura in two different Sengoku Era based video game series: Koei's Musouverse and Capcom's Sengoku Basara aka Samurai Warriors on steroids!
SW is prolly the Musou franchise that I wouldn't get bored off.
Love this format of videos.
Helps me get an appriciation of a franchise.
I'm currently playing SW4 on Vita (which is works quite well) and it's nice.
I used to play it on vita remote play back in 2015 i pkay 4-II,
Ohh nice tbh havent touched this series yet.
Waits for "I Played EVERY Dynasty Warriors Spin Off Game"
Warriors Orochi is up next. :)
Wow, Just subscribed because this because playing through all these games must have been a lot. Nice video though.
I played SW1 first and for me it still is the gold standard of the mission structure, difficulty and some other aspects. I played 2, 3 and 4-II as well.
I feel most other games feel very linear when compared to 1's missions structure, as I feel there were many different outcomes for the battles. 2 still has it, but not as strong as 1, now 4 has none of it, IMO, I feel the missions in 4 were just what I was already doing or some kind of "defeat the officer that just appeared". It's what you said, padding.
I like that in 1 and 2 you feel part of a bigger army, and the allies really do help gaining ground and defeating enemies. I really enjoyed watching the battle resume video after each battle and seeing the movement of my allies towards the main camp or the opponents.
Now, the mooks went from terrifying in 1 to pretty much nothing in 4. In 3, they added some animations were the enemies just lie on the floor or awkwardly run for their lives, which I'm not really a fan of. I remember in 1 I'd always target Strike, Fire or Sky ninjas because I knew they could present challenge to me or my allies, and I needed as much help from my allies as I could so it'd be useful. The hyper attacks really add to that offense because you can just mash that button to wipe out a lot of regular, meaningless enemies.
Lastly, I liked the "Reserve Captain" system in 1. Taking those points would help a lot in ally movement because enemies would no longer spawn in that area. They would help further morale as well which was pretty meaningful in 1.
One cool thing about 1 is that the characters aren't very fast, so you had to commit to your decision making in terms of objectives and targets just because you couldn't cover a lot of ground that quick.
I know my comment seems like bashing every other game but really I'm just sad that the game got too far away from 1 and 2 style of gameplay. I love the music from 4, the character creation mode and the character designs, the ability to switch characters and issue commands but it's sad in terms of gameplay just because I felt 1 got it just right in a lot of aspects. There was a lot of decision making and the combat felt a lot more strategic.
I was waiting for this one.
Nice video!!!
Samurai Warriors 5 is definitely one of the better SW games out there gameplay wise especially. I don't really mind the clones moveset, cause the "EX" attack for every character is quite different, for example like the Katana, there are 5 different moveset for it (The generic, Nagamasa, Nobunaga, Mitsuhide, and Takakage) evethough it JUST the EX attack, but those EX attack is so different than the one we got on the DW series. On the DW series the EX attack was more of an extension of the moveset, while in this game it's more of an it's own moveset, for example, Nagamasa and Mitsuhide both had their EX on their C5, and those 2 moveset perform really different to one another, that it almost made a unique play style not just a unique moveset. So even though a character might had the same preferred weapon, their play styles might plays a bit different. But still, i wish they didn't do that.
There is also alot of stuff in the game, you had basically 13 chapters, 6 chapters each for Nobunaga and Mitsuhide, and also an additional what-if chapters. The story itself it's fine i guess, nothing to spectacular. A completion reward for getting an S Rank for every difficulty (TIME, K.O,and 2 other that i forgot) although u can just play on the Nightmare difficulty and get the rewards for every other difficulty. Unless u had an all level 7 Weapon (at least), the nightmare difficulty itself is really hard. You need to play every stage at least 2 or even 3 for some stage that had a unique objective to 100% it. Some stage also had a character specific objectives that actually made the stage plays a bit different, but not like SW4 where the stage itself is literally different (Sakon's and Mitsunari's Sekigahara).
Citadel mode is ass, is not good at all, got boring reallly fast, but the game force u to play it in order to speed up leveling your Dojo, Shop, Blacksmith, etc. It gives you horse i believe if you complete all of the stage, and also had some friendship bar to unlock some scenes, but that's about it.
If there is one thing that got me really disappointed with this game is that the game is not fun anymore when u already finish the story and citadel mode, other than replaying the stage to get all objective. Normally you can still do a lot of stuff even when u already completed 80% of the older games, this time is not, when you finished the story and citadel mode, the game got boring really fast. Well, Citadel mode is also disappointing, but i'll let it slide cause it's "the other" game mode. Reason why i am disappointed by it is that, with the weapon systems that they implemented, your weapon is to powerful and that makes you REALLY STRONG when u are at the endgame, way to strong even for nightmare difficulty. And the character gains level really slow too, like u could play 4 stage of Honnoji and still didn't get to max exp from lvl 50 (like in SW4, u can max out the stats after u hit level 50) which make the game a bit more tedious. I believe it needed around 700k plus exp to fully maxed out your character from Level 50.
Last thing is about the rare weapon and stuff. Rare weapons is definitely not good, they're worthless pretty much, because u can make a better weapon with the crafting weapons system that this game had. And since almost all rare weapons are on the later stage of the game, your weapon going into that battle is probably already better than the Rare Weapon itself. And the process of acquiring it also feels way to short, this is also counting the fact that you need to do 2 stages to get the rare weapons itself and it's still feel boring and not worth it. I wish they go the route of instead having a rare weapon for every weapons type, every character had their own unique weapon, they can exclude the generics if they want and it's fine as long as the og character got their own weapon.
Overall this is a really good game when you are underpowered or even matching the power requirements, the stage feels much longer, bigger, and bette, basically when you had your first playhrough of it. But when you do actually got stronger the game became way to easy and it just become really boring, the weapon system is too broken that you don't even need to maxed out your character, which was some of my favourite things to do on the older warriors game, and also one of the reason that i keep playing the older game.
I will say for samurai warriors 5 is more accurate to the historical lore of characters in terms of design. Like ieyasu being a child/teen while serving nobunaga, the discovery of guns for some characters etc