is a

hack-and-slash Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay (H&S or HnS) or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons (such as swords or blades). They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well (such as ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

Omega Force (stylised as ''ω-Force'') is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1996 by Akihiro Suzuki and Kenichi Ogasawara, and is best known for the ''Dynasty Warriors'' video games. History Omega Force was founded ...

and published by

Tecmo Koei is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship video game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo ...

for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

. It is the third installment in the ''

Samurai Warriors is the first title in the series of hack and slash video games created by Koei's Omega Force team based closely around the Sengoku ("Warring States") period of Japanese history and is a sister series of the ''Dynasty Warriors'' series, releas ...

'' series. The game was released in Japan in December 2009 and internationally in 2010 by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

of Nintendo attended the game's Press Conference in 2009, to present a new mode in the game based on the

Famicom Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer (Famicom) home video game console, released in Japan on February 21, 1986. The system uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" for more ...

game ''

The Mysterious Murasame Castle is a 1986 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Human Entertainment and published by Nintendo. It was originally only released for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan as the second original game for the platform. ''The Mysterious ...

''. Versions for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

and

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

without this mode were released only in Japan. A sequel, '' Samurai Warriors 4'', was released in March 2014.

Story

Like other games in the series, ''Samurai Warriors 3'' reinvents the story based on the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

of Japan, a period where Japan was ruled by powerful ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

s'' and where constant military conflict and much political intrigue happened that lasted from the middle of 16th century to the beginning of 17th century. The game, however, has a slightly extended time frame compared to the previous game; while ''

Samurai Warriors 2 is a sequel to the original ''Samurai Warriors'', created by Koei and Omega Force. The game was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, and ported to Microsoft Windows in 2008. Like the ''Dynasty Warriors'' series, an ''Empires'' e ...

'' is mostly focused on the events leading to the great

battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

, this game also covers the events beforehand.

Gameplay

The game features many gameplay improvements over previous games in the series, the most notable being the addition of the Spirit Gauge, a gauge which allows for characters to cancel certain attacks to perform more powerful ones. These occur depending on the level of the gauge. It can also be combined with Musou attacks to perform an "True Musou". Certain combinations of attacks from the ''Xtreme Legends'' expansions also make a comeback. Each of the character's weapons are categorized under Normal, Speed, and Power types similar to '' Dynasty Warriors 6'', except that each character still has unique weapons assigned to them. The option to create/edit characters from the original game returns and is required to access the new "Historical Mode", which can be used to create an original story for edit characters by reenacting parts of historical battles. Both Story Mode and Free Mode return, as does the shop system, which has been redesigned and is now part of "Dojo", a section also dedicated to creating edit characters and color-edit existing characters. An exclusive mode for the Wii version is the "Murasame Castle" based on Nintendo's ''The Mysterious Murasame Castle'', which allows for the control of its lead character Takamaru.

Characters

Seven new characters made their playable debut in the ''Samurai Warriors'' franchise, most of them former generic non-player characters in past installments. Most of the characters from previous games also return, all redesigned with several receiving new weapons. Four characters; Goemon Ishikawa, Gracia, Musashi Miyamoto, and Kojiro Sasaki do not return, although Gracia later returns in the ''Moushouden'' expansion. Of all of them, seven characters do not have stories, though they are given stories in the ''Moushouden'' expansion. Altogether, there are 30 returning characters for a total of 37 characters in the game. ''* Denotes characters added through expansion titles''
''** Denotes Takamaru only found in Samurai Warriors 3/Sengoku Musō 3: Mōshōden''
''Bold denotes default characters''

Bundles

''Samurai Warriors 3'' comes in three different variations: a stand-alone copy of the game, a Classic Controller Pro set, and a treasure box edition. The treasure box edition includes the controller as well as a mini figure, an original soundtrack CD and a book with strategies and artwork. The controller included in the latter two bundles is a special edition black Classic Controller Pro with the game's logo and Japanese inkbrush marks in gold.

Music

JPop artist

Gackt , better known as Gackt (stylized in all caps), is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. Born in Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa to a Ryukyuan people, Ryukyuan family, Gackt learned the piano at a young age and was rai ...

performs two theme songs for the game, "Zan" and "Setsugekka". The song "Zan" was used in the promotional commercials for the game, and is also featured in the game's ending. The single, titled " Setsugekka (The End of Silence)/Zan", which contains both songs, was released on December 9, 2009.

Expansions

The game features three expansions/ports that either add new contents or expand on gameplay mechanics of the game.

''Sengoku Musō 3: Mōshōden/Z''

''Sengoku Musō 3: Mōshōden'' is the first expansion of the game, released for the

in Japan on February 10, 2011. The game introduces two new modes, the "Original Career" mode which allows the opportunity to create original scenarios by completing missions and acquiring gold to increase the player's abilities and strength, as well as the series staple "Challenge" mode that has three challenges of varying objectives. It also adds new weapons, items, two new difficulty levels ("Novice" and "Expert") and stories for characters that did not have them in the original. The game also has online functionality which was not possible in the original. It was also released for the

on the same day under the title of ''Sengoku Musō 3 Z''. This version has updated graphics compared to the Wii, but removes the Murasame Castle mode and Takamaru. Both of these versions did not receive an overseas release.

''Sengoku Musō 3: Empires''

''Sengoku Musō 3: Empires'' is the second expansion of the game, released for the PlayStation 3 in Japan on August 25, 2011. Like the other ''Empires'' expansion, the game is more focused on the political and tactical battle system. The game features a different version of Historical Mode and Free Mode that fits with the ''Empires'' structure and retains the edit character feature. Like ''Moushouden'', this game was never released overseas.

''Sengoku Musō 3 Z: Special''

''Sengoku Musō 3 Z: Special'' is a port for the

released in Japan on February 16, 2012. As it is based on ''Sengoku Musō 3 Z'', it has all of its features (including the removal of Murasame Castle mode and Takamaru) as well as the ability for four players to compete in the game's Challenge mode. Due to memory limitations however, the graphics have been significantly downgraded. This port did not receive an overseas release.

Reception

''Samurai Warriors 3'' was met with mixed to negative reception upon release;

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

gave it a score of 59%, while

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave it 55 out of 100.

Notes

References

External links

*
Official European website

Official Japanese website

Japanese site of 3Z
* {{Musou series 2009 video games Crowd-combat fighting games Cultural depictions of Hattori Hanzō Cultural depictions of Oda Nobunaga Cultural depictions of Tokugawa Ieyasu Cultural depictions of Toyotomi Hideyoshi Koei games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Portable games Samurai Warriors Wii games Video games about samurai Video games developed in Japan Video games set in feudal Japan