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 ...

game by

Koei Tecmo 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 ...

, and a reboot of the ''Samurai Warriors'' series, part of the long-running ''

Warriors A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...

'' series of hack and slash games published by

. As a "fresh re-imagining" of the franchise, the game features an all-new storyline, revamped character designs, and a new visual presentation. It was released in Japan in June 2021 for the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

, with a worldwide release in July for those platforms and PC via

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

. A version for

Amazon Luna Amazon Luna is a cloud gaming platform developed and operated by Amazon. The platform has integration with Twitch and is available on Windows, Mac, Amazon Fire TV, iOS (as a progressive web app) as well as Android. Games and channels from b ...

was made available on June 30, 2022.

Gameplay

Like previous games, ''Samurai Warriors 5'' is a

, in which the player faces against hundreds of enemy soldiers in a battlefield, with the objective usually being the defeat of an enemy commander. The game features a new Hyper Attack, which allows the player to traverse great distance while attacking enemies, and Ultimate Skill, augments that, depending on their type, can be used to continue combos, regenerate Musou Gauge, stun enemies, or deal a barrage of attacks. The game uses an art style resembling traditional

Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competiti ...

Story

The game's scope of 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 ...

is limited in contrast to previous games. ''Samurai Warriors 5'' focuses on events leading up to the

Honnō-ji Incident The was the assassination of Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, a temple in Kyoto, on 21 June 1582 (2nd day of the sixth month, Tenshō 10). Nobunaga was on the verge of unifying the country, but died in the unexpected rebellion of ...

, with

Nobunaga Oda was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demon King of the ...

and Mitsuhide Akechi being the prominent figures of the story.

Characters

The entire cast of characters has been vastly redesigned from previous incarnations (with the exception of Katsuyori Takeda, who retains his original design from '' Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada''). The number of playable characters has also been cut when compared to the previous mainline game, ''

Samurai Warriors 4 is a 2014 hack and slash game by Koei Tecmo for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita, and the sequel to ''Samurai Warriors 3''. Unlike past ''Samurai Warriors'' games, this one only has Japanese voice overs. A revised version of the ...

'' (which featured 55 playable characters), with only 37 playable characters being featured, 21 returning and 16 new (10 of the characters are supporting characters which means that they are not playable in Story Mode, and do not have unique Power Attacks, and a unique Ultimate Skill). ''* Denotes supporting characters who are not playable in Story Mode, and do not feature unique Power Attacks, and a unique Ultimate Skill''
''** Denotes characters with two playable versions consisting of Youth, and Mature counterparts''

Music

Unlike the electronic and traditional Japanese music collaborations in the previous ''Samurai Warriors'' games, ''Samurai Warriors 5'' largely replaces the electronic music in favor of rock and orchestral music, while keeping the traditional Japanese music entirely intact.

Reception

''Samurai Warriors 5'' has received "generally favorable" reviews according to

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 ...

, becoming the highest rated entry in the series. ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave all versions of the game scores of 9/9/8/9 for a total of 35/40. The game sold a total of 94,366 physical copies during its first week on sale in Japan (PS4: 55,675/Switch: 38,691) with the PS4 version being the second best-selling game of the week, and the Switch version being the third best-selling game of the week.

Notes

References

External links

Official North American site

Official European site
{{Musou series 2021 video games Crowd-combat fighting games Katana Engine games Koei Tecmo games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Video games about samurai Video game reboots Samurai Warriors Video games developed in Japan Video games set in 16th-century Sengoku period Windows games Xbox One games Multiplayer and single-player video games