is the first title in the series of

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 games created by

Koei Koei Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game publisher, developer, and distributor founded in 1978. The company is known for its historical simulation games based on the novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', as well as simulation games based o ...

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 ...

team based closely around the

Sengoku The was the period in 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 the period's start ...

("Warring States") period of Japanese history and is a sister series of the ''

Dynasty Warriors is a series of Japanese hack and slash action video games created by Omega Force and Koei (now Koei Tecmo). The series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy '' Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' series, based upon the Chinese novel of ...

'' series, released for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

in 2004. A port of this game called '' Samurai Warriors: State of War'' has been released for the

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 ...

, which includes additional multiplayer features. A sequel, ''

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 ...

'', was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

, then ported to

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

in 2008.

Gameplay

In ''Samurai Warriors'', the player takes the role of a single officer in battle and must fend off hordes of enemy soldiers and defeat the enemy commander. The player has at their disposal a range of combo attacks and crowd-clearing special moves known as Musou attacks. The variety of attacks available increase as the player's character gains levels and new weapons. Musou attacks can only be performed when the character's Musou gauge is full. The Musou gauge increases when the character inflicts and receives damage. Additionally, if the character is low on health or possesses a special skill, they can use their True Musou attack, a more powerful version of the regular Musou attack. Each character can equip up to five items before each battle, which will affect their attributes or give them additional abilities. Players can find items which affect their attributes through normal battle by defeating enemy officers or breaking open crates. The items which give characters special abilities are obtained by meeting conditions in specific battles. Like items, weapons can also be found in battle. Each character has four different types of weapons they can find. In addition to their base attributes, weapons will randomly have additional attributes attached to them. The value of these bonuses depends on three things: the

difficulty level Game balance is a branch of game design with the intention of improving gameplay and user experience by balancing difficulty and fairness. Game balance consists of adjusting rewards, challenges, and/or elements of a game to create the intended pla ...

, the stage the player is on and the ranks the character has in the 'Discern' skill. In addition to the random weapon drops, each character has a unique fifth weapon. Unlike the other weapons, the fifth weapons have set bonuses and attributes. Fifth weapons are obtained by meeting conditions in specific battles on either the Hard or Chaos difficulty level.

Differences from ''Dynasty Warriors'' series

''Samurai Warriors'' contains a number of changes to ''Dynasty Warriors combat system, most notably the ability to perform free-style combo attacks during Musou attack mode, during which the game enters

bullet-time Bullet time (also known as frozen moment, dead time, flow motion or time slice) is a visual effect or visual impression of detaching the time and space of a camera (or viewer) from that of its visible subject. It is a depth enhanced simulation of ...

; common soldiers move slowly, but officers are unaffected. Other changes include the ability to perform a roll to dodge attacks, and deflect incoming arrows with their weapon. Additionally, the series has hyper attacks, or the ability to dash while attacking enemy soldiers. The character development system has been overhauled. There is a new ranking system after battles which depends on five categories: * Time in which the battle is won. * Amount of experience earned. * Missions successfully completed in battle. * Number of enemies defeated while using a Musou attack. * Number of enemies killed in total. Each of these categories is given a rank (from lowest to highest: E, D, C, B, A, S) depending on the player's performance, and then the player is given an overall rank. The higher the rank and the harder the difficulty setting of the game, the more the player's character attributes will increase. In addition to the growth of the character's stats, Skill Points are also awarded. Skill Points are used to buy skills through a

skill tree Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

that enhance the character's abilities. ''Samurai Warriors'' introduces an in-battle mission system. Each stage has a number of missions which become available depending on which character the player is controlling and the success or failure of previous missions. Missions include eliminating specific enemy officers, launching sneak attacks on enemy bases or thwarting the plans of the enemy. Success in these missions can be crucial to the outcome of many battles as failure often results in a massive loss of morale to the player's forces. It will also determine the path that will be carved out for the next stage if there is a split route, but one can choose which path to take if both routes had been opened.

Officer Training Mode

''Samurai Warriors'' gives players the opportunity to create new characters via the officer training mode. In this mode the player creates a new character who trains under a mentor, completing twelve training sessions and a final exam. The player has a variety of tasks available for each training session based on gameplay modes and combat techniques. Each of the different tasks affects different attributes of the character. After the completion of the task the player will be ranked out of a score of 100 points, by getting more points the character's attributes will increase by a greater amount. If the character is defeated during the course of a training session, they will automatically fail and will have to spend one training session resting. After 12 test sessions have passed, the character must take a final exam. This exam consists of two training sessions back to back. The player has to score a total of 100 points between these two tests in order to pass the exam. If the player completes the final exam successfully then they will become available to use in other gameplay modes.

Characters

The game features a total of 15 characters based on historical figures during the Warring States period of Japan, including daimyō

Kenshin Uesugi , later known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period ...

, Shingen Takeda, and

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 ...

as well as other notable samurai such as Yukimura Sanada and

Ranmaru Mori , also known as Mori Naritoshi (森成利), was a samurai retainer to the Oda clan. He was son of Mori Yoshinari, and had 5 brothers in total, from the province of Mino. He was a member of the Mori Clan, descendants of the Seiwa Genji. Biog ...

. In addition to the figures who were noted to have fought during the period, the game also made playable a handful of female characters that did not fight in any battles, such as

Oichi was a female historical figure in the late Sengoku period. She is known primarily as the mother of three daughters who became prominent figures in their own right – Yodo-dono, Ohatsu

and

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. It is Japan's oldest major theater art that is still regularly performed today. Noh is often based on tales from traditional literature featuri ...

. Only five characters are available from the start; others can be unlocked by fulfilling specific requirements such as clearing other character's story modes. In the English version, character's names are written in western order (first name, followed by family name), whereas the official writing of historical names are in reverse (family name, followed by first name).

Starting characters

* Yukimura Sanada * Mitsuhide Akechi *

Oichi was a female historical figure in the late Sengoku period. She is known primarily as the mother of three daughters who became prominent figures in their own right – Yodo-dono, Ohatsu

* Hanzo Hattori

Unlockable characters

* Keiji Maeda *

* Goemon Ishikawa * Okuni *

Kunoichi is a Japanese term for . In popular culture, it is often used for female ninja or practitioner of ninjutsu (''ninpo''). The term was largely popularized by novelist Futaro Yamada in his novel in 1964. Although kunoichi have appeared in numerou ...

Magoichi Saika , better known as , ( – ) was the name given to the leader of the Saika Ikki. He is famous for arming his troops with arquebuses and donning the yatagarasu as his family crest. There were three people known as Saika (Suzuki) Magoichi, i ...

* Shingen Takeda *

Masamune Date was a Japanese ''daimyō'' during the Azuchi–Momoyama period through the early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful feudal lords in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he w ...

Unplayable characters

Ieyasu Tokugawa Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

* Kennyo Honganji *

Lu Bu Lu, Lü, or LU may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Lu (duo), a Mexican band ** ''Lu'' (album) * Character from Mike, Lu & Og * Lupe Fiasco or Lu (born 1982), American musician * Lu Watters (1911-1989), American musician * Lu Gambino (1923 ...

Nagamasa Azai was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period known as the brother-in-law and enemy of Oda Nobunaga. Nagamasa was head of the Azai clan seated at Odani Castle in northern Ōmi Province and married Nobunaga's sister Oichi in 1564, fathering h ...

Only available in ''Xtreme Legends''

* Hideyoshi Hashiba *

Yoshimoto Imagawa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the Sengoku period. Based in Suruga Province, he was known as ; he was one of the three ''daimyō'' that dominated the Tōkaidō region. He died in 1560 while marching to Kyoto to become Shogun. He ...

Tadakatsu Honda , also called Honda Heihachirō (本多平八郎) was a Japanese samurai, general, and daimyo of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku through early Edo periods, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Shitennō (Tokugawa clan), T ...

* Ina Note: Hideyoshi Hashiba and

were unique NPCs in the original game before they were made playable in '' Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends''.

, on the other hand, originally appeared in the game as a generic officer, while his daughter Ina was not present in the game in any way.

of ''Dynasty Warriors'' fame also appears as an unplayable boss of Survival Mode. Officers created from New Officer Mode are also placed together in the character select screen.

Music

Unlike the traditional Chinese music and rock collaborations in the ''

'' series, ''Samurai Warriors'' combines traditional Japanese instrumentals with techno. The sounds of both ''Samurai Warriors'' and ''Dynasty Warriors'' are combined in their crossover game, ''

Warriors Orochi is a hack and slash video game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox se ...

''.

Expansions

''Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends''

''Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends'' (or ''Samurai Warriors XL'' for short) is a

expansion disc for ''Samurai Warriors''. Just like the ''Dynasty Warriors'' series, the aim of these expansions is solely to add more content to the game. Players can use the "Import" feature (through switching discs with the original game) to use all features of the original game. Without the original game disc, the player will only have access to the ''Xtreme Legends'' content. This offers two new characters (

and Ina), two unplayable characters ( Hideyoshi Hashiba and

) were made playable rather than cutscenes and a brand new mission and map. This also offers new weapons, items, skills, three new versus modes, a new survival mode, and fixes several problems. A new difficulty level Novice is also added which is easier than Easy and targeted for beginners. Even after they reached rank 20 characters could still gain skill points and increase their attributes without having to the reset the character to default. ''Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends'' extended this further, by adding even more powerful sixth weapons to earn. These can only be discovered by playing on Chaos mode (or Hard mode, if the correct bonus is purchased). Exclusive to ''Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends'', through the completion of special tasks, the player can earn Bonus Points in order to purchase special features. These features include additional costumes for characters, voice sound tests, lowering the difficulty required to unlock the fifth and sixth weapons and the ability to break the default limits for character's stats. Methods of earning bonus points include the following: earning all of a character's endings, unlocking rare items and weapons and successfully creating new characters.

''Samurai Warriors: State of War''

A port to the

, called ''Samurai Warriors: State of War'', was released in Japan on December 8, 2005 and March 7, 2006 in North America. It has a number of additional multiplayer features.

''Pachi Slot Sengoku Musou/Sengoku Rush''

This is a slot machine based game featuring Yukimura Sanada, Hanzo Hattori and Keiji Maeda as playable characters with their own stories using character models from ''Samurai Warriors''.

and Hideyoshi Hashiba are included as normal bosses, while

is a special boss. Other characters who make non-playable appearances are

, Shingen Takeda, Okuni and Goemon Ishikawa.

Reception

''Samurai Warriors''

The PS2 release of ''Samurai Warriors'' sold a million copies within a month in Japan and reached the Japanese platinum chart with a total of 1.06 million. It was awarded an award of excellence in

CESA Cesa is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about north of Naples and about southwest of Caserta. Cesa borders the following municipalities: Aversa, Gricignano di Aversa, Sant'Antimo, S ...

's 2004 Game Awards and a 34 out of 40 rating from ''

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 ...

''. The game was met with mixed reviews from Western critics.

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 ...

and

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 a score of 73% and 73 out of 100 for the PS2 version, and 71% and 71 out of 100 for the Xbox version. Most reviewers criticized the game's visual and technical similarities to the ''Dynasty Warriors'' series as the cause. What earned the most praise was the RPG element added into the game as it deviates from its spiritual predecessor by adding a higher replay value for gamers. The Create a Character mode was received with mixed results. ''

Gameplanet Gameplanet was a video gaming website that provided news, reviews, previews, videos, and other information. It was the largest video gaming website in New Zealand. Gameplanet New Zealand despite having the same name with the biggest specialised ...

'' commented that it is "well implemented", allowing players to accurately play a character made for them while ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' regarded the option as "a nice touch" but "rather tiresome" in the end. The innovations made were still met with criticism for the genre as a whole, with ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' being critical to this aspect.

''Xtreme Legends''

''Xtreme Legends'' was met with average reception; GameRankings gave it a score of 72%, while Metacritic gave it 72 out of 100.

''State of War''

''State of War'' was met with mixed reception, as GameRankings gave it a score of 65%, while Metacritic gave it 64 out of 100.

Legacy

The game's success led to numerous sequels released under the ''Samurai Warriors'' title. The series has sold over 8 million copies worldwide as of August 2021.