Koei have pretty much full control of this crazy genre of hack and slash, crowd-combat, button mashing, pseudo-historical games. They’re a set of games that don’t seem to fit into any other genre, and no one else is making them. That makes Samurai Warriors 3 the first of its type on the Nintendo Wii, and the 10billion Yen question is: is it worth your time and energy? The answer is, like so many in life, complicated. It depends…

The main element of Samurai Warriors 3 is the story mode. In this mode you choose a character from one of the main characters from the Warring States period of Japan’s history and take part in battles of the era. The Warring States period was a time in the 16th century when many powerful people, some of them Samurais, fought for control over Japan. After a brief description of the strategic situation, you’re given your objectives in the upcoming battle, and after a few short preparations it begins: thrown into the midst of the battle, it is up to you to singlehandedly win the day for your clan.

Generally, your first task is to defeat an enemy leader, after which you’ll probably have to defeat another enemy leader, and then after that you’ll be asked to defeat another enemy leader. To win the battle you’ll have to defeat an enemy leader. On the way you’ll also be scything through hundreds of weakling enemy minions. You don’t have any real say over what happens in a battle, and generally focusing on the task given and performing it as quickly as possible is the way to win. Personally, I would prefer at least a little influence over the course of the battle.

Defeating enemy leaders and generally causing carnage on the battlefield is done by mashing the Y button, and then pressing the X button every now and then. For a change of pace sometimes the A button is pretty darn fun to press too. I should note here that the game is clearly suited to the Classic Controller type: the Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro or a GameCube controller will all work well. The game supports the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, but these are not nearly as comfortable to use.

Musou and Spirit

The Y button performs a Normal attack and the X button a Power attack. They combine together to perform all kinds of different attacks, which all serve the common purpose of pounding on everyone within reach. While you’re pounding the enemy leaders to reduce their health bar, there will be hundreds of weak guys going flying all over the place. They’re similar to Stormtroopers – waft your sword in their general direction and they’ll be blasted away as if you just exploded a giant bomb in their vicinity. Their only purpose is to increase your kills, your combo count and your Musou Gauge. It’s the Musou Gauge which you invoke when you press the A button, and it slows down time, allowing you to take out even more Stormtrooper-dudes. Sometimes you can also end the Musou activation with a True Musou attack, an impressive display of your might which sends everyone flying into the air or blasted away from you. In addition to the Musou gauge, which is filled up as you fight, there is a Spirit gauge which allows you to perform special character-specific moves by holding down R.

Battles might sound a little repetitive from this description, and this is in fact quite true. But the basic mechanic of being a semi-invincible Samurai Warrior who can cut through hundreds of enemies and singlehandedly win battles is difficult to grow tired of. Besides, the battles are short and punchy, generally lasting only about 10 to 15 minutes. And you can always mix things every now and then by making a different number of Y button presses before pressing X (and you could throw in the extra X every now and then to really mix it up).

As you play you collect new weapons and armour which you upgrade in between battles at the blacksmith. Upgrading requires gems which are also collected while on the battlefield – every leader you defeat will leave behind a treasure of some sort. As you defeat enemies your character will gain experience, and at the end of each battle you will receive some bonus experience, all of which helps you to level up, gaining more health, speed and other attributes in the process. Sometimes you will also gain a new move, which usually means the ability to add an extra Y or X button press to your combos.

Before each battle you can equip your character with their weapon of choice, armour, gauntlets and a horse. All items except the weapon are shared between characters, so armour earned by one can be used by another. You can also choose a set of items you want to have available, some of which heal you, others of which make you faster for a period, or increase your defense for a period. Choosing what items you will take into battle will depend on your fighting style as well as what tactical objectives you want to try and achieve. These tactical secondary objectives help you in achieving your primary objectives (by, for example, increasing the power of your allies, or adding some reinforcements to the battlefield), and generally also involve defeating enemy leaders in various ways (such as within a certain time or using a Musou attack).

Historic Setting

The variety in Samurai Warriors 3 is found in the sheer number of different characters available. Most of the 30-odd characters have a 5-battle story, and some have a number of cut-scenes in between. Each character uses unique weapons, and their play-styles are quite different – some are fast with a small range while others are slower but more powerful. The stories often interrelate as you can play multiple characters from the same clan or at different times play as characters from different sides of the historic battles. The stories have a semblance of historic accuracy to them in that you can’t seem to really affect the end outcome of a character’s plot – they all generally end with the unifying of Japan under the same one ruler.

Only ten of the characters start out as available, but as you play and collect tons of rice you can spend 100 of them to unlock other playable characters, most of whom have stories. Completing a player’s story earns you 100 tons of rice, so unlocking new character simply means completing other characters’ stories. On top of the characters’ stories, there is a Historic Mode which allows you to create a character of your own and take part in the historic battles from a different perspective. There is also a scenario called Murasame Castle, a sequence of short battles which have different kinds of enemies and a more fantastical setting.

The polish and budget of the game is evident in the amount of content, but the game still suffers from its genre’s main pitfall: repetition. All the different modes and characters dress it up in different ways, but the core is always the same. There are lots of scenarios, and most involve simply defeating the leaders you are told to. There are in-battle events that happen throughout the battles, all of which make plot-sense, but after a while all the battles start looking the same. Each character has their own story, weapon (which comes in three forms – speed, normal and power), Spirit moves, Musou moves, cut scenes (although some of these are shared between characters) and the rewards for completing characters’ stories are good (such as unlocking other characters). But it’s still a button-mashing beat ‘em up: a mechanic that’s fun for 5 or 10 hours stretched over a good 30 hours of content. Your response to Samurai Warriors will be based on your tolerance of repetition and your interest in the Warring States period of Japan’s history.

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