Thank you Koei Tecmo for providing us with a review code!

Samurai Warriors 4 was released in 2014 for the PlayStation 3, 4, and Vita. We reviewed the spinoff, Samiurai Warriors 4 Empires, which lets you guide the story as you see fit. Samiurai Warriors 4 Empires came out in 2016 on the PlayStation 4. Samurai Warriors 4 DX is the ultimate version of Samurai Warriors 4 that features fifty-five officers to play as and comes bundled with one hundred and fifty DLC in the form of costumes, weapons, scenarios, and background music.

Samurai Warriors 4 DX features three game modes: Story Mode, Free Mode, and Chronicle Mode. Story Mode will give you the backstory of all the warring families so if you are new to the series, this is a great place to start. The starting stories include: Legend of the Oda, Legend of the Takeda, Legend of the Kanto, Legend of the Chugoku, and Secret History. As you complete those scenarios you’ll unlock the following: Legend of the Tokugawa, Legend of the Uesugi, Legend of the Tohoku, Legend of a Land United, Legend of the Sanada, Legend of the Kyushu; Legend of the Shikoku, and Legend of the Kinki.

In Free Mode you can play any unlocked stage with any unlocked characters. You can play solo, split screen, or online. Sadly, I was not able to join or host any online games.

Chronicle Mode is unique where you can design your own character, pick their region and become a wandering fighter who sets out on a journey to write down the stories of all of the warriors in the land. You'll get to fight with and against them and write about their exploits. You can also set and change your own life goals to pursue while chronicling. Life goals have influence on chances of meeting officers and establishing relationships with other characters. As you move across the map, time passes and some officers can only be encountered at certain times of the day/night.

All of the game modes have the same gameplay mechanics. The hack ‘n slash fighting is similar to other games in the series. I find KO’ing twenty soldiers with a single swing of my weapon to be quite stress relieving. The ragdoll physics is rather humorous too. Having a high kill count impacts your level’s score so you’re encouraged to wipe out as many soldiers as possible. As you attack and receive damage, your musou gauge will fill up and once it’s full you can unleash powerful attacks unique to your character. If your partner is nearby, electricity will form between the characters and they can do combo musou attacks which do a lot of damage and provide a good amount of eye candy while the enemy is getting smacked around.

Before you engage in battles, you’ll hear about the backstory behind them and get a flyover view of the battleground. After the backstory, you’ll get to select your two primary commanders. You can toggle between them in battle which is handy if you have an objective that’s close to the other character. As the battle rages on, you’ll be alerted if the victory conditions change. Typically, a battle is won by defeating the enemy commander/boss. This boss is usually locked away by gates that will gradually open as checkpoints are met.

At the top of the screen you’ll see a bar that shows the dominance of both armies. Your army is represented by blue and the enemy is orange. As you take over barracks (by defeating barrack captains) you’ll increase your standing in battle and reduce the opposing army’s respawn locations. You may come across standard (flag) bearers and if so, you should cut them down to lower your enemy’s morale. Also, anytime you see a gate keeper, it’s in your best interest to eliminate them so you can open nearby gates.

Some objectives are optional, but if you fail to complete them, the battle will get more challenging for your army. For example, if you fail to stop arsonists, the city will be engulfed in flames and your movements will be restricted as a result. One scenario doesn’t let you fail any objectives which I found annoying. The other scenario I didn’t like was one that had various gates opening and closing and made it hard to complete required timed objectives. The rest of the scenarios are not as memorable, but still fun regardless.

There are some appropriateness issues worth mentioning in this game. While violence is a given, it’s bloodless. This can be a little unusual at times as you’ll see a character get run through with a sword and they’ll just collapse to the ground without the anticipated splattering of blood. Some of the female characters are sexualized while others are more modest. There is a cutscene about a female-female taboo relationship. Last but not least there is some alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking shown.

While there’s plenty of content to justify the $49.99 price tag, I have seen this game on sale for $29.99 and that’s a steal for the amount of gameplay here. You can easily get thirty hours or more playing solo. If you have friends that can play with you, even better. It’s a shame that that multiplayer community is dead. Samurai Warriors 4 DX ran great on my Steam Deck and that’s how I spent most of my time playing. It’s a great pick up and play game that’s fun to play while taking my lunch break at work. I was often able to squeeze in a battle or two before going back to work. If you enjoy hack and slash games, Samurai Warriors 4 DX is worth looking into!