Not quite a sequel and not quite an expansion, Samurai Warriors 4-II is, in many ways, a follow up to last year’s brilliant Samurai Warriors 4 – but it’s certainly not Samurai Warriors 5. It copies and pastes most of the characters, stages, music, mechanics, voice acting, and even artwork from 2015’s historical hack and slasher, but to call it an enhanced edition isn’t accurate either, since its structure is totally different.
Survival mode has plenty of reason to keep you coming back. Clearing particular levels of the castle grants you bonuses, and as you work your way up, you’ll uncover more and more additional stuff. All the while, you’ll be looting increasingly rare weapons and items that can be used across the whole game, which means that it’s an efficient and enjoyable way to beef up your favourite characters.
Story mode and survival mode combine to create a neat package, but it doesn’t quite feel like 4-II’s offering is on the same scale as Samurai Warriors 4’s gigantic amount of content, which included the incredibly lengthy chronicle mode.
There are things that this latest outing does better than its predecessor, however. While gameplay is mostly the same as you switch between two selected characters, complete objectives during battle, and carve your way through hordes of enemy troops, refinements have been made to one-on-one duels, and by and large, the game demands a slightly more methodical approach.
As with the previous instalment, 4-II differentiates fights with tough samurai from brawls with lesser soldiers by giving you two separate means of attack. Mapped to triangle, hyper attacks cut through standard troops, but officers will parry them. Against these enemies, you’ll have to push square for normal attacks, and utilize triangle to unleash more powerful charge attacks to create your combos.
In conclusion, I’d highly recommend this title for fans of the Warriors series, but likewise probably wouldn’t recommend it for new players. The best new addition is by far the Survival mode, but it’s a little shame Koei didn’t bring a whole lot more to the table.
Ryan Griffiths is a British gamer, known as a bit of a lone wolf. Retro games are his passion, with newer releases not living up to his expectations. Of course there are exceptions to the rule when it comes to Dynasty Warriors & Total War games.