Samurai Warriors 4: Empires Reviews
In the end, Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is basically the same as Samurai Warriors 4-II, but with a heavy emphasis on pre-combat strategy and no interesting storylines for the characters. Fans of the series will appreciate the variation on gameplay, but there's nothing to draw new players to the franchise.
After releasing the fantastic Samurai Warriors 4, things slowly started to go downhill for Koei’s flagship franchise. Instead of continuing to innovate, it felt as though developer Omega Force decided to take a breather, letting its guard down as stagnation began to set in. This is definitely the return to form fans were no doubt hoping for.
It may not be a big change on a fundamental level, but Samurai Warriors 4: Empires does enough differently to warrant fans to come back for another round of hack ‘n’ slash fun.
Samurai Warriors 4 Empires breathes life into a tried and tested formula, helping even the most hardcore Musou fans find something refreshing to experience.
Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is fun, but scattered. It's a decent diversion but it's complexity and lack of transparency will keep you from being hooked.
With a larger focus on strategy and a handful of smaller new features, Samurai Warriors 4 Empires will certainly appeal to veteran fans of the series but it simply just hasn’t evolved enough to ensnare wayward players or newcomers to its overly well-worn brand of tactical combat.
Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is another solid spin-off, but veteran fans may feel a little let down by some of its streamlined gameplay. However, its dynamic nature is usually enough to make up for its lack of depth. Watching your clan grow and your allies form various bonds with one another is an addictive way to spend a few hours, and Samurai Warriors' great combat system is always standing by for when you're ready to crack some skulls. This latest entry isn't quite an unstoppable empire, but it's definitely a force capable of planting its flag firmly on your free time.
Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is a decent Musou game that is distracted by the Empires lure. It makes up for it with tons of options, even when the tutorial doesn’t really show them off. For the Warriors fans that are looking for hack ‘n slash with small RPG elements involved, I’d say go for standard Samurai Warriors 4. It is a much more condensed game that is a lot of fun to play. People looking for more strategy in their Musou games can find it here, but keep in mind, many of the strategy elements can come across pointless after a while.
For what the game has to offer, it’s a solid entry in the Samurai Warriors series, but should be seen as complimentary to Samurai Warriors 4 and 4-II.
Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is a nice change of pace for those who want more to the Warriors franchise than just hack and slash. Not that the hacking and slashing isn't fun, but the addition of the strategy elements makes it and even better game and one that is a blast to play.
It’s been several years since the Western countries last saw a Samurai Warriors Empires release. It appears that the core of this entry is solid, with a few new strategic elements thrown in. Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is definitely an entry for hardcore Empires fans — with the same repetitive combat, and even reused graphics and audio assets, this release will not do much to convert anyone who isn’t already heavily invested in the series.
Koei Tecmo isn't reinventing the wheel here, and that's fine. Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is yet another enjoyable entry into the musou genre, and one that brings a few neat twists on strategy. It won't leave you amazed, but you'll have a good time.
Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is unfortunately a missed opportunity!
Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is not a flawless experience.
It’s been years and several sequels, but where Samurai Warriors was the perfect game for me in my early teens, Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is the perfect game for adult me
This could be a satisfactory game for the well-initiated, but tends to get stale after a while. Samurai Warriors 4: Empires seems so promising until you realize there's not that much under the surface.
If you are a fan of the Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors games, I think you should give this one a go. The new strategy sessions in between missions is enjoyable and the easy-to-learn combat is the same as it has always been.
Deciding who to take into battle and what formations or strategies you will use can mean all the difference between victory and defeat
Ultimately the success of Samurai Warriors 4 Empires rests on how well it has been able to merge action and strategy together, and while I feel this veers strongly on the side of action, compared with even the Dynasty Warriors Empires series, there’s still enough thinky stuff to do between battles to add nuance to the overall experience. For that, Samurai Warriors 4 Empires has become my preferred Samurai Warriors game, though I would strongly recommend people play one of the previous Samurai Warriors games to get a proper feel for the characters and setting before digging into the more abstract and cerebral experience on offer here.
Both a great action game and a really fun strategy game, 'Empires' might not appeal to most 'Warriors' fans, as the new elements can seem intimidating and almost jarring when put next to the combat, but for those who put the time in, there's a lot of complexity and fantastic ideas to be found here, making this one of the best 'Warriors' games to date.