SAMURAI WARRIORS: Spirit of Sanada Reviews
Kermath received a digital copy of Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada from Koei Tecmo for review.
'Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada' is frustrating due to its total lack of challenging gameplay. The game makes several mistakes that diminish from the potential this title could have met, making the whole thing feel like a waste.
If you are fans of the musou genre you will probably enjoy this title, but if you already dislike them it won't change your mind.
Review in Italian | Read full review
For any Samurai Warriors veteran, Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada will feel like a pair of comfy old slippers – easy to slide into, and once you're in their warm embrace you won't want to part company with them until they've become a little too sweaty and overbearing.
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada is a competent addition to the Koei Tecmo hack and slash catalog of action games. But it doesn't reinvent the wheel.
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada works best as a companion piece to the main game that released a few years ago. The focus on one family of fighters is perfect, since it gives the team time to develop a real story instead of using a larger cast for broader tales. The core action remains just as good as before, but the new minigames and exploration sections fail to elicit the same type of excitement, especially with some of the caveats in play for the secondary characters you pick up along the way. For fans of the series looking for more story, Spirit of Sanada works, but only if you play it after an entry in the main series.
If you can overlook the repetition and poor optimisation in favour of mowing down countless soldiers in increasingly spectacular fashion, you'll find one of the more entertaining history lessons in recent times.
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada is an excellent game that expands on the Samurai Warriors formula by introducing interesting elements such as friendship building and exploration. It feels a bit more personal than previous Samurai Warriors releases, making it a must-play for fans of the franchise.
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada is a compelling historical tale of love, betrayal and trust featuring the Sanada clan.
Button-mashing is rarely this fun.
Any Samurai Warriors or Dynasty Warriors fan will get exactly what they are looking for in Spirit of Sanada. If you find the formula a bit stale, this might be enough of a change to get you back into the series. This title is a welcome addition to the Samurai Warriors series, and I'm looking forward to the next iteration.
By the end of Spirit of Sanada you'll have learned something, enjoyed the prettiest Warriors game to date, and seen just how far Koei Tecmo's been able to take this series, so that it's no longer purely an action game. With Spirit of Sanada, we see a future for the Warriors franchise where every battle and event is given context and purpose, and it's a far deeper and more rounded experience for that.
Ditching the series' ensemble cast in favour of a more personal family drama is one of the best decisions Koei Tecmo has made, and the key feature that elevates Spirit of Sanada to more than just a new entry in the Warriors franchise. The roster is still massive and everyone is playable during free mode, but the story locks down characters by the mission, personalizing the Sanada family over the course of roughly fifty years of Sengoku period history. Multi-stage battles emphasize just how war-torn the Sengoku era was, while offering a breath a fresh air to the traditional series stage format. The combat is as refined as ever and the focus on Masayuki and Yukimura makes for an incredibly intimate story. Spirit of Sanada is, plain and simple, one of best precedents Koei Tecmo has set.
Ultimately, Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada is a pretty strong standalone title that welcomes new players while offering a somewhat fresh experience for fans.
There are some faults which prevent it from becoming a truly standout title, but it’s a no-brainer for fans and those who are interested the Sengoku era of Japan.
Whilst Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada doesn’t really do enough to completely reinvigorate the series, the focus on providing a more story-driven experience along with the introduction of the hub town and smaller side-missions is certainly a step in the right direction. Musou titles are known for being pretty repetitive, but the implementation of these RPG style ideas ensured I had more of a personal investment in the game and kept me hooked in for longer. I didn’t see Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada as something I’d play for a bit of mindless fun, but instead as game that I actually wanted to see through to completion. Whilst I’m sure some of the changes won’t be for everyone, it made Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada a much more unique experience. Not only has it proven that Koei Tecmo have got plenty of neat ideas as far as innovating the musou genre goes, but it’s got me excited to see what they do with the ‘Warriors’ series next.
It has its flaws, but still proves to be a very enjoyable game that I had trouble putting down (as the sparse nature of this review can testify.) If you’re a fan of the series or picking up a Dynasty Warriors game for the first time, I highly recommend this.
Omega Force‘s Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada mixes tried and true gameplay elements with a number of noticeable improvements and an excellent story, creating a title that may very well be the developers’ finest yet.
Another entry in the Warriors franquice. A nice way to learn about the history of Japan while button mashing our stress away. More of the same for the people who likes the formula, too bad it lacks multiplayer.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Samurai Warriors 4 was a great entry into the core vein of the series. Samurai Warriors 4-II took things a step further with some slight modifications to the experience both in terms of gameplay and narrative approach as it focused more on the people than the Dynasties that they fought for. Building further on the ideas presented in 4-II, Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada finds a balance of both while also improving upon the gameplay for possibly the best Samurai Warriors entry yet.