Samurai Warriors 5

Samurai Warriors 5 represents the state of the art of the Musou genre: a game with divisive mechanics, yet refined and ready to give hours of fun to those who can appreciate this long-lived series. The others are unlikely to change their minds, although a demo is available on all platforms that I recommend you try.

Samurai Warriors 5, another Musou game developed by Omega Force in recent times, is perfectly executed, but seems too conservative compared to Persona 5 Strikers or Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The gameplay is very enjoyable and animations are polished, but I wish the missions were staged in a more interesting and creative way. However, after many years and countless Warriors installments the core of the game still works fine. [10/2021, p.66]

Overall, Samurai Warriors 5 is another solid entry in the long-running series, but does not do much to bring in new players, as it still has that repetitive nature and simplistic mission design that the series has been known for. This is more for existing fans to have another game to confidently enjoy, but the cross over function with the game modes does make the initial hours a slow burn before it opens up all the good stuff.

A very, very traditional musô ... but nevertheless successful. Admittedly, its cel-shadding remains an obvious make-up for a dated technique, but it also causes a reinforced Japanese atmosphere and some appreciable graphic effects; Likewise, the repetitiveness of its missions is an obvious black point but is compensated by a diversity of characters and interesting gameplay, and this despite the criticized reduction of its cast.

Samurai Warriors 5 renounces to amaze its audience, offering instead the same old gameplay of the series that gets very repetitive very soon. Those looking for the classic one-on-a-thousand Musou action will have bread for their teeth, however.

Quotation forthcoming.

Samurai Warriors 5 won’t shock anyone who’s played one of Omega Force’s Warriors games before, but it does present a great new style and enough over-the-top action to keep you coming back.