Samurai Warriors - Gameplay

Gameplay

In the basic gameplay of Samurai Warriors, the player takes the role of a single officer in battle and must fend off hordes of enemy soldiers and defeat the enemy commander. The player has at their disposal a range of combo attacks and crowd-clearing special moves known as Musou attacks. The variety of attacks available increase as the character increases in level and gains new weapons.

Musou attacks can only be performed when the character's Musou gauge has filled up, which does so gradually when the player inflicts or receives damage. Additionally, if the player is low on health or possess a special skill, they can use their special True Musou attack which causes elemental damage in addition to normal damage as well as adds on a trio of attacks that cleans up the final few enemies in the vicinity. One difference between Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors is the ability to perform free-style combo attacks during Musou attack mode, during which the game enters bullet-time; common soldiers move very slowly, however officers are unaffected. Other abilities that Samurai characters have over the Dynasty series include the ability to perform a roll to dodge attacks, and deflect incoming arrows with their weapon.

The other significant change is the way in which characters grow stronger. There is a new ranking system after battles which depends on five categories:

• Time in which the battle is won
• Amount of experience earned
• Missions successfully completed in battle
• Number of enemies defeated while using a Musou attack.
• Number of enemies killed in total.

Each of these categories is given a rank (from lowest to highest: E, D, C, B, A, S) depending on the player's performance, and then the player is given an overall rank. The higher the rank and the harder the difficulty setting of the game, the more the player's character attributes will increase. In addition to the growth of the character's stats, Skill Points are also awarded. With these Skill Points the player can buy skills that enhance their character's abilities.

One of the two most significant changes over Dynasty Warriors is the introduction of the mission system in battles. Each stage has a number of different missions which become available depending on which character the player is controlling and the success or failure of previous missions. Such tasks include eliminating specific enemy officers, launching sneak attacks on enemy bases or thwarting the plans of the enemy. Success in these missions can be crucial to the outcome of many battles as failure often results in a massive loss of morale to the player's forces. It will also determine the path that will be carved out for the next stage if there is a split route. However one can choose the path to take if both routes had been opened.

Each character can equip up to five items before each battle, which will affect their attributes or give them additional abilities. Players can find items which affect their attributes through normal battle by defeating enemy officers or breaking open crates. The items which give characters special abilities are harder to come by. Players must fight a specific battle and complete or fail specific missions to cause an enemy supply team to appear. Defeating this supply team will cause the item to appear.

Like items, weapons can also be found in battle. Each character has four different types of weapons they can find. In addition to these base attributes, weapons will also randomly have other attributes attached to them. The value of these bonuses depends on three things: the difficulty level, the stage the player is on and the ranks the character has in the 'Discern' skill.

In addition to the random weapon drops there are other special fifth weapons to find. Unlike the other weapons, the fifth weapons have set bonuses and attributes. Like the rare items, the player has to play a specific stage and complete a specific task to get a supply team to appear. However, unlike the rare items, in order to get the weapon the game must be on either the Hard or Chaos difficulty level.

Samurai Warriors gives players the opportunity to create new characters via the officer training mode. In this mode players must study under a mentor and complete twelve training sessions and a final exam. The first thing the player must do is choose the look of their character, from an initial selection of eight different models, there are also four different models that can be obtained if a certain event is accomplished within the mode. The initial stats of the character are dependent on the model chosen. The player must then choose to partake in a test and one of three weapons they will use for the test.

Each of the different tests affects different attributes of the character. After the completion of the test the player will be ranked out of a score of 100 points, by getting more points the character's attributes will increase by a greater amount. If the character is defeated during the course of a test, they will automatically fail the test and will have to spend one training session resting.After 12 test sessions have passed, the character must take a final exam. This exam consists of two training sessions back to back. The player has to score a total of 100 points between these two tests in order to pass the exam. If the player completes the final exam successfully then they will be able to use their gun to rank up.