Samurai Warriors: State of War
- March 08, 2006 15:55 PM PST
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Following on the heels of the dismal lackluster Dynasty Warriors PSP release, Samurai Warriors: State of War attempts to refine the mindless hack-and-slash style gameplay with simplified gameplay features, added visuals, and no slowdown.
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In State of War, you'll be able to assume the role of 19 various warriors from feudal Japan and you'll be able to play in all the traditional modes of the Samurai Warriors series, including Story mode, Free mode, and Versus mode via Ad Hoc wi-fi connection. You'll also have the ability to set the AI difficulty and view your unlocked items and the 231 unlockable Subofficers in the game.
Chinese, Japanese...It's All The Same
For those uninitiated, there are two gameplay phases in State of War. The first phase is the turn based strategy and unit movement phase where you'll be tasked to maneuver your unit to advance to your goals. You'll enter the second phase when you encounter an enemy occupied area. The second phase is the real-time action segment were you take control of your character and attempt to route the enemy army by accomplishing certain goals, which may include assassinating officers, and killing a certain amount of foes within a time limit.
Most console gamers will immediately recognize Samurai Warriors as the Japanese styled version of the classic Dynasty Warriors game --swap out Chinese warriors for Japanese warriors and the games are virtually identical. However, State of War features major gameplay improvements compared to its Chinese focused brethren. The first thing you'll notice is the added tactical strategy segments to the traditional game. Instead of just moving your unit around a static grid-based tactical map to attack enemy units in the first movement segment, State of War has incorporated a number of new strategic elements, similar to Dynasty Warriors Tactics, which balances out the hack-and-slash gameplay with tactical forthought. The interface for the strategy segment of the game has been drastically simplified and visually enhanced which gives a cleaner and more comprehensive interface for you to soak in the campaign situation. You'll also notice that this segment has been beefed up with a lot more terrain variety. There are gates that need to be breached, unknown territory which has to get scouted and alternate paths you can take, which add to the importance of your tactical prowess. Furthermore, the acquisition and use of Charms is a vital part of this phase. Charms can buff up allied units, allow you to recover strength from battles, and allow you to launch preemptive attacks on distant foes, including setting enemy controlled areas on fire, and poisoning enemy units.
Why is Oda Nobunaga A Leather Daddy?
The real-time action phase has also been completely revamped from the previous Dynasty Warriors PSP title. State of Wars controls are more fluid then its brethrens, and there's apparently no slowdown during battles, where their may be up to 30 characters on screen at any given moment (a major complaint of the previous Dynasty Warriors PSP title). Additionally, State of War has also replaced the old skill point exchange system with a new skill scroll system. You'll have to find hidden skill scrolls in the game to attain new skills and attacks.
State of War's multiplayer mode offers up only two game modes, Bandit and Vangurad, for up to four players. Both games require you and your friends to complete an objective in a specified time limit death match style. However, while you both are racing to achieve the same goals, you will not appear on your competitors screens--only an AI controlled version of the characters will be present in each others games and you won't really have any in-game physical contact with your multiplayer foes. Furthermore, the game does not support Co-op gameplay which sucks.
No Co-Op GamePlay is Not Kaizen
While all the recent additions to State of War make the game an enjoyable experience, there are a few remaining legacy gameplay issues that sour the gameplay experience. Dynasty Warriors PSP had horrible slowdown when there was too much onscreen, and Samurai Warriors attempted to fix the problem by tweaking the draw distance. However this makes foes fade in and out of the game when there are too many sprites on screen and becomes a hassle when you're in the middle of a Musou attack and you can't connect because the beautiful visuals make your enemies disappear off screen.
Additionally, State of Wars AI in the strategy phase is pretty dumb. While you have the option to increase the difficulty, which ups the enemy AI, you still have no way to increase your allies AI. Many of the campaign scenarios require you to work cooperatively to defend an area. But that becomes extremely difficult when your AI controlled forces don't use charms, and go off on weird excursions on their own leaving vital passageways open for invading forces.
Even with these few legacy issues and the limited multiplayer functions, Samurai Warriors: State of War is a far better game than its previous Dynasty Warriors PSP brethren, and worthy of checking out for your portable gaming hack-and-slash tactical strategy pleasure.
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