Poll of the Day > Samurai Warriors spinoff is now available

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/595740/SAMURAI_WARRIORS_Spirit_of_Sanada/

It's technically a spinoff of the Empires series, but has a dedicated story mode that focuses on the Sanada clan. As such, Masayuki is playable and he, Nobuyuki, and Yukimura each have younger and older variations, each complete with different movesets than their standard selves. There are some additional new characters, as well; i.e. Sasuke Sarutobi. A couple of the new characters, such as Katsuyori and Iehisa still use their generic officer moveset.

Everyone from the previous two games is playable, although I'm not quite sure to what extent. Free Mode is in, but I don't think the base Empires mode is. So it's basically just Story Mode and Free Mode. Story Mode has you running around town and talking to NPCs as Yukimura.

The first DLC is free, btw.
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I saw this.Is this basically SW with a hub town,or more something like say Way of the Samurai?
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I'm honestly not quite sure. I think the town is more than just a "hub" and is pretty expansive, from what I gather.

But I don't think it's quite open-world like Toukiden.

Could be wrong on both accounts.

I'm downloading it now, but it'll be a few hours until I can play it.

Also, I'd like to warn people with Nvidia builds that some people are getting sub-60 FPS on low settings with high-end builds. To me, that just sounds like typical Warriors, but it could be poor optimization.
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I generally buy these games, but with DW9 on the way, I don't really care about anything prior.
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I'm hyped as HELL for DW9, but I buy virutally everything DW and SW related.

Don't really care for too many of the spinoffs, though.
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it's like strikeforce
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wasn't strike force kind of like monster hunter? you fight giant monsters?
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no/yes

it was terrible
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I love Samurai Warriors!

The idea of playing it on PC, though....

I don't have SW 4 yet. If I got this on PS3 or PS4, would I need the base game to access all the characters? Apparently it hasn't yet come out in the US, though :(

Heard that this was a thing, but ... is there a physical release, or is it download-only?
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Thanks Krow. I didn't even realize this was being released.
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helIy posted...

it's like strikeforce

Some parts are a little bit, yeah.

I just played a good amount. The massive battles are only like 50% of the game this time around. The rest of it is going around town and the forest and doing side quests.

ernieforss posted...

wasn't strike force kind of like monster hunter? you fight giant monsters?

Strikeforce was a lot more similar to MH than this, because it had a much bigger emphasis on crafting and the mission structure was near identical. This has some crafting, but it's only a little bit more than your typical Dynasty Warriors stuff.

Also, I liked Strikeforce :(

I can understand why some people didn't though. It still had the best combat in a DW game.

I_Abibde posted...

Heard that this was a thing, but ... is there a physical release, or is it download-only?

I'm pretty sure it's got a physical release on PS4.
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trodi_911 posted...

Thanks Krow. I didn't even realize this was being released.

Yup. I didn't see it on Steam's front page at all these past two days, so I totally forgot about it. Thought to check and sure enough, it was there.

I want to keep supporting Koei's PC releases as much as possible. They're getting better, too. While we're on this subject, I'd like to warn everyone to stay away from Nights of Azure. The game itself seems fun enough, but the button mapping is awful and there's no reset to default option. I literally fucked up my controls and couldn't do anything about it. And certain things weren't mapped, so I actually could NOT pass the tutorial.
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Also, unlocking characters in this game is going to be a loooong process. You're stuck being Masayuki for a good portion of the game and from what I gather, most of Story Mode is the Yukimura show(understandably).

I'm ~3 hours in and the only characters I have so far are Masayuki and Shingen.

Also, if there's a Free Mode, I sure as hell can't find it.
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Wouldn't mind it, but don't have the cash for it. Oh well.
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Yeah, it's a little much for what it is, I think.

BUT the Story Mode is done really damn well. Probably the best narrative they've done as far as a Warriors game goes. It's not as flashy as the latest Dynasty Warriors games.
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So I can confirm the following:

There is no CAW

Free Mode is not immediately available

However, here are optional stages unrelated to the Sanada that are playable. For example, I know for a fact that Tetorigawa is in the game.

The rate in which you unlock characters is pretty slow. I'm 9 hours in and I'd say I've played as.... 9 characters? Out of like 11 or so that are available at this point.
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So not every stage is available.

Obviously, this was going to be the case, but a big one they just skipped was Honnoji. It's still a big part of the story, but there's not even a side mission for it. However, you can play Yamazaki.
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meh, i never really liked the movesets in the samurai warriors games.
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I'm wishy-washy on them.

I do like that they have the same Warriors formula, but do enough to differentiate themselves from their Dynasty Warriors counterparts. With that said, I still prefer the traditional Dynasty Warriors movesets.

It is nice that Normal-Style characters get 8 freakin' charge attacks. Also, Hyper attacks were a great addition and incredibly fun. That should remain a staple of Samurai Warriors and would be great if it gave more incentive to play the Samurai characters in the crossover games. Dynasty Warriors guys can have their fancy musous and EX attacks, etc. Samurai guys have the Hyper attacks.
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So in spite of this being heavily focused on the Sanada, some side characters receive a good deal more characterization than they have in the past.

Kagekatsu and Hanzo come to mind.

Seriously, the story mode is really damn good.

Also, Sasuke is fun as hell. I can confirm that he does indeed have his own moveset. He's got armblades.

I'm 16 hours in and Yukimura is finally not a kid anymore. Yet, they still haven't taken Ueda at this point. This game is looooong.
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Got the game. Thank goodness for tip money.

Krow_Incarnate posted...

Seriously, the story mode is really damn good.

Seconding this. I think this is the best version of Kawanakajima that I have played in the series to date. (Yes, I am still early in the game.)
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Heh, awesome!

The only thing I really don't like so far is the pace of unlocking characters and how Free Mode is accessed.... And the fact that you don't get it until Chapter 7 >_>'

I like Masayuki, but it would've been nice to take a break with one of my favorites every now and again.

I just had my first crash yesterday, but I don't think that's necessarily the game's fault. I mean, it is because of the game's nature, but I think it was just a rare occurrence where my PC couldn't keep up with what was happening on the screen.

I'm playing on max settings which normally don't mean much for Warriors games, but this case is different. This game is pretty gorgeous and weapon textures look incredible. Katsuie's final weapon might have one of the most realistic metal texture's I've seen.
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