Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All flash, no substance"

What is the most addictive premise in a game? We all agree that there is nothing as addictive as shooting endless ordes of enemies with no end. What can be even more exciting than that? Well, kicking and slicing endless ordes of enemies with no end, and that's what KOEI has been providing us with in their Dynasty/Samurai Warriors line of games. As many of you know in this games you assume the role of an ancient hero battling for honor or something else (As long as it is a good excuse to slice people up) This games have been accused of being repetitive and with little innovation, That might be true but being able to beat the crap out of thousands of brainless fools has a strange charm because the series has had multiple releases in the major platforms due to a large following that they have. In the consoles, you have large scenarios that include forts,castles,mountains,valleys etc. so you can run free and bring hell to your enemies. Sometimes you are thrown some side tasks but nothing too complex. With the release of the PSP and due to the trend of releasing famous ports of PS2 games in the sexy handheld , a portable version of this games became a must. With the american release of the PSP, KOEI released Dynasty Warriors which although not bad, left a lot to be desired in many aspects of the game play; then a port of Samurai Warriors came in and they fixed a lot of things that were wrong in it's chinese brother. Or is it? In this release KOEI finally made use of the full screen, fixed some of the graphics but there is something still missing here and is very simple. We need the big and free enviroments that the consoles have because instead of that we have a kind of board game that fragments the scenario in pieces that you conquer one by one. In my opinion that limits the gameplay a lot unless they made a good design in the missions (kind of like the EMPIRES versions in the consoles) because since the game mechanics are very simple and repetitive, it needs more freedom and/or more exciting missions. Despite the fact that this games are very addictive that's because you have the freedom to go and run around places but if you take away that you have bland and uninspiring game. The fact that this is a portable game does not justifies the lack of ideas because KOEI could have put some more effort in the missions department. That is main complain against this game because everything else is just right, the graphics are good (not great) but thats understandable, the music...same as the consoles and depending of your tastes thats good or bad, you have plenty of heroes to choose from (both from Samurai Warriors and SW Extreme legends) you have all the atmosphere of the consoles but without the freedom of its big brothers.Ah! almost forgot, the scenarios are very simple and plain, so this looks more like Wyoming than Japan. And don't forget that this is suppose to be a game set in the Sengoku Jidai era of Japan in were Samurai clans fought one another for the control of the land so for all of us Samurai fans this alone justifies the faults of the game.If after hearing all this you still want to get this game then count yourself in my league because What can be more exiting than beating endless ordes of brainless fools whit no end? Well being able to do that on the go of course!