PS4 SAMURAI WARRIORS 4

Description

Ronin Around At The Speed Of Sound The Samurai Warriors franchise has always played second fiddle to sister series Dynasty Warriors, especially over here in the West. Where the latter is now up to its eighth main instalment, without counting any spin-offs, Samurai Warriors has only just reached its fourth incarnation. To the inexperienced, there isn't much to separate the two sets of games, and to an extent, there's an element of truth to this. They both largely follow the same structure of hacking and slashing your way through expansive historical battlefields, but proceedings have always felt a little more refined on the Japanese side of things. Whether this is because there's more development time between titles is up for debate, but there's no doubt that, more often than not, Samurai Warriors tends to be the more polished of Koei's creations. Samurai Warriors 4 marks the franchise's return to Western Sony platforms after a relatively disappointing stint with Nintendo, and as such, it feels like developer Omega Force has poured a lot of effort into its latest project. Sporting two main modes and the standard free mode that we've come to expect, there's a definite sense that less is more. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, for example, boasts more content than you'd usually know what to do with, and as a result, much of it seems a little tacked on – but that's not the case here. By focusing on just two modes, we're left with a title that's sharp and to the point. Make no mistake, there's still oodles of stuff to see and do, but streamlining it all creates a much more cohesive experience. Based on the Sengoku period of Japanese history where territorial warlords fought to rule the land, the game's story mode is its main draw. Split into twelve different legends, each following a specific clan's most important battles, the mode's a reasonable time sink. On paper, it isn't much different to what's on offer in other Warriors titles, but the tales that are told here are surprisingly in-depth, and they're made all the more interesting thanks to a great cast of characters.