Samurai Warriors Chronicles |Review

We have been playing Ubisoft's release titles along with Capcom, now it is time for Koei's release title, Samurai Warriors Chronicles or as I call it, Dynasty Warriors 3DS. the small screen hack and slash action RPG has a lot to offer with this entry, boasting of course the 3D visuals, but also fluid gameplay, countless enemies, multiple playable characters, and huge battles. Also new to the series is the ability to change between four charters to play as on the fly along with a friendship meter based on interactions with your comrades.

Koei has done it again, by wowing me with their 3DS launch title, pleasantly surprising me in terms of gameplay fun and one of the best looking games for the handheld. The gameplay is very fluid, making attacks lightning fast depending on your weapon and character being used. It is a lot of fun mash away on the 3DS' buttons to try and string along huge combos and throwing enemies left and right. Switching characters on the fly is nice and reduces time spent on missions as they are placed in different strategic locations throughout the map. The rpg elements have you spending as much time equipping your character and upgrading weapons to make the most out of each warrior.

The not as good side of Samurai Warriors were few but not so very far away. The first is that enemies just pop on the screen without much notice and can not be seen until they are right in front of you. Another is that there is a lot of dialogue that you cannot skip the first time it is encountered and it isn't a little bit of script, it is enough to make some of the longer load times in console games seem short. Lastly, I had to use the map on the bottom screen A LOT and when playing in 3D, having to constantly look away from the top screen to see the map in the bottom, it was a strain on my eyes after short amounts of playing.

I am not too surprised that I found this to be one of the best launch 3DS games, as the majority of the games I have played in the last year from Koei, have been good if not great. The reason I found Samurai Warriors to be so entertaining is how fast it played, the replay value, and the unlockables. Even if you are not a fan of the Dynasty Warrior games, I suggest giving it a shot as you may be more surprised than you think.