Samurai Warriors 5 Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · July 29, 2021

Our Samurai Warriors 5 Review takes on this story that takes place during the Sengoku period, during which an inverted social order started to extend all across Japan. As war rages throughout the Sengoku period, several influential figures appear across Japan seeking to reign supreme over these turbulent times.

Samurai Warriors 5 Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
14.2GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Gameplay settings – display health, subtitles, vibration, Invert axis.
Can rebind controls.
Five save slots.
Online manual via a QR code.
Japanese voice work.
Two game modes – Musou mode (main story) and Citadel mode.
Easy mode option (can change options in-game).
Three difficulties – Easy, normal, and hard.
Beautiful hand-drawn animation cutscenes.
Before the battle, you get to see the victory and defeat conditions.
Earn EXP and level up that gives you new attacks and abilities.
An impressive number of enemies on screen.
Fast loading times.
Officers are stronger enemies that you can battle with and do more advanced attacks and blocks.
Health items and gold spawn on the battlefield.
The minimap can be switched between an overview one or a more zoned in map.
Insanely fast combat.
Bosses and officers can be locked onto.
Rage is built as you fight and using it makes your attacks stronger and if you combine it with your special attack it does mega damage.
Bonus objectives can pop up and give more rewards.
End of a level breakdown showing objectives cleared, exp earned, skill points acquired, and a rank based on performance from time to combos and officer kills.
Combo counter.
Tsuzura is bamboo boxes on the battlefield that drop weapons and the rarity depends on the difficulty and objectives met criteria.
My castle is your hub where you can deal with the running of it and using the facilities – Dojo, blacksmith, shop, and stables.
You unlock the facilities in your castle by playing the main story.
Horse – summon whenever you want and use it to travel faster plus you can attack and do special attacks from the horse.
Cutscene interactions can be skipped, auto-played, or slowed down.
The equipment menu is where you equip your weapon and set the four ultimate attacks you use and assign them to a button.
Weapons will have rarity levels and extra buffs attached to them.
Weapon mastery is a fancy way of saying weapon exp and leveling it up, which in turn can unlock new abilities and ultimates.
Earn stock EXP which allows you to control how much EXP you distribute among your officers and gear or keep it for yourself.
Skill tree that branches as you U lock upgrades, new attacks, etc.
The pace of the unlocks is ideal as it allows you to slowly digest new mechanics and menus.
Satisfying pop-ups of collected loot, health regen, damage increases, etc.
Has some loot lust, especially at the level end when collected boxes open.
Combo counter that also serves as a way to temporarily boost stats.
Skill gems – add/upgrade these to add new effects to weapons.
Blacksmith – upgrade/dismantle and craft weapons. As you use the blacksmith you earn exp that unlocks more crafting recipes.
Co-Officer – can play online or offline co-op.

Samurai Warriors 5 Review Cons:

The Manual is online only.
A lot to take in.
Really hard to read the story snippets whilst in-game or dealing with the action.
Being able to read the map is the true battle initially.
The scrubs in the game are just mindless fodder.
Gets very button mashy.
The unlock pace is good at the start but starts to take the piss a bit.
Horse combat doesn’t feel as good.

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