Samurai Warriors 4: Empires
Overview -
Koei Tecmo's 'Warriors' franchise follows a tradition of each game receiving two expansion-esque entries that alter the core game in different ways. 'Xtreme Legends', focusing more on individual characters, and 'Empires', focusing on adding strategy to the core combat the games are known for. With 'Samurai Warriors 4: Empires' Koei Tecmo has sought to make the strategy easier to understand and more important than ever before.
Video Review
There's not much to be said about the game's visuals, really. It looks OK, for the most part, with great character models and some pleasant enough level design, but ultimately, it feels slightly gimped to accommodate the game also being on PS3 and Vita in Japan. Still, it's always a little cool to see hundreds of enemies on screen at once without the game dipping below 60FPS.
Audio Review
The soundtrack is really lovely stuff, though it's worth noting that much of it is borrowed from previous 'Warriors' games. Still, all of it is great, exciting music that works really well. Additionally, all dialogue is voice acted and the sound design suits the ridiculous combat really nicely.
Final Thoughts
Both a great action game and a really fun strategy game, 'Empires' might not appeal to most 'Warriors' fans, as the new elements can seem intimidating and almost jarring when put next to the combat, but for those who put the time in, there's a lot of complexity and fantastic ideas to be found here, making this one of the best 'Warriors' games to date.
