It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get excited about the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series. It makes sense that sports games receive annual updates. I can also understand the need for yearly expansion packs to The Sims. The “Warriors” conglomerate, however, is an ongoing machine – it never stops running. Just when you think you’ve played them all, another sequel or offshoot is released.

Fall 05 – Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends

Fall 05 – Dynasty Warriors Advance

Spring 06 – Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires

Fall 06 – Samurai Warriors 2

Winter 07: Samurai Warriors 2: Empires

 
This is a screen from Samurai Warriors 2: Empires.
If I had lied and said, “Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires,” would you have been able to tell the difference?

Consequently, the developers haven’t had the chance to re-boot for a unique and meaningful sequel. Samurai Warriors 2: Empires is another example of why this series – while thunderous and full of potential – needs to take a break.

Tactical, Not Practical

The idea behind Samurai Warriors 2: Empires is the same as every other “Empires” offshoot: take an existing Dynasty or Samurai Warriors game, add a light turn-based strategy element, and include a few new environments and/or enemies. That was a great concept when the idea was born, but it’s the execution that matters.

Several offshoots later and the outcome hasn’t changed much. The series isn’t suddenly more like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or any other tactical warfare game. You still spend the majority of the game hacking and slashing. Characters, environments, scenarios, etc., are virtually identical to that of the previous iterations.

Which – if you haven’t played the series before  – is not a bad deal. Samurai Warriors is easily described as a single-player free-for-all fighting game. Choose from one of several different warriors: male or female; each wields a specific weapon; and each varies in strength, speed, and other expected traits.

Pre-battle selections can influence the course of the game in various ways: where you start, who you start with, which side has the advantage (if any), etc. It might be cool to those who don’t like strategy games, however, I’m not at all impressed. There’s a right way and a wrong way to implement a pre-emptive strike system. Empires’s way isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s nowhere near right.

Battlefields are large enough to get lost in, but not so big that you’ll feel overwhelmed – or at all inspired with a sense of awe. You’ll see a lot of flat walls. Bland textures cover those walls, which are pieced together to form what looks like a cluster of forts and other structures. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but then again, it’s been years since the Warriors series has stepped out of those bounds. Ordinary is what this series is good at if you’re still a fan.

The frantic weapon-based, button-mash heavy combat delivers the same experience as the rest. Those who play through Samurai Warriors 2: Empires will be amused to know that this – a companion game to a PS2 title – has more continuity than the promising (but very misguided) Ninety-Nine Nights. N3, as many of you are aware, is an Xbox 360 exclusive. When a current-gen title overpowers a next-gen release, you know someone’s doing something right – even if it isn’t done in the most spectacular way possible.

Most fighting games use specific characters to individualize the combat system. Tekken, Virtua Fighter, and even the beat-‘em-up Mortal Kombat title (Shaolin Monks) base certain moves around each character. Samurai Warriors 2 – and now the Empires edition – chooses to differentiate the cast a little differently: by weapons.

Whether long, short or somewhere in between, you’re going to get a slight gameplay difference (at least) with each weapon. The longer, staff-like weapons can poke and swipe. Swords are good for continuous strikes in a familiar setting. You know the drill, you’ve been here before. And if not, Empires isn’t the best place to start. You’re better off with the standard version of Samurai Warriors 2.

Samurai Warriors 2: Empires pushes forward with the idea of policy cards, a system used for assigning commands and issuing policies. Dozens of new cards have been added – if you love this, it’s going to be just the thing to keep you on the edge of your seat. If not – if all you really wanted was some great, cutting-edge combat, Empires is not a game that delivers.

 
This card is fortified with vitamins A and B.

I’ve been reiterating stories about the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series for almost as long as KOEI has been reiterating its trademark style of gameplay. But in the end, either you’re going to buy this game no matter what, or you came to this review hoping that the series had finally evolved. Better luck next time, I guess.

Gameplay: 5.0
All mash and no potato, Samurai Warriors 2: Empires is a bland button-masher with a side of strategy. It’s not deep or original. It’s not engrossing or enamoring in any shape or form. What is it, then? Just another game in the long-running Warriors series.

Graphics: 4.9
Improved since the last game, but still not an eye-popper.

Sound: 6.0
The voice-overs are more annoying than amusing.

Difficulty: Easy
Strategy bits aside, Samurai Warriors 2: Empires is just as easy and button-mash friendly as its predecessors.

Concept: 3.0
Samurai Warriors 2: Empires attempts to mask the rehashed combat system with a bit of strategy. Like any flavor enhancer, you can always taste what’s underneath, and this is not a flavor I’ve been craving. If you want strategy, play a great strategy game like Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI. If you want great action, go pre-order God of War II.

Multiplayer: 4.0
Two-player sluggishness.

Overall: 5.0
There must be a market out there for Samurai Warriors 2: Empires. Otherwise the series would not have continued, at least not down the same path it’s been following for the past five years. Whatever that market may be, it’s not me. I loved the first, I enjoyed the second, and I found some amusement from the countless sequels and spin-offs. But to release one every six months without a significant reason to keep the fans coming back is a serious mistake.