Samurai Warriors 5

Samurai Warriors 5 won't shock anyone who's played one of Omega Force's Warriors games before, but it does present a great new style and enough over-the-top action to keep you coming back.

In the end, the most I can say is this: Yeah, over a week and change, I spent a lot of time in Warring States-era Japan making a series of emphatic Mermista “UUUUUUGH”s, but maybe that happened because when something shows occasional touches of craft and brilliance, your desire to sand off the last of its rough edges is all the stronger.

As a complete Warriors package, Samurai Warriors 5 doesn't quite match up to its stellar predecessor, but that doesn't stop it from being fantastic hack and slash fun. Even if the gameplay itself is largely familiar, a rebooted story mode and overhauled art style give the experience a fresh and surprisingly unique feel. What's more, the new ultimate skills system is an excellent addition, and something we'd love to see become a Warriors staple.

Samurai Warriors 5 takes the long-running franchise, gives it a wonderfully vibrant lick of paint, throws in some excellent new combat mechanics and fills its story mode with well-directed cutscenes, resulting in a slick and stylish addition to the series that's sure to please fans and newcomers alike. Yes, it makes a few fumbles here and there - we aren't fond of its grindy system of upgrading your Dojo and Blacksmith, it limits your character choices at times in the campaign and that stripped back roster is sure to irk some - but, overall, what's here is a fine addition to the Switch's line-up of Musou titles. This is a fast-paced, flashy hack and slash effort that looks and plays fantastically well and, most importantly, performs almost perfectly whilst doing so.

Samurai Warriors 5 is a breath of fresh air that breathes new life into the long-running series. The new coat of paint and new mechanics make the game fun to play and pleasant to look at.

I lament that personal character movesets have fallen by the wayside in favor of weapon category movesets and if you get quickly bored with these games I don’t think this one will blow you away. That said, Samurai Warriors 5 is a gorgeous game telling a classic story full of awesome characters and it doesn’t require much more investment than that. If that’s all you need, this is one of the best the Musou franchise has to offer.

Samurai Warriors 5 had an ambitious goal: give the franchise a reboot so it feels revitalized and fresh but also maintains the essence of what fans enjoy about the franchise.

Samurai Warriors 5 is a game of reductions. In its move to reboot the series it seemingly has gone back to providing as much content as the first entry. A cynic may say they'll likely slowly start to reintroduce these established features like they're new innovations. Innovation… It's insane that while Omega Force continues to do just that. To innovate. To deliver. But only with titles it produced for other people's franchises. When it comes to its own franchises, frankly, the developer is going backwards. Following the disappointment of what Dynasty Warriors became, Samurai Warriors has now joined the club as a shadow of its former self.

Thanks to its addictive combat, involving plot, and even a new venture into a mode that acts as a tower defense game, Samurai Warriors 5 is a very welcome arrival to the Nintendo Switch catalogue in the hack & slash genre.

Samurai Warriors 5 keeps the spirit of combat alive in this follow-up, without managing to stand out enough to feel like a true sequel.