There are ten new characters in total (including the most famous, Musashi Miyamoto who was never defeated in real-life history & who uniquely used 2 swords-style), and each of them have their own unique weapons and movesets. What makes this game is more unique, is that all characters, returning and brand new, are given specific techniques and movesets. The RB button, if pressed at the same time with either "X" or "Y" button, will make a character do a Special technique. The techniques range from doing special attacks, calling a horse, shooting, ninjutsu, and many others. Characters have also been assigned different types of movesets. Some characters' movesets are still similar to Sengoku Musou 1's moveset, but some others' are similar to the Shin Sangoku Musou movesets, but with improvements. If in Shin Sangoku Musou (Dynasty Warriors)you can only do a charge attack up to C6, here, you can unleash a C8!
There are no equipped items here, as they are being replaced by the new skill system. It is in a good way though, since you could only equip a limited number of items in previous games. Now, you can equip all skills you want, which consists of stat increasing, combat ability, recovery and luck skills, among others. Skills are only available for the character who has them, so other characters will have to get the same skills by themselves, making this game more replayable. There are 3 ways to get better Skills. Earn them as you Level Up, Learn them by beating another General or Buy Skill Upgrades from the Shop. At the shop you can also buy Horses & Bodyguards so no more waiting around to earn a horse. You can now start the game riding a horse from the beginning after you earn only 500 gold.
What makes this game more fun to play is that the castles, which many players consider as a major issue in Samurai Warriors 1, are now part of the main map. So yes, no more loading between floors, no more getting Lost, a big issue with me, plus now your Body guard can come along too, allies can also enter the castles, and you can go inside & outside of the castle as much as you please
AI has been improved. Graphics are much improved from the prequel, and the stages are more colorful now. Slowdowns are much less likely here. The music is still similar from the prequel, Techno with a bit of Japanese instruments. Movies are also well done, as well as character stories. Also, if you're bored of hacking and slashing, you can also play a monopoly-like minigame called SUGOROKU for up to 4 players, which is available here to earn money & unlock a character. Also a Surviver (Castle) Mode where you can earn more money & unlock another character as well as the two unique almost Invincible Horses (Kanketsuba, and Houshou Tsukige) To unlock them for purchase from the Shop, you must do specific tasks in the Survival Mode. as well as two unique Bodyguards (Shibata Katsuie and Sasaki Kojiro).
Only gripe, still need much more characters to unlock ( ie: Dynasty Warriors 42 generals) but with 10 more characters Samurai Warriors 2 is much more better than the original!
But with that many improvements, this game could be the most innovative of all Musou/Warriors game KOEI have ever released. You should at least try this game, and I'm 90% sure you'll like it.
credit partially: koeiwarriors.simgames.
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I've played this game quite a lot and have found it to be very good in all aspects of gameplay. Unfortunatly I have been told by several retailers that this title has been discontinued. I do not know if the manufacture of this title has been halted but I'd advise getting this sooner than later because it really is a good game. I've probably put in more than 25 hours in the game and haven't completed all the storylines yet. This game is full of unlockables, something I really enjoy; It gives a nice sense of accomplishment. The voice acting on a couple of the characters is a little silly but for the most part is well done.Best Deals for Samurai Warriors 2 - Xbox 360
When I got my hands on the first installment of Samurai Warriors, I thought it was a lot of fun. When I got this one, I was shocked to see how much they had improved on the original. The combat system is much more fluid and intuitive. The in-game store allows players to spend money earned in missions to customize the characters to better match the player's own style. There are more playable characters than before, and individual story modes allow for quite a lot of replay value. Sadly, Koei removed the irritating character creation feature from the first game rather than fixing it. One of my favorite features, and the reason I bought it for Xbox 360 rather than PS2, is that the Xtreme Legends expansion pack is an Xbox Live downloadable patch rather than a separate disc that has to be swapped in and out during game-play. Some may consider this game just another hack-and-slash-fest from Koei, but as a fan of samurai, ninjas, and killing virtual opponents by the thousands, I highly recommend it.Honest reviews on Samurai Warriors 2 - Xbox 360
Don't let the "2" at the end of this title fool you. It's basically an upgrade to the first Samurai Warriors. It features most (if not all) the same basic elements and hardly improves over the first one at all. Once again Koei has given us a basic hack and slash game. As if the slew of Dynasty Warriors games wasn't enough. Samurai Warriors isn't really all that different than any of Koei's other hack and slash games.To begin, the game really does look the same as it did before. No real graphical enhancements, and not much of a polish to them either. So when I say this game is more or less the same, I'm not kidding. The XBOX360 version actually looks like the PS2 version; there is no graphical enhancements for the 360 version, which is a shame. Meaning if graphics is your thing, you might want the PS2 version instead as there's really no difference.
The only real difference between Dynasty Warriors and Samuraie Warriors (that stands out the most, anyway) is the simple fact that Samurai Warriors focuses on fuedal Japan (Dynasty Warriors focuses on China). There are an upwards of 26 characters to select from, most of which are locked until you complete the default characters storymode. In story mode you'll play through chapters just hacking and slashing away at your enemies. It's time Koei added more variety to these games. There aren't really a variety of ways you can deal with your enemies, and much like Dynasty Warriors, they clump up all over the screen. At first it's actually somewhat fun, but again, if you've played the first Samurai Warriors (along with Extreme Legends) and played the Dynasty Warriors games (along with those Extreme Legends) then you'll be disappointed (or really happy) to know that it's the same thing you've already been doing for years. Truly, this single aspect of the game could make or break it for you. Some aren't bothered by this at all. It's why Koei can continue to chuck out the same game over and over again. It's virtually the same, but some people like sameness, and of course I'm saying if you do then you'll feel right at home with this game, so don't let this review discourage you.
The story mode cutscenes are also given their own little dramatic effect. It doesn't work very well though. Like your standard Koei game, the English voice overs are terrible. They're so monotone and the dialogue is just bad. It's a good thing that you can easily have some fun with this game without gettind discouraged by the horrible voice acting. The music itself is really hit or miss. There's nothing really memorable about the music at all, and at times it just doesn't always feel right. We can let this slide, though.
Aside from story mode there is also a free mode which is more or less exactly like it sounds. You can choose any level you want and just go in and hack and slash at everything.
The game does try hard to put more of a strategic effort to the missions, but it's almost non-existant. For example, your attention may be called to an area on the map. The game expects that you'll take off and go there. You're not going to have to do that, though. There's really nothing strategic about Samurai Warriors. There wasn't anything strategic about the first one, and the second one's attempts to be such are pitiful.
There are two aspects of the gameplay that do stand out, though. One is the skill system, where you spend gold to learn skills for your character. It helps to make characters seem a little less generic, but not entirely. It does, however, give the game some much needed flavor and some neat customization ability. So there actually is a point to using characters over and over again, and chaning things up. The second aspect may very well be my favorite. The mini game: Sugoroku. It's more or less Monopoly with Samurai Warrior characters, and it's actually really fun to play, and can be quite addictive when playing with friends.
There's online play in this game (though the PS2 version doesn't go online), but it's not really satisfying. It's terrible as a matter of fact. When you go online you're put on two different maps. Yes, I said different. You'll never actually see your opponent. The basic goal is to defeat the enemy commander on your map before your opponent defeats the commander on theirs. Even worse, this is the only thing you can really do online. There's no flavor to it. You never see your oppoent, and there's no competetive or co-op modes or anything online. It's really sad to see. So while the game does have an online mode, you might as well forget about it and play freeplay or storymode because it's essentiall the same thing.
Overall, if you liked the first one, I'm not saying you'll dislike this one. I'm saying it's not really all that different. It's more or less an expansion of what's already been done a million times, and not just in Samurai Warriors. The gameplay can be fun, but just hacking and slashing at your enemies forever and ever with little variety will probably get pretty boring after a while.
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As one reviewer pointed out this is basically an upgrade of the last samurai warriors. As such, I liked the former better than the recent. Though still this is a very enjoyable game with enough difficulty and ease to sustain about an hours worth of attention. The inclusion of the red headed Fuma ninja seemed somewhat unnecessary, but he turns out to be one of the better characters to play. Nobonaga was the primary focus of the SW1, but this one focuses on the aftermath of his tear through Japan and the ensuing power vaccum after his death. Mitshide and Ranmaori still look and talk like women from the ZangHe school of make up and hair design. And everyone vaguely resembles europeans pretending to be Japanese. Still a good game but they could've done just a bit more with the 360 version.
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