Samurai Warriors 1 - Finally Played! - Honest Thoughts

In this video I break down my thought on the first Samurai Warriors game. I've finally played it after all this time and wanted to give you my thoughts on how I felt about the game and am excited moving forward to learn more about these characters. Enjoy!
#samuraiwarriors

[@johnanth]

Historically speaking, Mitsuhide's betrayal of Oda was mysterious then and still is now. For a few days he was the most powerful man in Japan but was then himself tracked down and killed. By the way, Oda is often portrayed as a demon because he was very brutal to a Buddhist sect. They were warrior monks from memory but in that instance they were unarmed. He set his forces to surround the mountain, set it alight and then kill anyone who tried to escape. There are also stories about him enjoying watching executions and torture (which were normal in that period but enjoying them wasn't). He was also extremely arrogant like you say. He was basically a Japanese incarnation of Alexander, extremely competent but arrogant to the point of mental illness and prepared to be extremely brutal. Hideyoshi took over after that. He was a commoner in background so he is a bit more 'salt of the earth', but also pulled up the ladder behind him and made the social structure much stricter. The game doesn't touch on this second aspect. Finally, Ieyasu fought and won the biggest battle of the whole period and one of the largest battles of that century around the world. After that the samurai period ended as many restrictions were placed on individual lords. There was less freedom on an individual level too, but there was a general peace after many years of chaos and suffering. The game gets that across pretty well, especially for Sanada's ending. It's easily the darkest Warriors game. Historically they are summed up with an anecdote that basically says Oda's solution was to kill, Hideyoshi's solution was to imprison and Ieyasu's was to wait and see (his patience was legendary, including for his own rise to power).

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Interesting, the way they display Hideyoshi and Ieyasu is very strange in this one, some interesting background for the characters. Spirit of Sanada is getting alot of hype too, cant wait to play it

[@kamdenmadan3289]

Yeah, Samurai Warriors basically ignores almost the entirety of Hideyoshi's more authoritarian actions, as the things you mentioned, as well as the whole Korean invasion. The only time SW taps into this historical side of Hideyoshi i believe is in Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3.

[@arielgarciadenovaes9044]

Koei ignores many historical details to be able to build the archetypes they want to create for the characters and distort the narrative. Nohime, for example, was placed as Akechi's lover and spy, even Ranmaru was related, but none of them had that type of bond. Nene was placed as a ninja, who was actually just an aristocrat, who fled to the monastery like many women of the time. The game ignored the story of Gracia converting to Catholicism and the suicide protest. Naotora Li who looks like a waifu, portrayed as fearful, is a terrible representation of a daymo woman of the time. Lastly, I will mention Zhen Ji from Dynasty Warriors, who was forcibly married by Cao Pi after being captured, and then forced to commit suicide as soon as she was rejected as empress due to a supposed doubt that she was already pregnant with Yuan Shi when Cao Pi got married with her (accused of cheating, as if she had a choice). The game romanticized the relationship with Cao Pi, ignoring the abuse and cruelty, placing Zhen Ji as a Kings Bane. Practically all female characters are an example of distortion, especially because they needed a little of this to become playable and combatable, because Koei chose to approach wives instead of female warriors. Don't expect assertiveness from the producers, the facts will always come from someone's bias, and here Koei creates a romanticization to build an attractive game plot for players.

[@arielgarciadenovaes9044]

From what I read about Nobunaga, he was considered a very curious person and open to meet eccentric things, for that time. The story of the black samurai Yasuke makes me change a little this narrative of Nobunaga as a personification of evil. Cruelty was naturalized in that context. So, projecting this onto a single person and building alternative personalities such as a clown Hideoshi, Yukimura's stars, childish Kunoichi, perverted Magoichi (why a pervert?), in a scenario of good guys and villains is unfair. As is treating Nobunaga as the "infallible lord overpower". It was snake eating snake. There is no battle against good and evil. It's just people surviving and doing both good and horrible things.

[@OrashiTV]

You should definitely play Samurai Warriors 2 That’s the DEFINITIVE Samurai Warriors experience on PS2 the base game and Xtreme Legends/Empires expansion The voice acting, character development, story modes of every character, the in game AND CGI cutscenes. . . PERFECT!

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Im in! IM playing WO rn and its super interesting, im ready to dive into SW2 and learn about these new characters

[@ryhankhanage]

Absolutely agree, SW2 is the GOAT for warriors games

[@arielgarciadenovaes9044]

The character voicing was the better of the Saga! They could express every different personality on the lines. Sadly, the other games was became dull again. But this was a more colorful and charismatic plot.

[@danieldensel3633]

I think the biggest difference is that battles in Samurai Warriors tend to stick to the history, which is why Yukimura's lord dies so early. That's when he dies historically. Before I played this game I was a huge nerd about this era of Japan, so the game was amazing, seeing all these characters I had read about come to life. To this day is one of my all time favorites.

[@historian252]

Tadakatsu Honda is pretty much the "Lu Bu" of the Sengoku Period aka Samurai Warriors.

[@UnlimitedPlatesWorks]

Keiji and Tadakatsu have always shared that role but in warriors orochi they really coined in the fact that Honda was more of a rival for Lu Bu

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Interesting!! I look forward to him becoming playable

[@historian252]

I believe he becomes payable in Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends.

[@dantles]

@@historian252 also compare to Lu Bu, Tadakatsu character is not a ass (no matter how much I like Lu Bu he is jerk)

[@historian252]

@dantles1992 Well when comparing the two I mean more of them both being known as fearsome warriors.

[@TerraFuu]

You should revisit this with Samurai Warriors 1 XL. Combining the discs, you can play the story with all the XL bonuses, like playable Tadakatsu and Ina.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Ill look into it!

[@derekshropshire2513]

Keiji and Hanzo are my go to guys. Miyamoto MusashiI's history is so interesting. Hanzo was a badass in history as well.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

I know musashi because of the book of 5 rings but they all seem like awesome warriors

[@OrochiJr97]

I've been waiting for this video! I look forward to your viedos about the SW cast. On a side note: This is my favorite SW game.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Interesting! Ive heard peoples favorite is spirit of sanada? Ill be checking it out at some point, currently playing WO1 and its very interesting

[@oleksandr_teys]

warriors orochi is a spinoff of dynasty warriors 5 and samurai warriors 2 , so you will meet a lot of new characters and thats that you already know will have another look.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Yes I have already started it and some of the SW characters are brand new to me and I noticed theyve changed the VAs of some of the original SW characters. Its been interesting so far!

[@UnlimitedPlatesWorks]

Recently binged all of your DW character videos because I discovered your channel last week. I started off with SW but later got into DW and loved it and I can agree the first entry in SW was very, very rough but it gets better! I hope you come to really love these games and I look forward to possible character vids. ^O^

[@Joseph_Mother13]

Same here haha

[@TheNightowlGaming]

I appreciate it very much! Hope you enjoyed the vids! Im excited to learn all about these characters! Im on WO1 now and loving it, illl look into SW2 or Spirit of Sanada next for SW

[@violovecraft12]

I really enjoyed how even your created character had a story and how some of the stories and battles had alternative endings based on certain objectives. I still think that aspect makes it better than a lot of future entries. Same thing with dynasty warriors 4 and how it had alternative routes based on what battles you did or didn't do. Like, at Guan Du for Cao Cao if you didn't defeat Lu Bu and Liu Bei they show up on Yuan Shaos side and the battle gets extremely difficult.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Yeah I always like the games where your decision effect the outcome in the end

[@adzi6164]

Escort missions in musou games are... definitely one of the things ever. I, however, noticed something - escorted NPCs tend to bog down by targetting enemies mostly if they get engaged by an officer - this doesn't necessarily mean they and the enemy officer fight directly, only that that officer's forces and escortee start fighting. It often happens when fights begin offscreen. Escortees also tend to bog down around the various unnamed Captains, like Reserve and Defense Captains. Lastly, EVERYONE - who isn't tied up in off-screen combat mechanics - seem to move much more efficiently when off-screen. The thing common to, I think, all musou games, is that, if you KO the enemy unit's main officer, his unit is basically done - *maybe* outside of extreme circumstances, leftover troops aren't going to win any off-screen fight, and sub-officers turn tail and go leave the map when their commander is defeated. When helping NPCs, the target priority is usually: 1) officers actually fighting that NPC 2) commanding officer(s) responsible for troops attacking that NPC (PS2 DW games had it a bit easier, because EVERY enemy had the full "ID and health" display in upper-left corner) 3) nearby checkpoint/stronghold. Look at the minimap, from where does the red blob come forth. Samurai Warriors games, as DW, all basically are covering the same history period in all installments. Things that vary is the level of focus on characterization and which characters, and how, have their storyline depart from what happened in reality (the lower route of Yukimura in SW1 is mostly how it went in real life, except death of Shingen is a bit of a mystery IRL, and it being credited to Hattori Hanzo is made up for dramatism) Question: did you manage to actually access the final stage of Saika Magoichi?

[@DoctorDank723]

This was a fun game, the only thing I hated was the castle parts. Im excited to see you go throught the rest of the games, especially the orochi series. If you get the xtreme legends spin off of this game, youll get a playable Tadakatsu as well as Yoshimoto Imagawa and Hideyoshi

[@TheNightowlGaming]

The castle parts did get annoying for sure, im excited to play through the series and get to know these characters. Ive started WO1 and its been fun so far

[@Azzaroni]

Solid video, awesome work!

[@TheNightowlGaming]

🔥🔥

[@thedealba4652]

Samurai warriors is awesome, it’s more emotional than dynasty warriors in my opinion but the story is great

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Interesting! I hope the next iterations of it get better, im on WO1 right now and its super interesting

[@Pure_Havoc]

hope you eventuallyget to Spirit of the Sanada. Thou I grew up with more DW game, SotS is my favorite warriors game of all time.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Ill check it out, I wanna get as much in depth with the characters as possible 🔥

[@Hidrozlais]

DW fan trying out SW interesting Awesome video !

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Thank you!

[@samanthacosby27]

Ty for another amazing video

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Ty for another amazing comment

[@Hidrozlais]

Cant wait to see what you think about WO

[@TheNightowlGaming]

😁

[@OrashiTV]

SW1 only has ONE flaw. . . LEVEL SCALING! It’s crazy how the difficulty spikes regardless of of level/difficulty just because the character you’re using gets stronger (luckily the Xtreme legends expansion fixes this) But essentially the story of Samurai Warriors is just a LOOSE retelling of the events of the Sengoku period of feudal Japan Also in the base version of SW1 Tadakatsu didn’t get a player model and had a generic moveset, BUT historically he’s the Japanese equivalent of Lu Bu (though with Keiji existing, you pretty much have TWO “boss” characters that essentially act as the Samurai equivalent of Lu Bu) They also fixed this in SW Xtreme Legends expansion by giving him an actual design and moveset (which he uses for the rest of the series)

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Nice im excited to play him and I did notice for some characters the last mission was rough to get thru died a few times trying, but it reminded me of the old DW games, good times

[@tonys9397]

Never played this series because I’m not super interested in feudal japan but this game does seem good

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Interesting, yeah I never got into it cause it was something I never really heard of till recently, but im enjoying it so far and the crossover in WO showing more screen time for DW characters is interesting

[@arielgarciadenovaes9044]

It's the best game in terms of scenery and combat mechanics. At that time we didn't kill huge mobs, which allowed the moveset to be more organic and dynamic. There were some unique intuitive and challenging animations hidden in the characters. After they decided to use a range attack to stab an entire block, the latest games became the famous button mashing. Generic spinning attacks, explosions, burst effects. It got sickening. The way to explore the castles mode in the first game was cool, notice that they are not giant square corridors, there was furniture and structure on the walls, more organic elements and a little bit of interaction. Like bunch of traps, door tricks, secret passages. The only game that managed to be fun and not so static is Dynasty Warriors 6. It had more features like buttons, ladders, machines, towers, rain of arrows, grabs... in short. I would like Koei to reflect on the mistakes that are repeated and produce the next game with dynamic combat, and without more generic content.

[@coolboialex]

Kunoichi was one of my favourites too. Shame her design and personality got butchered later on.

[@Hidrozlais]

I think you are going to love Nobunaga in WO, he is much more heroic but also shows his dark side at times

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Im interested to see what he does

[@gabrielgonzalez6610]

Need to play with Xtreme legends to get the full experience and all playable characters. You will understand who Takatsu is.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Yeah its on my list!

[@sephirothxer0]

My favorite character was kid Masamune, really hate that they just deleted that whole moveset from history after this game. I really liked SW1's dark tone, which I think fits the setting a lot better than what they did later. SW2 was a downgrade in a lot of ways in my opinion, despite it often being hailed as the best of the series.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

I respect that

[@michael-vo5ol]

What does Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors have in common? Three standout leaders, especially two ruthless visionaries who share the same facial hair Spear wielding franchise players One eyed warriors Badass one man armies Sisters who are married other lords and have to fight their siblings Foppish lords who have to beaten in order for one of the lords to make it to the big time Notable battles Femme fatales Dudes calling themselves the God of War

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Yep I did notice the one eyed masamune interested to learn more about him, definitely an interesting cast

[@michael-vo5ol]

@@TheNightowlGaming Date Masamune is one of the major players in the Sengoku Jidai yet he’s a late comer in the mad scramble for control of Japan and he’s infamous not only for his missing eye but his helmet that is adorned with a crescent moon. In terms of portrayals in popular culture regarding Masamune, one of his most notable appearances is in the video game series, Sengoku Basara, in which he is armed with six swords, held in between each finger, and he likes to spout Engrish phrases. If Masamune existed during Oda Nobunaga’s lifetime as well as the Three Kings of Kanto Region (Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin and Hojo Ujiyasu), he wouldn’t last long in a battle against them and he’ll either be wiped out or he’ll be forced to do their bidding.

[@teddys5775]

I prefer the open battlefield sandbox style over the big arrow telling you where to go style of samurai warriors games I’ve played and some of the later DW games. It was my biggest complaint until DW9.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Interesting perspective, I havent actually heard anyone have that take before very interesting, yeah I just didnt like that SW was really puushing for the obj to be done and you cant really take your time, WO has been fun so far though

[@teddys5775]

@@TheNightowlGaming yeah it gives it a real on rails feeling, looking forward to the next video

[@uraninezak]

I haven't commented on one of your videos in a hot minute but I will say this until you finally do it: play the Xtreme Legends games. Combine them with the original games. They're disc based DLC for PS2 games. Like, you are doing yourself a disservice by not playing Xtreme Legends, especially the SW games. All of the Xtrmeme Legends games add characters in SW. you slept on my girls No and Okuni. And SW1XL explains Tadakatsu. and Warriors Orochi pairs off leaders from SW and DW, specifically WO3.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Yeah I just went backwards on your comments, its good to see you again hope you've been well! I will be ordering the XL games and trying em out especially if it helps me connect to the characters better. Plus I might be skipping SW3 since its excluiive to consoles I dont have and I heard it was so bad

[@uraninezak]

@@TheNightowlGaming SW3 is t completely awful. It has a solid base to gameplay and introduces reusable consumables in battle you equip during load out, as well as introducing some fan favorite characters. Initial release SW3 is also the last SW game released with English voice acting. The problem with SW3 is that the gameplay was significantly slowed down, especially in comparison to SW2. So is it bad? No, not by any means. Is it worse than SW2? Yes.

[@tylerman39]

Xtreme legends adds Honda and a few others incl unique npc models for imagawa

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Honda is gonna be interesting to learn about

[@HOTPLATEGAMING]

Create an officer is awesome

[@HaaziqSilver]

SW2 was alot better too me.. i feel like that would be a better experience and i cant wait for the Warriors Orochi gameplay lol

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Lol yeah just finished WO and just got SW2, Im excited

[@HristijaneM]

anyone have the link to download this game? i would like to play it

[@august8292]

does anyone know how to play this on pc with ps2 emulator

[@DuckyPatoz]

Best sw ever. Good music fight and story. Its sad on new sw games troops are so useless story is meh and combat its so mucb easier and nonsense.

[@Jaysolo1]

I watched the top 20 dw songs and oriental rush wasn’t on the list💀

[@TheNightowlGaming]

All my lists are subjective its hard to choose the best ones 😁

[@coopzilla1]

The Samurai Warriors lore was very confusing to me also. But it was mainly the Warring States period that was hard to digest, compared to the Three Kingdoms lore. Funny enough, it was the Capcom equivalent "Sengoku Basara", that helped me digest the Warring States era more readily. Side note: the fact that women in these games always have to look like they're 18, despite their age is ALWAYS disorienting.

[@TheNightowlGaming]

Yeah DW got similar issues with some of the female characters, but yeah I feel like once I play all the games and do more reading I will get more and more familiar with it

[@dantles]

pleas first play Samurai Warriors 2 then play the Warriors Orochi 1, if you start with WO1 you will have some characters that you are not fomilier with on SW side also if you dive in to history lore of each characters in SW games you will find some intresthing things, in my opinion SW is better then DW but all fall apart when SW5 got released, that stupid game should never existed, also Warriors Oorochi , THE BEST

[@TheNightowlGaming]

I already jumped the gun 😅 im on WO right now and yes there are a plethora of new characters that Im kind of learning about. The good thing is when I go back to SW2 they will be familiar characters adn I will be able to learn more about them 😁

[@dantles]

@@TheNightowlGaming yea that can work also but some might not be "same" as in WO but yea, it can work and good luck unlocking Orochi (if youa re not using online guide)

[@lord_cobi]

The character designs are pretty bad compared to DW

[@OrochiJr97]

I've been waiting for this video! I look forward to your viedos about the SW cast. On a side note: This is my favorite SW game.