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The Lowdown
Pros: Four new characters, more weapons and even more two player modes.
Cons: No more create a character mode and easier scenarios.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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Koei's Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) was a huge hit in Japan. It was
only a matter of time until Koei released an expansion pack to the
popular Samurai Warriors game just like they have for the Dynasty
Warriors series. For fans, Sengoku Musou Moushouden is the expansion
pack, but is it what fans have been waiting for?
If you wanted more characters and more levels Sengoku Musou
Moushouden will fit the bill. The game gives four new playable generals
in to the mix, which are completely different from each other. The first
is Hideyoshi Hashiba who is a fast attacker with a lot of range. Ina is
a princess warrior who attacks with a bow and arrow. Out of all the
characters she uses the most ranged attacks and doesn't even consume
arrows. One of her first attacks has her shoot a barrage of arrows
straight in the air, only to let them drop on surround enemies. Ina is
the daughter of Honda who bears dragon armor. Honda, known as the
"perfect warrior", attacks with a giant spear. He has a combo where he
cuts through fields of enemies and then turns back around and slams all
of them with his heavy spear. The most unique character of the bunch is
Yoshimoto Imagawa. Normally he attacks with slow blade strikes, mixing
his combos up every once in awhile by kicking a ball at groups of
enemies. His special musou attack is sort of strange too, he puts his
sword in front of him and starts dashing at enemies.
Each of the characters will play through a number of new stages.
Instead of having the same dreary castle stages that were primarily
present in the original game, you'll be in a wider selection of
environments. Even though Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends is running on
the same code and graphics engine as the original the game looks much
sharper due to a wider selection of environments. You can see much more
environmental detail when you're running around on grassy green hills
than you can in the midst of a night battle. The game also has a decent
amount of FMV sequences peppered throughout the game that look great
too. There is a certain artistic quality that "Moushouden" has above
the original game. Although there are new levels, the new levels aren't
nearly as long as some of the level in the original game. You won't ever
have to go indoors into and fight inside a base. You also won't have to
spend as much time navigating around buildings because you're outside
more often. This could be better or worse depending on how you liked the
indoor levels in the original game.
Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends gives players the chance to upgrade
their characters from the original title. You can load any of the
characters from the first game and play through them to find the elusive
sixth weapon. Each character's sixth weapon is one of the game's
ultimate challenges to find. If you don't want to search for the sixth
weapon you can still link with the original title to play new stages
with your favorite officers. In addition to the new characters you can
also get all new abilities. One new ability adds your weapons element
to your musou attack for a truly devastating amount of damage. Another
ability allows you to block bullets, so those annoying gun troops won't
stand a chance anymore. Arguably, the strongest ability is that you can
increase the damage you give as your combo gets longer. This ability is
essential to have in the new difficulty level, chaos. To get through the
sheer number of troops and stronger generals you'll need all the new
abilities you can get.
Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends has some extra expanded two player
options. There are three all new versus modes you can play, besides the
standard two player cooperative mode. One mode is your standard one on
one battle. In this mode you're in a small arena and you have to battle
another general to the death. Koei has a couple of different arenas you
can face off in. Some even have traps like bombs, which forces players
to watch where they step instead of dashing towards the enemy. Another
versus mode has both players placed in a level to see who can kill the
most troops. Each troop only has a small amount of life so in a small
time limit you'll be able to score a couple of hundred kills. However,
you must be quick because troops will be running towards a gate to
escape your grasp. If they get past this gate you won't be able to
attack them anymore, so you'll have to make a strategy to hit as many
troops as possible.
For single players there isn't as much offered, instead more taken
away. The expansion pack doesn't expand on the character creation mode
found in the original Samurai Warriors. You can get a sixth weapon for
the general you created, but you can't make any new generals. Also with
only four new characters to play through and handful of levels one
player can get through the expansion disc quickly. The original content
contained in the disc isn't nearly as much as you would expect to see in
the Xtreme Legends expansion packs for the Dynasty Warriors series. The
only ever lasting single player challenge is for players to collect
points to spend at the blacksmith. One of the abilities requires that
players obtain 1,000,000 points (yes 1 million points) so they can break
the limit for character stats. Since you only win 200 points for
successfully completing a battle 1 million is a tough challenge.
Another problem with Sengoku Musou Moushouden is that it isn't
different from Sengoku Musou at all. You have the same gameplay as the
original game. You'll be in the middle of a giant battlefield with a
specific goal like eliminate a certain general or close all the gates so
no new troops enter. On top of accomplishing your mission you must
successfully defend your top commander from death. If he is killed by the
swarms of troops or by surrounding enemy generals it's game over.
Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends offers the same tactic options present
in the first game, with not much else new. The combo system is pretty
much the same, too. You can do different attacks by starting off with
your standard attack (square button) and then switching to your heavy
attack (triangle button). The combo system hasn't been expanded much
either. Pretty much Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends ends up being more
of the same, but it's more of the good stuff that fans of the series
like.
Even though Sengoku Musou Moushouden is completely in Japanese you
can still play through the game with some patience. The gameplay is easy
to learn even if you haven't played Samurai Warriors or a Dynasty
Warriors game before and the goals are simple enough to figure out. Also
if you do have the US version of Samurai Warriors you may want to wait
for this to come over to the US because your US save file is
incompatible with Sengoku Musou Moushouden.
US Bound?
Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends has a release date of November, 15
2004.
Overall
If you already own and like Samurai Warriors, Xtreme Legends this is
something you will love. However, if you're expecting it to be a solid
stand alone title, it doesn't have that much to offer.
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