The Warriors series may have taken time to take off in the West, but over the past few years, there’s been a boom in mainstream Musou, with more gamers than ever before discovering the joys of hacking. and slash hundreds of enemies at once, cutting your throat. circumnavigate the map for crowd control while capturing and holding fortresses, and often command the playing field while inflicting an enormous amount of pain to wave as the wave grumbles.
Developer Omega Force gave birth to the Musou genre with the Warriors franchise – not only including the original Dynasty War line (itself a spin-off from Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms) with expired Xtreme Legends and Emp expansions, but also Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi (the latter is a Dynasty X Samurai crossover series), plus many ‘guest’ IPs have enjoyed Warriors ‘crossover’ outings and ushered in a new era of mainstream popularity for the genre . The One Piece: Pirate Warriors string, for example, has four at the time of writing (two on Switch) and Nintendo wise, we’ve seen two Zelda-based Hyrule Warriors game and a great Fire Emblem too, with the sequel – Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes – due on June 24, 2022.
We recently asked Nintendo Life users to rate the Warriors games they’ve played, and the ratings below are the results. Remember: This list is not set up by stone. Registered Nintendo Life users can still click on the stars below and rate the games out of 10, and see the rating change in real time by each game’s score in the game database. ours – so even if you skip the ‘voting’ stage, your points will still count and may affect the order below.
Studios other than Omega Force have also used the Musou mantle, and we decided to add Marvelous’ Fate / Extella: The Umbral Star and Fate/Extella Link into the mixture below; they might not be Warriors games developed by Omega Force – like Persona 5 strikers – but both are prime examples of the Musou experience. You don’t think they should be there? Just mentally remove them from the list and the order is still valid.
Okay, are you ready? Let the battle begin!
Note. We only include Musou games released in the West, so no Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, Samurai Warriors 4 DX, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimateor Switch Japan launch game Dragon Quest Heroes.
Publishing company: Koei Tecmo / Developers: Omega Force
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is a poor Switch port of a disappointing entry in the lengthy spin-off series. It’s a severely downgraded version of the game, with the severely re-rendered visuals failing to prevent consistent frame rate issues during the heat of battle. With the lack of game modes, no multiplayer options, terrible AI and cosmetic customization options gone AWOL at launch – Koei Tecmo chose to go the DLC route instead – here is a really lackluster package, a bargain at a high price, and a Dynasty Warriors game you can feel quite comfortable skipping over entirely.
Publishing company: Koei Tecmo / Developers: Omega Force
Warrior Touken Ranbu is a game best suited for players who have little experience with the Dynasty Warriors series in general. If this is primarily intended to appeal to fans of free-to-play games – with much lower expectations when it comes to action games – as a large part of Touken Danshi’s fan service, then this will be a great addition. Great addition to their collection. For the less well-versed players of the Touken Ranbu world, this is a much tougher game to sell, providing a repeatable, rote game loop that doesn’t satisfy your thirst for Get a more meaningful, evolved game experience. This criticism may apply to all of The Warriors game of course, but as the larger license-based games add to the formula, Touken Ranbu Warriors is like a distillate. In many ways, and for some audiences, this is perfectly fine. The Dynasty Warriors movement produces a well-oiled, refined and elegant piece; The video game equivalent of the Honda Civic. But even with such a beloved and trusted product, there are times when it is necessary to keep up with the times.
Publishing company: Koei Tecmo / Developers: Omega Force
It’s not for everyone, but Warriors Orochi 4Diverse crowds can be fun to skim through, though the game feels number-by-numbers in many ways. This is simply thanand while fans can forgive the bland presentation, we bet non-believers will have a much better time with the Zelda or Fire Emblem spin-offs – with the characters , Install and accretion you know and love to help defuse the monotony when you’re not quite ‘in the area’.
Publishing company: Koei Tecmo / Developers: Omega Force
Warriors Orochi 4 is a solid, if not immersive, Musou game, and this version of ‘Ultimate’ adds a lot with some new characters and modes, greatly enhancing the story and tweaking the central gameplay. here and there. However, the additions that have been made sometimes seem like the least amount of effort possible. New playable characters, while fun, are pretty much added without any fanfare, new weapons don’t even have unique skins, and Infinity Mode feels like a bit missed opportunity. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate definitely an improvement over the vanilla version of the game – and absolutely the way to go if you’re interested but haven’t picked it up yet – but it’s also a rather disappointing mini-version that comes with a hefty price tag for loyal fans upgrading from the base version.
Publishing company: Koei Tecmo / Developers: Koei Tecmo
Samurai Warriors 5 takes the enduring franchise, gives it a fantastic paint job that comes to life, puts in some awesome new combat mechanics, and fills its story mode with well-directed cutscenes, resulting in a sleek and stylish addition to the series, sure to please fans and newcomers alike. Yeah, it does make for some fumbling here and there – we don’t like your Dojo and Blacksmith upgrade system, it limits your character selection to points in the campaign and roster being removed is sure to upset some people – but, all in all, what’s here is a nice addition to the Switch’s list of Musou titles. This is a fast-paced, lightning-fast hack and slash attempt that looks and plays great and most importantly works almost flawlessly while doing so.
Publishing company: Bandai Namco / Developers: Bandai Namco
If you’ve played the Warriors game before, you’ve basically played One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4. The thin plot, decent graphics, and somewhat shallow but satisfying action gameplay are all worth the course here, not to mention a huge amount of content to work with. If you’ve ever been curious about what this sub-genre is all about, it’s a great place to get in with the accessible gameplay and adorable One Piece aesthetic. If you’re a longtime fan, we suggest you ask yourself if you want more of the same and decide based on that. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is the furthest thing from reinventing the wheel, but it certainly has unique gameplay and is scientifically addictive.
Publishing company: Bandai Namco / Developers: Omega Force
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 Deluxe Edition is a great example of a licensed adaptation that does everything right; if you have read or watched One mouthful and think “this would make a great video game!”, this is that game. While it doesn’t spend enough time on story beats to bring new players into its world, we still recommend it even if you’re a Straw Hat novice – there’s a lot of fun throwing elbows (and swords, and sticks, and…) with Luffy and the others, and longtime readers will have a chance to revisit their early days. A recommended game for One Piece and Warriors fans alike.
