KOEI brings the Samurai Warriors franchise to the Wii with a bit of a twist. Instead of a third-person hack-and-slash action game, Samurai Warriors Katana is a first-person title that plays more like a light gun game. Players will take control of a faceless Japanese warrior and fight their way through various stories from feudal Japan, like Oda Nobunaga’s campaign to unite the land and Miyamoto Musashi’s quest to become the best swordsman in history. In addition to the campaign and two-player head-to-head modes, there’s also a Trial Mode, which gives the player certain tasks to complete to earn money, which they can then use in the campaign to purchase stat upgrades, new weapons, items, and power-ups.

Rushed to Judgment

Like most Wii games, Samurai Warriors: Katana makes use of the pointer and tilt functionality of the controller, allowing players to swing, chop, smash, and stab their enemies depending on which weapon is equipped. In addition to melee attacks, a reticule on-screen allows players to point and shoot with ranged weapons (think bows, muskets, and cannons). Successful attacks build up the musou meter, a staple of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series; once full, shaking the nunchuk allows the player to perform the musou attack, an incredibly powerful move that hits all enemies and requires vigorous waving of the Wii remote.

It’s a different take on the traditional formula for sure, but perhaps this change of pace was responsible for the problems Katana ultimately encounters. Overall, the game feels like a rushed, budget title. There are only half-a-dozen or so enemy models, which means the enemy soldiers one fights in the first campaign become bandits in the second campaign with no visual differences. The military advisor who accompanies the player in the beginning missions suddenly becomes a boss later on, even though the two are distinctly different characters with no plot relation whatsoever. Along with repeating enemy models, the backgrounds and environments are all low-resolution browns and greens that end up looking completely the same no matter which story arc or level is being played. In all graphical aspects, Samurai Warriors: Katana resembles a mid-generation PS2 game.

Back in Simpler Times

The gameplay is also repetitive and simple; only Omega Force could turn a Wii game into a button-masher. Blocking, attacking, and shooting are done with the buttons, and only the more powerful charge attacks require swinging the Wii remote. Unfortunately, getting the game to realize the player is trying to perform a charge attack is like an entirely new game in itself. The system is clunky and obtuse, and players will often find themselves waving their arms in anger as they try (often unsuccessfully) to get the game to register their actions.

To add to the list of glitches and poorly implemented mechanics, boss fights are tedious and uninteresting. Almost all boss fights require a strategy of holding the block button, and then attacking when they show their weak point, which is indicated by a glowing circle on their body somewhere. Once hit, the boss is open to a flurry of attacks, and then it’s back to blocking. Rinse and repeat this process perhaps a dozen times (thanks to the agonizingly large health they carry) and mix in one or two instances of slashing to reflect a projectile back at them, and this encounter typifies 90% of all major duels in the game. Sometimes the boss characters will get knocked out of the field of vision, or move faster than the camera can track them. In this case the player won’t be able to see or interact with their combatant. You either wait for the game to adjust itself correctly or restart the mission. To be undone in the stage’s eleventh hour by a bug is infuriating, to say the least.

Seppuku and You!

Samurai Warriors: Katana on the whole is simply a simple, unpolished action game. The music is comprised of simple, repetitive loops that are just begging for the mute button, the voice acting is absolutely atrocious, the plot of each campaign is held tenuously together by the slimmest of threads, and the most important part of a game, the gameplay, is shallow and unsatisfying. The minor RPG-like elements of stat-building and equipment selection don’t really help to deepen what is an ultimately unfulfilling experience in medieval Nippon.

Review by: Justin Fassino
Video Produced by: Joel Rubin