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Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 (3DS) Review

by Daan Koopman - July 9, 2015, 8:41 am EDT
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6

Slashing, crashing and dashing your way through tons of enemies on the go.

It is no secret that I like to play the various Warriors games and turn my brain off for an afternoon. While the combos require some thought, if you know what you need to do, you are quite settled. So when Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 dropped, I was excited to start digging into this one. With it being portable, I was expecting to pick up it every time when commuting. For the first couple of days, that was absolutely the case, but the game's problems became apparent after a while.

The story mode is naturally the main focus, but honestly? It really isn't anything to shout about. You will have to make your own character and this lass or lad will take the main stage. He/she will fight alongside legends like the fabled Nobunaga, which may sound exciting to you. While you can have some fun with the character creation, that same character has a lot of cutscenes to go through. There are some decision points to be made, but they lead to nowhere. The only purpose the cutscenes serve are unlocking new characters, stages and getting your speaking partner on your side. The slew of text feels pointless and it is mostly there to pad the game’s length.

With the Warriors games, you know what to expect gameplay wise. You will be going through various missions, clearing the objectives that are thrown at you. You do this by moving about on the playing field and using the buttons to perform a variety of attacks. I must say that the controls on the Nintendo 3DS are fantastic and that makes this portable version great to take along. The combinations that you can do are also staggering, which prevents fatigue from taking place.

What makes Samurai Warriors as a series stand out, is that three known characters will join you in battle. You can easily switch between all four with buttons on the touchscreen and use them if the mission asks you to do so. There will be moments when these options aren't available to you, but they are few and far between. It is interesting to tackle multiple spots in this manner, but Chronicles 3 has some quite severe balance issues throughout. When characters first enter the fray, they are extremely underleveled and not well tailored to help in the game's harder missions.

You could deal with underpowered characters if the AI would pick their fights well, but that is absolutely far from the case. The freedom here is reduced to constantly pulling characters out of their poorly chosen battles and getting your highly skilled character quickly over there. I am not saying that the toughest opponents can't be beaten with low level characters, but trying to do it causes extreme frustration. At the moments that the game doesn't throw those curves to you, the gameplay is incredibly engaging. Even at the end of the game however, Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 feels it needs to pull the imbalanced character trick again and raises the odds way too much.

If you can get a handle on these unprepared warriors, you will find that all of them have unique attributes. Like other Warriors games before it, learning their moves and abilities keeps things interesting. With the way the game is set up however, it only becomes fun when you return to older stages or try the challenge mode. That comes a little too late I felt, even though the controls do give the hope for better conditions later. Another annoyance is how the objectives are represented to you. The game comes to an awkward halt and displays your next mission in full screen glory. These interruptions become increasingly irritating and removes any true involvement you would feel. These objectives could have been shown on the touchscreen, but it is clear that the developers didn't think it was wise.

If you are willing to pummel through the game's slew of problems, Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 does offer a ton of content. While the story mode feels bland, the battles will take a good 20 to 30 minutes to complete. Next to that, the special challenge mode gives you new objectives to tackle play and that is truly a nice addition. It becomes a race against the clock as well, so good management skills are needed.

The presentation of Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 isn't going to win any massive rewards, but it works for a Nintendo 3DS title. It handles the amount of enemies with grace and there was barely any slowdown during the venture. Visually, it could look better, but this Warriors game looks good enough to keep playing. The soundtrack and sound design are well put together, though the lack of English voices does bother me a bit. In the middle of a harsh battle, I don't have time to read the translation and it would be nicer to hear what the characters want. This wasn't a dealbreaker for me, but more something that could have made the experience better for more players.

Ultimately, Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 is just okay. While the gameplay and controls are good enough, the story mode itself isn't anything to shout at. The game feels unbalanced too, mostly thanks to the characters that are constantly introduced. They will go into battles that they can barely survive, which makes your experience unnecessarily difficult. Players can have some fun with the game, but they will need to spend a ton of time with it before that point arrives. That won't be worth it for most, but when you get there, a decent time could await you. It is just a shame that the first half leaves a bad impression.

Summary

Pros
  • Challenge mode is cool
  • Great controls
  • Plenty of content
  • Presentation decent enough
  • Various interesting mechanics
Cons
  • Constant underleveled characters
  • Mission objectives pop up in an annoying way
  • No English voices
  • Story mode really drags on
  • Takes a while before it becomes fun

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Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 Box Art

Genre Action
Developer Koei Tecmo Games
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3
Release Jun 30, 2015
PublisherKoei Tecmo Games
RatingTeen
jpn: Sengoku Musō Chronicle 3
Release Dec 04, 2014
PublisherKoei Tecmo Games
Rating12+
eu: Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3
Release Jun 25, 2015
PublisherKoei Tecmo Games
Rating12+
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