The recent Wii U Hyrule Warriors might be the big Koei Tecmo game that has been getting most of the attention lately, but the company keeps rolling on with games in the Warriors series here in Japan. The most recent build of the Nintendo 3DS version of Sengoku Musō Chronicle 3 (Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3) made an appearance on the Tokyo Game Show floor. Even though the game isn’t coming to store shelves in Japan until December, there were still a few issues that I came across in the demo that can hopefully be cleared up by the time the game is released.

Samurai Warriors Chronicles offers the same kind of gameplay that you would expect from a typical game in the Warriors series. Sure, it’s a bit of a button masher, but it is extremely satisfying knowing that your effortless button presses are taking out tons of enemies in a matter of minutes. The demo allowed players to go through as either a male or female character with the ability to switch to other characters at various points in the gameplay by tapping a character icon on the touch screen. This was typically available after beating a boss character or accomplishing some kind of mission. Each character felt slightly different, so the gameplay always felt fresh.

Although the appeal of Warriors games mainly lies in the relatively solid gameplay and interesting settings, the execution in other technical aspects of Chronicles 3 are somewhat lacking. The framerate is inconsistent and choppy. The character models and levels are jaggy and unimpressive. The standard enemy animations were just as choppy as the framerate. It was still playable, but it was difficult not to notice these technical defects.

When it comes down to it, Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 is a fun game but suffers from some unfortunate technical setbacks. The game doesn’t have a release date set for the West at this time, but hopefully before the game releases in Japan and elsewhere, Koei Tecmo can clear up these deficiencies. You can check out the promotional video for the game below, but don’t blink or you’ll miss the few seconds of 3DS footage.