Samurai Warriors 4 DX Review – Finally On PC

Samurai Warriors 4 has been released for years on consoles. A DX release was slated to be on the Nintendo Switch and even came out in Japan in 2019. This release is meant to have all the DLC from the console stores in one giant package. It never saw the light of day anywhere else… Until now. Just like Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition, Samurai Warriors 4 DX was shadow-dropped on Steam globally.

Game Name: Samurai Warriors 4 DX
Platform(s): Steam (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Koei Tecmo
Publisher(s): Omega Force
Release Date: May 13th, 2024
Price: $49.99

Samurai Warriors 4 DX is when the Samurai Warriors games took a lot of new directions away from the Dynasty Warriors series. The one thing they did continue with was the path system that Dynasty Warriors games at the time were using. Instead of character-focused storylines, the story of the game is based on the factions in the game. Samurai Warriors 4 DX includes twelve total factions with different storylines; Takeda, Usuegi, Oda, Hojo, and other factions during the Warring States period of Japan. This period is usually documented as the Sengoku period.

Wartime In Sengoku 

There are a multitude of options of modes you can play in Samurai Warriors 4 DX. Story mode allows you to traverse some of the history with twelve different factions in the Sengoku period. You start with three factions available and you get access to more of them as you finish the story sections of each faction. Each faction has a few levels with some narrative and allows you to play as two characters of that faction’s important cast to the story.

The next mode is free battle, where you can select any level you have unlocked and play through it with any set of two characters you have unlocked. Both Story mode and Free mode allow you to play in single-player, couch co-op, or online co-op. I love it when games allow you to have both co-op modes and it seems like fewer and fewer are doing couch co-op.

The final mode you can play is the Chronicle mode. This mode lets you create a warrior who starts as a vassal of a variety of characters that will place your character in a specific region of Japan. You can engage in various short skirmishes and hire a multitude of officers to fight with you. Once you become a renowned warrior in one region, you can then unlock a new region and start to become renowned in more regions.

Combat in Samurai Warriors 4 DX remains unchanged from the original version of Samurai Warriors 4. Samurai Warriors 4, however, changed a lot from the previous entries in the series. In combat, you have large stages filled with a large assortment of enemies and a small amount of allies. The more enemies you defeat the more morale your forces gain. When your team has high morale they generally do better in battle. If they have low morale, be prepared to watch the number of your officers decline, reducing morale further.

You have the normal attack that you can combo into a heavy attack. If you just press the heavy attack button though, it uses a hyper attack. Hyper attacks move your character across the battlefield and do major damage to enemies that get hit. Officers and Generals will not get hurt by hyper attacks. You will have to use your normal attacks to get through their defenses. You can enter rage mode by pressing one of the analog sticks, which will increase your damage for a set time and can inflict status effects with just your normal attacks, such as burn. There is also a special attack that is unique to each character. Pressing the right bumper on the controller you are using they will use a special attack. Characters with strong special attacks may use a portion of your Musou gauge for it to activate. Alongside special attacks, there are Musou attacks like in every warrior’s title. A Musou attack depletes a full Musou Gauge and deals considerable damage to enemies all around you. If you are next to your partner character, they will join in if they have a Musou gauge full.

Every battle will have you selecting two characters to play as. This character can be changed at any time, but for the most part, they will act independently of the character you are playing. At the pause menu, you can give commands to the character to defend certain positions or attack certain officers on the battlefield. Having two main characters allows you a better shot at controlling the battlefield. If you need to defend an officer at the same time as an objective comes up that wants you to defeat several officers, you can delegate defense duty to the other character and if things start going south, you can immediately change to control that character and destroy any of the enemies nearby.

One thing that is a major difference between Samurai Warriors, as opposed to Dynasty Warriors, is its objective-based maps. Samurai Warriors 4 does not have as large maps as most Dynasty Warriors games but they are tighter and focus on accomplishing a set number of objectives. You still have the overarching objective of defeating the main commander of the enemy within 90 minutes. Several objectives will start popping up as the level starts and the faster you accomplish them, the more objectives open up and the closer you will be to reaching the main commander. Some objectives are time-based and will require you to prioritize them over others. I would recommend having your characters in different spots on the map so that if a timed one opens up, you can switch over to who is closest to the objective and quickly finish it up.

Transitioning The War To PC

Samurai Warriors 4 DX holds up extremely well with the older art style. The models of characters are designed intricately with a lot of love. Soldiers are better articulated than the previous Warriors PC port but that could just be because it has less variety of soldier types. The character models and weapons hold up, however the faces are not the best expressed. Eyes are lifeless in general regardless of whether you are playing as a main hero of the game or a basic general.

The cinematics in the game look fantastic and are animated well. The only issue I have is a lot of cinematics are locked at 30fps regardless of your personal frame settings. The fast-paced 60 fps action in the game then hits you with whiplash with the 30fps cinematic cutscenes. I initially played Samurai Warriors 4 DX on the Steam Deck as well as on PC, to test out how well the performance is on the game. My PC, equipped with an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU, never dropped gameplay below 60 fps. While on the Steam Deck, the performance wasn’t any lackluster there, as it was consistently at 45-60 fps. It looked and performed great on both. That said, the game might be too conservative with your settings on launch. I would recommend looking at the graphics settings and making sure you test it on high graphics settings instead of taking it at its benchmark. One sad thing, though, is you can’t go above 60 FPS, even with higher-end PCs.

The pop-ins and odd-looking textures that plagued Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition aren’t nearly as egregious in this title. Due to the map sizes being smaller and the areas being tighter, the levels and textures benefit greatly. Trees and bushes can still look not nearly as detailed as the rest of the world around it but it still looks nice.

Becoming A Warrior Of Sengoku

Samurai Warriors 4 DX is still a huge amount of fun and a great polished version of Samurai Warriors 4. There is DLC that mainly involves cosmetics such as outfits, custom character pieces, items, extra horses, and a few extra levels, but overall, they focus on the female characters in the DLC. The game itself still holds up well, and having some of the DLC, like the items that can be reused, helps level up characters nicely. The 30-frame rate cap on cutscenes is not helpful, and the game is more expensive than Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition, which offers more content, is kind of bonkers. Still a must-buy for Warriors fans, especially if you are aching for a good PC or Steam Deck experience, considering the lackluster PC version of Samurai Warriors 4-II.

Review Disclosure Statement: Samurai Warriors 4 DX was provided to us by Koei Tecmo for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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