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in Japan is the first title in the series of hack and slash video games created by [[Koei]]'s [[Omega Force]] team based closely around the [[Sengoku|Sengoku period]] ("Warring States") period of Japanese history and is a sister series of the ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' series, released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. A port of this game called ''[[Samurai Warriors#Samurai Warriors: State of War|Samurai Warriors: State of War]]'' has been released for the PlayStation Portable, which includes additional multiplayer features.
A sequel, Samurai Warriors 2, was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, then ported to Microsoft Windows in 2008.
Musou attacks can only be performed when the character's Musou gauge is full. The Musou gauge increases when the character inflicts and receives damage. Additionally, if the character is low on health or possesses a special skill, they can use their True Musou attack, a more powerful version of the regular Musou attack.
Each character can equip up to five items before each battle, which will affect their attributes or give them additional abilities. Players can find items which affect their attributes through normal battle by defeating enemy officers or breaking open crates. The items which give characters special abilities are obtained by meeting conditions in specific battles.
Like items, weapons can also be found in battle. Each character has four different types of weapons they can find. In addition to their base attributes, weapons will randomly have additional attributes attached to them. The value of these bonuses depends on three things: the difficulty level, the stage the player is on and the ranks the character has in the 'Discern' skill. In addition to the random weapon drops, each character has a unique fifth weapon. Unlike the other weapons, the fifth weapons have set bonuses and attributes. Fifth weapons are obtained by meeting conditions in specific battles on either the Hard or Chaos difficulty level.
The character development system has been overhauled. There is a new ranking system after battles which depends on five categories:
Samurai Warriors introduces an in-battle mission system. Each stage has a number of missions which become available depending on which character the player is controlling and the success or failure of previous missions. Missions include eliminating specific enemy officers, launching sneak attacks on enemy bases or thwarting the plans of the enemy. Success in these missions can be crucial to the outcome of many battles as failure often results in a massive loss of morale to the player's forces. It will also determine the path that will be carved out for the next stage if there is a split route, but one can choose which path to take if both routes had been opened.
After 12 test sessions have passed, the character must take a final exam. This exam consists of two training sessions back to back. The player has to score a total of 100 points between these two tests in order to pass the exam. If the player completes the final exam successfully then they will become available to use in other gameplay modes.
Note: Hideyoshi Hashiba and Yoshimoto Imagawa were unique NPCs in the original game before they were made playable in . Honda Tadakatsu, on the other hand, originally appeared in the game as a generic officer, while his daughter Komatsuhime was not present in the game in any way.
Lu Bu of Dynasty Warriors fame also appears as an unplayable boss of Survival Mode. Officers created from New Officer Mode are also placed together in the character select screen.
This offers two new characters (Honda Tadakatsu and Komatsuhime), two unplayable characters (Hideyoshi Hashiba and Yoshimoto Imagawa) were made playable rather than cutscenes and a brand new mission and map. This also offers new weapons, items, skills, three new versus modes, a new survival mode, and fixes several problems. A new difficulty level Novice is also added which is easier than Easy and targeted for beginners.
Even after they reached rank 20 characters could still gain skill points and increase their attributes without having to the reset the character to default. Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends extended this further, by adding even more powerful sixth weapons to earn. These can only be discovered by playing on Chaos mode (or Hard mode, if the correct bonus is purchased).
Exclusive to Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends, through the completion of special tasks, the player can earn Bonus Points in order to purchase special features. These features include additional costumes for characters, voice sound tests, lowering the difficulty required to unlock the fifth and sixth weapons and the ability to break the default limits for character's stats. Methods of earning bonus points include the following: earning all of a character's endings, unlocking rare items and weapons and successfully creating new characters.
The game was met with mixed reviews from Western critics. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 73% and 73 out of 100 for the PS2 version, and 71% and 71 out of 100 for the Xbox version.
Most reviewers criticized the game's visual and technical similarities to the Dynasty Warriors series as the cause. What earned the most praise was the RPG element added into the game as it deviates from its spiritual predecessor by adding a higher replay value for gamers. The Create a Character mode was received with mixed results. Gameplanet commented that it is "well implemented", allowing players to accurately play a character made for them while GameSpot regarded the option as "a nice touch" but "rather tiresome" in the end. The innovations made were still met with criticism for the genre as a whole, with Eurogamer being critical to this aspect.
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