A Musô on PS4? This is hardly a first for lovers of the Sony console since Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Complete Edition and Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate have already cleared the passage a few months earlier, respectively in April then last September. Two outings on the sly and for good reason, the latter had hardly shone on the technical side and their marketing on PS4 was only a simple opportunity for KOEI Tecmo to be present fairly quickly on next gen '. But let the most fervent defenders of massive Japanese-style beat'em all be reassured, Samurai Warriors 4 is an exception thanks to its superior realization which – finally – takes advantage of the passage on PS4 to recover a little health. Be careful though, not enough to bring out the champagne and the party favors, we remain far from the graphic performances offered by the latest blockbusters of the console, but we must admit that playing a Samurai Warriors without suffering a drop in frame-rate is already a big step for the series. The title indeed enjoys an exemplary fluidity for the license, which also offers an even larger number of peons to exterminate. The latter now form a compact mass in which we take malicious pleasure in blasting special attacks, which are also faster than ever... Clipping, a real trademark in the Musô, has also been considerably reduced and progress on the map without having soldiers popping in front of you is a pleasure that we will not sulk.
MASSIVE ATTACK
But it's not just the technique that has evolved with Samurai Warriors 4, the gameplay has also been revised for its transition to the next gen. Concretely, it is now possible to call on Hyper attacks that we swing just by pressing the Triangle button on the controller. Whichever hero is chosen, he will use his best skills to ignite as many enemies as possible while covering the greatest distance. The attack varies depending on the main character you have in your hands, but whatever happens, Hyper attacks have the common effect of increasing the rage gauge necessary to trigger the famous Musô attacks. A kind of ultimate fury for which the game offers a little staging, a story that our favorite characters exhibit their favorite stance. In this regard, unlike Hyper attacks, no enemy – even a general – has the necessary skills to stop the Musô, which is able to empty the health bar of around twenty opponents in one go. In fact, the problem with the latter is that it never evolves during the adventure, and when we know that it lasts close to 10 hours, we would have liked Omega Force to break a little more back.
To compensate for this lack of savvy, you can always count on the variants of combos to make yourself with the Square and Triangle buttons, breaking the tempo as often as you wish. There too, it remains quite limited, but as we can – finally – switch people on the fly (by pressing the Options key – what a funny choice), we are supposed to rejoice. Yes it's true, fighting the battle on two fronts simultaneously allows you to introduce a certain welcome strategy in the game and thus gives the gameplay a greater finesse compared to the other Warriors at the bottom a little more nag. In fact, what is appreciable is to indicate to him orders to execute when he finds himself autonomous. We can for example send him to screw up an area loaded with peons, while we reserve the right to exterminate the toughest generals. And then, let's not forget that if the latter is not too far from our position, it is possible to combine attacks for an even more effective and necessarily more spectacular result. Better, we can even call it in reinforcement if the battle was a little tougher, even if it must be admitted that the AI has unfortunately not evolved when arriving on next gen '. Always so spectator, it will be rare to see enemies attacking at the same time, let alone adapt to your actions. As always, the adversary is numerous but it serves more as cannon fodder than a real dam to overcome. Even on horseback, where our hero finds himself limited in his actions, we have no difficulty in cutting through the crowd who watch you pass as stupidly as a cow mate a train from his field.
WITHOUT MUSOL PLEASE
Other subtleties also allow Samurai Warriors 4 to stand out from previous episodes and its first cousins, thanks to the spirit gauge which allows you to break the defense of any general who would be a little too inclined to abuse of the guard. But that's not all, this spirit gauge is also there to allow his character to dodge in the air or get up more quickly in the event of a hard blow. Practice. Additions far from being cosmetic and which thus allow the series to gain a little more credibility with the players who would have a tendency to boo the series just for offense of facies. On the other hand, it's not the great revolution either and Samurai Warriors 4 displays the usual stigma of a franchise that has a hard time renewing itself. This year, the series celebrates its 10th anniversary and the result of this anniversary is that the developers have never had the courage to review the fundamentals of the series. Because in the end, the concept has not really evolved over the years and Omega Force has never taken the time to find a solution to overcome this repetitiveness which ends up boring the player after 3-4 hours of play. . Why not revisit the game's ultra-sluggish progression, finally offer main missions worthy of interest, with a real interest in the scenario and cutscenes to immerse the player? Similarly, we would like the designers to hire a real game director, to finally offer us a worthy staging other than focusing on the characters when they are about to execute their Musô attack. And then, why always want to increase the roster when you know that the range of character movements is still so limited? Fewer characters, more moves and maneuvers, skills to unlock, interesting missions, a more sought-after rhythm, there are many ideas to allow the series to evolve. Fanboys can always hide behind this phony excuse that all this is part of the very essence of a Musô, but should we remind them that the greatest series are also those that manage to question themselves.
