Since its first release on PlayStation 2 in 2004, the Samurai Warriors franchise has invited players to weave their way through crowds of enemies with elegant flair. To mark the upcoming release of Samurai Warriors 5 on July 27 on PlayStation 4, I sat down with Samurai Warriors producer and Koei Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma to discuss the evolution of the iconic action series.
How does it feel to work on a video game franchise for 18 years? “It’s amazing, but I never thought I’d be working on this series for so long,” Koinuma says. “We created the first title of Samurai Warriors in response to the popularity of Dynasty Warriors 2, and we wanted to create a Japanese counterpart in the Sengoku period, in the same way we have the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms series and Nobunaga’s Ambition.
Fortunately, the first Samurai Warriors game was very well received and continues to be enjoyed by fans to this day. It is thanks to their support that we were able to continue the series for so long.
But what does Koinuma-san have up his sleeves for the latest one and what he calls Samurai Warriors 5 “re-imagined”? We caught up with the boss behind the bosses in the game to find out.
Q: After almost two decades of working on Samurai Warriors, what is your favorite thing about working on the franchise?
A: My favorite thing is picking out which samurai warriors to include from the Sengoku period when we are working on creating the story theme, as well as seeing all of our fans’ reactions when they see them in the game. In Japan, it’s really fascinating to see the response not only from the fans but also from the regions that have a connection with these samurai warriors, especially museums and public transport companies such as trains and taxis.
Q: Why did you decide to radically redesign the new game?
A: The theme of Samurai Warriors 5 is to rewrite the first title, so we decided to reinvent everything in the series. The story, the characters, the action system, as well as the art and visual style were all aspects that we wanted to reimagine.
Q: How would you best describe the reimagined look of SW5?
A: We continually discussed what would work best as a Japanese aesthetic for the game, and after taking everything into consideration, we decided on a visual style that looked like an illustration incorporating aspects of ink paintings. Japanese. We were looking for a dynamic yet detailed look for this new entry in the series, and I think we achieved an art style recognizable as being completely different from the rest of the series in just one glance.
Q: What influenced the new art style of SW5?
A: As I noted regarding the description of the new look, we drew a lot of inspiration from Japanese ink paintings, one of the main styles of ink paintings, as well as Japanese pop art which has received much praise from around the world. We were also inspired by several different games.
Q: Looking back through the history of the game, what are the most significant visual changes that were made in the years leading up to SW5?
A: The first Samurai Warriors game was released on PS2, so having access to the shading technology, which was becoming popular around this time, was a big change to the visual style of the game. As a result, the photo-realistic style became more prevalent. , with more detailed shading technology, as well as 2D art styles that have become popular in smartphone apps. These are all very big technological changes for us. Thanks to all these tools and technological advancements, we were able to take these styles into account when creating Samurai Warriors 5, and we decided to pursue a visual style that could only be achieved in this title.
Samurai Warriors 3 was the first in the series to add the Spirit Gauge when it arrived in Japan in 2009.
Q: When you were working on the original software, what did you think of the graphics? 17 years later, what do you think of the look of the original game now?
A: The visual style for Samurai Warriors used the Dynasty Warriors series as a basis, while trying to develop a design that takes into account elements of Japanese art such as ink painting styles. However, I cannot say that we were able to achieve this given the technology available at the time. As we continued with the series, the period in which each title takes place slowly shifted to the second half of the Sengoku period, the visual style became more luxurious to reflect that specific era. In Samurai Warriors 5, we got to go back to the Japanese art style that we were looking for in the first entry in the series, and I think we were able to accomplish that this time around, albeit in a different style.
Samurai Warriors 4 made its US debut on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita in October 2014.
Q: A character like Nobunaga is featured in all Samurai Warriors games to date. Find out how his character’s art and style has changed with each game.
A: In the original Samurai Warriors, we designed Nobunaga around his image of a demon king. We designed him with black western-style armor and cloak, in addition to adding a purple aura to his weapon, to make Nobunaga look like a “last boss”.
In Samurai Warriors 2, compared to its design in the previous title, we added gold ornaments to it, while making its appearance more striking and extravagant. To go along with that, we decorated her shoulders with black feathers to balance the design. These black feathers also appear during his event scenes, symbolizing that particular image of Nobunaga in this title.
For Samurai Warriors 3, we changed the western black armor and cape design that we had used for Nobunaga until this series entry by going in a different direction. Specifically, we opted for a design where Nobunaga wears a combat overcoat on his armor. In order to make sure that her figure wouldn’t palate compared to other models in the series, we made sure to add various changes such as ensuring that her armor shape was very characteristic in this episode.
In Samurai Warriors 4, we returned to his Western armor and cloak, as well as the most ornate armor in the history of the series. We’ve put a lot of work and effort into making sure its design doesn’t lose its demon king and “last boss” appearance in every title.
This brings us to Samurai Warriors 5. We reimagined the Samurai Warriors series for this episode, and based Nobunaga Oda’s design on his younger years when he was known as Owari’s Big Fool. Since he’s much younger in this title, we’ve adjusted the look and coverage of his armor in this design to make sure he has the proper appearance of a main character.
Immerse yourself in the most recent evolution of the popular action franchise when Samurai Warriors 5 releases for PS4 on July 27.