"A PSP game that I WONT be trading back in"

Seriously, most of the PSP games I buy, I usually get pissed off at something in it, like Midnight Club 3's ridiculous load time, Ys: Ark of Napishtim's overall load time when travelling the world, or Ape Escape Academy's cheaply annoying difficulty level. Samurai Warriors for the PSP does not piss me off for one thing.

Gameplay: 9/10
Hell, haha this game is so fun I seriously get addicted and play until 6:00 AM at most. It is like Omega Force's usual slash-em-ups, with the integration of different charge attacks, and super "musou" attacks. It is a little different than you normal console system Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors, because instead of fighting a whole bunch of enemies and a couple of officers and then charging at the boss officer, this PSP version has tiles, where you have to clear one at a time by completing the tile battles winning conditions. Sort of like a strategy game's map. The tiles part of the game, lets you find charms, and new weapons, and use the charms you obtain to affect the enemy to make battles easier for you. Once you choose a tile to fight in, then the REAL fun begins! Basically, the battles are usually defeating enemy officers, by killing off a certain number of weak peon enemies to get the officer to show up. Sometimes, however, they have different battles like defeat as much enemies in 60 seconds. But because you are given a ranking, sometimes it is a little tough if you really want to get all 'A' ranks in all the battles. The ranks basically give you experience points to strengthen the character you chose. Also, it's okay to die, because you still get some experience points to increase your character's stats. Another cool feature in Samurai Warriors for the PSP, is that you can have sub-officers follow you around to help you, and they usually add special skills or temporarily increase your stats. Even some of the other selectable characters can be your sub-officers as well!

Graphics: 8/10
Because the screen is smaller, I did not notice any change in quality from the PS2 graphics to the PSP graphics. The composition of the people were well done, you could distinguish a peasant fighter from a soldier from a strike ninja (a very fat ninja :P) The attacks look pretty good and the slash/striking effects look very polished and well done. The only thing that really bugged me, was that sometimes, after charging into a group of about 8 enemies, sometimes an extra 5 would suddenly appear there.

Sound: 9/10
The sound is an awesome blend of feudal Japanese instruments and melodies with today's style of ambient-like techno, which fits well for a warrior game in Japan. Normally, I play with the sound very low, or off, because my parents still don't know I bought a PSP and I want to keep it that way :P. So I can't recall exactly how clear the sound quality is, but the blade clashing on armor and those sounds are very realistic and don't detract at all from the game. The only problem I felt, was that the could have voiced over the dialogue during the cut-scenes in between levels.

Control: 10/10
The controls are so simple, yet different, useful combinations for different situations can be pulled off. You have your basic square, square, square, square combo, but then the triangle button can be inserted between to start a different combo. Basically, each character has 4 combos, a unique charge attack and a super strong "musou" attack (sort of like FF7's limit break bar). You can start with a square, triangle combo, and either finish him off in the air with more triangle button presses, or you could start a new square, square, square, square, combo and finish off with an invincible "musou" attack. There are just so many ways to clear a battlefield, or defeat an isolated, yet strong officer.

Story: 9/10
The story, does not follow the traditional 1000 states war story, but is a little remix of the story, if a certain small thing was changed, such as if the eastern feudal lords worked together to destroy Nobunaga or something like that. Some of the dialogue might seem a bit weird or corny to some people, but the general plot lines follow all the characters very well and appear to be pretty realistic.

Load Times: 10/10
This game has the most beautiful load times. All you have to do to play, is pick a mode, then pick a character, then a level, wait a short, short moment to load, and then you can play the whole frikking map without load or wait until you pick a new level!

Re-playability: 10/10
With about 19 characters with different looks and weapons, loads of weapons to find for each character, scrolls to master for each character, and stats to max, there is so much fun to have even after beating one character's story, and also, trying to beat the final secret story on the hardest difficulty, "chaos" mode!

Verdict:
Buy this game if you have been disgusted with the long and constant load times of other PSP games. Also buy this game if you like games where you are a person with a stick that hits other people with sticks :p

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/06