13W - 16W
Samurai Warriors 4 DX was provided by Koei Tecmo for review. Thank you!
When it comes to gaming, I believe all gamers have a guilty pleasure game. This is a game you can continually come back to and mindlessly play and enjoy. It's a game you have played to death, yet somehow still feel like it's enjoyable to return to. The Warriors series is that guilty pleasure for me. Going around and taking down thousands of enemies as an overpowered maniac that can't be stopped. I started with Dynasty Warriors and have continued with all the spin-offs like Fire Emblem and One Piece.
Samurai Warriors is not exactly a spin-off; it is more of a sister series of Dynasty Warriors that focuses on Japan instead of China, but it's just as fantastic. Out of nowhere, Koei Tecmo shadow released Samurai Warriors 4 DX, a re-release of the original 2014 title with over 150 different DLC included. After playing through it, I realized that this may be my favorite non-spin-off title in the series.
The general Warriors style gameplay is here in Samurai Warriors 4 DX, and although it does have some nice unique features, it doesn't change up the formula too much. You are an overpowered warrior who is taking on tons of combatants. You have your main attack and a special attack that can be combined into combos with sweeping ranges to take down groups of 50+ enemies as you run around a semi-large field to dominate it. It's a bit mindless and button mashy, but we do have some mechanics that spice things up like Hyper Attacks, which give us a new type of combo and are great for taking down foot soldiers, Musou or "ultimate" attacks, and Rage Attacks. You will also choose two characters that you can switch between at will during battle.
We also have ways of customizing each character's stats with new weapons and items you can get, proficiency levels, a customizable weapon system, and ways to upgrade weapon attributes to make yourself even more powerful. As you play, you will also level up, which increases your stats and unlock new moves.
To utilize all these mechanics, we have multiple different game modes. Story Mode will allow you to experience multiple different tales taking part all across Japan with set stages and characters, while Free Mode allows you to play these stages with whatever character you want to. Finally, we have Chronicle Mode, which has you create your own character from scratch and take them around a map to meet with the cast of the game, recruit them, befriend, and fight alongside them. It's a way to not only experience side stories for the characters, but earn new weapons for them too. It's pretty fun to make your own character, choose their weapon/move set, and fight with them on these maps. The battles in Chronicle Mode are a bit shorter too, which gives us some nice bite-sized entertainment with your own character.
As I mentioned previously, Samurai Warriors 4 DX's gameplay is pretty mindless. You are just running around button mashing different attacks, but there is something so satisfying when plowing through mobs of foes and watching their bodies fly. The progression and customization system isn't super deep either, which further pushes the mindless narrative. A game like this is perfect to just de-stress and feel like a super powered slayer, and I am all for it. It isn't for everybody, and I do understand the criticisms against it, but as long as you have the right mindset going into it and know what to expect, I don't think you will be disappointed one bit!
The stories are interesting, but again, I wouldn't play a Warriors game to go deep into the story. There are multiple different chapters that tells the tale of different factions, and side stories that can be unlocked. You can also go to the Dojo section and look up information about the characters, including their backstories and ties to other characters. We have a lot of returning characters of the large 55 person roster, so fans of the series will definitely see a lot of familiar faces.
While the main entry after this one made the game look a bit more cartoony or cel-shaded, acting more like a reboot to the series, Samurai Warriors 4 DX still features more realistic visuals that I love to see. It isn't the most detailed, this is a re-release of a game from 2014, but it gets the job done. The flashy effects are all around and extremely colorful too, which is a pleasure to see (especially on the OLED screen). The locations are quite varied and feel unique as well, ranging from rice farms to burning castles and everything in between.
And while it has some weird quirks, the game is very playable on the Steam Deck!
When it comes to the Warriors games on the Steam Deck, there is usually something off with it. In Warriors Orochi 3, for example, the framerate was locked at 60 or 30, and if you tried to use a framerate between 30 and 60, it would slow the game down. Samurai Warriors 4 DX doesn't have this problem, making the game significantly more playable overall, but there is another issue to note.
For whatever reason, the game will not utilize the entirety of the Steam Deck battery. This means that the battery drain will remain low no matter the settings, even if more power could improve the framerate. I tried multiple proton layers and launch options, but nothing worked until I forced the GPU Clock Speed Frequency. And it helps significantly with performance.
All cutscenes and overviews of the map are going to be in 30 FPS, so it does feel a little weird at times, but once you get into the game, it'll go back to your set framerate.
This was a tough one to choose a recommended group of settings for, and I would recommend either this one or the quality settings. But this group of settings won out purely because you can push a higher framerate. With lower settings and a locked GPU Clock Speed Frequency of 1600, we can get an almost stable 55 FPS. It does have some small drops with attacks that have large effects, but it will shoot right back up. And in the end, seeing how smooth it is is so wonderful.
To get it as stable as possible, I did have to turn off dynamic shadows, which does change the way the game looks. I did get used to it fairly quickly, which worked out well, but it can be a bit odd to some:
One weird thing to note is the game does say it is running at 56 FPS, but it is still set to 55. It's weird, but doesn't affect stability.
This was a close contender for the recommended settings, and I would say it is on par with the framerate settings above. With the GPU Clock Speed Frequency set to 1600, we can set the quality settings to max and push 40 FPS. This isn't as smooth as 55, but it is much nicer than 30 and more stable than the framerate. This is a great way to play though, and I recommend it as much as the settings above.
Finally, we have the battery saver settings. This is how I was playing before discovering the GPU Clock Speed Frequency limit helping the framerate, and I was getting very low battery drain from it. With a Medium preset, the battery drain ranged from 8W - 12W at the highest, giving us a solid amount of battery life with some smooth gameplay. This is great for those who need to keep their Deck alive, but still want to enjoy the game better than the bare minimum.
Within the settings, we can toggle subtitles, health gauges, NPC costumers, objective graphics, in-battle tutorials, if the A or B button is used to confirm, and different sound sliders. There doesn't seem to be any accessibility settings.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support! There are no HDR settings.
Samurai Warriors 4 DX has become one of my favorite entries in the Warriors series from my time with it. The gameplay is a bit mindless, as is the Warriors series in general, but it balances it well with an enjoyable combat system, light progression, and the Chronicle Mode which allows you to create your own character and travel across the country with him. The story is interesting, even if not a high point, and the visuals are filled with color and sharpness. And with the GPU frequency locked, this is a wonderful game to play on the Steam Deck!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Samurai Warriors 4 DX is a great entry into the Warriors series and bringing it back with all the DLC is wonderful. And it can run quite well on the Steam Deck.
No Forced Compatibility
Dynamic Shadows: Off
Texture Filtering: Medium
Reflections: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Limit
40
Refresh Rate
80
HRS
NO
TDP Limit
No
Scaling Filter
Linear
GPU Clock
1600
No Forced Compatibility
Graphics Preset: High
13W - 16W
66c - 72c
3 - 3.5 hours
Limit
40
Refresh Rate
80
HRS
NO
TDP Limit
No
Scaling Filter
GPU Clock
Disabled
No Forced Compatibility
Graphics Preset: Medium
8W - 12W
55c - 62c
~5 hours