May 13, 2021 08:00 EDT
We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hisashi Koinuma about the upcoming release of Samurai Warriors 5, due to launch on July 27th, 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Koinuma-san is the President and COO of Koei Tecmo as well as the Producer for Samurai Warriors 5, considered to be a reboot of the series featuring a brand new storyline, revamped character designs, and a new visual presentation.
The character roster for Samurai Warriors 5 is notably smaller than previous entries, with 27 playable characters versus the 50+ from Samurai Warriors 4. If a favorite character is missing from the roster, is it possible that they will return in future updates or DLC?
Fans of the Samurai Warriors series may have been wondering where the long-running Musou series could go following its last game. After a well-received trilogy and a fourth installment that seemed to close the book on the overarching story, Koei Tecmo surprised fans with the announcement of a fifth game. Samurai Warriors 5 will go back to the franchise s roots in a way, revisiting the Sengoku period and reimagining many of the events of the original game.
To learn more about what fans can expect from Samurai Warriors 5, Shacknews reached out to Hisashi Koinuma. He s the President and COO of Koei Tecmo and is also working as a producer for the game. He talked about the Samurai Warriors series as a whole, some of the major changes being introduced for Samurai Warriors 5, and what the next generation of consoles potentially means for the series moving forward.
With Samurai Warriors 5, Koei Tecmo intends to go back to the beginning of the saga and create a game in the Sengoku period with opportunities and features the team could not pursue before. A part of this “fresh re-imagining” of the saga includes the way the story was built up, as well as the roster around it. So what went into deciding which familiar and new Sengoku era legends would be returning to the roster? According to Koei Tecmo President and COO Hisashi Koinuma, it began with deciding on two characters that make up the heart of the story and then building the roster out from them.
Yasuke and Hanzo Hattori Revealed in New Samurai Warriors 5 Trailer
Koei Tecmo and Omega Force released a new character trailer that revealed four new fighters coming to
Samurai Warriors 5: Yasuke, Hanzo Hattori, Magoichi Saika, and Sandayu Momochi. Additionally, mature versions of Nobunaga Oda and Mitsuhide Akechi will appear in the upcoming title.
Yasuke is a samurai from a foreign land whom Nobunaga Oda employs as a retainer in
Samurai Warriors 5. Although he is quite the lone wolf, he admires Oda and is loyal to him. Yasuke wields gauntlets in the upcoming title.
Magoichi Saika is the leader of a band of mercenaries. A true neutral on the battlefield, he has no loyalty to any faction. Saika arms himself with a gun and the will to survive.
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]
BURLINGAME, Calif. –
Apr. 23, 2021 – KOEI TECMO America and developer Omega Force announced the addition of four new characters into the
SAMURAI WARRIORS 5 universe, jumping the total number of playable combatants to 27. The tactical action game which takes place during the legendary Sengoku period is currently under development for the Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4 Computer Entertainment System (playable on PlayStation®5 via Backward Compatibility), the Xbox One consoles (playable on Xbox Series X|S via Backward Compatibility), and Windows PC via Steam®, and is set to launch across North America on July 27, 2021.