Koei Tecmo and Omega Force have a long history of taking famous franchises and giving them their famed Musou treatment.
At this point, it's hard to even count the staggering number of Musou games and the developers don’t look to be slowing down.
This time around working alongside Ruby Party, Koei Tecmo and Omega Force have set their sites on the popular online card game Touken Ranbu.
Touken Ranbu is an online game created by DMM and Nitroplus, it is basically the male version of Kantai Collection.
The gameplay is centred upon building squadrons composed of individual characters represented as cards, who can be sent out on missions.
The game has only just made it to the West after being available in Japan since 2015. Touken Ranbu Warriors features the same story and characters as its original card game.
Set in the year 2205, a group called the History Retrograde Army have managed to find a way to travel back in time and change history.
In order to stop them the Government of time has appointed the Saniwa, who can use their powers to awaken the hearts of objects.
They create the Touken Danshi, who are Swords that have taken a human form. It’s up to the Saniwa and Touken Danshi to go chase the History Retrograde Army through time and rectify the damage they have caused.
Touken Ranbu Warriors is very story-driven with the entirety of the game focused around the plot.
Under the surreal premise of time travelling and humanoid swords, there is somewhat of a cohesive story that serves well as a prompt for all the missions.
The characters and story itself are littered with tropes that you will find in most anime TV shows.
However, Touken Ranbu Warriors can be entertaining with strong moments that will reward players who become invested and won’t skip all the cutscenes.
Touken Ranbu Warriors is a decent looking game with each character sporting unique anime-styled designs.
They look great when performing their brazen attacks and during the cutscenes, they even sustain damage during combat.
But the rest of the game kind of falls flat with lacklustre enemy designs that are really repetitive and unimaginative levels that are mostly empty spaces.
Visually Touken Ranbu Warriors is hit and miss but luckily I didn’t experience any technical issues such as frame drops.
If you are a fan of Musou games then you will really be at home with Touken Ranbu Warriors.
From the get-go the game offers two different modes Easy and Regular, with the main difference being how players execute combos.
Easy Mode turns the game into a one-button-does-all affair, where players will literally have to mash the Y button to chain combos.
This mode is clearly catered to newcomers to the series but I think it makes the game far too simple which in turn can lead to the overall experience getting dull very quickly.
Thankfully players can swap their playstyle between missions and choose the Regular mode which allows for a much more familiar Musou experience.
Here combat is more liberal allowing players to chain together normal and special attacks while mixing them with specials and team attacks.
Each character has their own unique attack pattern with their special moves offering different ranges to mix into your strategy.
There is also a special ability called Souto mode that makes the character invulnerable while granting them access to a different set of moves which adds that extra bit of variety.
But in all fairness, I found that it didn’t really matter what character I picked as I was able to cut down all enemies without changing my playstyle.
One of the main issues in combat is the enemy A.I. who barely puts up a fight and literally just stands there at times.
As for the ones who do engage you in battle they have really weak attack patterns that can be easily avoided with a normal dodge, this goes for the same with the game's bosses.
Touken Ranbu Warriors is very much a Musou game but it doesn't add anything new to the combat system, so it is essentially playing any other Warriors game.
Missions will take place on maps where players will control a main character and partner to complete various objectives to progress the story.
A nice little addition is Konnosuke, who is a fox that will direct players to their next objective. Even though Konnosuke isn’t really needed, it is a fun addition to the game.
The majority of these missions will be clearing the map, beating bosses or helping other soldiers. There isn’t much variety in the mission loop but the content outside of battle makes up for it.
The rest of the action will take place in the Honmaru which is essentially the player's base.
Here is where the game showcases its RPG elements allowing the player to unlock new attacks that have been gained through levelling up and using particular items.
Players will also be able to dispatch their characters to different locations within the Honmaru which will earn them various rewards depending on location.
The Honmaru will also be home to a selection of mini-games that help break up the gameplay for those who get invested.
Verdict 3/5
Touken Ranbu Warriors doesn’t add much to the Musou but its accessible gameplay may make this a good entry point for newcomers.
There is an abundance of content, especially within the Honmaru but the main missions themselves really lack imagination and feel very repetitive.
Touken Ranbu Warriors is out now for the Nintendo Switch and PC
