The best game ever by Koei! Only for hack 'n slash fans!
First of all, there are lots of new characters which mean there are lots of characters to play in this game. Each character is unique according to its features. Characters are ranked from D to S which is the measured by its HP, MP, AP, DP, Ride, Speed, Dexterity and Luck. Throughout the game, most of the characters have a rank of B and C. There are only four characters with Rank S.
The new installment for the characters is their fighting 'Type' and 'Special Moves'. There are three different 'Types': Charge, Attack and Special e.g. Yukimura Sanada is a Charge Type character. It has 8 Normal Attacks + 4 Charge Attacks*3 (Each Charge Attack continues on in 3 different moves) + 2 Special Attacks. Normal Type characters like Mitsuhide Akechi are lots of different combos. It has 12 Normal Attacks + 8 charge attacks + 2 Special Attacks. It is bit hard to make the combo you want because there are 8 Charge Attacks and sometimes it is hard to time it. Special Type characters like Hanzo Hattori are very powerful with its Special Attacks which is powerful or helpful. It has 8 Normal Attacks + 4 Charge Attacks*2 + 2 Special Attacks*3. They could be much more powerful than the other characters because of the Special Moves.
This adds a new game play but also the Special Attacks makes the game play much more interesting. To perform a Special Attack, hold R1 and press Square or Triangle e.g. Yukimura Sanada R1+S makes a forward dash leaving a trial of flame and R1+T whistles and calls his horse to come near to him. There are different Special Attacks for every character like Tadakatsu Honda can fill up a part of the Musou gauge or Hideyoshi Toyotomi can earn gold by killing enemies or Keiji Maeda can grab an enemy and throw really hard etc. The Special Moves makes each character fantastic. The other cool looking part of the game is the Triple Musou. When you reach level 20, you will have 2 Musou gauges and if you reach level 40, you will have 3 Musou gauges and they help you to have devastating attacks. Lv.1 Musou is a simple ordinary special attack that the enemies are in slow motion and you are invincible till your Musou ends. Lv.2 Musou is the same thing as Lv.1 Musou but your attacks are more powerful, uses elemental attacks and more durable. Lv.3 is the same thing as the Lv.2 Musou but your Musou attack will unique according to your character e.g. Kotaro Fuma makes running claw slashes with three copies of himself following him in any direction instead of being itself. When your Musou ends you still have your three copies with you for 5 seconds and they triple your attacks. Other example is that Ieyasu Tokugawa fires cannon balls from his cannon spear and summons even more cannon balls from the sky. Now with the use of Triple Musou, you can feel the true power of the Musou attacks.
In the previous part of the Samurai Warriors, you can add special powers to your character by using items that you get from the previous. You can carry only five items with you but this time you get items, you buy them from the shop as skill instead of items. There are about 50 skills like Life Up, Attack Up, Speed Up, Easier to increase the size of the Musou gauge when you level up, Increase the reach of your attacks, increase the amount of EXP earned etc. They can reach up to 3 levels. They get cost a lot but you it helps you a lot. You can also learn skills by defeating officers that carries a skill that you don't know. Reaching level 20 or around, you learn the unique skill for that character e.g. Keiji can make a counter attack when gaining damage by pressing the triangle button or Magoichi's bullets can pierce through the enemies etc.
You can also upgrade the power of your swords stat only like in Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends. Sometimes you obtain a weapon with 6 slots but only 2 of them are filled with a stat. You fill in these slots by upgrading them in the shop. If your 'Discern' (easier to obtain powerful weapons) skill is level 3 you can fill the slots with full stat points.
In shop you can buy different types of bodyguards that will help you in the game. The bodyguards price increase according to their stats. The types of bodyguards are samurais, ninjas, muskets, monks, sumo warriors and fire ninjas. Each of them is unique and they fight like crazy in the battle. Be careful when your guard makes the final blow on an enemy officer and steals your EXP points or lose the new skill.
If you were also bored from running in Samurai Warriors 1 and had problems in finding horse saddles, you don't need to worry in the game. You can buy a fine horse for 600 gold where as you can get 4000 gold in a single battle. They are classified by their Power, Speed and Average + Maximum which is Keiji's legendary horse Matsukaze. You can only unlock the horse if you buy expensive horses. There is the 'Stamina' stat for the horses which is the other life bar appears when you ride the horse. If the life bar reaches zero, you fall of from your horse but it isn't a very helpful stat that is not used in the classification. In other words, shop puts a new element to the game.
When we come to the story mode we have lots of new characters to finish and unlock new characters. Nearly each character has 5 Stages + 1 Dream Stage. Some characters that are the warlords like Hideyoshi or Ieyasu Tokugawa which has 6 Stages + 1 Dream Stage. When you finish with the story mode of your chosen you will watch an ending CG movie and unlock new characters or/and Dream Stages. Dream Stages for each of the characters are very hard and have lots of hard demanding missions. The purpose of the 'Dream Stage' shows what would have happened if that warrior was in that battle in history. Don't forget that these characters and battles are from the Japanese true history. You can finish the Dream Stage for fun or to find your 4th weapon. There are lots characters that have their 4th weapon in their Dream Stages. Also finding your 4th weapon is very hard, it is not simple as in Dynasty Warriors 5 where you kill 2 main officers, or take over the fort etc. Thanks to GameFAQs that helped me to find the 4th weapons. So it will take you a lot of your time to finish with all of the characters.
When you start fighting in battle, there few changes made from the previous part. First a stage can contain field or both. There are no stages where you can only fight in the castle like the first Samurai Warriors. This made the game very boring sometimes because you had to fight about half an hour on the field and another half an hour in castle with 5 floors. At the end, you earn a little bit of skill points and few weapons that are not very powerful. But this time you can enter or leave your castle (or the enemy's castle) at anytime you want to still you can't get in with your horse. Most of the castles have 3 floors like the Odawara Castle. In this game you can see the whole castle and see soldiers fighting with each other if they are on the balcony etc. This gives a nice image of infiltrating a castle. You can get into the castle gate by destroying the gate with a ram, or use siege ramps or if you are a ninja, you can double jump over the castle's wall which the construction is not complete. When you enter the castle walls, there are nice scenes from the gardens, trees, pond etc. You can clear out the soldiers or just head inside the castle and kill the enemy general. It is up to you. The layout of the castle's floor makes sense and it is easy to navigate. So this makes the game to be more fun. When we come to fighting, the enemy officers are bit cleverer in fighting and guarding. This time the enemy officers guard from your Musou attacks and if you try to hit them from behind they will make an evasive roll. You can also make an evasive roll which makes you temporarily invincible while you roll. The enemy officers can be very annoying when they use charge attacks and gain lots of aid from its soldiers like the Sumo warriors who bashes you out or monks refill the officers' life partially. The most difficult part of the game is when the playable officers fight with you in hyper form. When you defeat an officer, you gain EXP or learn a skill. Again in Samurai Warriors you will receive missions to accomplish. These can be like seizing the garrisons, escorting an officer or spies, do not let the army to enter the castle or in the main camp, defeating 100 enemies in 60 seconds, clear the ambush party etc. There are no missions that will change the rest storyline if you fail or succeed a mission like in the first Samurai Warriors such The Battle of Mikagahara. In Yukimura's story, if you let Shingen killed by Hanzou, you will have hard and boring stages in the rest of the story and end up with a simple ending movie. If you succeed a mission, you will receive gold and increase the moral of your army.
Survival mode is bit more advanced than the previous one. In every 5 floors of the castle, you will have the choice to choose one mission from 5 missions. These missions can be easy or hard or demanding. Easy ones are like kill 100 enemies on this floor or kill the raiders etc. Hard ones are like kill the 5 generals in hyper mode etc. Demanding ones are like sneaking in the castle and eavesdropping the doors by sneaking the enemy officers. There are two demanding missions from Ranmaru Mori and Mitsuhide Akechi in first ten floors of the castle. Ranmaru's mission is to find the killer of Lord Nobunaga and Mitsuhide's request is to obtain information about Lord Nobunaga what he is going to do. If you complete them, you will unlock Ranmaru Mori. Finishing the missions will give you money but some need money for the entrance of that mission. At least the survival mode has a point in fighting.
In the end I suggest the game is fantastic although the graphics could have been even better. The backgrounds and stage props look bit simple but the sound effects are cool. There are million things to do in this game which means that you will spend a lot of time to this. If you are planning to rent it, I suggest buying this game. Have fun!