Publisher Koei Tecmo have shared new information on their upcoming release of Samurai Warriors 4 Empires, the first “Empires” game in the Samurai Warriors franchise for quite a few years. Planned for release on March 11th 2016, SW4E will be available for purchase on the PlayStation 4 (Physical / Digital), PlayStation 3 (Digital) and PlayStation Vita (Digital) gaming platforms. This information particularly focuses on the character substitution and castle customisation features to be introduced in this game.
In SW4E, players will be able to fully create and customise their ideal playable character, with options including appearance, leadership, wisdom or politics attributes, and move sets, in addition to personalised family crests, musou kanji, and portraits uploaded from the consoles hard drive. In addition, these characters can be fully immersed in the drama of the era, meeting and becoming part of the lives of historical figures (either as friends or foes). Gamers will also be able to substitute a historical character with a custom character in unlocked movies and cut scenes, which Koei Tecmo claim will create “a more complete player experience”.
In terms of castle customisation, apart from building a castle to their specifications, players can also decorate it with unlockable decorative wallpapers, or with banners that can be collected by completing missions. These banners can offer extra bonuses, such as increased income, supplies, commerce, fame etc. That’s some mighty powerful wallpaper!
Finally, they have shared information on the strategic importance of exploiting in-game resources of conquered territories. When ruling over a territory that has one or more facilities, a number of related policies become available. This means that it is not just a matter of which clans are defeated, but also where they are based and what resources they can add to the player’s fief. A few examples of these Facilities are the economy boosting Mines (Gold and Silver) or Trading Post, the army upgrading Gunsmith (allows for riflemen) and Horse Farms (allows for the creation of mounted units), the espionage instigating Ninja Village (allows for Assassination missions), or the more invigorating Hot Springs (allow for relaxing before or after battle) and many others. While on the easiest difficulty settings these might not have much impact on your mission to unite Japan under your rule, targetting key locations based on their resources might be a determining factor between success and failure.
