History VideoGame / SamuraiWarriors

* ElaborateEqualsEffective: Played straight with the various weapons. Downplayed in later games where there are less weapon models.

* HourglassHottie: Like ''Dynasty Warriors'', every female character is this.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Kanetsugu Naoe goes on at length about it. Several characters tell him to shut up.

* WeaponOfChoice: As with Dynasty Warriors, each character has his own specific weapons, with Katana, Spears and Naginata reserved for [=NPC=]s. While the characters from the former have undergone some changes across the games (with the latest ones even enabling you to give the characters any weapon you wish), characters from Samurai Warriors have always stuck to their weapons, with the exceptions of Date Masamune (from dual wooden swords to sword and guns) and Oichi (from kendama to bladed rings).

* ElaborateEqualsEffective: Played straight with the various weapons.

-->'''Hideyoshi Toyotomi:''' Gah! Where are my reinforcements!

* DemotedToExtra: Ranmaru Mori suffered by this hard as the games went on. In the Oda-focused first game, he had a story mode, and plenty of screentime on other character's story modes. In the second and third games, Ranmaru lacked a story mode at all, being "just" a unlockable character, while in the fourth game, he was playable in the story mode, but his screentime overall was very small. It's clear that after the first game happened, the writers had no idea what to do with the poor kid in the following sequels, and with the reboot in ''5'', they did away with him altogether.

* FamilyThemeNaming: Many famous clans named their members with certain theme naming. 'Yuki' for Sanada (Masayuki, Yukimura, Nobuyuki), 'Tada' for Honda (Tadakatsu, Tadatomo), 'Hide' for Toyotomi (Hideyoshi, Hideyori), 'Nobu' for Oda (Nobunaga, Nobutada), 'Chika' for Chōsokabe (Motochika, Morichika, Nobuchika), 'Moto' for Mouri (Motonari, Takamoto, Terumoto, Hidemoto), 'Kage' for Uesugi (Kagetora[[note]]which is also Kenshin's birth name, hence he gave the name to one his adopted sons[[/note]], Kagekatsu), 'Uji' for Hōjō (Ujiyasu, Ujimasa, Ujinao), 'Mune' for Date (Masamune, Terumune, Hidemune), and the list goes on!

''Samurai Warriors'' started as a spinoff of Creator/{{Koei|Tecmo}}'s ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' HackAndSlash series, porting the gameplay elements to a new setting: the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod of Japanese history.[[note]]Hence its Japanese name "[[PunnyName Sengoku Musou]]," compared to ''Dynasty Warriors'' being "Shin Sangoku Musou."[[/note]] Its success has lead to it becoming its own series, with a total of 5 main installments, all with their own offshoots and expansions. The playable scenarios span fifty years of Japanese history, and playable characters include [[UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga Nobunaga Oda]], [[UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu Ieyasu Tokugawa]], [[UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi Hideyoshi Toyotomi]], [[UsefulNotes/SanadaYukimura Yukimura Sanada]], [[UsefulNotes/IshidaMitsunari Mitsunari Ishida]], [[UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi Musashi Miyamoto]], [[UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo Hanzo Hattori]], [[UsefulNotes/FuumaKotaro Kotaro Fuma]], and [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many more]]. It should be worth noting that each version loosely sticks to a certain time frame and focuses on specific moments: case in point, the first game is all over Nobunaga while the second game's primary focus are the events leading to Sekigahara, while the third appears to try to cover just about everything in-between with a loose increased focus in the Pre-Nobunaga Warlords[[note]]Kenshin Uesugi, Shingen Takeda, with the introduction of daimyos Motonari Mori and Ujiyasu Hojo[[/note]]. The Fourth Game abandons the personal story modes and alternate histories, with a a hard focus on Drama and making sure each major clan has it's own [[ADayInTheLimelight story mode]]. The ''Chronicles'' games covers a whole lot, while the Spirit of Sanada Spin-off focuses on the Sanada Clan, from their early days as a Takeda Vassal, to Yukimura Sanada's famed Last Stand in Osaka Castle. The fifth game is a reboot, focusing fully on Nobunaga, but unlike the first game, the focuses on the plot is laser-focused, lacking famous-yet-then-irrelevant characters like Yukimura Sanada and Masamune Date.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: As of ''Spirit of Sanada'', there are 61 characters who are playable. If you include the important [=NPCs=] with unique character designs, the count would triple.

** Nene's Dream, Melee at Sekigahara. even with Okuni and Hideaki Kobayakawa on your side, you STILL end up doing most of the fighting.

** Nagamasa Azai, Battle of Anegawa. Even if he is exhausted, he will continue pressing the attack until he is forced to retreat or he forces nobunaga Oda to retreat.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Starting from ''2'', scenarios about Nobunaga's conflict against the Ikkō-Ikki sect in Ise Nagashima is removed altogether to tone down Nobunaga's former EvilOverlord looks. As a result, Kennyō Honganji is never mentioned or even be featured as an NPC again in future SW games. Not only that, the battle of Kizugawa, which was set during the Ikko-Ikki conflict, has it's focus shifted from them, to be more of a "Oda versus Mori and the Saika, with some peasants", starting with the third game.

* BroadStrokes: Most of the installments in the series cover the same story, i.e scope of the Sengoku Period in chronologicl years, so most of the major events, particularly the three unifiers of Japan will happen in some fashion. What is different is the battles and particular characters emphasized within each title: The first game focuses on Nobunaga with only vague allusions to the later era. ''2'' focuses on Sekigahara while ''3'' gives some extra focus to Kanto and earlier events in the timeline. ''4'' aims to give every clan and region an equal representation in the series, but there's no hypotheticals or individual character storylines this time around. The fifth game returns the focus to Nobunaga's timeline like the first game but takes it a step further as the Toyotomi and Tokugawa eras will not be represented for now since it's a SoftReboot.

* ColorCodedArmies: Generally, across games, armies can be identified by colors: the Oda have Purple, the Toyotomi have Yellow (also shared with the Imagawa), the Tokugawa are Blue. Others include Red for Takeda/Sanada, White for Uesugi, Green for Date, Black for the Hojo, Silver for the Shimazu, and Cyan for Azai/Asakura/Chōsokabe.

* ColorCodedArmies: Generally, across games, armies can be identified by colors: the Oda have Purple, the Toyotomi have Yellow, the Tokugawa are Blue. Others include Red for Takeda/Sanada, White for Uesugi, Green for Date, Brown for the Hojo and Gray for the Shimazu.

''Samurai Warriors'' started as a spinoff of Creator/{{Koei|Tecmo}}'s ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' HackAndSlash series, porting the gameplay elements to a new setting: the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod of Japanese history.[[note]]Hence its Japanese name "[[PunnyName Sengoku Musou]]," compared to ''Dynasty Warriors'' being "Shin Sangoku Musou."[[/note]] Its success has lead to it becoming its own series, with a total of 5 main installments, all with their own offshoots and expansions. The playable scenarios span fifty years of Japanese history, and playable characters include [[UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga Nobunaga Oda]], [[UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu Ieyasu Tokugawa]], [[UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi Hideyoshi Toyotomi]], [[UsefulNotes/SanadaYukimura Yukimura Sanada]], [[UsefulNotes/IshidaMitsunari Mitsunari Ishida]], [[UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi Musashi Miyamoto]], [[UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo Hanzo Hattori]], [[UsefulNotes/FuumaKotaro Kotaro Fuma]], and [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many more]]. It should be worth noting that each version loosely sticks to a certain time frame and focuses on specific moments: case in point, the first game is all over Nobunaga while the second game's primary focus are the events leading to Sekigahara, while the third appears to try to cover just about everything in-between with a loose increased focus in the Pre-Nobunaga Warlords[[note]]Kenshin Uesugi, Shingen Takeda, with the introduction of daimyos Motonari Mori and Ujiyasu Hojo[[/note]]. The Fourth Game abandons the personal story modes and alternate histories, with a a hard focus on Drama and making sure each major clan has it's own [[ADayInTheLimelight story mode]]. The ''Chronicles'' games covers a whole lot, while the Spirit of Sanada Spin-off focuses on the Sanada Clan, from their early days as a Takeda Vassal, to Yukimura Sanada's famed Last Stand in Osaka Castle.

''Samurai Warriors'' started as a spinoff of Creator/{{Koei|Tecmo}}'s ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' HackAndSlash series, porting the gameplay elements to a new setting: the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod of Japanese history.[[note]]Hence its Japanese name "[[PunnyName Sengoku Musou]]," compared to ''Dynasty Warriors'' being "Shin Sangoku Musou."[[/note]] Its success has lead to it becoming its own series, with a total of 4 main installments, all with their own offshoots and expansions. The playable scenarios span fifty years of Japanese history, and playable characters include [[UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga Nobunaga Oda]], [[UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu Ieyasu Tokugawa]], [[UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi Hideyoshi Toyotomi]], [[UsefulNotes/SanadaYukimura Yukimura Sanada]], [[UsefulNotes/IshidaMitsunari Mitsunari Ishida]], [[UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi Musashi Miyamoto]], [[UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo Hanzo Hattori]], [[UsefulNotes/FuumaKotaro Kotaro Fuma]], and [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many more]]. It should be worth noting that each version loosely sticks to a certain time frame and focuses on specific moments: case in point, the first game is all over Nobunaga while the second game's primary focus are the events leading to Sekigahara, while the third appears to try to cover just about everything in-between with a loose increased focus in the Pre-Nobunaga Warlords[[note]]Kenshin Uesugi, Shingen Takeda, with the introduction of daimyos Motonari Mori and Ujiyasu Hojo[[/note]]. The Fourth Game abandons the personal story modes and alternate histories, with a a hard focus on Drama and making sure each major clan has it's own [[ADayInTheLimelight story mode]]. The ''Chronicles'' games covers a whole lot, while the Spirit of Sanada Spin-off focuses on the Sanada Clan, from their early days as a Takeda Vassal, to Yukimura Sanada's famed Last Stand in Osaka Castle.

** Since the fifth game is a SoftReboot that focuses on Nobunaga's and Mitsuhide's lives, characters who don't have any role with them or were too young at that time period, are cut off such as the SeriesMascot, Yukimura. However, the characters who are active in that time frame or have a connection to Nobunaga and Mitsuhide such as Keiji Maeda, Ranmaru Mori, Naotora Ii, and Gracia Hosokawa are surprisingly absent.

* AdaptedOut: The 2015 TV animated adaptation of ''Samurai Warriors: 4-II'' included most of the playable characters who are supposed to be in the later stages. However, the Shimazus and the Tachibanas are surprisingly absent in the show. Because of this, Naomasa is shot by Sakon instead of Toyohisa or one of Yoshihiro's men who were covering their lord's escape.

* ArtisticAge: For essentially the same reason as [[VideoGame/DynastyWarriors the parent series]], most of the characters' designs are meant to be either at their prime or at the earliest age they could potentially appear with only a few being older than that. This leads to cases like Hanbei looking extremely young compared to Kanbei, despite the fact that he's ''older'' than him, or Ieyasu looking as if he's the oldest of the Three Unifiers (in reality, he's 6 years younger than Hideyoshi and 9 years younger than Nobunaga). ''Spirit of Sanada'' avoids this for the most part because [[PlotRelevantAgeUp the plot actually follows Yukimura and others from infanthood to the day of his death]], but it is nevertheless still present with Kunoichi and Sasuke, both appearing in Ōsaka Castle looking not a day older than when they meet the Sanada brothers as children.

** Zigzagged with ''5'', which is a retelling of ''1''. While ''4'' took itself seriously, it still had some levity with how they portrayed their characters. In ''5'', Shingen and Kenshin's rivalry is less amicable, Magoichi is no longer the 'champion of the commonfolk' and a flirt, and the Mōri are far more arrogant than previous incarnations. The Siege of Mount Hiei, the battle that made Nobunaga infamous due to him burning down the Buddhist temples there, is also portrayed for the first time in the series. At the same time, ''5'' also brings back the hypothetical scenarios, and has its own moments of reprieve.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''4'' compared to previous games in the series, as it features only one story, and that is the historical route, so there's no saving of a character if they are doomed in a particular battle. As a whole, the series is darker than its parent series. While ArtisticLicenseHistory is employed, mature themes generally avoided in ''Dynasty Warriors'', including arranged marriages, explicit murders, and suicides are present here.
** [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness The first game]] in the series is specially designed to be this both in tone and theme. As it is meant to depict the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Demon King]] Nobunaga's rise to power, almost all stages are set in the nighttime (the most cheerful ones like Okuni's set in the afternoon at best). Castles are filled with traps and blades as if they are made to viciously kill anyone dare infiltrate. Also, certain characters' lower paths (like Hideyoshi) depict their hopeless situations in the war-torn Japan left by the Demon King himself.
** ''5'' manages to do so to every other series. Despite the darkness at ''4'', it was still mitigated with some funner, lighter characterizations of the character. In ''5'', characterization is a lot more subdued and some of the friendlier characters somehow had a more serious [[AdaptationalPersonalityChange personality change]]. Shingen and Kenshin's rivalry became more fierce, Magoichi is no longer the 'champion of the commonfolk' and a flirt, and we no longer have someone to brighten the mood like Gracia. Not to mention... they put in Mt. Hiei, that one event where Nobunaga historically showed just how ruthless he was and became one of the reasons why the trope DemonKingNobunaga existed. Basically, ''5'' is an attempt to be less of a kid-friendly ThemeParkVersion of the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod without going too overboard.

** ''5'' manages to do so to every other series. Despite the darkness at ''4'', it was still mitigated with some funner, lighter characterizations of the character. In ''5'', characterization is a lot more subdued and some of the friendlier characters somehow had a more serious [[AdaptationalPersonalityChange personality change]]. Shingen and Kenshin's rivalry became more fierce, Magoichi is no longer the 'champion of the commonfolk' and a flirt, and we no longer have someone to brighten the mood like Gracia. Not to mention... they put in Mt. Hiei, that one event where Nobunaga historically showed just how ruthless he was and became one of the reasons why the trope DemonKingNobunaga existed.

** There are also ninja mooks. As of ''4'', there are even officers with "Ninja Master" model and armed with Ninjato and have Ninjato movesets, usually from Sanada (alluding Sanada Ten Braves) or Hōjō (alluding Fūma Clan).
** In ''Spirit of Sanada'', the Sanada Clan has ''three'' officers with NonStandardCharacterDesign who story-wise are ninjas and gameplay-wise are armed with a Ninjato and have Ninjato movesets. Even better: one of these three characters is an elderly Ninja!

** In ''Spirit of Sanada'', '''[[UpToEleven plenty]]''' of generics under the Sanada, Takeda, and Toyotomi have unique design; to the point that the only thing that make them generics is their katana/spear/ninjato moveset. There are also some generics with unique designs outside these three clans.

* PunnyName: Non-comedic example, as well as a meta example. The Japanese title "Sengoku Musou" is a pun on "Sangoku Musou", the Japanese name of the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series.[[note]]Which was named "Shin Sangoku Musou" beginning with the second game ("Sangoku" refers to the China's [[ThreeKingdomsShuWeiWu "Three Kingdoms"]] period, hence "Sangokushi", or "Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms").[[/note]]
* ThePurge: [[BrutalHonesty To put it bluntly]], and regardless whatever the games' narration attempt to justify it, Siege of Osaka is effectively this to the Toyotomi (and, historicallly, to the Chousokabe remnants as well). In the scenarios where Tokugawa win (as they did in history), the narration always makes sure to let you know that the Toyotomi ended with the siege.
** To the Azai, it's Siege of Odani. Incident at Honnouji ''would've'' been this to the Oda, but only Nobunaga and one of his sons Nobutada died.
** The Honganji-Ishiyama campaign against the Ikko Ikki sect dating back in ''1'' also counts, as it showcased Nobunaga's foremost brutality. They never touched the event again afterwards.
* RedshirtArmy: Pretty much who you fight save for the occasional officers, most of which end up as merely EliteMooks at best.

* ScaryImpracticalArmor: A staple somewhat given this is common with the Warriors series in general. Naomasa Ii in ''Samurai Warriors 4-II'' is notable in that, while his helmet contains ''very'' tall and impractical vertical spires, said spires are ''less'' ridiculous than most depictions of his helmet.

* SerratedBladeOfPain: Ginchiyo Tachibana. All her weapons are barbed katana with a lightning motif.

* ShroudedInMyth: Meta-wise, this seems to be an occasional problem with story-telling in ''Samurai Warriors'' games. Unlike ''Dynasty Warriors'' that has ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' and more historically-accurate ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' as material sources, ''Samurai Warriors'' has very few historical informations as material sources, so Koei has to improvise a lot for many characters' story mode. On the flipside, this allows them many more leeways in depicting the period, since, without any authoritative accounts to keep track with, fewer criticisms can be thrown from purists regarding significant changes.
* SoftReboot: Well, technically every entry is one, but ''5'' is the biggest example with having a complete overhaul to the art style, character design, and even voice cast.

* SumoWrestling: "Assault Ninjas"/Sumo/Miscreants. They are bigger than any mooks and bigger than most playable characters, have plenty of health and their attacks (especially their dreaded palm strike barrage) can easily break through guards and deal some damage to players.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: This fluctuates with each game, but it keeps certain points very much intact - namely the deaths of Nobunaga, Mitsuhide, and Hideyoshi are always kept at when they're supposed to be, unless you're playing as them. However, a case can be said that this game takes a ''lot'' of cue from the Eiji Yoshikawa novel ''Literature/{{Taiko}}'' which gives a fair amount of good portrayals for the Three Unifiers (Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu) and why Hideyoshi continued to receive a good dose of HistoricalHeroUpgrade, like making him way more optimistic and not showcasing his latter megalomania, not to mention the Korean Campaign.

* WeaponizedBall: Ōichi has her EpicFlail kendama, Kanbei's {{Energy Ball}}s, and Yoshimoto's kemari ball.

* YouALLLookFamiliar: There are hundreds of generic NPC officers with nothing but names to differentiate them. Thanks to the way animations are handled in game, many of them also move in perfectly synchronized squads.
* YoungerAndHipper: Partially in ''5''. For the first time in series history, the game will feature the younger versions of at least Nobunaga, Mitsuhide and Nouhime in order to chronicle Nobunaga's days as 'The Fool of Owari' ([[VideoGame/KessenIII something Koei has done in another series before]]). Their new designs, however, remain faithful to their old design and isn't meant to cater to younger audience. They are younger, but not hipper.

* BroadStrokes: Most of the installments in the series cover the same story, i.e scope of history in chronologicl years, so most of the major events, particularly the three unifiers of Japan will happen in some fashion. What is different is the battles and particular characters emphasised within each title, samurai warriors focuses on Nobunaga with only vague allusions to the later era, samurai warriors 2 focuses on Sekigahara, samurai warriors 3 gives some extra focus to Kanto and earlier events in the timeline while samurai warriors 4 aims to give every clan and region an equal representation in the series, but there's no hypotheticals or individual character storylines this time around. Samurai Warriors 5 returns the focus to Nobunaga's timeline like the first game but takes it a step further as the Toyotomi and Tokugawa eras will not be represented at all and 5 looks to be more of a [[SoftReboot]].

* CastingGag: According to interviews for ''5'', the reason why Mitsuhide had Creator/HikaruMidorikawa as his voice actor from the beginning was due to the fact that the first part of Mitsuhide's name (Mitsu) has the same kanji as Hikaru (光), so they were kind of going for a pun. Likewise, the recasting of Nobunaga into Creator/NobunagaShimazaki was to [[InvokedTrope invoke the feeling of]] [[TheDanza "Nobunaga voicing Nobunaga"]]

The voice acting is goofy at times (witness Hideyoshi declare, "Let's make our enemies beg us for peace!" and badass Tadakatsu Honda's borderline lisp), and the difficulty encompasses downright stupid allied [=NPCs=] and enemy officers who love to gang up on you, but at least you'll learn a little something about Japanese history; just remember that Tokugawa Ieyasu did not actually fight the Battle of Sekigahara with a giant spear that shot cannon balls and doubled as a flamethrower.

* {{Flanderization}}: Par for the course with Koei and expanding character rosters.