Born from a collaboration between Omega Force, Nitroplus and DMM Games, Touken Ranbu Warriors is a musou who does not convince at all.
Started a decade ago with Gundam, Hokuto no Ken And ONE PIECEin recent times the trend of licensed musou packaged by Omega Force has become a real phenomenon, so much so that in a few years the Japanese series has ended up adapting to famous franchises of the caliber of Dragon Quest, The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem and even Person (Have you already read our Persona 5 Strikers review?). Waiting to be able to try our hand at the highly anticipated Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which we remember will land on the Nintendo hybrid on June 26, in recent weeks we have also put on the test bench Touken Ranbu Warriors however, discovering a listless musou, poor in content and definitely not in line with the most recent variations of the genre.
Predators of time and savior sentinels
Before even going into the analysis of the narrative system of Touken Ranbu Warriors, it is necessary to underline that the new proposal by Koei Tecmo Games is the result of a collaboration with the homonymous browser game developed by Nitroplus and published by DMM Games. Especially popular with young women, in Japan the Touken Ranbu brand achieved popularity in 2016, inspiring several animated transpositions in a very short time (for more information see the review by Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu). The protagonists of the series are the swordsmen “Touken Danshi”, or elite fighters – punctually good-looking – who have sworn to protect history from those who would rather rewrite it.
Drawing on the most popular characters that appeared in Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- and in the various souls linked to the franchise, Touken Ranbu Warriors tells of the exploits carried out by the fifteen swordsmen in a desperate attempt to obstruct the plans of the Revisionists. Following the sudden appearance of the so-called “History Retrogade Army”, the Touken Danshi left without a teacher are in fact recruited by the Time Government and sent in the Sengoku Age so that they can stop the revision of the story, restore order and above all restore the original timeline. Divided into five teams made up of a minimum of two to a maximum of four fighters each, the skilled Touken Danshi will therefore have to assist the leaders who lived in the period of the warring states and at the same time annihilate hordes of frightening creatures.
If in the past months the plot of Touken Ranbu Warriors had genuinely intrigued us, the final product has not proved very interesting, as it tells a botched and confusing story.
Not only does the title assume that the player already knows the dynamics and mythology behind the series (an assumption that could also hold true for the Japanese audience, but not for the European one), but the characterization of its numerous protagonists appears somewhat incomplete, also because in this round the dialogues that usually act as an interlude between one quest and the other have been reduced to the bone. Thanks to the extremely linear structure of the missions, which for some inexplicable reason do not have the typical secondary objectives of the genre, the title trudges and fails in the fundamental task of keeping the player’s curiosity alive for 8-10 hours just required to complete the campaign.
Back to the origins
Where the most recent licensed musou made by Omega Force have been able to innovate and evolve the brand’s original formula, Touken Ranbu Warriors has instead taken the opposite path, prompting us to suspect that product development has enjoyed a tight budget.
In addition to adding absolutely nothing concrete to a genre that has recently been able to renew itself several times (in this regard we suggest you reread the special on the combat system of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity), Touken Ranbu Warriors lacks the core mechanics of the Warriors, such as the capture of sectors. Not only the missions undertaken by the Touken Danshi do not have secondary objectives, but the maps in which these take place appear extremely contained and for some reason that we struggle to understand are not even divided into conquerable sectors. As a result, the assignments are reduced to the mere annihilation of a few hundred enemies and are completed in a matter of minutes, resulting extremely repetitive and almost identical.
Forgetting the devilry introduced, for example, in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk And Samurai Warriors 5 (here you can find the review of Samurai Warriors 5), the combat system of Touken Ranbu Warriors is back to the basics and this time it is reduced to mere compulsive button-mashing. After all, the sixteen playable characters they can’t even count on the now customary alternation between light and heavy attacks as the combos must be chained through the only standard assault available to the players.
On the other hand, the Touken Danshi tend to perform various special moves, performed both alone and together with the partner selected by the user: filling the Hissatsu barthe controlled character unleashes his true potential, overwhelming all surrounding opponents with a series of deadly blows, while the Partner mode allows you to trigger a special attack in pairs and aimed at hitting as many targets as possible.
In addition to the aforementioned, the swordsmen are also able to learn a whole series of techniques that can be performed individually, but which require the expenditure of the materials obtained at the end of the mission or in any case can be purchased in the appropriate shop. However, keeping in mind that resources are distributed with extreme parsimony and that in addition these are essential to increase the basic parameters (attack, defense, health) of the Touken Danshi, we have several reservations about Omega Force’s decision to limit the bonuses obtainable by simply leveling up.
The timid and not quite successful novelties of Touken Ranbu Warriors must therefore be sought in the “Duels“, that is the Quick Time Events that through the repeated pressing of a button allow you to overwhelm the opponent and finish him off with a lethal blow, and in the so-called”Souto mode“, which for a short period of time makes the controlled character literally invincible and grants him access to a different fleet of moves. Given the very low level of challenge that distinguishes Touken Ranbu Warriors, however, both solutions devised by Omega Force to vary a minimum gameplay they do nothing but further reduce a difficulty that has almost not been achieved.
Trapped in the distant past
Poor practically in every respect, Touken Ranbu Warriors certainly does not behave better as regards the technical sector. If on the one hand we appreciated the cel shading aimed at obtaining the anime style much appreciated by the fan of the Koei Tecmo Games franchise, on the other hand we have to report that the character design and the realization of the polygonal models – too edgy and technically outdated – leave a lot to be desired.
If we add to the already bleak situation just painted the dull and spartan textures of the landscapes, the woody animations, the always unpleasant pop-up effect of the enemies and last but not least an anti-aliasing filter that at least on Nintendo Switch struggles to carry out its dutyTouken Ranbu Warriors appears to be a decidedly out of time product.
The only applause that we actually feel to move in favor of the musou concern the soundtrack, which offered us reasons that were always adequate to the rhythm assumed by the fights, and the frame rate, which even in the most excited moments of the story he never showed the slightest hesitation.
Touken Ranbu WarriorsNintendo Switch Analyzed VersionGiving up the winning features boasted by licensed musou launched between 2020 and 2021, Touken Ranbu Warriors was lacking in every respect. The reduced longevity of the bone, the absence of secondary modes and mechanics capable of differentiating the offer a minimum, without forgetting a non-existent level of difficulty, make it a product absolutely not up to the current Omega Force standards. Therefore, for the most hardcore fans of the genre, we suggest that you be patient and launch directly on Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which in just a month will lead us back to the unforgettable continent of Fódlan.
