Samurai Warriors (series)

Overview
Samurai warriors is a spin-off game series of Dynasty Warriors, by Koei set in feudal Japan. The two games series cross over in Warriors Orochi. Lu Bu from Dynasty Warriors is present in the first Samurai Warriors game as a hidden boss.

Differences
While the basic hack and slash combat stays the same, there are several distinct differences in the two series, the most significant being the mission system, which gives the player objectives that can be accomplished to further the battle and gain experience and/or gold, which can in turn is used in a more rpg like leveling system which is simpler than the individual stat system in the Dynasty Warriors games. After activating a musou, you can either use your musou attack, or use freeform combos in a sort of bullet mode. The first Samurai Warriors was the first Warriors game to have capturable gates, a feature that was implemented into DW5. In the Second game, the ranged attack is replaced with a character specific "technique" that can vary from a powerful attack to a stat boost, depending on character. You can also fill up 3 musou bars, allowing the use of more powerful musous. Also, movesets differ, with some characters being able to charge only up to 3 attacks, but can charge them 3 times, others being able to charge once up to 7 attacks, and another like the first moveset, but only able to charge twice, and in exchange have a more powerful technique. Less notable diffrences include music fusing techno and traditional Japaneese instruments, the ability to jump on horses as well as horse stamina gauges, deflectable arrows, and in the second game a combo counter that counts total hits, as opposed to hits per character. Several of these features are being introduced into Dynasty Warriors 6

Character similarities
Many characters in the Samurai Warriors series are very similar to those in Dynasty Warriors Some examples are:
 * Lu Bu - (Disputed) Tadakatsu Honda, Keiji Maeda
 * Zhao Yun - Yukimura Sanada
 * Huang Zhong - Yoshihiro Shimazu
 * Cao Cao - Nobunaga Oda
 * Zhang He/Jiang Wei - Ranmaru Mori
 * Zhuge Liang - Mitsunari Ishida

Games
So far the Samurai Warriors series includes:


 * Samurai Warriors
 * Samurai Warriors: State of War
 * Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends
 * Samurai Warriors 2
 * Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends
 * Samurai Warriors 2: Empires
 * Samurai Warriors: Katana