Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada

Samurai Warrios Spirit of Sanada is, chronologically, "Samurai Warriors 5", but feels more like a spin off of Samurai Warriors 4, it's essentially a totally different game, but the designs and overall gameplay are very reminiscent of SW4. It definitely doesn't mean SWSoS is a bad game, not at all, I dare to say it's the best Samurai Warriors to date.

What's really charming about this game it's the unusual progression of the story, it's a very detailed tale about the Sanada clan, you get to play as Sanada Yukimura as a child, as a teenager and as an adult, something never ever done before. This title might not appeal to players not fond of Sanada, and I understand that, the focus is the Sanada and only them, although it's a very complete SW game and you get to play with EVERY single character up to SW4-II. You get some bits of story of other characters, but it always revolves around Yukimura, Masayuki, Nobuyuki or their allies.

A lot of generic RPG mechanics are inserted to complement the gameplay, there are multiple hubs, farming and fishing, scenarios to collect supplies, and so on. There's nothing really mindblowing in the gameplay, but it's different from other warriors games, and I quite enjoy it. It's not perfect, non regular missions get a little repetitive, they're always pretty much the same and develop little to nothing on the story, but I wouldn't call them a burden.

Story-wise, this is the best warriors game that I've played hands down, and I've played all of the Samurai Warriors, Warriors Orochi and a few of Dynasty Warriors. I was truly enjoying the characters, their bonds and interactions, I don't usually care for warriors story but this one was different. I'd say SWSoS is the SW game I'd recommend to everyone, especially gamers with no prior experience with warriors games, it's a complete and fun adventure, serving perfectly as an introduction to the genre.

Spirit of Sanada takes the Samurai Warriors 4 [戦国無双4] cast, and adds some new characters in order to focus the story specifically on the Sanada clan, specifically Masayuki and Yukimura.
At the start, this is really cool. The game starts much earlier than SW4 did, and Masayuki is fun to play as.

Unfortunately, as the game continues, Masayuki makes some decisions that make it hard to like him. Yukimura becomes infatuated with the absolutely unlikable Chacha, and a chunk of the game focuses on their relationship. Noboyuki, the superior brother, does not receive any focus.
Worse yet, between the actual battles, you will sometimes find absolutely terrible forced stealth segments. This is what made me drop the game near the end, especially considering the awful stealth segment I kept failing was only to speak to Chacha, a character I hated.

The worst thing is that none of the new characters for SoS made it into Warriors Orochi 4 [無双 OROCHI 3], so their movesets are stuck in this game for the forseeable future.
Don't bother with this game, just play Samurai Warriors 4 [戦国無双4] instead.