The Samurai Warriors series has been around quite a while now. The Chronicles of the series are slightly different in that you play as a character that you create throughout the entire game, along with the other characters in the game.

Let’s start with your character that you get to create and it’s pretty cool to be able to create your own character. You’ve got a lot of choices for both male and female characters. There are 61 hair styles of pretty much any color, 21 different eyes, 9 noses, and 9 mouths. There are only 3 face shapes, but that’s not so bad since you can change the eyes, nose, and mouth. There are quite a number of different accessories as well, but you can only equip two at a time. You can also modify the body some, so it’s pretty easy to customize a character you will like.

Your characters will speak out loud and you can even customize your created character’s voice, but all of the spoken language is in Japanese. I still hate that while you’re in battle, you have to read what is happening while you fight. I feel like I miss a lot of the story while I’m trying to win battles, but I’ve gotten used to it since the previous games are in Japanese as well. The background music is pretty much the same as the previous games. It’s upbeat and a good sound to fight to, but if you don’t speak Japanese and are reading the text anyway, you can listen to something else if you want.

When you start up a new story in Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3, you will be prompted to create your character. After you create your character and get started, you will jump right into the story. You find out that Dosan Saito is your lord at the beginning. Dosan marries his daughter No to Nobunaga, whom Dosan favored over his own son for power, leaving his son to try and overthrow him. Nobunaga comes to his aid. You are one of Dosan’s advisors, along with Hanbei Takenaka. Dosan challenges you to support Nobunaga even after Dosan passes on. Of course, Dosan is going to die in the first battle, so your job in the game is to support Nobunaga, at least for now. You will find that you’re sent to fight beside a lot of different warriors.

After that first battle is over, you’ll unlock several things. There are conversations that you can have. The answers you give will affect how the other warriors feel towards you. You want their favor because you will need it, so try and make them like you. You’ll also unlock new battles. Some of these are variations of previous battles, but to do those, you’ll have to have a high enough favor with the warriors involved. After the first couple of battles, you will unlock the Castle Town, which is where you can shop, visit the tea house, invest your money, train, and fortify your weapons. It’s a handy place to go. The tea house will allow you to have parties with the other warriors and these parties will raise your favor with those warriors.

There are places you can go other than Story Mode. Over in Challenge Mode, you are given a specific set of goals and a time limit to get them done. You can compare your scores with other players in the Rankings. Once you complete the first challenge, a new one will unlock. You earn points for how well you did in the challenge. You can use these to trade for some pretty good items, so try and find as much treasure in the challenge as you can!

The Encyclopedia gives you a historical record of the officers you get to know so well in the game. While reading about their true historical character might sound a bit boring, their stories are fascinating, if you couldn’t already tell by playing the game. You can also read about the history of the battlefields that you are fighting over.

When you start up Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3, it asks you what level you want to play on. After that, you can still choose to play any battle on Easy, Medium, or Hard. In Challenge Mode, you can choose between Easy, Normal, Hard, or Hell. In battle, pay attention to the morale of an area or you could be in trouble. The morale shows as redder in areas where your enemy has more control. You can reduce their control by taking bases and killing off the enemy. While you are fighting, you will be given objectives and bonus objectives to try and accomplish. These are good to try and do as they will help you in battle since they will not only make your life easier, but they’ll give you bonuses.

At the end of battle, you earn EXP to level up your characters. The more bonuses you had, the more stuff you get. You’ll also get materials that you can use to fortify your weapons. You need to use the right elementals on each weapon to get things the way you want. You can really level up your weapons here rather than buying more or fusing them together like you did previously. You also earn equippable items. These can give you skills and abilities.

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 does a very good job of explaining all the controls to you in the first battle, but not all at once. They give you a chance to get used to each thing before giving you more, which is quite nice. For a quick recap, Left Stick to move, Right Stick moves the camera. (Square) for normal attack, (Triangle) is strong attack and (O) is musou. In a change from previous games, your "True Musou" attack will only be done when you activate your musou and are low on health. There is no gauge to fill for true musou. (L1) blocks (and re-centers camera behind you), while (R1) is a special skill unique to each character.

You will need to switch between your available characters to get to different places. You change characters by tapping the one you want to use on the left of the screen. You can use the (Start) button or tap on the map in the top right and then tap on your other characters to give them commands. It’s a very handy way of making sure everyone does what you want them to and when. Tap on your war art in the top left corner to activate it. War arts give special bonuses to characters. I find that I can count on the war art to help when I get surrounded by officers.

If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, then you know I am a huge fan of the Warriors series. Personally, I prefer them on the big screen, but I really love this one and I am glad it’s on a portable system that I can take anywhere. I like playing with my created warrior, but I still have the ability to play with the others as well. If you’re looking for another great hack n’ slash, check out Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 today!