Touken Ranbu Warriors is a musou action game developed by Ruby Party and Omega Force, and published by Nitro Plus, DMM Games, and Koei Tecmo for the Nintendo Switch. In Warriors, battle against the ruthless History Retrograde Army with 15 of your Touken Danshi faves from Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- and restore the balance of history.

Game Details

• Genre: Musou | Adventure | Action
• Developer: Ruby Party, Omega Force
• Where to Get the Game: Nintendo Switch | PC (Steam)

Characters of Touken Ranbu Warriors

Key Features

• “Touken Ranbu” is in 3D at last. Witness the most beautiful graphics in the history of the WARRIORS series.
  • The Touken Danshi characters, which will be familiar to fans of the source material, rush about the battlefield in 3D.
  • In addition to the thrilling action you expect from the WARRIORS series, you can enjoy battles with a plentiful variety of animations, such as battling together with a partner and dueling.
  • Experience battles with the Touken Danshi that are both fierce and beautiful.
• The honmaru serves as the base of the Touken Danshi. Enjoy tons of special events and elements that can only be found in this title.
  • The Touken Danshi can be placed freely within the 3D-depicted honmaru, the characters’ base where they live.
  • Players can also see how the Touken Danshi are doing at the honmaru, as well as view original events unique to this title in which they interact with one another.
  • Between battles, players can take a break and enjoy mini-games such as “Pose Matching” and “Tag.”
  • Photo Mode, in which players can take pictures of the Touken Danshi , is also included.
• Easy Mode has been included, so even players who are less proficient at action games can control the game easily.
  • Two types of controls are included: “Regular Mode,” which features the control scheme traditionally used for the WARRIORS series, and “Easy Mode,” which uses controls for players less proficient at action games.
  • The latter only requires simple button inputs, so players will be able to enjoy the beautiful actions.

Touken Ranbu Warriors Review

I’m not gonna pretend like I’m super well versed in the Touken Ranbu series or Koei’s Warrior series of games. But, honestly you can definitely go into Touken Ranbu Warriors without having played either (it helps, but it’s not necessary). In Warriors 15 of the Touken Danshi are thrust through time without their master (Saniwa) and recruited by the Government of Time (I know it sounds stupid, but bear with me) to help them defeat the History Retrograde Army and protect the flow of history. So the bae blades are sent on a mission to the war-torn Sengoku Era by Konnosuke, the fox emissary of the GoT to restore the original timeline and maybe get themselves back to where they belong.

Head into battle with the Touken Danshi and face off against hordes of enemies. Each of the 15 Touken Danshi are split into five teams, each with a team leader. Teams have their own unique strengths and weaknesses in battle, so its pretty much up to you to decide which teams you want to level up and use. Partner up with other characters for special attacks, upgrade your warriors to maximize their potential, deepen bonds with special character interactions, and complete fun mini-games in the honmaru.

There are two versions of Touken Ranbu Warriors. The standard edition ($59.99 USD) comes with the base game, while the Deluxe Edition ($109.99 USD) comes with the following extras:

• Five honmaru backdrops (*1)
• Five additional music pieces (*2, *3)
• 16 uchiban outfits (*4, *5, *6)

Now, the nice folks at Koei provided me with a Deluxe Edition of the game, and I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I’m not sure if I can say extra music, backdrops, and outfits are worth dropping a hundred ten bucks (I wouldn’t). But, I suppose if you’re a collector, you might find merit in springing for the more expensive version.

Ridiculous plot aside, Touken Ranbu Warriors is a pretty standard hack and slash action adventure that even a serial button masher, like myself can fumble their way through the Regular mode. But, if you really want to kick back and ogle the cute boys without worrying about things like strategy or selecting moves, the Easy mode is probably perfect for most casual folks.

This mode gets rid of most of the difficult stuff like long range attacks and simplifies attacks to normal and special. Enemies are pretty much all leveled out, so big bosses have the same basic attack strength as faceless grunts. If you’re looking for a bit of a challenge, definitely go with Regular mode, but even that will prove pretty standard for most folks.

The biggest draw of Touken Ranbu Warriors is most definitely going to be the characters themselves. Fans of Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- are going to love seeing their bae blade faves in the sleek 3D renders. The Hissatsu attacks are really pretty to watch and close ups during the duels can be pretty cinematic, with sparks flying as your warrior clashes blades with an enemy. Also, bless whoever decided to let the Touken Danshi’s outfits take damage when they’re attacked–because, I love the bit of skin it allows me~ While dialogue in Warriors is pretty scarce outside of a bit pre/post-battle banter, the voice work is definitely really good, featuring a lot of well-known talent.

Touken Ranbu Warriors is pretty much baby’s first musou and that’s fine, especially for someone like me that mostly plays anime fighting games like Demon Slayer or One’s Justice and RPGs like the Persona series. For longtime fans of Touken Ranbu, they’ll enjoy spending a bit more time with their fave blades in this new adventure. But, contrary to what Koei Tecmo will have you believe, Touken Ranbu Warriors is not (and has never been) an otome game, so if you’re expecting extensive story elements and romance, this ain’t it. But, if you’re looking for a simple hack and slash with pretty boys and simple mechanics, definitely give Touken Ranbu Warriors a go!

Thanks to Koei Tecmo Games for providing a copy of Touken Ranbu Warriors Digital Deluxe Edition for this review.

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