Why Samurai Warriors 3 was… 

All this game needs is a simple remaster like Samurai Warriors 4 DX. Bundle the first 3 entries, along with the XL and Empires versions, all together and sell it for $60 on console and steam maybe next year while we're still waiting for DW10 and it will absolutely *SELL LIKE HOT CAKES!*

I remember being so hyped for SW3 as a kid. Yukimura's new design blew me away and I thought this new improvement in look was on par with Zhao Yun going from DW5 to DW6. And then I found out it was Wii exclusive lmao. I don't know what the fuck Koei was thinking but that was probably one of the biggest business blunders they've ever made. And then not bringing 3Z to the world was another shit-for-brains decision. I firmly think this entire 3 debacle was what killed the Samurai Warriors momentum in the west and why it isn't as remembered amongst gamers as Dynasty Warriors.

A major reason Samurai Warriors 3 Z did not end up in the west is the same reason a lot of the Warriors games were harder to come by then at the time. Back in the day if a game didn't have a English Dub playstation and xbox would refuse to fund them being published in the west physically. And I believe around SW3Z's time, Koei decided to stop funding the English Voice Acting and so they decided against publishing the other games in the west as it would of been forced to be digitial download only. This is evident because at the time DW7 Empires and Warriors Orochi 3 were effected and only able to be digitial downloaded in North America due to their Japanese only dubs. SW4 ended up being able to be released on PS4 physically cause right before Playstation finally dropped the need for physical games sound in America to have to have English dubs.

I remember SW2 as my very first ever musho game, to get that feeling again 😢

What really killed sw3 for me (the wii version) was the hit lag on attacks. It made the game feel so sluggish, even when using a Speed weapon, and it made higher difficulties absolute hell. The ps3 version is such a breath of fresh air. I prefer 3Z over SW4 and 5 anyday.

Subscribed! Please don't ever stop making these contents. Warriors series are my bread and butter until now for the last 15 years!

As someone who played this game on both the Wii and PS3, the PS3 version runs so much smoother in comparison. The graphics are obviously more beautiful to look at too compared to the Wii's PS2-ish textures.

I experienced the SW3 characters on Warriors Orochi 3 I jumped on this game far later than I should have, and it just felt so slow. I played a stage or two, and I just couldnt finish the game. I was severely disappointed at how bad it felt playing it

The person doing the voice-overs on this channel always sounds so serious! Would be fitting for game/movie trailers lol

I remember putting 500 hours into SW3 when i was a kid and only really getting into the rest of these games with WO3 and WO4 last year. It really was weird realizing just how harshly the wider community treated it. But looking back, the flaws it had are undeniable. But at the same time, even with those flaws, I’ll always hold SW3 very close to my heart

Personally, I really liked the game, it undoubtedly has the best stage design in the franchise in terms of its structure and missions; plus the soundtrack which mixes traditional instruments with techno music is awesome. It's a shame that the game's performance is so poor, and that the character animations are noticeably slower than in previous installments, making the characters feel very "heavy".

Wow I didn't know 3Z wasn't localized. I played that game for hundreds of hours on PS3 and thought that was the peak of SW series back then haha. Such a missed opportunity for Koei IMO.

I remember when this game came out how frustrated I was, because I live on another continent and I don't speak Japanese, much less English at the time. I only had the Xbox 360 so I never played that or Z. I went crazy when 3 Empires came out only in Japan and for PS3, I thought it was incredible. To this day I still hope to see a remaster on PC, today I have no more video games.

I was unhappy when this game first came out cause I didn’t have a Wii. I eventually got Samurai Warriors 3Z back in 2013. I liked it wish i kept my PS3 and it

My journey into Musou started with the Oversimplified Three Kingdoms video, which started my intrigue with the period. Then I found Dynasty Warriors 4 at a Disc Traders in 2022. Took some learning, but I loved it. I started mulling getting one of the Samurai Warriors games, but the reviews weren't the greatest. It was early in 2023 that my PS2 was dying, but you know what was still working? My Wii. I was doing an exchange at a now-defunct game shop when I saw a copy of Samurai Warriors 3 for the Wii, and I saw it was even GameCube controller compatible. I had to have it. Gameplay wise, it had a lot of good ideas. I never found it THAT clunky. Spirit Charge was a fun new mechanic. Having a sack of items saved me from having to scramble as much for items. Having different characters learn different combos is something that frankly should be explored further (and is the origin of C2 fully taking C5's old job). The weapons and elements were better balanced than in any other game of the series I can think of. The fact that EXP and drops persisted even if you lost meant I hardly ever used the Interim Save. 92 hours of gameplay on the nose later, I'd beaten all 30 story modes and quite a bit of the side content. Hanzo's cutscene "Creatures of Darkness" is my One Musou Moment. Looking back, the thing that really held SW3 back was the AI. Playing on normal, I hardly ever died. Far more often, my defeats occurred when the main camp fell. I quickly learned that you could pretty much never count on the main camp holding. That was still sufficiently fair that it just took learning new habits. Escort missions could be annoying due to the AI being trigger-happy, but those were few and far enough between to be a quirk. It was only when I got a fat PS3 and was replaying DW4 that I realized how bad the officers were in SW3. Each AI officer can only throw ONE combo, and because they're hard-coded for it to be either S or C1, it is hardly ever the RIGHT combo. My real question about SW3 is, "How much would even a LITTLE more work in that department have improved it?" Addendum: I was going to blame hardware limitations (which may be true), but what was the mainline game immediately before SW3? Dynasty Warriors 6, infamous for only having S and C1. If they wanted to get the product to a new system quickly, what better way than to copy the AI from the previous game whole cloth? And what are my least favorite missions in both SW3 and DW6? The "everything's on fire" missions, where I feels like I have to be everywhere at once because everyone's forgotten how to fight. Because they have.

In regards to SW3's sales; On top of the issues with the original version, it *probably* didn't help that the game was kind of....hard to find, especially in the US. Never so much as saw a copy back in the day, and the only reason I found out a SW3 existed back then was due to a video for the game popping up when I was looking for rare weapon guides for WO2

At least I experienced SW3 characters and their movesets in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate DE. SW3 should be on a better system platform.

This and DW6 Special are just a good game released on a wrong console(imagine if DW6 Special got it's HD Release on PS3/360).

It's hard to believe that Samurai Warriors 3 is slower than the original Samurai Warriors, which is already painfully slow

Funnily enough, I have no qualms with the lagging animations, at all. If anything, I see it as a confirmation I hit something. That being said however, I will definitely enjoy the 3Z even more since I like how smooth it can be in WO3U, and for more story modes. Here's hoping anyone care to translate it. While I do play it way later after DW7 was out on emulator, I genuinely love it. From the music, the characters' story, the costumes, and how it plays. Many says that it felt slow, but I find it satisfying when you play aggressively with using the dash move. Also, I've played all the story modes and I found all of them compelling, even the characters I dislike. Furthermore, when you are in a duel situation the AI will get aggressive, and I love it. The game's more colorful, which is the way it should be. I look at 1 and 2's stages and I just thought "The trees are not that grey, dammit". The voice acting here is also another thing I love, as it is more natural compared to previous entry. I have taken a look at 1 and 2, and while they're good, all of them felt rather wooden. Akin to if you are just pretending you are the character. For 3, it felt like the VAs have an understanding of each characters, and then voiced them with that in mind. For me, this is the best one when it comes to a lot of things, be it music, battle system, story, and the AI.

Noticed a minor point through cutscenes-It's awkward that SW3 Z still keeps the black bar subtitle even the resolution and graphics got better. It was until Empires Koei realized it and finally get rid of the black bar since some of the Toyotomi clan cutscenes were reused. If I make decision to release a SW3 Z with Empires collection, I would keep Murasame Castle as Switch/Switch 2 exclusive while rest of the platforms keep the Survival mode. Yup, Takamaru would be still playable in such scenario.

Seeing Sw2:empires mentioned gave me flashbacks to the days I'd be playing it all day. Good memories... I never got to play Sw3 but the designs were lovely. (specially loved Sakon Shimas). The opinion on if they had it on ps too it'd sell better. I'd agree... what a shame.

I think Samurai Warriors 3 on the wii is good, spent hours on it. The fact it showed Takamaru from Murasame Castle was a nice touch. This game alloed koei a d Nintendo to eventually partner up and create Hyrule Warriors and fire emblem warriors which are great on thr switch.

Honestly seeing how great the graphics were on SW3Z just makes me sad that Koei fumbled a global release of SW3Z with English dubs & subs Oh well

People might say that Samurai Warriors 3 on the Wii was a mistake, but without it being on the Wii, people like me would have never found out about this franchise (SW3 was my first warriors game), so while it's not the best SW, it did draw in new people to the franchise. Buuuut... at the same time, yeah, the fact it was an EXCLUSIVE it's the weird thing.

I did try to emulate this game when i was younger but no luck at it, i had to jump straight to samurai warriors 4, these days i still do play older games on my ps vita but it's hard to keep hands on a wiii just for sw3

I feel another issue with SW3 was it came out around the time Capcom released Sengoku Basara 3/ Samurai Heroes to the US which was a much faster game. From remembering my time playing both games as a teen, I always enjoy Sengoku Basara more just cause the faster gameplay and more spectacle battles.

I'll say it, if the PS3 version of Samurai Warriors 3 was localized and the gameplay speed was buffed up a bit to normal, it would have been the best SW game in the series. The costume design was probably the best in the series, the stage design was amazing, the music was top notch, the storytelling was fantastic and still mangled to highlight every character, and the side modes were among the best in any Warriors game. It just sucks because all of that is held back by bad performance on the Wii, sluggish gameplay, and bad graphics.

I have katana on the Wii. But my SW2XL is the prize of my warriors collection

Supposedly the improved versions of 3 on PS3 were fine, shame it was Japan exclusive.

I used to own a copy of samurai warriors 3 for the nintendo wii, it was sluggish to play. but I completed the game with characters and all weapons and items. I do think think this game deserves a redo, on newer consoles.

I don't even think you can find sw3 on the psn and that sucks as i never got a chance with sw3. Warriors orochi 3 got me caught up. Great video and keep up the great work

I've tried several times to get into the SW series but I always fall off. Massive fan of DW though. At least I get to enjoy the characters through the Orochi games.

I recently got sw5 without realizing it was even a thing and the game has sort of regressed in my opinion and I’m hoping they go back to the classics for future series

I love this game overall look and UI

I love older warriors games the most, i think they hit the right balance of insanity yet somehow more grounded not sure to explain it! Samurai 2 is one of the last games i feel had this vibe i found to dear and iv always wanted to play Samurai 3 since it looks as if it carries over what i like so much. its now easier then ever to play the best version of the game through emulation but im still being held back by the fact its not translated. with the use of technology now its much easier to translate thing's on the spot and navigate menus, but il never know what the character's are saying. and that is something iv always enjoyed a lot about these games. i will play it one day that's for sure. and Gundam 2 is the favorite in the series :)

So the Wii has killed more than just Tenchu? Woah 😮

i only played sw2 when i was 10 and now sw spirit of sanada when im 22. Wish that i dont miss something and i thought that the story is just the same while they just focus on each character of the series. Like nobunaga is the icon of sw2 and spirit of sanada..ofccc the sanada clan. But im surprised about masayuki tbh

Didn't own a Wii. Only SW3-adjacent game I played was Pokémon Conquest. I freaking love Mitsunari's appearance, especially with his evolved costume. Then again, when does he not look cool?

Johnny Yong Bosch aka Adam Park of the Power Rangers series, voiced Sanada Yukimura in two different Sengoku Jidai related video game franchises: the Musouverse of Koei Tecmo (the first two Warriors Orochi games and Samurai Warriors 3) and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara series aka Samurai Warriors on steroids.

I like your videos a lot! Keep at it!👍

I played SW3 Z on psp emulator. That was the second SW game I played after SW2. The only minus of this game is that only wii version has english localization. I really liked. Though SW2 for me the best, SW3 is the second

I was wondering about it when I was starting to be curious about the Samurai Warriors series. First two are on PS2, but where was the 3rd entry? Later, I found it was ported to the Wii platform, and I could not afford buying the Wii console AND the game. So I gave up, and jumped to Samurai Warriors 4 which was released on PS4. Now, I know from this video. Thank you for pointing out, and explain them.

I would've played this game if I could've found it, for some reason I just never could find a copy during when I'd play Wii a bunch.

I haven't watched this video yet, but I wanna say I'm a massive fan of the Warriors franchise, I've been playing DW since i could hold a ps2 controller, but SW3 is one of the few main Musou games I've never played and its solely because its on the Wii. If I could play it anywhere else, I'm sure I would've played it as much as I played the first 2, but the fact its exclusive to the Wii pretty much makes it inexistent and almost feels like a Goat Simulator situation where they just skipped the second game and went straight to goat sim 3. Obviously they didn't do that in SW case, but its what it feels like.

Would love to see you do a DW5XL Xtreme mode playthrough, or even just talk about it. Feels like it was doing rougelite well before the genre became its own thing

I remember playing SW3 once and it was 5/6 years ago. I still have it. But I haven't played it since the first time I did years ago. Don't get me wrong. It's a good game. But it was released on the wrong console.

I only recently played through a short bit of SW3 via Dolphin a couple months back after pouring several months' worth of time into SW2, and oh man, were the differences _swift and brutal._ Not only did it play slower (and also in 30 FPS compared to SW2's 60), but the objectives overhaul, lack of Morale system, and uneven difficulty made it hard to enjoy. I also found the overuse of the pan flute in the music to be a bit grating personally. A shame too, since I do really like a number of characters and designs this entry brought (with Kai at the very top), the UI aesthetics, and certain mechanics such as the Spirit Charge to specifically counter blocking enemies! (something I grew to despise after playing 2 for so long) I think Warriors Orochi 3 is a better introduction to the SW3 cast than their own game, IMO.

What a waste its actually a very good game and now it's locked behind hardware that is no longer on the market I hope KT re releases it

I'd even buy this game now if it were localised. Imagine SW3Z and SW3E was localised, I'd preorder that shit instantly - its a shame I missed out. I tried SW3 on emulator but the performance was not to standard.

couldnt play sw3 due to exclusivity i enjoyed sw1 and sw2 first experience to sw3 characters was through warriors orochi 3

Having sw3 on pc was a dream i wanna have, because dont exit from wii and the psp versión wasn't never translated so yeah evem if this colecction is trash as long we have sw3 on pc is a win for me

SW is superior to DW. The characters were uniquely distinct, introduced better mechanics and storytelling.

It really is a shame how this turned out, why didn't they just use what they had from the PS2 games and build off of that for the Wii? it's just a souped up gamecube and that was already more powerful than the PS2, heck, why not just put it on PS2 and Wii at the same time? it's just a mess. As for my experiences with this game, well I'm more of a newer fan of the Warriors games, (I got into this series with the Hyrule Warriors games) I've been going back to the older/newer ones and this is one of those that I did want to play quite a bit because of Murasame Castle mode, and when I found it the copy didn't work, even after I took it in to fix it, it just froze on the data selection screen, and then when I found a second copy, it also didn't work, it got farther but after the intro cutscene of Yukimura's Muso mode it just crashed, and it didn't work the second time I tried it so both times I've bought this game is hasn't worked, which is apparently because of the format older Wii games were printed on, because for some reason the gold Wii disc's (I don't know the actual term for those) are almost impossible to fix, so it's also a coin toss on wither or not you'll actually find a working copy these days as well, so I still only have one working Samurai Warriors game, which is Chronicles 1 for the 3DS. (it's an enjoyable game from what I've played though, I like it)

Agreed!

I had to skip it since i never had a Wii and when i was playing Warriors orochi 3 i was like who the hell are half of these people

There’s nothing wrong with the hardware. Wii is more powerful than PS2 by a good bit. Its just poor optimization/utilization by Koei

Yeah the wii hardware is the main problem its literally a revamped gamecube with a slight boost meaning ps2 era hardware in the PS3 360 era its no wonder it was awful lol

I wanted to forget about this one.

I still liked SW3 though.

Waste of Johnny Yong Bosch. This one really killed the possibility of us getting another dub for the series. Which is a shame cause I like the warriors dubs.

I began to remind myself why this game didn't release for PS2/PS3 like DW6 does. Never mind the characters' design and story, the gameplay was a bit sluggish and failed to pick up a pace like its predecessors do. Good thing that SW3Z was released later, but it is still shameful that Koei didn't release the international version. But regardless, I still enjoyed and loved both SW3 and later SW5 as the latter remind me of the former since they are the revamp of the series.

im a warriors fan and i do collect these type of games cant find them al but i do have Devil kings PS2 samurai warriors 2 empires PS2 dynasty warriors 5 PS2 warriors orochi 2 PS2 dyansty warriors empires 6 PS3 dynasty warriors 7/empires/xtreme PS3 dynasty warriors 8/xtreme legends PS3 samurai warriors 4 and 4 II PS3 warriors orochi 3 PS3 basara samurai heroes PS3 sengoku basara 4 PS3 one piece pirates warriors 3 PS3 dragon quest heroes 1 PS3 dynasty warriors gundam 3 PS3 bleach soul ressuraction PS3 kamen rider batride war 2 PS3 fist of the north star kens rage 2 PS3 warriors orochi z PS3 dynasty warriors strike force PS3 gintama rumble PS4 warriors all stars PS4 warriors orochi 4 utlimate PS4 arslan the warriors of legends PS4 samurai warriors 5 PS4 persona 5 strikers PS4

Ah yes Nintendo... Always nintendo.. Fuck nintendo..

It's quite tragic the developers spent so much time, effort and creativity to create what could've been the best Samurai Warriors game, then Koei went on and did all that, making it near possible to access. I won't claim to know how everything works. But how hard can it be to just let people play your damn game, you created, why stop people from playing it, is the effort put in localization and porting to different consoles really greater than the millions of copies you could've sold? They didn't even need new voice acting since subsequent games didn't do English dub anyways, so they could've just released XL and Empires without English dub, just translate the menus dude, how hard can this be?!

Sengoku Basara

I agree, bro! Samurai Warriors 3 pretty much fell off! If it was released on the Xbox and the Playstation, things would be a lot better for Koei

Sw3 and Dw7 is my least favorite characters design in the series.

1st comment.

they got their shitty warriors orochi 1-2 dub

Well at least I got samurai warrior 3 z