Rescuing Kushinada from the Orochi should be a simple matter for a god…if you still had your powers! Was Samurai Bringer worth it?
Full disclosure: We received a review code for the Nintendo Switch version of this game. Rest assured that this will not affect the quality or candor of our review.
Table of Contents
Background
Samurai Bringer is a hack and slash roguelite with procedurally generated maps (they aren’t dungeons, per se). You travel through each map, fighting famous samurai from the Sengoku period and notable yokai. You can take the blue portals to keep fighting samurai and gathering resources, or you can take the pink portal to advance and face one of eight bosses. Defeat all the bosses, and you’ll face off against the Orochi.
While exploring, you’ll complete achievements, trials, and gather magatama from bosses. All of these grant permanent buffs to your character’s HP, stamina, and movepool, allowing you to create bigger, longer, and flashier attacks. You’ll also loot gear from fallen samurai or chests that provide a variety of useful skills.
What does Samurai Bringer do well?
I enjoyed the game’s aesthetic: the sprites are charming and expressive. The chiptunes didn’t impress me at first, but I realized that they’d grown on me when I caught myself humming them later. The game runs well on the Switch, and I only noticed a single bug.
Moveset Management
Samurai Bringer is a competent action title on its own, but the biggest feature of this game is the move builder. The game allows you to fully customize your moveset. Some games let you experiment with your character’s moveset, but not to this extent. Having full control fundamentally changes the way you approach the game, and it raises the bar for action titles as a whole.
The genius in this system is that there’s so much freedom in how to build. Your attacks change based on what you have equipped. If you need inspiration, you can also use the premade samurai that you’ve unlocked and copy their setups. The sheer amount of unlockable samurai (142) gives you plenty of opportunities to try out different movesets that you may not have thought of. My personal favorite? Hattori Hanzo.
Progression
There’s a steady drip feed of character improvement. Inevitably you’ll rack up a bunch of achievements and will be able to cash them in. In my case, I had a run that resulted in a whopping 100 SP. Suddenly, I was able to be a lot more flexible with my combos and didn’t need to duck out of combat as often.
What could Samurai Bringer do better?
I did notice a single bug during the Dodomeki fight. Fortunately, it didn’t result in any real loss of progress or frustration. It occurred when I pulled up my inventory as I killed its first form. I was unable to select any items or unpause. I reset the game and found that my run had autosaved at the beginning of the fight, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Possible Points of Contention in Samurai Bringers
Your moveset resets upon death. However, you can save specific moves to “Secret Scrolls”, which allows you to replicate a previous moveset quickly. Personally, I would have preferred a preset option that I could load instead of editing each move individually. You do lose your equipment upon death, but that’s to be expected given that this is a roguelite.
Realistically though, dying is only an issue early on. You’ll reach a point where your run will continue endlessly. For example, I slew the Orochi three times in a continuous run one evening after work. The difficulty doesn’t rise as you finish runs, so it’s more of a way to try out different moves, weapons, or skills. Unfortunately, players who are seeking a true endgame challenge may not find it here.
Was Samurai Bringer fun?
This game is a blast. This is the Samurai Warriors we never got. I had a great time, and my only regret is that there isn’t more of it. At this time, there aren’t any plans for DLC or any further content.
Is Samurai Bringer good value?
This is a relatively short game. You can complete runs quickly once you learn boss patterns and have high power moves. With that said, Samurai Bringer is priced competitively at 9.99, so the entry fee is more than fair.
You’ll defeat the Orochi long before you unlock everything, but part of the fun is going back and trying again with different weapons and builds. In my case, I had already squared off against the final boss before I even started running into enemies with uncommon weapons like the ninja swords or rarer scrolls like Subweapon.
Was Samurai Bringer worth it?
Samurai Bringer is a fun, innovative game that rewards system mastery. This title is a unique experience that draws upon a lot of genre staples and improves upon them. Innovation in action games is relatively rare these days, and it’s refreshing to see developers making content that stands out. Samurai Bringers is worth it.
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