Expeditions: Samurai

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: “The Game’s good, but…” First the good: This is a fun tactics game and an excellent RPG. Choices in dialogue are very impactful, and combat requires studying the map and your character’s kit if you want to win. You screw up a turn in combat and lose NPC’s you wanted to keep alive and they’ll stay dead. You can make decisions that seem like the neutral or even honorable option at the time, only to reap the consequences later and realize how stupid you were. It’s excellent narrative and gameplay design. The characters are also a lot of fun. The antagonists are suitably antagonistic. Your crew members are all nuanced, even the annoying ones. And the various backgrounders have enough character to make the world feel alive and interesting. The voice acting is also at an elevated level, though you can tell that not everyone is a native English speaker. But perhaps that last bit is more of a bonus, considering the setting. Combat is very similar to the previous “Expeditions” titles. Turn based tactics with a special focus on squad and equipment composition while using the environment for things like cover and flanking. Building your character is (somewhat) free form compared to previous Expeditions games. Your characters can train in and use whatever weapon and armor combos they want, regardless of class. Obviously there are more optimal builds, but the option to experiment is there, and appreciated. Make the Gunslinging Samurai you always wanted and charm or bully whoever you want. As long as you’re ready of consequences of course…Mua-ha-ha-ha! Also the music is awesome, A recurring trait in the Expeditions games. Now for the bad: This is very much an Early Access game. Weapons will levitate out of people’s hands, the stealth mechanics are functional yet janky, and the game commits some Cardinal RPG sins. Sometimes you can select individual party members to perform specific tasks which require specific skills. Perfectly fine. But you have to manually select them in order to do so. Annoying, still not so bad. But! There are several sections where your character will walk solo and you will be unable to select other party members for those tasks. This applies even when your party members are right next to a lock that needs picking, or a wall that needs breaking. This also, as far as I’m aware, applies to dialogue as well. So training companion characters in persuasion skills is useless, and since you only get so many points per level up, you can’t optimally spec your character to use all the available persuasion skills. This is compounded by the fact that skill checks are dictated by set levels, not by dice or percentage rolls. Think “New Vegas”. The problem is that New Vegas was big enough that you could, ideally, run around and do random tasks until you got enough XP and then come back when you had skill levels for a specific check. Or use items to buff yourself. You can’t do that in Expeditions: Samurai. So, I foresee save scumming becoming a favorite tactic. It’s certainly one of mine. None of these flaws are game breaking, but…they are very annoying. And I know that they’re enough for some people to quit. Lastly, some opinions: There are a few recurring complaints about the game so far. The biggest one is the art style. Nobody seems to like it. It’s more cartoony than Expeditions: Rome and reminds me of Civilization 6. That game took on a more cartoonish/stylized look compared to its predecessors, and received a lot of criticism for it. This is a similar situation. If you don’t like the look of the game, you’ll not want to play it. I’m neutral on this subject. The games isn’t ugly, and that’s all I need. BUT! I will say that the change, particularly the decision to use 3d character models instead of dialogue portraits, surprised me. Especially because the Character Art for Rome was so excellent. It reminds me of the difference between Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny, actually. The other big complaint is more direct: concerns over Authenticity. In Expeditions: Conquistador, you were a Conquistador. In Expeditions: Viking, you were Vikings. And in Expeditions: Rome…you get the point. In Expeditions: Samurai, people were hoping to play as Samurai. Instead, we play as a group of European Sailors on a mission to Japan. And you can, eventually, become a Samurai. That’s not what a lot of players were expecting, and whether you like it is up to your general interest in the setting/time-period. In 17th century Japan, interactions with European powers and the spread of Christianity were incredibly important. And the game makes a point of having you be a Privateer vessel with a dwindling crew of both Protestants and Catholics, on a mission for a Protestant Monarch, during a time of war between denominations. You get a microcosm of how that conflict coincides with and inflames the conflicts in Japan, as it did in real life. I think most people would be content with that, as a suitable vehicle for story conflict and drama, if it weren’t for on stand out issue: Samurai, in it’s current state, is not as good as Rome. The Expedition games are peak Historical FICTION. They create an authentic setting that puts you in the mind of the people living in that era, BUT there are also changes that, ideally, allow the player to game as they want. For example, in Conquistadors, egalitarianism was the accepted norm. Men and women served in roles equally. This was not the case in the real time period, but it allowed the player to do as they liked without much bother, at the cost of some historical authenticity. The same is true in Samurai, men and women are in whatever job or position they please. Save priest I suppose. This was not the case in the much-beloved Expeditions: Rome. If your Legate was a woman, you’d encounter all sorts of challenges that you wouldn’t as a man. And it was accurate to the time. You needed to be cunning and make the correct friends to get ahead. Making the struggle and therefore the game very personal and intriguing. This narrative seriousness, in addition to the historical authenticity, was present throughout all of Rome. So, in that way, Samurai lacks the bite, and the maturity, of its predecessor. Again, I don’t think this is a game breaking issue. Because the battles are fun to fight, and the story is still excellent. But I can see how people might Samurai is a step backward in quality. That’s all I got. Expeditions Samurai is an excellent, though imperfect, game. You should try it out.

I like the first 3, pretty sure im gonna like this one and leave a balancing review to all the scared snowflakes, that crawled out of their hidy holes to hate on things.

Never played an expeditions game until Rome. I was initially hesitant because, as an xcom fan, melee turn based games w/o cover destruction were hard for me to get into. When I started it, I couldn't put it down, the combat, atmosphere, voice acting, story, attention to Roman pronunciation, freedom to roam and get currency/components w/o time limits, etc., was awesome. I am hoping that this game achieves this as well, I haven't put much time into yet, but the main gripes I have are the clunky UI, especially the giant unit info screen when you hover over something (I didn't like this in the last game either, I prefer the "examine" button from DOS2 and BG3) and the tips in the left upper corner of the screen combo'd with tips on the right side of the screen. The combat seems good so far and is consistent with the prior titles. I don't really care for the art, it's different, but not terrible. The Ronin Shadow Tactics style of stealth gameplay is...ok so far. I know this is EA, so I expect bugs/a rough start, but I will give it a good review based on CC's prior successes and the state of the game so far.

Вы серьёзно? В Rome вы половину игры пытались обыграть женских персонажей, а тут прямо в лоб - капитан английского корабля в 1600 году женщина, да ещё и не белая. Положительный отзыв авансом

downgrading everything bring dishonor and shame expedition voodoo might not leave EA very sad I hope they survive and make another game GODSPEED

If your looking at all the comments and thinking "Why is this game like this is based on the previous titles" then stop. While it holds the namesake from other titles, It is its own living breathing title and should be treated as such. Its a good game, Maybe let it cook a little longer

It's an early access game and as such has some issue's but that is to be expected with an incomplete game. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, mechanics and graphics. I like the direction the product is going and am looking forward to see what else this product has to offer. Issues like bugs and amount of content are not things considered as this is not a review of a final product. If you are unsure about the product you lose nothing by waiting, but the company loses much from poorly thought out reviews. I would only recommend a person purchase ANY early access product if they are willing to accept that what they are getting in the short term amounts to snapshot of the final product.

Background: 400+ hours on Rome. Played Vikings twice. I actually kind of like the new art style, I don't mind that it's "not realistic". I like that the voice actors from Rome are back. It is fun and engaging and I have faith that the finished product will be good. However, there are some things I think need some serious work. Leveling is completely unintuitive due to the poor UI of the inventory/party management page. I want to be able to easily know my character's class and from that understand what kind of armor and weaponry they need, and all of their other stats etc., similar to Rome. Actually, if they just took the Rome version and made it Samurai colors and characters, everyone would be happy. Also I don't think changing from left-side clicking to right-side clicking makes sense and I don't prefer it.