Touken Ranbu Warriors review: An enjoyable Musou experience filled with anime boys

The latest Musou game from Koei Tecmo is Touken Ranbu Warriors and stars the handsome anime sword boys from the Touken Ranbu series. Fans familiar with the Samurai Warriors franchise will see some familiar names but not character models.

While the characters in Touken Ranbu Warriors are attractive anime boys, the character models of the world around them are more subdued, closer to what one would expect in a historical drama.

I found Touken Ranbu Warriors to be an enjoyable playthrough as someone who loves the Musou games, even if it felt kind of on the short and easy side. Stages were not the 30 min - 1 hour epic crawls I was used to, but that’s okay.

Touken Ranbu Warriors combines anime sword-boys and hack ‘n’ slash action

Touken Ranbu translates into “Wild Dance of Swords” and is a free-to-play CCG (collectible card game) browser game. It initially launched in 2015 in Japan and hit the global audience in April 2021. It’s a popular franchise, in particular with young women.

The game combines the familiar hot anime sword boys (Touken Danshi) from the franchise with the familiar Samurai Warriors/Musou gameplay engine. Players will take command of a character, pick a partner, and journey across time.

The primary story of this game is that there is a demonic force trying to temper with time: The Historical Retrograde Army. They’re causing chaos in the time stream, and it’s up to animated swords to do battle and correct the flow of time.

What makes this interesting in Touken Ranbu Warriors is that the characters occasionally have to do things they may disagree with, all in the name of the timeline. This includes story moments during the Date Masamune chapter.

Date Masamune’s historical timeline led to the warlord failing to unite Japan, and several actions could have been taken to correct that. Instead, the heroes have to set up the fall of Masamune.

It’s easy to get into Touken Ranbu Warriors and is a genuine blast to play. It also has an easy mode that makes using special attacks and combos easier, but to be honest, the game is also pretty easy on its own.

Combat is straightforward to get into but maybe a little over the top

Like all games in this franchise, the combat’s pretty simple to get into. You have a basic attack and a strong attack, which are the various special moves a character has access to.

There’s also the “Hissatsu” attack, which is the character’s ultra-powerful Musou moves. They can dodge and summon a partner to tag in and help out.

Touken Ranbu Warriors is the same combo system as before: use several normal attacks and follow up with special hits to activate the big, flashy abilities. Players can also equip a set of special attacks to trigger on-demand.

The game has a very in-depth tutorial for beginning players, but I wish there were an option to skip it. While the game is easy, there are difficulty levels to turn up to give it more of a challenge.

One of the only problems I have with the combat is the actual special attacks and Hissatsu abilities. I love how over the top the attacks are, though, don’t get me wrong.

They look amazing and are satisfying to use. The problem lies in that it’s not clear who the attack is hitting. Unlike other Musou games, the character enters a cutscene, and then when it’s over, the damage is dealt to whoever is in range.

I love these attacks, but I had many moments where I wasn’t 100% sure the target was in range at all. Moreover, players can also summon their partner when the Souto Gauge fills up (pink meter on the left side of the UI). Doing this makes the player temporarily invincible and changes their special attacks.

The home life and the power of bonds

In Touken Ranbu Warriors, it’s not all about simply diving into battle and nothing else. The Honmaru (home base) has activities to take on. Players only control one character at a time, so to help grant EXP, they can station characters in the various parts of the Honmaru. This builds bonds between characters and gives EXP.

Bonds are so important in this game too. As characters team up or are stationed together at the Honmaru, they build up a bond with each other. This adds new conversations to see between the characters, but more importantly, it helps combat!

There are quite a few options for players to peruse in Touken Ranbu Warriors when it comes to the Honmaru (Image via Koei Tecmo)

With a high enough bond, Partner Follow-up and Partner Counter can be used. This will allow the partner character to occasionally follow up your attacks, and it’s instrumental. The Honmaru also sometimes has post-battle mini-games to take part in.

These vary in mechanics, from matching poses to gathering items in the garden or even making mochi and onigiri. These can also help make some gold and materials to upgrade characters in Touken Ranbu Warriors.

Upgrading characters is tedious and mediocre

This was probably my least favorite part of the entire game. There are crafting materials to acquire in the game, and through these, players can upgrade their characters’ stats and unlock new special skills to equip.

On its face, this is fine. It’s the same stuff for every character, though, and it was a little bit of a disappointment. Purchasing the materials for gold is too expensive for too little gain, so save that on buying equipable items instead. Each character has several tiers of skills and stat improvements that progressively get more costly.

I don’t hate the system, but it is a drag when it comes to grinding materials in Touken Ranbu Warriors. Players can’t use every character in every battle and are only given, in most cases, a few characters to choose from. So it will be up to the player on who to focus on at any given time.

The gameplay loop is certainly a joy

Each chapter focuses on a particular moment in time, and players will dive into several battles in relatively short stages. For the most part, they’re simple, hack ‘n’ slash stages, but they also added something pretty interesting.

Some stages have an “Investigation” aspect to them. This makes the stages far more interesting. Instead of just running to the end, fighting the foes with an exclamation mark by them, they have to explore and figure out the proper way to go.

Occasionally, the wrong thing will lower the Investigation Meter too. Once it’s at 100%, though, it’s time to finish things up.

There are also stages involving stealth or escorting historical characters in Touken Ranbu Warriors. It's important to pay attention to what's said in battle, too, because the most important thing is to defend the timeline and keep events as they should be. That's one thing I love about the Investigation stages.

If you complete it without a 100%, you have to do it again, but there are hints to use this time. Konnosuke, the magical fox that animated the Touken Ranbu boys, does not have all the information. So, with failure, we learn what is necessary to succeed.

There's a little fanservice in Touken Ranbu Warrior's combat too. If players take too much damage (around a quarter of the health bar), their clothes will shatter, showing off a little skin.

In Conclusion

Touken Ranbu Warriors blends the concept of handsome sword boys with the Samurai Warriors gameplay in an incredible way. Some fans might be disappointed that the Samurai Warriors characters look a bit ordinary, but that could also help the playable characters stand out more.

It’s a unique concept among the Musou games, and I had a blast playing it. I prefer longer, more detailed stages in my Musou games, but this worked just fine. There were little things that frustrated me, but the gameplay was fun, the characters all looked fabulous, and their attacks were fantastic.