Remember that this is a dynamic reader-ranked list that re-orders automatically depending on each game's rating in our database.
In order to rate any of the games on the list below out of 10, logged-in Nintendo Life users can simply tap the 'star' and assign each game a personal rating. Enjoy!
The Warriors series might have taken its time taking off in the West, but over the past few years there's been a mainstream Musou explosion, with more gamers than ever before discovering the delights of hacking-and-slashing hundreds of foes at once, slicing your way around a map controlling crowds while capturing and holding forts, and generally commanding the playfield while dealing colossal amounts of pain to wave upon wave of grunts.
Developer Omega Force's birthed the Musou genre with the Warriors franchise — comprised not only of the original Dynasty Warriors line (itself a spin-off from Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms) with its Xtreme Legends and Empires expansions, but also Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi (the latter a Dynasty X Samurai crossover series), plus the many 'guest' IPs that have enjoyed Warriors 'crossover' outings and ushered in a new era of mainstream popularity for the genre. The One Piece: Pirate Warriors series, for instance, has four entries at the time of writing (two on Switch), and Nintendo-wise we've seen two Zelda-based Hyrule Warriors games and a brilliant Fire Emblem, too. No, two!
We recently asked Nintendo Life users to rate the Warriors games they had played, and the ranking below is the result. Remember: this list is not set in stone. Registered Nintendo Life users can still click on the stars below and rate the games out of 10, and watch as the ranking alters in real-time according to each game's score in our games database — so even if you missed the 'voting' stage, your scores will still count and can potentially influence the order below.
Other studios besides Omega Force have taken on the Musou mantle, too, and we decided to add Marvelous' Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star and Fate/Extella Link into the mix below; they may not be Omega Force-developed Warriors games — much like Persona 5 Strikers — but they're both fine exemplars of the Musou experience. Don't think they should be there? Just mentally remove them from the list and the order remains just as valid.
Okay, ready to go? Let the battle commence!
Note. We've only included Musou games released in the West, so no Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, Samurai Warriors 4 DX, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, or the Japanese Switch launch game Dragon Quest Heroes.
16. Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires (Switch)
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is a poor Switch port of a disappointing entry in the long-running spin-off series. This is a hugely downgraded version of the game, with seriously dialled-back visuals failing to put a stop to consistent frame rate issues during the heat of battle. With a lack of gameplay modes, zero multiplayer options, terrible AI and cosmetic customisation options gone AWOL at launch — Koei Tecmo choosing instead to go the DLC route — this is a truly lacklustre package, a bargain bin affair with a premium price tag, and a Dynasty Warriors game you can feel quite comfortable skipping entirely.
15. Touken Ranbu Warriors (Switch)
Touken Ranbu Warriors is a game best suited for players with little experience with the Dynasty Warriors series in general. If this is meant to appeal primarily to fans of the free-to-play games – with far lower expectations when it comes to action games – as a great big slice of Touken Danshi fan service, this will be a great addition to their collection. For players less versed in the world of Touken Ranbu, this is a much harder sell, offering a rote, repetitive game loop that does little to slake your thirst for a more meaningful, evolving game experience. This criticism could arguably apply to all of the Warriors games, of course, but where the bigger license-based games add to the formula, Touken Ranbu Warriors feels like a distillation. In a lot of ways and for certain audiences this is perfectly fine. The Dynasty Warriors machine churns out a well-oiled, refined and polite product; the video game equivalent of a Honda Civic. But even with a well-loved product as reliable as that, there comes a point when it's just time to get with the times.
14. Warriors Orochi 4 (Switch)
It’s not for everyone, but Warriors Orochi 4’s multitudinous hordes can be pleasurable to sweep through, despite the game feeling by-the-numbers in many ways. This is simply more, and while fans might be able to forgive the bland presentation, we’d wager that non-devotees would have a much better time with the Zelda or Fire Emblem spin-offs – with the characters, settings and accoutrement you know and love helping to temper the monotony when you’re not quite ‘in the zone’.
13. Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star (Switch)
A real treat for anime-action fans, Fate/EXTELLA is a lovably frantic affair with a feeling all its own. Developer Marvelous created appealing characters and an irresistible sense of style draw you into its world, plus addictive, satisfying gameplay and excellent writing to keep things exciting throughout. It suffers from some common ailments of the Musou genre, like minimal enemy variety and subpar AI, and it’s far from a technical showcase for the system, but if you’re looking for a fun, fast-paced slash-‘em-up — or to seriously complicate your relationship with one of Rome’s most infamous sons — Fate is a perfect choice.
12. Fate/Extella Link (Switch)
The nature of the genre makes it pretty tough to do a Musou game wrong, but it’s also rather difficult to do one that’s truly right, providing an experience that’s capable of rising above the repetition and relatively easy difficulty. Coming from Xseed and developer Marvelous (not Koei Tecmo and Omega Force), Fate/Extella Link manages to do just that, including all of the trappings of a Musou outing while sprinkling in a handful of fun, engaging, or creative changes to the overarching design and style to escalate this release a bit above the competition (and certainly above its predecessor). If you’ve never much been a fan of mindless hack ‘n’ slash games, this is a great way to test whether this genre is for you. If you consider yourself to be a Musou nut, this is one of the best distillations of the concept we’ve yet seen.
11. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate (Switch)
Warriors Orochi 4 was a solid, if uninspired, Musou game and this 'Ultimate' edition fleshes things out with some new characters and modes, significantly beefs up the story and tweaks the central gameplay here and there. However, the additions that have been made sometimes feel like the least amount of effort that was possible. The new playable characters, although fun, are pretty much slapped in without any fanfare, new weapons don't even have unique skins and Infinity Mode feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate is definitely an improvement over the vanilla version of the game – and absolutely the way to go if you're keen but have yet to pick it up – but it's also a rather disappointingly small one that comes at a pretty steep price for loyal fans who are forking out to upgrade from the base version.
10. Samurai Warriors 5 (Switch)
Samurai Warriors 5 takes the long-running franchise, gives it a wonderfully vibrant lick of paint, throws in some excellent new combat mechanics and fills its story mode with well-directed cutscenes, resulting in a slick and stylish addition to the series that's sure to please fans and newcomers alike. Yes, it makes a few fumbles here and there - we aren't fond of its grindy system of upgrading your Dojo and Blacksmith, it limits your character choices at times in the campaign and that stripped back roster is sure to irk some - but, overall, what's here is a fine addition to the Switch's line-up of Musou titles. This is a fast-paced, flashy hack and slash effort that looks and plays fantastically well and, most importantly, performs almost perfectly whilst doing so.
9. Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition (Switch eShop)
While it might seem odd that in 2018 Omega Force opted to port the then five-year-old Dynasty Warriors 8 over Dynasty Warriors 9, it was the right decision for Nintendo Switch owners. Not only was Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition the best version since Dynasty Warriors 5, it came to the hybrid platform offering more stable performance than the versions that once graced PS3 and Xbox 360. Even when its frame rate takes a knock when playing co-op, it’s a remarkably robust port boasting an obscene amount of content fresh out of the box.
Comments 61
That looks about right for me. Most of them I never played. Just the hyrules, persona 5 s and empire. There is nothing like being one person and taking out hundreds of enemies at once. But I won't be playing too many because that can get old with this many games.
The only change I would make would be swapping Persona 5 and Fire Emblem Warriors, other than that it's a solid list.
The work done on P5 Strikers and Age of Calamity is commendable. The Warriors series really seems to hit a stride with these crossovers, that really show the highlight of both series involved. Although I do have a soft spot for the Samurai Warriors games.
Persona 5s should be second on that list.
Samurai Warriors 5 deserves to be higher, it's a great game. I just think not enough people played it to rank it properly.
Never got into this subgenre, all the games in it looked like clones of each other to me. If I were to try to get into this I wouldn't even know where to start since it's hard to differentiate the warriors games with actual effort and just the cash grab reskins.
Yep, looks about right. I'd put Persona 5S second though, and most of the other ones I haven't played because of how terribly reptitive these games get without something to drive me forward. I tried one of the samurai titles and found it dreadful to play, but AoC, P5S and One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 showed me this style of game can totally be my thing. I even 100%'ed AoC to my own great surprise! Definitely more hit than miss but when they hit, it's a glorious time.
@iLikeUrAttitude That's because they are all clones of each other. Nothing but boring button mashing.
Have never tried those Fate games. May try them later on.
Seems like a reasonable list. Just one month until Three Hopes.
I still like FE and the original Hyrule Warriors better than Age of Calamity. There's soemthing off about that one - maybe the character variety that is a bit lacking.
sorry but for me persona 5 it's n.1
And yet the Switch doesn't have a port of my favorite musou game, Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2. However, I do own most of the games listed, sans DW8 & DW9. Also, still no word on a western release for Dragon Quest Heroes I & II? Japan got those at the Switch's launch.
One Piece is my favorite thing basically ever and even the One Piece paint job can't get me to enjoy a musou.
Seriously, anything but Zelda/Persona/Fire Emblem are meaningless in this list. P5S is great, but I prefer the Steam version. Among these 3 I think the order is not important, but I would not give that huge gap between any of them. They all deserve a 8.5-9 for me
Age of Calamity (to explore the lore of BotW)
Fire Emblem Warriors (for the more Polish gameplay)
Hyrule Warriors (for setting what should be a Warrior game ith a Nintendo franchise)
No way One Piece 4 should be so low.
Age of Calamity IS my favourite.
@iLikeUrAttitude the boring gameplay is just to waste time while you delve into the real meat-and-potatoes of the series: trying to differentiate one title from another!
Think of it like those, compare these photos and see if you can spot the difference, games. Only each new photo costs $60
I think Pirate Warriors should be higher, but then again I've only played that, FEW, & the first Hyrule Warriors.
Age of Calamity's gameplay was ok, and the soundtrack was good, but the story personally missed the mark for me. It wouldnt've been so bad if it wasn't for the false advertising. The way they went about marketing the game was incredibly misleading in terms of narrative. Interesting to see it place first. I'm happy that so many people enjoyed it.
I'm sorry but Fate/Extella: the Umbral Star was awful. It's not a good example of this genre at all. It might be enjoyable to established fans of the franchise, but I don't recommend it at all to anyone else. No idea how it rated so highly here.
My eight favorite Musou games for Nintendo platforms
Mystic Heroes
Samurai Warriors 3
Samurai Warriors Chronicles
Hyrule Warriors
Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate
Samurai Warriors 5
Fire Emblem Warriors
I suspect this ranking is also a reasonable ranking for 'have you ever heard of this game'.
@Maulbert I've only played Fire Emblem Warriors so can't say anything about the rest but FEW was not just button mashing. There was a decent amount of strategy involved.
Not surprised by Age of Calamity's position, it's clearly been a massively popular success, but... I don't really get the love for it, personally. The original Hyrule Warriors is incredible, I nearly 100%'ed it on Wii U and am working on doing it again on Switch. I was cautious about Age of Calamity because I prefer Musou crossover games to be full-franchise celebrations rather than specific to a single entry (which is why I'm disappointed about Three Hopes — I've been wanting a Fire Emblem Warriors 2 with wider game representation so badly). But Hyrule Warriors is one of the best Musou games I've ever played, basically the king of Musou gameplay, it feels SO good to play, super snappy and exciting, easy to dive into but with real depth if you want to master it. Age of Calamity... is not that. Massive maps with huge chunks of downtime (the maps themselves are multiple times larger than any in the original HW, but have less than half the number of enemies usually), much more sluggish and less-responsive combat mechanics and gameplay, and even on the lowest difficulties ordinary lieutenants have just way too much health, it becomes a slog because they can't do anything to you, just a damage sponge. And runs into the same issue that Breath of the Wild had — enemy variety is sorely lacking. I completed the main story and then had zero desire to continue. The story is neat, the visuals are stunning, the characters and gameplay CONCEPTS are super interesting, it just feels remarkably less polished than the original Hyrule Warriors, and the fun factor is a shadow of the first game.
Would be very interested to hear from more people who have played both games about what makes them love Age of Calamity so much. Not saying you're wrong, because so much of the fun of games is a matter of taste, so I'm just really interested to see what's different for others that just didn't click with me.
@roboshort
Agreed. Compared to the FE games releasing that year (Echoes and FEH), Warriors was actually fairly strategic at points.
The only flaw with Fire Emblem Warriors is a pretty big one - only maybe a third of the roster, including DLC, is unique. If not for that it'd be an amazing game.
I'd love a localization of Dragon Quest Warriors for the West!
To me, Hyrule Warriors DE is better than AOC. I approach the Warriors franchise the old-school way, as a celebration of whatever its games are inspired from, and DE definitely hits that mark with its all-star roster, among other things. That, along with AOC's performance issues and (in my opinion) multiverse-style mangling of BOTW's story, makes DE the clear winner in my book.
"HEY WARRIORS COME OUT TO PLAAAY!!!"
I did not expect Age of Calamity to take number 1. Even as a super big fan of the game, I thought that game was hated enough to not make it up there.
But what REALLY took me by surprise is how Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition overtook Persona 5 Strikers, by just a 0.09 rating. As beautiful as the first Hyrule Warriors game, it does NOT get anywhere as creative as Persona 5 Strikers. I really believe P5S deserves to be on the same level as AoC, given how far away the gameplay has strayed from your typical Musou title and how it effectively did its utmost best to fit in with the franchise.
This list just make me want sengoku basara in switch. c'mon capcom, just port the original ps2 basara.
@TheBladeOfRoses because they are not good ports
@calbeau Agreed! Both are pretty solid spin-offs, but DE is just a total love-letter to the series' best characters, music, and settings. I can appreciate what AoC set out to do, but things got really hard to follow toward the end there.
Fire Emblem Warriors isn't a bad game and I had some fun with it myself, but I wouldn't put it above One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 and Fate Extella: The Umbral Star. The Weapon Triangle system and Dual system made much of the game's (high) difficulty incredibly trivial for me, not to mention that much of the roster felt too limited. Warriors All Stars on PS4 gave me that "Nintendo Warriors" game better than Fire Emblem Warriors on Switch did.
I haven't played the full version of Age of Calamity myself, but I'm still pecking away at the original Hyrule Warriors on my Switch, so...I can wait.
@LimitedPower Same thoughts here. I'll be honest: I was pretty miffed about AOC changing BOTW's history, and it didn't feel like a proper Warriors game to me with the small roster (though that's understandable story-wise).
@iLikeUrAttitude - "If I were to try to get into this I wouldn't even know where to start since it's hard to differentiate the warriors games with actual effort and just the cash grab reskins."
Anything wrong with just....looking at this list (specifically the top 3 entries)?
From what I've played (HW, AoC, FEW, PW3&4, bits of others) I'd probably agree with the top two: both HW games have been the most fun to play for me by a decent margin, and the ones that feel the most like positive, unique entries. By contrast, FEW, though mostly okay, suffered from a lot of horseback/flying units that were awkward to control, while the two PW games were solid, but didn't really add much of anything from it's IP that made a noticeable change to gameplay.
Hard to beat Age of Calamity. Easily among the best Musou games period.
And i still wish we would have gotten Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate in the west, hands down my favorite Musou of all time.
Hyrule Warriors DE is the clear winner for me. Fantastic roster, fun and varied movesets, stable framerate (unlike AoC), and the incredibly addictive Adventure Mode.
Wait, they actually gave that "Dynasty Warriors 8" port that ridiculous meme set of subtitles?! Did they actually use a naming generator to come up with that?!
I'm really only interested in the Nintendo IP Tie-ins. I am really looking forward to FE Heroes: Three Hopes. I'm still going through the Adventure Maps of Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition as well. That game is just so chuck full of content, it's insane.
Hmm, the British actually use "Din-isty" as an alternate pronunciation according to Dictionary.com. That's a British dialect difference of which I was previously unaware.
[Pam] "They're the same game" [/Pam]
@moodycat Personally I find Age of Calamity much superior to every other musou. Unique visual style, better combat since it's more varied than any other (except maybe Strikers) thanks to the rune system, a considerable roster that might not be the biggest but each character feels unique instead of copies or bad characters (unlike the first one), a story that might divide people but that at least feels like a love letter to the original game and that has solid production value, a customizable weapon system, actual difficulty, fantastic music and tons of solid voice acting. There's even latin american spanish dub! Oh, and you can customize your Link which it's a small but neat feature.
Of course that's just my opinion, and there's other solid games in the series, but I think that AOC definitely isn't a questionable choice by any means.
The long haired dude is grabbing links head in the main pic hahha
Obligatory "Does Age of Calamity still run terribly?"
One of my worst purchases ever in gaming.
There are how many of them on Switch!? Ok, I only know the Zelda ones. Calamity was good fun with a friend who came over every other month, so it took us forever to beat it.
Not the smartest game you could play
P5S is n.1 for me and fire emblem is better than hyrule (the firsts)
#1 AoC “ We found performance to be adequate….”
How low of a bar is considered “adequate?” now? Jittering low 20s? Sorry but the recent DF comparison of performance of AoC and Three Hopes shows how bad AoC can chug down in even standard encounters, but hey the grass looks amazing so that must be worth it for instant #1 lol.
For anyone actually reading the comments get Hyrule Warriors over AoC. It’s a Zelda musou with more content and more importantly actual “adequate” stability.
doesnt matter the ranking
dynasty empire 9 still looks good to me on switch , since i just want slash enemy + some graphic
@Browny the only frame issue i facing is during farming Item
I have every game on the list but the Touken Ramben one. HW AOC is ranked way too high it is one of the worst preforming nintendo games I’ve played it slows down way too much compared to all others which sucks because content wise its amazing and I kept hoping up until the last dlc drop that they would fix it. The new fire emblem is so good in comparison that it’s almost like they’re on different systems. Personally love the one piece games they do so much with the series and the feeling of the story is great to play. My favourite is probably Persona Strikers amazing story with really fun mechanics and lots of customisation with the personas you can collect and use. Hyrule warrior DE is another great one filled with lots of my favourites and being able to be toon Zelda and Midna/Wolf link is the best with lots of extras which makes it one of my only 200+ hour games. The first hyrule warriors isn’t as good story wise but being able to play with the hosein and nohr families especially Camilla on the wyvern is a blast. Lastly 3 hopes might be one of the best it mixes the big battles with the support systems from the latest FE games brilliantly it never feels sluggish or look bad even portable or when I play with multiplayer it lets you pick your path the story is really good and it doesn’t stick you with characters you don’t like at any point. As for the other games they’re all reasonably good but I can’t score them high because they don’t feel any different from each or have a compelling story though they all fit in the 5-7 range for me and are pretty okay to good in my personal opinion. I forgot about DW9 it sucks worse than anything don’t even try it worse than HW AOC
Honestly DW9 is so bad I completely blocked it from my memories might be the only switch game that I completely think was a mistake to buy and it cost so much I don’t think I’ve had a game that runs as bad as it on anything. The gulf between it and DW8 is so big it should be minus 14 rank
Not a big BOTW fan, so I never bothered with Age of Calamity...but the first Hyrule Warriors was the one I bought back on Wii U and it was alright. But it got to the point where progress was a nightmare and heavily unbalanced. This was fixed in the Switch version thankfully, making it my favorite. I kinda want an actual Hyrule Warriors 2, take the first game and expand on it further. Would be nice, still plenty of characters out there that can be used.
If anything at least give it new expansions with new characters, I dunno...TwT
As for other games, I dunno, the Dynasty/Orochi/Whatever Warriors just look...generic. I think for me the fun comes from playing as your favorite characters from a series and killing thousands of enemies at once. Give us more anime Warriors, like Sailor Moon...or My Hero Academia. lol
Never realised there were this many on Switch...
Meanwhile, sports and fps are woefully under represented.
@LEGEND_MARIOID I played many musou games, I think one piece 4 is one of the best of them all, the only complaint is not enough stage, and they didn’t add any dlc stage.
I'm not a big fan of musou games but the Fire Emblem ones I LOVE because you can give orders to the A.I and they're actually competent. If all musou games had that I probably would enjoy them more.
5. shouldn't be Fire Emblem Warriors, that game was horrible!
I know these countdown lists are just a bit of fun but they should have at least a bit of logic to them.
Not every one has played all 15 in the list, I didn't even know there were that many, and more.
But Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was given the number one spot with a NL score of 8. Ok fine, I never bought it but had thought about it, but it slipped below the radar, until now. Because I also thought about getting FE three hopes, which scored a 9.
Question, why is Three Hopes not number 1.
I believe the scores are embellished to keep Zelda at the top spot; because of its association with Botw, the holy grail of games. The one we have all heard about, but never seen.
Man, I miss the kingdom under fire and n3: ninety nine nights games. They did musou differently.
Are you kidding? I'm not even much of a Fire Emblem fan, and I've dumped hundreds of hours into Age of Calamity, but I really believe Three Hopes takes the cake on this one. It has every reason to be higher than Age of Calamity.
I feel like Koei Tecmo are missing an opportunity for what would certainly be the best Warriors game ever:
That's right, Gary Oldman Warriors. A game consisting exclusively of Gary Oldman characters. Think about it: Dracula taking on Lee Harvey Oswald. Winston Churchill teaming up with Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. Sid Vicious exchanging blows with Sirius Black. It's right under their noses! C'mon guys!
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