There is nothing worse than doing the same thing over and over again in life so why the hell do you want to subject yourself to the same type of monotony in a video game?  This seems to be more of a question for the developers of Samurai Warriors: State of War since they don’t seem to have a problem in providing the same repetitive hack and slash of their console games to the PSP.  Should I have expected anything different?  I guess I was struck by a case of wishful thinking.

State of War gives you the choice of selecting between eight legendary heroes with the only real difference being the weapon that’s used for cutting through the swath of enemies.  It’s still the same action from character to character so you can forget about experiencing any notable variety even when using different weapons.  I find it rather amazing that the Samurai Warriors franchise lives on when it’s the same d** gameplay over and over.  How about slapping some variety into the gameplay by maybe ramping up the gore or throwing in some in-battle one-on-one only match-ups?  The combo moves and special hits are decent enough but they’re certainly not going to save the game from its repetitive action.  It also doesn’t help that the enemies are pretty much cannon fodder since none of them put up much of a fight.  The bigger enemies are a bit more of a challenge but only because it takes longer to bring them down due to their physical size.  Overall, it’s about as much fun as shooting fish in a barrel.  Since it’s so easy to cut through enemy ranks, I’m not sure why you have comrades fighting by your side?  Most of the time, they just get in the way and clutter up the battlefield.  You ask for variety and what do you get?  Annoying dummies for squad-mates, that’s what!  Oh, well. 

A couple of other gripes I have are the camera and the abrupt ending to levels.  The camera is not locked over your shoulder so there will be a lot of times when you can’t see who is attacking you.  Luckily there is a button hit that will swing the camera behind you so you can get your bearings during the heat of a battle.  I found myself doing this way too often and kept wondering why video games still have wonky camera problems.  The other downer is the way levels abruptly end once you’ve met all of your objectives.  Why not let me get some more kills in before I decide I’m finished?  So much for letting me play my way!     

Actually, the most entertaining part of State of War is the turn-based action and its associated RPG elements.  The turn-based element is introduced in the form of a grid-formatted layout, which represents the battlefield.  Once you make your move to a square you can fight for possession of that particular zone and your enemy can do the same.  You’re able to select weapons and sub-officers before hitting the battlefield grid.  The best part is the ability to cast spells against enemies in their zones.  The spells can reduce the health of enemies or slow them down causing a loss of turns.  The action is reminiscent of old-school hex-based gameplay and is really the only fun part of playing State of War. 

The graphics are decent enough, which makes the repetitive gameplay that much more disappointing.  Those who are familiar with Samurai Warriors will be pleased with the transition to the PSP.  The developers did a great job of retaining the same look and feel of the console version for Sony’s handheld.  The framerate holds up really well especially when you consider the number of characters on the screen at any one time.  The only blemish on the graphics is the volumetric fogging and pop-up scenery.  It’s not a major deal since the battlefields are barren and you’re really too busy hacking and slashing to pay all that much attention to the scenery but it’s worth mentioning.  The sound is rather average with the voice acting being weak and the Japanese to English translations being unintentionally funny.

Besides the single-player story mode, there is a “free battlefield mode” where you can select any given battlefield and an ad-hoc multiplayer mode (4-player local).  I’m not sure how many of your buddies will have a copy of State of War but playing against live opponents is definitely more fun than the single-player mode.

Samurai Warriors: State of War will only appeal to fans of the series looking for a portable version of the game.  It has the same repetitive action of its console brethren so those who thought things might be different on the PSP will be sorely disappointed.  The turn-based gameplay is fun but it can’t save the game from the monotonous hacking and slashing of the core gameplay.  This is definitely one war you’ll want to stay out of.