Video Game / Touken Ranbu Warriors

Touken Ranbu!

Touken Ranbu Warriors (刀剣乱舞無双 , Touken Ranbu Musou, literally "Wild Swords Dance Warriors") is a Warriors spin-off of the free-to-play Card Battle Game game Touken Ranbu, made in collaboration between DMM, Nitro Plus, and Koei Tecmo's ω-Force, with Ruby Party as the developing team.

It was released on the Nintendo Switch on February 17, 2022 in Japan, with a worldwide release on May 24, 2022 along with a port to PC (via Steam)

The game received a novelization in the year of it's release. A Manga adaptation was announced on February 15th, 2024, set to begin serialization in Monthly Comic Gene on March 15th of the same year.

Visit the Touken Ranbu character page for character-related tropes.

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Touken Ranbu Warriors features the following tropes:

• 100% Completion: Following completion of the main story, the game has a series of "special missions" that require the player to complete specific tasks in order to complete a mural of all the characters together. These missions also unlock additional voice lines for the characters. There is also a second ending that can only be unlocked by maxing out Bond Levels between Omokage and the Touken Danshi.
• 24-Hour Armor: By default, the characters only have one outfit that they wear all the time, even when they are resting in the citadel. The Deluxe Edition, however, includes casual outfits for the characters that can even be worn in battle during replays.
• Action Prologue: Right after the game's opening cutscene, the characters are thrust into battle against the Historical Retrograde Army as they attack Honmaru, with the prologue divided into five parts focusing on each team as they deal with the enemies in their respective area.
• Adaptation Deviation: The manga adaptation isn't shot for shot with the game, as some scenes play out differently:
  • Mikazuki’s dream plays out differently. Instead of the Touken Danshi meeting and forming a circle in the rapeseed while a butterfly flies by in the opening cutscene, the scene is instead Mikazuki hearing a song while standing in the rapeseed field alone before a butterfly approaches him and obscures his face. The opening narration also begins after Mikazuki wakes up, instead of being narrated over the dream sequence.
  • The First Unit meeting Konnosuke plays out almost the same, except the Historical Revisionists spawn after Konnosuke gives Mikazuki his seal and try to attack him, which prompts Tonbokiri and Muramasa to jump in to protect him. This is also how the trio learns that the seals have strengthened them, instead of going out to battle.
  • The scenes where every unit after the first gets their seals from Konnosuke and goes into battle against the Historical Revisionists are condensed into six pages, probably for the sake of brevity.
• Adaptational Personality Change: A number of the cast members' characterizations have changed, with some changes being more pronounced than others. For example, in the absence of his Saniwa, this portrayal of Heshikiri Hasebe is far nicer to the other Touken Danshi, and far more amenable despite retaining some aspects of his Control Freak tendencies.
• Adapted Out:
  • The Kebiishi are neither seen nor mentioned by the characters. However, this might be justifiable given that the characters aren't actually traveling through time in this game.
  • The Tousou also don't make an appearance, with the Touken Danshi fighting on their own.
• Alternate Self: When Yamanbagiri sees another version of himself running around in Chapter 1, he initially assumes that it's himself from another citadel. It's later revealed to be Omokage impersonating him using his mimic ability.
• Ambiguous Ending: Omokage returns the Touken Danshi to their honmaru, and they are last seen running up a hill toward home while Mikazuki watches on with a mild smile, likely in remembrance of Omokage's sacrifice. It's unclear whether the Saniwa was returned to honmaru as Konnosuke promised, or even what happened to Konnosuke after he vanished during the final battle. The ambiguity of Omokage's fate can be softened if one maxes out his bonds with the other Touken Danshi, as he will be reunited with them in post-credits scene, though the fate of Konnosuke and their citadels Saniwa is still left a mystery.
• Ambiguous Situation: At the start of the game, Konnosuke grants the Touken Danshi strengthening seals with not only make them lighter and stronger, but also grants them the ability to enter Shinken Hissatsu, which the characters say is new to them. All of the Touken Danshi could automatically enter Shinken Hissatsu in the browser game after taking enough damage, but the characters in Warriors also seem to be given extra powers on top of it that they originally only obtained through Kiwame training, like Namazuo's wakizashi-based lightning production, despite the Touken Danshi only appearing in this game in their default forms. This raises the question of whether these powers were always innate in them and were brought out by the strengthening seal, or if these powers came from the strengthening seal, despite that not being the case in the browser game.
• Animation Bump: The game looks miles more polished during its cutscenes.
• Anti-Frustration Feature:
  • Konnosuke assists the player with navigation, guiding them to their next destination during missions so they don't get lost. If the player manages to lose him during a mission, they can make the Touken Danshi they're controlling call him back over to them.
  • Once the link gauge is full, partner characters will remind the player that they can enter Souto Mode. In some cases, it may actually cause frustration because they can remind the player even when no enemies are present, potentially tricking the player into using it when it isn't needed.
  • The game offers the player the option to use Konnosuke hints, which give them clues on how to clear investigations. They aren't always direct, however, and simply exist to point the player in the right direction, leaving the player to figure out the best course of action based on the deductions made by the Touken Danshi.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Inverted; Not only do some of the Touken Danshi dress in clothes that would not have been worn by for centuries, but they also travel back in time and stand out among those who are dressed appropriately for the time period. Interestingly, this goes unnoticed by the characters they interact with.
• Artificial Stupidity: Partner Touken Danshi and even non-partnered NPC's can fall into this, as they'll occasionally miss the enemy and start attacking nothing. They'll also often stand around and not attack at all, with the player doing most of the work in battle.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Entering Souto Mode with a partner unit the player unit has a high Bond Level with will trigger this sort of pose before the pair attacks.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Namazuo Toushirou, who looks and acts like an exuberant teenage boy but is no slouch on the battlefield. In fact, his all-out attack looks like it's one of the most devastating.
  • Hyuuga Masamune, who looks even younger than Namazuo due to being a Tantou and has an unselfish character but is quite deadly.
• Bash Brothers: The Touken Danshi are most often this when paired off with their team members, but later in the game they can be paired off with members of other units, with some combinations having unique dialogue for each other.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In the ending "Dissipating Dreams," Kurokage rejoins Omokage, granting him the ability to return the remaining Touken Danshi to their citadel. However, he is unable to join them, meaning that he will be trapped alone in the dream world, but he hints that he will be able to meet them again someday. The Touken Danshi are then safely returned to their citadel, and while they grieve his sacrifice, they begin head towards home, where their Saniwa may be waiting for them.
  • The secret ending "Butterfly of Tomorrow," which can only be unlocked by maxing the bonds of Omokage and all of the Touken Danshi, adds a bit more of sweetness to the initial ending. While it still mostly plays out the same as the "Dissipating Dreams," Omokage is seen reuniting with the other Touken Danshi in one of Mikazuki's (or maybe, the whole citadels) dreams.
• Blade Lock: When fighting, a "Duel" may be randomly triggered, in which the player character locks blades with an enemy and presses a button until they either win the duel or are overtaken by the enemy.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • While the Touken Danshi take enough damage in battle for their clothes to be shredded during Shinken Hissatsu, they don't actually bleed and only look a little dirty despite being fairly scratched up.
  • Various characters are brutally stabbed and sliced, and yet don't bleed at all.
• BFS: Omokage is the only Oodachi in the game, and he wields it effortlessly despite being comparatively more lithe than other previously introduced Oodachi in the series, save for Hotarumaru. When Hyuuga asks him about it, he says he never considered the weight because it's the only weapon he's ever used.
• Book Ends: If the player fully maxes out the Touken Danshi's bonds with Omokage, the game will end in the same manner it began, with the Touken Danshi running to meet each other and gathering in a circle as they gaze up at the sky... except this time they will be joined by Omokage during their gathering.
• Breather Episode: All of the Bond Conversations, which are just the Touken Danshi hanging out after their sorties and discussing the mundane happenings in Honmaru. Some of their discussions end up delving into darker topics, but they always end on a reassuring, often hopeful note.
• Canon Foreigner: Omokage, who made his debut in this game rather than the browser game like the rest of the cast.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: As is customary with the Touken Ranbu series, no female characters appear in the main cast, though there are two minor female characters, Hosokawa Gracia and Yodo-dono, who, like the rest of the supporting cast, are based on real historical figures associated with some of the swords who appear in the game.
• Cast of Personifications: Every playable character is the spirit of a legendary sword given human form by the Saniwa.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Aside from the mission commentary, which is done in text boxes in the upper left hand corner of the screen, the Touken Danshi will occasionally pause in the middle of a fight to talk to each other. Mikazuki, in particular, will stop to laugh at times.
• Cherry Blossom: Like with the browser game, Cherry blossoms are a recurring motif, and can even be seen flowing during battle. There is also a large cherry blossom tree in bloom outside of the citadel due to the game being set in spring.
• Close-Enough Timeline: In Chapter 2, the Fourth Team prevents the Historical Revisionists from significantly altering history, but instead of it returning to the original timeline in which Date Masamune lost his ambitions once everything was over, he instead goes to sea. The Touken Danshi point out to Konnosuke that this is not what happened originally, but Konnosuke allows this change because it won't have any major impact on Japan's history.
• Clothing Damage: The swords will lose varying amounts of clothing after taking enough damage or by being hit with a special attack, resulting in shirtless scenes for quite a few of them.
• Combination Attack: The Touken Danshi controlled by the player can pull off this type of attack with his partner.
• Cool Old Guy: Mikazuki Munechika is the citadel's oldest sword, over a millennium old by the year the game is set, but that doesn't hinder him in battle. Tsurumaru Kuninaga also counts because he is the second oldest, despite the fact that he acts much younger than he is. His having to accept his age becomes the topic of his Bond Conversation with Mikazuki.
• Darker and Edgier: Zig-zagged; Touken Ranbu is not exactly lighthearted story in the first place, and Warriors is not the first in the series in which death is mentioned; however, it is the first in which the Touken Danshi present are said to be the last survivors of their Honmaru, with everyone else having been killed by the Historical Revisionists long before the events of the story began. The characters even have Survivor's Guilt over being unable to protect their friends.
• Downloadable Content: The Deluxe Edition includes 16 Uchiban-style outfits for the Touken Danshi based on their casual clothing from the original browser game, as well as one outfit for Omokage, 5 honmaru backdrops, and 5 new music pieces. However, the player does not need to purchase the Deluxe Edition to obtain these items; instead, they can purchase any downloadable item individually or as part of a set.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Omokage is a unique Touken Danshi in that one of his abilities is to create multiple copies of himself to fight in battle. These manifest themselves when he performs his special attacks and Shinken Hissatsu.
• Dream Sequence:
  • Part of the main stories opening cutscene is revealed to be one when Mikazuki wakes up from his nap.
  • In Chapter 5, it is revealed that the vast majority of the game's events took place in multiple dream sequences, as the characters traveled into alternate timelines created from the unfulfilled dreams of historical figures and made real by Kurokage without realizing it.
  • The Golden Ending, which comes in the form of a post-credits cutscene if the player meets certain requirements before clearing the games Final Boss, is heavily implied to be set in yet another dream.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The Touken Danshi had to go through the deaths of their friends, the disappearance of their Saniwa, being abandoned and treated as disposable by the Government of Time, and nearly losing their lives before they could finally return home to a peaceful Honmaru and be reunited with their Saniwa.
• Edutainment Game: Leans in at times with how the characters inform you about the history of the time periods the characters visit, as well as the historical significance of the figures they are sent to protect or defeat.
• Elemental Weapon:
  • Namazuo's Wakizashi appears to generate electricity when performing special moves.
  • Ookurikara's special moves show him sending purple flames from his blade. Muramasa's blade similarly emits purple flames.
• Ensemble Cast: Each chapter focuses on a different team, with the stories of the teams progressing in descending order after the prologue (Fifth Team first, then Fourth Team, and so on). Members of other teams, usually just the team leaders, do appear in chapters unrelated to their team, although primarily to discuss the events of the story with the relevant team or to be updated by Konnosuke. In Chapter 6, all groups reassemble to deal with the game's final threat.
• Escort Mission: Quite a few of the missions involve escorting historical figures from one location to the other while protecting them from the Historical Retrograde Army.
• Feather Motif: Tsurumaru and Tomoegata summon feathers when performing their special attacks and during Shinken Hissatsu.
• Fighting Your Friend: In Chapter 3, the Second Team is forced to fight Hyuuga Masamune after he is corrupted by the HRA out of loyalty to his former master.
• Fire-Forged Friends: After being sent on a sortie together in Chapter 1, the two Yamanbagiris finally begin warm up to each other.
• Flashy Protagonists, Bland Extras: Aside from the Touken Danshi, historical figures appear throughout the game as they travel through time, each with their distinct character design. However, they look very different from the Touken Danshi, who are stylized to look like Anime pretty boys with unusual hair colors, as they are instead drawn to look more like real people.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Mikazuki Munechika gives several verbal cues that he knows Omokage's broken-off half is the one influencing the game's events long before Kurokage is revealed.
  • Yamanbagiri Kunihiro points out flora blooming out of season as early as Chapter 1. This is later to be revealed to be one of the signs that the periods the characters have traveled to don't take place in reality, but in someone's dream.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • In the story, there are 3 to 4 members of each team (with one instance of a two-member team), but when the swords go out to do their investigations, they can only be physically accompanied by one other Touken Danshi at a time. The other members of the team, or anyone else who tagged along for the mission, will be relegated to text boxes that commentate on the mission. This is especially noticeable during the Final Boss, as the text boxes reveal that everyone is supposedly fighting, with the ending cutscene showing everyone visibly injured from the fight, but from a gameplay standpoint, only the player and their Partnered character are attacking.
  • Players can equip the DLC Uchiban outfits onto their characters, which can be worn into battle, but Clothing Damage will not be reflected in their models no matter how much damage they take.
  • Clothing damage also isn't reflected in cutscenes unless it's story-relevant for a character to appear injured which only happens in the games ending cutscene.
  • Due to being considered a member of the Third Unit from a gameplay standpoint, Omokage is not playable when he joins the members of the First and Second Unit on their missions, even though he is said to be fighting alongside them in some instances.
  • Konnosuke reveals in Chapter 5 that he assigned the First Unit to the final historical disturbance because it has the most formidable foes, implying that the First Unit is the most powerful team of the five. However, not only do the characters all start at level 1 with similar stats, but it's also not required by the game to level up every character before entering their chapter, meaning the player can enter Chapter 5 with everyone from the First Unit severely underpowered compared to the units the player used before.
• The Ghost: The Saniwa, who went missing long before the events of the game began, is frequently brought up by the characters throughout the story. The Touken Danshi also reference swords from the browser game that aren't currently present in this games Citadel, such as Honebami Toushirou, who is referenced by Mikazuki Munechika and Namazuo Toushirou in their Bond Conversation.
• Glowing Eyes: The Touken Danshi have these at the start of every battle.
• Golden Ending: The best possible ending can be achieved by maxing out Omokage's bonds with every Touken Danshi in the citadel before ending the game; He will still perform his Heroic Sacrifice in the games ending cutscene, but it will show him making good on his word to hear the melody from Mikazuki's music box again, as he reunites with the Touken Danshi in their honmaru in a post-credits cutscene. That said, it is heavily implied that this ending occurs in a dream.
• Have We Met?: Previous owners of the Touken Danshi appear to have a spiritual connection with their swords, with Hyuuga's former owner stating that looking at him causes his chest to hurt for unknown reasons, leading him to ask him if they'd met before.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Omokage uses his power to return the Touken Danshi to their honmaru, but he can't go with them, which means he'll be trapped in the fragmented dream reality created by Kurokage alone, presumably forever. His fate can be softened some if the player maxes out the bonds between him and the Touken Danshi however, an alternate ending shows him reuniting with them, although it may only be in a dream realm.
• Idle Animation: If the game is left idle for a while, the characters will have unique animations while they await the player's next action. If you leave them idle for any longer than that, they'll complain about being bored.
• Jidaigeki: While the main game is set in 2205, the story is focused on the Sengoku period.
• The Leader: The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth units are led by Mikazuki Munechika, Kasen Kanesada, Heshikiri Hasebe, Tsurumaru Kuninaga, and Yamanbagiri Kunihiro, respectively.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Poke mechanic, technically, as the player can poke the characters and they will react, usually in confusion or fear because no one is physically there poking them in the setting. When the player pokes Konnosuke, he will break the fourth wall and speak directly to them.
• Leitmotif:
  • Every Touken Danshi has their own theme music that plays when they're used into battle.
  • "Song of Protection" is a recurring melody heard throughout the game in different forms, first during the opening cutscene where it is titled "Prologue," and then several times later through Mikazuki's music box. Every Touken Danshi also has a voice line in which they can be heard humming the melody. The song appears one more time in the game's alternate ending, where it is revealed to be playing in the background of what is presumably Mikazuki's dream as Omokage comments on the melody.
    • During the game's ending, a more slightly melancholy version of the melody called "Returning Home" plays.
• Level-Up at Intimacy 5: The player can increase the Bonk Rank between the Touken Danshi, which will give them greater combat capabilities such as Partner Follow-ups and Partner Combos.
• Limit Break: The Shinken Hissatsu, which requires a full meter and has a cinematic depicturing a powerful skill.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: The Historical Revisionists travel through time to change history to their advantage, and the Touken Danshi are dispatched on sorties to stop them.
• Memento Macguffin: A music box is a recurring object seen throughout the game, most often with Mikazuki Munechika in cutscenes, with this being the only thing the Touken Danshi have left of their Saniwa after their disappearance.
• Mini-Game: Along with the normal Warriors-style gameplay, the game also has several mini games, such as Mochi-making and Konnosuke-matching.
• Modern Stasis: Zig-zagged; Similarly to the browser game, despite being set in 2205, the Touken Danshi's headquarters are in Honmaru, a traditional Japanese castle devoid of futuristic technology, or any technology for that matter. However, Konnosuke uses a futuristic hologram to receive and update mission information, implying that the Time Government is technologically advanced and simply doesn't distribute it.
• Motive Misidentification: This has happened several times with Touken Danshi to the Historical Retrograde Army because the HRA never directly communicates their plans with the characters, leaving them to deduce their motivations on their own. At first, it's assumed that the HRA are doing what they usually do in the Touken Ranbu series: traveling back in time to change the course of history for largely unknown but clearly evil reasons. However, the characters later discover that none of the "timelines" in which they meet the HRA are actually parts of history, but rather dream realms that threaten to merge with and destroy proper history... Until, in Chapter 6, Konnosuke realizes that the HRA's intention was never to merge the dream realm with proper history, but rather to lure the Touken Danshi to the dream realms with the intent of destroying them or trapping them there, like a roundabout way of getting rid of a pest interfering with their plans.
• Moveset Clone: Notably averted; According to Word of God, one of the reasons the game has such a small cast compared to how large it could have been with the size of the browser game cast (over 130 Touken Danshi at the time of writing) is that they wanted to focus on making each character unique and avoid this trope as it often comes up in other Warriors style games. As a result, each playable character has a distinct set of animations that reflects their personality and fighting styles.
• Multiple Endings: The game has two endings, one that can be unlocked just by clearing the main story, and another that's unlocked by maxing out the Bond Level between Omokage and all the Touken Danshi:
  • "Dissipating Dreams" Ending: After Kurokage fades away, Omokage regains the ability to connect fragmented dreams to reality and reveals to the Touken Danshi that he can send them home, but can't go with them, meaning he'll be trapped in the dream realm alone, drifting aimlessly forever. However, he tells Mikazuki that he would like to hear the melody from his music box again one day, implying that they might be able to meet again. The Touken Danshi are last seen running home, where their Saniwa is presumably waiting, while Mikazuki remains behind and smiles, most likely in remembrance of the sacrifice Omokage made to fulfill his dream.
  • "Butterfly of Tomorrow" Ending: The initial ending in which Omokage performs his Heroic Sacrifice is the same, but if the requirement of maxing out the Bond Levels between Omokage and the 15 Touken Danshi is met before clearing the Final Boss, a different version of the cutscene from the beginning of the game will pop up after the credits roll; The Touken Danshi are shown gathering again, but this time with voiced dialogue implying that they're going to meet someone, instead of a voice-over of Mikazuki summarizing the plot as he did earlier. Mikazuki looks up at the sky, and the camera zooms out, but rather than waking up as he did in the original cutscene, it fades to Omokage approaching, and Mikazuki welcoming him home after noticing him. Omokage remarks on the melody playing in the background, which is similar to the song from Mikazuki's music box, and is cheerfully greeted by Hyuga and Namazuo before proceeding to join the others.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Many of the battle poses are directly lifted from the character sprites in the original browser game. This also goes for the Clothing Damage on the models.
  • The characters also say some of their browser game voice lines.
  • Warriors, like the original browser game, features a Poke mechanic. The characters will also acknowledge how strange it is that they feel like they're being poked because the Saniwa, who was always the one doing the poking, is no longer around.
  • Many of the characters' extra skills, especially during Shinken Hissatsu, are a reference to the powers they acquired in the browser game following Kiwame training. For example, just like in the browser game, Namazuo’s wakizashi produces electricity◊, while Tsurumaru’s blade emits white feathers◊.
• Necessarily Evil: While they are ultimately the good guys, the Touken Danshi are sometimes forced to commit immoral acts to prevent the creation of alternate histories:
  • During their first sortie, Yamanbagiri and Chougi have to destroy provisions to ensure that the people of the period starve. While Yamanbagiri feels bad, Chougi points out that they can't change what happened.
  • In the Date Masamune storyline, the Touken Danshi have to stop him from saving Komahime, his cousin and concubine of Toyotomi Hidetsugu, from being executed to ensure that history flows as intended.
  • In Chapter 4, the Touken Danshi travels back in time to protect Hosokawa Gracia from the Historical Revisionists with the sole purpose of ensuring that she commits suicide as she did in the original timeline.
• Non-Player Companion: The player can partner their unit off with one other character, who assists them in battle and can perform attacks with them in Souto mode. Who this other unit is depends on the chapter, although the player can choose more freely in the later stages of the game's Sortie mode, as well as in Replay mode. There is also a chance in Sortie mode for a non-chapter-related Support character from another unit to pop up, which the player can use as their main unit or partner. These units often have the added benefit of boosting EXP and item drops.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Every main character is modeled in the art style created by their browser game's counterpart artists, resulting in a lack of unity in the character designs. That said, some character designs blend in more seamlessly than others.
• Not Afraid to Die: When faced with the prospect of dying when erasing Kurokage's corrupted timelines to prevent them from merging with history, each team reacts differently in accordance to their personalities; the strong-willed First Team confidently assures Konnosuke that they're willing to lay down their lives as long as it means the safe return of their Citadel's Saniwa, and the Second Team agrees, though Kasen admits that they aren't as valiant when it comes to death as the First Team, with Namazuo chiming in that if they must fall in battle, they'll fall gracefully in accordance to Kasen's teachings. Ichigo is concerned about the safety of other Touken Danshi and consults with Konnosuke to ensure that no one else suffers the same fate as them. As representatives of the Third and Fourth Units, Hasebe, who is always seeking the Saniwa's approval, expresses regrets at not being able to tell them everything he wanted to say, while Tsurumaru tries to be optimistic about the possibility that they'll make it out alive but is otherwise calmly resigned to the idea that they might not. In the final confrontation, Okurikara also says that dying in battle is an honorable death for a Touken Danshi. Thankfully, they all make it out alive in the end.
• Novelization: The game received a novel adaptation in 2022.
• Once per Episode: At the end of each chapter, the characters battle a bug, which is revealed to be the protector of the dreams they visit. In Chapter 6, the players are forced to fight every bug they have previously encountered, although separately.
• One-Man Army: Given how useless the Partner character is at times, the player character often becomes this against the hordes of HRA.
• Opening Narration: Mikazuki Munechika provides the game's opening narration, summarizing the premise.
• One-Steve Limit: Notably Averted, as this game has both Yamanbagiri Kunihiro and Yamanbagiri Chougi in the same unit. The characters distinguish them by referring to Yamanbagiri Kunihiro as "Yamanbagiri" and Yamanbagiri Chougi as "Chougi."
• Only One Name: In comparison to the other characters in the game, Ookurikara is simply "Ookurikara" and does not have a family name. Justified, because he's a Touken Danshi, and "Ookurikara" is all his sword has ever been called.
• Open Secret: The Touken Danshi had been hiding the fact that their citadel is Saniwa-less from the Time Government since their disappearance, but Konnosuke says that the higher-ups already knew everything.
• Our Time Machine Is Different: The time machine used by the characters resembles a Japanese well and may be powered by magic.
• Petal Power: Cherry blossom petals appear frequently in the game, and can be seen being emitted from Touken Danshi's sword slashes during special moves, Partner attacks, and even when they make an appearance on the battle field. Kasen's special moves also have larger petals emitted from his blade, which contrasts with the brute force with which he attacks.
• Photo Mode: The game has a mode which lets you photos of the Touken Danshi, even being able to add borders and filters over it before posting to social media. These can even be taken mid-battle.
• Poor Communication Kills: A lot of grief and confusion could have been avoided if Omokage had spoken up about his Evil Twin causing the events of the game sooner, rather than attempting to resolve things himself. Things are nearly irreparable when he finally tells everyone the truth, after finally trusting them and feeling like he can rely on them, and the main characters only make it through through sheer perseverance and trust in their bonds.
• Pretty Butterflies: Unlike other insects that are portrayed as monstrous and must be fought as bosses, butterflies are portrayed more positively as a recurring motif throughout the game, with one first seen flying through Mikazuki's pleasant dream in the opening cutscene and leaving a trail of sparkles in its wake. The music box, which represents the Saniwa and the hope they've instilled into the Touken Danshi, also has a butterfly carved into the center. By the end of the game, it's revealed that butterflies represent letting go of past regrets and moving forward to tomorrow, with the Golden Ending appropriately titled "Butterfly of Tomorrow" to reflect this.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The 15 remaining swords in Honmaru all have different personalities and flaws that occasionally cause them to clash, which is exacerbated by the fact that they're still missing their absent Saniwa and must live with the knowledge that they couldn't protect them or their friends who died in battle before the events of the game. Despite this, they all care for each other and put aside their differences to do what is best for Honmaru and what will (probably) ensure the return of their Saniwa, with a few even becoming more mature by the end of the journey.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • Whenever a historical figure is being influenced by the Historical Retrograde Army, their eyes glow bright red. For Date Masamune, only the eye hidden behind his eye patch was glowing.
  • After being corrupted by the Historical Revisionists and defecting, Hyuuga Masamune gains these same glowing red eyes and assassinates a mimic of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
  • Kurokage also has these eyes, further emphasizing how his grief has made him susceptible to the HRA 's influence.
• Redshirt Army: Mikazuki Munechika theorizes toward the end of the game that they are actually seen as this by the Time Government. Due to being a Saniwa-less, and thusly, incomplete, Citadel, the Time Government only allowed them to continue to exist because they would come in handy as disposable soldiers for dealing with the Historical Revisionists. Konnosuke's silence confirms to everyone that his theory is true.
• Relationship Values: A variant; Maxing out the bond level between Omokage and all of the Touken Danshi will result in an alternate ending where he's reunited with them all (possibly in a dream sequence) after the credits roll.
• Repeatable Quest: Replay mode lets the player replay every sortie in the game, even the ones from the opening sequence. If purchased, they can also have the Touken Danshi fight in their Uchiban outfits through these levels.
• Ret-Gone: In Chapter 3, the Time Government deleted an entire timeline and everyone in it (except the Touken Danshi) after deeming it irreparable. This happens again in Chapter 4, and by Chapter 5, Mikazuki realizes that these timelines don't exist, instead being dreams brought to life.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Touken Danshi and Konnosuke seem to have this by default, as they remember everything that happens after going back in time and fixing everything, as well as what the Historical Retrograde army tried to change. They also don't lose their memories even after a corrupted and irreparable timeline is completely erased.
• The Runt at the End: In comparison to other units with 3-4 members, the fifth unit has only two, Yamanbagiri Kunihiro and Yamanbagiri Chougi. Konnosuke even mentions how unusual it is for them to form a team of only two people.
• Secondary Adaptation: Would receive two of these in the form of a novel and then a manga two years later.
• Sibling Team: Ichigo Hitofuri and Namazuo Toushirou are brothers and on the Second Team together. Yagen Toushirou is also one of their brothers and can be partnered up with them later in the game, with all three having special dialogue for when they're teamed up.
• Sixth Ranger: Omokage joins the already established Third Unit when he becomes playable in Chapter 3, and is considered a member of that team throughout the story. He also accompanies the Second and First Units on their missions.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Some dialogue in chapters differs depending on which unit you play as. In the prologue, for example, choosing Yamanbagiri Kunihiro over Yamanbagiri Chougi and progressing to the part of the tutorial where you can activate Partner Mode will trigger Chougi to passive aggressively offer his assistance to Yamanbagiri. However, if you chose to play as Chougi, Yamanbagiri will be the one to offer assistance instead.
  • After defecting from the Second Unit, Hyuuga Masamune is temporarily unavailable as a playable unit, as well as a unit to dispatch in honmaru.
  • During the final boss battle, each character is given unique dialogue that is only activated when you're about to deal the killing blow with them as a playable unit.
• Spin Attack: A number of the Touken Danshi fight like this, although particularly the Tachi. This is also Namazuo's default move during the majority of his special attacks.
• Spin-Off: Of the browser game Touken Ranbu.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Some missions require the Touken Danshi to sneak past the Historical Revisionists rather than confront them in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves while attempting to fix the timeline.
• Super-Empowering: In the browser game, the characters could always Shinken Hissatsu after taking a certain amount of damage, but in Warriors, they are given the ability by Konnosuke after he gives them strengthening seals. These abilities remain even after Kurokage takes their strengthening seals away.
• Sword Beam: Mikazuki Munechika and Tsurumaru Kuninaga are notable for producing these during Shinken Hissatsu, with Mikazuki's resembling a crescent moon and Tsurumaru's resembling a large white wing. Mikazuki's beam also explodes after being created, further damaging any enemies in range.
• Sword Lines: While every sword produces these when they attack, their sword lines notably change to a color (or colors) unique to them at the end of an attack string, when they perform their own special moves or during Limit Break:
  • Mikazuki Munechika: Gold and Dark Blue, Dark Blue
  • Kasen Kanesada: Purple
  • Tsurumaru Kuninaga: White and Red
  • Heshikiri Hasebe: Gold and Purple
  • Ookurikara: Red-Orange
  • Yamanbagiri Kunihiro: Yellow and Turquoise
  • Yamanbagiri Chougi: Blue
  • Sengo Muramasa: Violet
  • Ichigo Hitofuri: Mint and Orange
  • Tonbokiri: Magenta
  • Namazuo Toushirou: Dark Purple and Yellow (Electric)
  • Hyuuga Masamune: Wine-red
  • Tomoegata Naginata: Sky Blue and Magenta
• The Team: There are five base units in the game, consisting of varying amounts of characters:
  • First Unit: Mikazuki Munechika, Sengo Muramasa, Tonbokiri
  • Second Unit: Kasen Kanesada, Ichigo Hitofuri, Namazuo Toushirou, Hyuuga Masamune
  • Third Unit: Heshikiri Hasebe, Tomoegata, Yagen Toushirou, Omokage
  • Fourth Unit: Tsurumaru Kuninaga, Okurikara, Shokudaikiri Mitsutada
  • Fifth Unit: Yamanbagiri Kunihiro, Yamanbagiri Chougi
• Team Pet: Konnosuke, although he is more than just a mascot, as he is in charge of giving missions to the teams and directing them to their destinations when they travel through time.
• Timed Mission: The vast majority of missions in the game have a time limit of 30 minutes to complete, with those that don't having required completion times ranging from 4 minutes to even 30 seconds depending on what needs to be done. Allowing the timer to run out will have the game force the player to redo the mission from the beginning, with the characters hinting to the player what they need to do in order to complete the mission.
• Token Female: Of all the characters and historical figures to appear in the game, there are only two women, those being Hosokawa Gracia and Yodo-dono.
• True Companions: Most of the Touken Danshi already have strong bonds with each other due to having known each other for a long time before the events of the game, with Ichigo Hitofuri, a Touken Danshi who emphasizes his relationship with his brothers, saying they've become like family. It's because of their mutual trust and closeness that Hyuuga Masamune was able to return to his senses after being corrupted by the Historical Revisionists in Chapter 4.
• Uncertain Doom: An unusual example for multiple characters; Before the events of the game, their citadel was ravaged by Historical Revisionists, resulting in the disappearance of their Saniwa and the deaths of many Touken Danshi, leaving only 15 survivors in the end. While the characters allude to their loss in numbers throughout the game, they never specify who the Touken Danshi who died in that battle were.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The presence of strange men with technicolor hair and clothing that wouldn't be worn for centuries doesn't seem to phase most of the historical figures in the slightest, not even during direct confrontations with them.
• Victory Pose: A variant; The Touken Danshi have a battle end quote and animation for returning their blade to their sheath.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • One of the game's biggest mysteries is the fate of the citadel's Saniwa, who vanished during a battle long before the story began. It's unclear what exactly happened to them, or if they're even still alive, but the hope that they'll someday return is what keeps the Touken Danshi going. Konnosuke promises Mikazuki that the Saniwa will be returned to Honmaru once the onslaught investigations are completed, but the game ends before it is revealed whether or not he kept his word. Even in the alternate ending, the Saniwa is still not seen among them nor are they mentioned when the Touken Danshi reunite with Omokage in what is presumed to be Mikazuki's dream.
  • Konnosuke disappears during the final confrontation, and is not seen when the Touken Danshi are returned to their citadel. The game ends after this, leaving it ambiguous as to what happened to him.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In Chapter 6, the Touken Danshi face the problem of becoming trapped in the Dream World Kurokage created after delving too deeply into it, with no way of returning to Honmaru if they continue their descent in order to stop him. Indeed, they do almost end up trapped in the dream realm, but Omokage uses his powers to send them home.

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