Expeditions: Samurai is making room for a couple more blades with its first major Early Access update, as Update 1 is now available with larger parties, smarter enemies and a wide selection of changes shaped by player feedback.
The biggest addition is the ability to take a party of up to six characters into battle on ten missions, including Nagasaki Harbour, Kanseido Village and the Derelict Carrack. Naturally, bringing more samurai into the fight also means the opposition has been strengthened to match, giving players a larger battlefield to work with while providing enemies with more opportunities to respond.
Companions have also become considerably more useful outside of combat. They can now handle most dialogue skill checks during conversations, giving skills such as Insight, Persuasion, Manipulation and Authority a greater purpose when building out your characters. Characters can also carry barrels, opening up some new possibilities for dealing with unsuspecting guards by moving gunpowder barrels directly into their path.
Enemy behaviour has received its own round of improvements. High-alert enemies will now spread out after an area has been cleared, form more aggressive patrols or gather around tactical chokepoints. Anyone who witnesses a takedown will also immediately enter combat, making it more difficult to quietly clean up an area once things start going wrong.
Update 1 adds more than just mechanical changes, too. Character creation has received new heads and hairstyles, while a new Ronin outfit, five unique items and 16 additional armour and weapon variations provide more ways to customize the game’s cast. The introduction has also received a new cinematic, merchants now display trade values and an overhaul to UI rendering is said to make the interface run more than 50% faster.
Campfire Cabal has also released a new developer video discussing how player feedback has influenced the game’s development and some of the changes introduced with Update 1. With Expeditions: Samurai still in Early Access, the update represents another step in the game’s ongoing development rather than the end of its journey.
Expeditions: Samurai is being developed by Campfire Cabal and published by THQ Nordic. The game is currently available in Early Access on PC.
You can see the full patch notes here.