Rise of Samurai IV

Rise of Samurai IV: Slot Overview

If you want to meet warriors that refuse to lie down, come check out the online slot Rise of Samurai IV from software provider Pragmatic Play. This is the fourth time these samurai have risen, following Rise of Samurai, Rise of Samurai Megaways, and Rise of Samurai III. As well as depicting Asian warriors, slots in the range have generally wedged some form of multiplier action in there somewhere, as well. In Rise of Samurai IV, multipliers appear on wild symbols, which can expand to cover whole reels in a game that can be played in two different modes.

Those familiar with Zeus vs Hades will feel right at home here as Rise of Samurai IV is a clone of said game. At the start, players are prompted to pick one of two profiles – Date or Sanada. Interestingly, the picks make more than just a cosmetic difference. When playing in Date mode, the chance of triggering free spins is higher, but the average free spins wins is lower, whereas playing in Sanada mode means the chance of triggering free spins is lower, but the average free spins win is higher. Don't fret, though; if you rue your initial choice, the profile can be changed from the base game. There is a cosmetic difference between the two. In Sanada, the base game takes place indoors, like in a dojo or something, while in Date, players are moved outside to a sort of Forbidden Palace-type location.

No matter the profile, bet selection goes from 10 c to $/€100 per spin with no ante bet option available. A bonus buy is, however, at a cost of 75x the bet in Date mode or 150x the bet in Sanada. In addition, another buy option exists in both modes, costing 300x the bet for free spins with one guaranteed expanding wild on the first free spin, which is very highly volatile. Otherwise, Rise of Samurai IV's volatility has been rated high (5 out of 5), where RTPs vary from 96.01% to 96.14% depending on profile and bonus buy.

A different set of symbols technically exists in both game profiles, but they're pretty much the same. The 10 to A low pay card ranks are exactly the same and are followed by drums, chests, swords, masks, and a character symbol as the highs. Rise of Samurai IV is played on a 5x5 gaming grid with 15 paylines, and hitting a 5 OAK low pay win awards 1x the bet, or 5 to 20 times the bet for a 5-matching symbol high pay hit. Wilds may land on all reels, too. Wilds substitute for any regular pay symbols and have the same payout value as the character symbol.

Rise of Samurai IV: Slot Features

Rise of Samurai IV also has expanding wilds with multipliers, available in the base game and in the free spins round.

Expanding Wilds with Multiplier

Expanding wilds appear on all reels in the base game or free spins. When one of them hits, if there would be a win after expansion, it expands to cover its entire reel and gets a multiplier of x2 to x100. The multiplier applies to all wins it is part of, and if more than one wild is part of the same winning combination, the multipliers are added to each other. Expanding wilds have the same payout values as the character pay symbol.

Free Spins

Scatter symbols are present on reels 1, 3, and 5 in the base game. Getting 3 of them in view triggers 10 free spins. During the free spins round, any expanding wild symbols that lands will expand, get a random multiplier from x2 to x100 and remain on the grid until the end of the round. Free spins cannot be retriggered.

Rise of Samurai IV: Slot Verdict

It was a little surprising to see that the Rise of Samurai range had been pushed out by a fourth release. Previous instalments, while fine and dandy enough, tended to be copies or quite heavily influenced, let's say, by other Pragmatic Play games like Madame Destiny Megaways and The Dog House, so it didn't feel like there was a lot of steam in the series. Rise of Samurai IV continues the inspiration/reskin trend too, unsurprisingly in this instance, by being a rehash of the mythologically themed slot, Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War.

The dual profile system has been retained, and what might be helpful in choosing a mode is examining the figures accompanying Zeus vs Hades. In the previous slot, free spins triggered around twice as often in Olympus mode (Date) with worse odds of achieving the max win, compared to Hades mode (Sadana), where the odds of hitting the max win were more favourable. On an eyeball level, it can be hard to gauge the difference, but one would assume the same or similar numbers have transferred over to Rise of Samurai IV since pretty much everything else has. The same 15,000x max win certainly remains in place and appears to be doable, in theory, in both free spins' modes. Both rounds are able to produce good things, regardless, since high-value wild multipliers in view would provide the chance to be potent no matter the round - sticky, too, which is a nice touch.

If you're after a slot possessing a measure of extra originality or have had enough of samurais, then something like Densho, Beast Below, or a bunch of other Hacksaw Gaming slots might be worth a look, as expanding wild multipliers are a real forte of the studio. However, all in all, Rise of Samurai IV pulls together a collection of exciting gaming ideas (again), nicely executed, with alluring winning potential.