Expeditions: Samurai Drops You Into Sengoku Japan as a Privateer, Not William Adams — and That Choice Reshapes the Story

Yesterday, publisher THQ Nordic announced Expeditions: Samurai, the next game in the Expeditions RPG series. It is being developed by Campfire Cabal, a Copenhagen-based studio founded in 2022 and made up largely of former Logic Artists developers after the studio was closed down.

In a media presentation attended by Wccftech, the team said it sees itself as the creator of the Expeditions IP, which has sold just over 1.3 million copies across the series. They presented the game after surviving a difficult studio period in 2023, when the team was nearly shut down and later rebuilt with support from THQ Nordic.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Expeditions is a saga of historical alternative-history RPGs: grounded in real people, real places, and real events, but shaped by player choice so history can unfold differently. The team says its audience skews older, around 20+, and that its games prioritize strong storytelling, tactical choices, and long-term consequences.

Setting and Premise

As suggested by its title, Expeditions: Samurai is set in feudal Japan during the Sengoku period, the age of warring states and constant civil conflict. The game begins shortly before the Battle of Sekigahara, which is treated as the turning point that ends the Sengoku era and marks the beginning of a new era of peace. It is also set about 50 years after the first Europeans arrived in Japan, meaning the protagonist is not the first foreigner the Japanese have seen, but he is the first Protestant, which the team says matters to the story.

The story is set in 1600, when the navigator William Adams arrived in Japan and later became the first European to be granted the title of “Samurai.” In Expeditions: Samurai, however, you do not play as Adams himself; instead, you arrive in Japan first, leading a crew of privateers aboard the Dutch frigate De Albatros. From there, you are drawn into the civil war nearing its climax, navigating the politics, intrigue, and drama of feudal Japan as your crew comes into contact with powerful warlords whose struggle will shape the nation’s future.

The team says the setting was chosen partly because fans overwhelmingly wanted Japan. Rather than make a fantasy Japan game, they wanted to stay grounded in the historical reality of the Sengoku period and tell a fictionalized story inside that framework. That means the game is still an Expeditions title, but with a distinctly Japanese historical focus.

The developers claimed they wanted to shift the art direction slightly compared with earlier entries. Their goal was to keep the game historically authentic while bringing back more personality and expression, closer to the feel of the older games than the more realistic direction of Expeditions: Rome. They describe the result as detailed realism: grounded in reality, but with stronger character and expression.

The game is built in Unreal Engine 5, and they want that technology to be visible in the final presentation. So the look is not meant to be fantasy stylization; it is meant to feel real, but still vivid and characterful.

Core Gameplay

The Expeditions series is built around a hybrid of real-time exploration and turn-based combat. According to Campfire Cabal, combat is meant to be cerebral rather than dependent on luck, with success driven mostly by tactical understanding rather than dice rolls. Character classes are a major feature, and replayability is an important part of the formula because different classes can significantly change how the game unfolds.

The series also emphasizes choice and consequence. Players can pursue violence or diplomacy, and now, for the first time in the series, stealth is presented as a major third pillar for resolving obstacles and a full alternative to combat. The new dynamic combat initiation system lets players sneak, split the party, position characters, and launch surprise attacks from stealth. They can also use stealth outside combat to manipulate enemies with distractions, smoke bombs, and other tools. The team says players may even be able to avoid combat entirely in many situations if they master stealth. The enemy AI underneath this system was built by veterans of the Hitman series, which they cite as the reason the stealth layer feels so robust.

They also stressed deep character management, including resources, injuries, weapons, armor, and keeping party members alive. In the game, players can become a samurai lord or lady of a village in service to Tokugawa Ieyasu. The game includes village-management elements, so the player is not only fighting and exploring but also helping shape a local power base. They also say the player will participate in major historical events, including the Battle of Sekigahara, depending on choices. The game will let players roam a large world map and tackle quests in whatever order they prefer.

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Companions

Expeditions: Samurai features eight companion characters, each with their own quest line. The developers put much more effort into companions this time because previous Expeditions games did not always have the resources to expand those relationships as much as they wanted. These companions can become friends, enemies, or romance options, and every companion is romanceable. The team presented this as a major part of the game's emotional core, and they expect players to grow very attached to these characters throughout the campaign.

Co-op, Controls, and Accessibility

One of the biggest new features of this installment is the inclusion of a full two-player campaign co-op. This is the first time the series has had true co-op, replacing the old makeshift hot-seat style from earlier games. Co-op is built around simultaneous combat resolution, meaning both players can move, plan, and set up actions at the same time before ending their turns.

Dialogue is also shared in co-op. One player can speak while the other observes, and the players can swap who controls the conversation. The game also uses both characters’ skills in dialogue checks, so co-op can open additional options. The system supports drop-in, drop-out play, so a campaign can shift between solo and co-op without breaking progression.

Expeditions: Samurai has full controller support built in from the ground up. This was not true to the same extent in the previous franchise installment, 2022's Expeditions: Rome, but this time it is a core part of the design. They specifically mention support for DualSense, Xbox controllers, handheld devices, and custom controllers.

The game will include difficulty settings with customizable tuning for different systems, such as combat and resource management. The developers wish to accommodate different player preferences without flattening the tactical depth.

Early Access and Release Plan

The game is planned to launch in Early Access in August. The Early Access version will include Act One, which the team estimates at around 8 hours of quests and says will be almost feature-complete. After that, there will be three major updates before 1.0, including two gameplay updates and one story update that unlocks Act Two.

The full 1.0 release is planned for early 2027. At launch, the game is expected to have four main story acts and about 60 hours of total playtime. The team also expects around 45+ levels, 100+ events and encounters, and a large explorable world map.

PC is the primary platform for both Early Access and full release. They are testing on the Steam Deck and ensuring the game works well on handheld devices. Console plans are not locked down, but they say a console release may happen later, depending on how the game performs. They specifically mentioned that they are not currently promising Switch 2, only that it could be considered later.

As a side note, when asked directly, the team said no generative AI was used in the creation of Expeditions: Samurai. They said everything shown in the game was made by a human being and that they are not fans of generative AI.

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