Dynasty Warriors series review

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Dynasty Warriors series review; A look back at the series
Topic Started: Sep 1 2009, 01:43 PM (86 Views)
staffordbever	Sep 1 2009, 01:43 PM Post #1
Soldier Posts: 7 Group: Members Member #22,249 Joined: June 1, 2009 Gender Male	Welcome to my review of the Dynasty Warriors series. I won't go into DS games or the gundam series or any other kind of spin-off of Dynasty Warriors. This review made get a video adaptation by me on my youtube channel, so check it out....We're gonna do some small evaluation on each games and look at the changes inbetween and aso some history. Enjoy. (The expansions arent included) Dynasty Warriors (Shin sangokumuso) is a series of tactical/action based- games created by Koei. It is a spin-off of the other Koei game, Romance of the Three Kingdoms which was based of a TV series of the same name which was based off the historica novel with the same name, written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th Century. Since the first game in the franchise's release, the Dynasty Warriors series has sold over 9 million worldwide making it Koei's most successful franchise. Now that i've broed the hell out of you with a history lesson, let's review some games. Dynasty Warrirors- The first Dynasty warriors was released in 1997 for the Playstation, and was a tekken style one-on-one fighting game. It was reminiscnet of Tekken just with weapons and a wider variety of moves. I never got this game when it came out because there was a little confusion within the games but i'll get to that later. The graphics were really good for their time and i would only recommend it for the hardcore fans. (3 stars) Dynasty Warriors 2- Dynasty Warriors 2 (Shin Sangokumusô) was released in August 3, 2000 in Japan and November 24 2000 in Europe and was the first Dynasty Warriors game i got and since then i've been hooked onto the franchise. I remember playing the Yellow Turban Rebellion as Lu Xun and being so confused. But as i got into it more, i loved it more and more. Still to this day i can pick up a controller and play it like it was new, it is that good. The characters are fun,the generic charcters are brilliantly done and the maps are massive. A big roster of characters to choose from you can even edit the opening edit which i love doing. There are some cons though. There is no direct story line for any characters it's just play through the same levels depending on what kingdom you're in. The kingdoms have separate storylines though. The title is where the confusion got me. We have the first Dynasty Warriors as Shin Sangokumusô ( i think, please correct me if i'm wrong) and Dynasty Warriors 2 as Shin Sangokumusôu. Not that confusing but something i feel i need to get out of the way. Dynasty Warriors 2 was an awesome game, i recommend it to all. (4 stars) Dynasty Warriors 3- Dynasty Warriors 3 was released on Playstation on November 26 2001 in Japan and September 20 2001 in Europe. The game was released on Xbox the following year. In my opinion Dynasty Warriors 3 was the best in the franchise by far. It replaced all the small cons in DW2 and made drastic improvements. Characters were speaking in gameplay for the first time, A wider variety of weapons is available, including the upgrade to have 4 weapons which was awesome. You can find the weapons, find items to imrpove your character, unlock horses. So much fun. The levels are as memorable as the day i got the game. Hu Lao Gate on DW3 is amazingly done. The characters are given huge make-overs and look stunning and cool. This game is the best it can get. Again the generic characters are awesome. New characters were added to the mix including Huang Gai who is awesome, The Qiao sisters, Sun Ce and more i think. Anyone who is a fan of Koei or Dynasty Warriors should get this game now (5 STARS). Dynasty Warriors 4- Dynasty Warriors 4 (Shin Sangokumusou 3) was released on Playsation in February 27 2003 in Japan and June 27 2003 in Europe, the Xbox versions were released later that year. This game was good but in my opinion, Dynasty Warriors 3 was far superior. This game did have things about it that were better such as the Edit mode which was awesome and there were alot more levels. You start off with 3 characters from each kingdom which was a little disappoiting because in DW3, you started off with 5. You unlock new characters after each certain stage. Dong Zhou Stage, Yellow Turban stage, you get the idea. Again, theres no direct storyline for each individual character, in DW3 they had ago at it, wasn't perfect but it was more historically correct than the others so far. Another good thing about DW4 was the kick-ass music. All the Dynasty Warriors games had good music but this was rock, heavy guitars and loud and forceful, definetly setting the tone for war. The thing that takes a **** on this game s the fact that your weapon upgrades, many people like that but i sure as hell don't! I recommend this again to anyone who is a fan but get DW2+3 first, (4 stars). Dynasty Warriors 5- Dynasty Warriors 5 (Shin Sangokumusô 4) was released on Playstation on February 24 2005 and June 24 2005 in Europe. It was released on Xbox later that year. In my opinion this game is the worst of the franchise. The edit mode was gone, i didnt like the base idea, the gameplay wasnt as fun. I just preferred the other. I don't there are any pros in this game that i havent mentioned in other games already. Although, the 'find you weapon' idea was back. New characters were put in and musou rage was awesome. And don't try to fight Lu Bu, he's impossible first time. This one was short because it's not that great. (3 stars) Now fans anxiously waited for the Dynasty Warriors game to come out and it was along time before Koei announced they were producing the game on the next gen consoles. This made the wait unbareable. Imagine, Dynasty warriors in blu-ray, amazing graphics. Imagine the possibilities. Well im gonna review it. Dynasty Warriors 6- Dynasty warriors 6 (Shin Sangokumusô 5) was released on Playstaion and 360 on the same dates, Japans release was November 11 2007 and Europes release was March 7 2008. This game surpassed the hype and was brilliant but still dosent surpass DW3 in my opinion. The Renbu system was DW6 key feature and was a good addition. The find weapons again but alot this time and as you get more combos and hits, the renbu bar goes up and more moves are available. The main thing about this game is the desing, all the characters look completely different and weapons have been changed, some historicallly and some for just the look. Some of these changes annoyed me. Wei Yan, Dong Zhou, Xu Zhu and Huang Gai all have the same kind of weapon, same stance and same moves. WHATS THE POINT? Some changes were good becuase Wei Yans look is awesome! Liu Bei got his historical 2 swords. Although Zhang Fei's new weapon look is ridiculous. Lu Bu has a cool weapon but is a it over the top. Some characters got their historical weapons changed like Ma Chao and i know everyoen was pissed off with that change. Basically some changed were good and some changes suck. Overall this game was fun to play, the moves were swift and everything was fine but it was alittle too over the top for me. (4 stars) Well this concludes my long review on the series. Overall Koei are always tring to bring new elements of gaming to the series and sometimes it works and sometimes it dosent. I'll always buy new games in the Dynasty Warriors series. oei always do great jobs with these game but my favourite is DW3. \i hope you've enjoyed my review and have a great day. www.youtube.com/ZhouShamoke
	We shall fight! In the name of Righteousness!


PhoenixOfWEI	Sep 4 2009, 03:49 PM Post #2
So you wish to test the edge of my blade? Posts: 159 Group: Members Member #14,323 Joined: March 29, 2008	I could agree no more. KOEI needs to think carefully what us fans really want in our games. DW3 had pretty much everything we wanted. Vs. mode, epic long battles. Awesome difficulty. Unique characters, button bash and ur dead, and many more things.The newer one are good and beter in many ways but, DW3 just is uncomparable. KOEI needs to rethink.



Myllari	Sep 4 2009, 06:57 PM Post #3
Officer Posts: 75 Group: Members Member #23,311 Joined: August 27, 2009	I agree for the most part although IMO DW4 was the worst game in the series and a disappointment by comparison to DW3. Overall I consider DW5 to be the overall most balanced but DW3 is certainly the best and truly revolutionized gaming the time it was released. Why I dislike DW4: I hate the weapons system, I hate the kingdom play system. It takes a while to get any characters weapons levels up, you constantly have to combo officers and dedicate yourself to killing officers above all else. The kingdoms play system is annoying, especially considering the fact that any officer in your kingdom can be in any level on your side. IE play YTR as Shu and Jiang Wei could be fighting on your side, WTF? That fact alone kills some historic authenticity. Also while it has many great stages the majority of the smaller ones are just clones of the larger stages. Laziness on the part of the people who put the game together. One of my favorite features is the color swapped DW3 costumes (6th): Purple Lu Bu, darkened Liu Bei, etc. I wish they would have kept these in DW5.



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