Dynasty Warriors: A Look Back

Dynasty Warriors has been around since 1997. People outside the fan base may know that Dynasty Warriors is a hack n' slash game in a third-person perspective. Some will have forgotten or not even know that the original was actually a 1v1 fighting game. Think of it as a Soul Blade rip-off.

Dynasty Warriors: Sony Playstation (1997)

Soul Blade: Sony Playstation (1997)

It wasn't insanely popular, but with the turn of the next generation the series went in a different direction.

Zhou Yu from Dynasty Warriors 2 (PS2)

Lu Bu from Dynasty Warriors 3 (PS2)

Since Dynasty Warriors 2, they have kept the same style of game-play, followed the same storyline, and had pretty much the same features.
The main story mode in every DW game from 2-6 was Musou Mode, which followed the story of 3 Kingdoms, Shu, Wu and Wei. Eventually, the story finally expanded into 4 kingdoms, adding Jin to the list, and going beyond the original story. Dynasty Warriors 3 is regarded as the most innovative of the series, with the addition of elephants as mounts, a more detailed level-up system that included weapon leveling and bodyguard selection. It also added split-screen multiplayer which allowed players to play as any of the available officers, which could allow for convenient leveling for two characters at once. Each weapon that was leveled up would change in appearance the higher the level went. For example, Zhao Yun would begin the game with a standard spear. The next level of that weapon would be an upgraded version of the same spear, which would eventually become his signature Dragon Spear as his third-level weapon. Fourth level weapons were obtainable via completing certain objectives on the Hard difficulty setting. This made Dynasty Warriors 3 a much more re-playable game than Dynasty Warriors 2.

One year later, Dynasty Warriors 3 was presented with a stand-alone expansion, called Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends. This added a seperate Musou mode that would comprise of stories that focused on characters not of the three kingdoms e.g. Lu Bu and Meng Huo have their own story mode. If a player was to insert the original DW3 disk, they would be able to play the original game with all the new features that were added with DW3:XL.

Dynasty Warriors 4 featured a different Musou mode than 2 and 3. Instead of allowing for single-character storylines, it focused on Kingdom Storylines, with the option to change character at varying stages in the story. It, too, got an Xtreme Legends expansion as well as a new expansion called Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires, which allowed the player to partake in a new 'Empire Mode', which would take elements from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms PC game. Essentially, the player's goal would be to take over the whole of China.

Zhao Yun from Dynasty Warriors 4 (PS2)

 The series had started to fall in reviews, with critics stating that the game no longer innovates, but recycles the same formula while adding little features that fans did not care for. Dynasty Warriors 6 allowed the player to climb guard towers and swim in water, two features that did not come in handy in any section of the game bar one battle, the Battle of He Fei, where the player would have to swim across a river after a bridge was destroyed.

Guan Yu from Dynasty Warriors 6 (Xbox 360/PS3)

Dynasty Warriors 6 was the first game of the series that was focused to be developed for next-gen (Xbox 360 and PS3) it was recieved poorly due to the new renbu system and having the player be able to attack 'infinitely'. Combos were no longer in effect, all the player had to do was mash the Square/X button without the addition of Triangle/Y attacks to spice up the controls.

Xiahou Ba from Dynasty Warriors 7 (Xbox 360/PS3)

Dynasty Warriors 7 was a slight improvement. It allowed for two weapons to be used in battle, but didn't make any sense other than having the player just 'have that choice'.





 

Cao Cao from Dynasty Warriors 8 (Xbox 360/PS3)

With Dynasty Warriors 8, the latest installment, Koei has definitely listened to their fans in some sense, and delivered the best in the series in the final moments of this generation of games. With the new Xbox One and PS4 on their way, Omega Force has went out of this generation with a bang.





 They seemingly went back to the drawing board and revamped the whole series with brand new lighting effects and a smoother frame-rate compared to 6 & 7.

All the characters have their own unique move set yet again and so far I am absolutely loving this installment. I liked DW7 and DW6 but I never got such a buzz playing any of them like I have with DW8. It truly is a massive improvement. 

Dynasty Warriors is a series that doesn't look like it's going to go away any time soon. They lost their touch during the fall of the last gen and the start of this gen, but they have improved if not a tiny bit. Dynasty Warriors 8 is a step in the right direction, and I can't wait to see what they have in store in the future.