Dynasty Warriors 9

[Han]

How do we obtain Hex Mark( Liu Bei horse)?

Whats the difference between attack(sword) and power(fist)?

[Sunshower]

DaoLunOfShiji, just wanted to say thanks for posting your impressions of the game so far!

How long does it take to play through a character's story?

[DaoLunOfShiji]

How do we obtain Hex Mark( Liu Bei horse)?

Whats the difference between attack(sword) and power(fist)?

I assume Hex Mark is obtained in chapter 5, when Liu Bei is in Xinye somewhere. As for the different between the two, I am not certain.

DaoLunOfShiji, just wanted to say thanks for posting your impressions of the game so far!

How long does it take to play through a character's story?

You're welcome, it's been enjoyable playing it so far. As for how long it takes, it all depends on the character. Zhang Jue's story, only being one chapter, isn't all that long. Meanwhile Liu Bei spans 10. The later chapters, particularly 12 and 13, are very long so the Jin characters themselves have lengthy storylines. Really it all depends on the difficulty you have it on. The harder difficulty would require you to do more of the side missions to lower the difficulty of the main one. Zhong Hui was 3 chapters long, but I believe it was something like 10 hours? But I also got sidetracked quite a bit.

[Jia Nanfeng]

As most people feared, the PC version seems to run horribly at launch.

I swear Koei has two different port teams; like, Sanada barely works on Steam and was never fixed, yet All-Stars works nearly flawlessly. DW9 apparently got the useless Sanada team.

I really don't want to wait to play the game any more, but I can't bring myself to buy it in its current state. I really should get a console someday...

If anybody here has the game on Steam, lemme know if you have performance issues. I tend to trust people here more than the Steam reviewers.

[Cao Hong 14]

It seems like this game is getting panned by a lot of people. It seems like among official reviewers, DW8 was a better game than DW9 is. If you look on almost any review site, both fans and critics are largely giving it negative reviews, which is a shame. It seems most problems for people stem from either frame rate issues/glitches, clones/lack of unique weapon types, and open world issues(generally it being empty and more of a distraction than anything).

Here is Jim Sterling's rant on the game. There is a lot I think he is wrong about(namely the combat system) and things he doesn't even touch on, like how good and detailed the story is. But some of his complaints really do seem to have some merit, especially those regarding the open world. I thought I'd post it here because unlike most other well known reviewers, he actually has traditional been a huge fan of DW prior to this game, so it's not like he's approaching it as most other reviewers who could care less about the series would.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE12Z9YJJtg

Anyways, make of it what you will. I still think I'll enjoy DW9, if anything for the combat system and story/character interactions. It seems like a shame that whenever Koei makes a DW game they always go one step back for every step forwards. If they improve one aspect over previous games, it likely means another aspect that you really liked gets downgraded or removed. Oh well I suppose. I'm still satisfied with DW9, it's just that Koei can be frustrating sometimes.

[Han]

According to a reddit thread in r/dynastywarriors , the horse Red Hare is unlocked and purchasable by completing Dong Zhuo, Lü Bu and Guan Yu story modes.

I have also personally completed Lü Bu story mode and can thus personally guarantee that Red Hare is usable in the first chapter of Lü Bu story mode as an important item.

However, the issue here is that Im currently at chapter 6 of Liu Bei story mode and has yet to unlock Hex Mark( Liu Bei horse) as an important item or purchasable item.

How do we obtain Hex Mark( Liu Bei horse)?

[Cao Hong 14]

So I finally downloaded the game today and I've played for hours and decided to stop for the night to reflect.

I have very very mixed feelings about this game, but unfortunately I'd say leaning more negative than positive overall, which is super disheartening for me, as I really wanted to love it and thought that I would more than I actually do. Regardless let me talk about what I think this game does right and what it does wrong.

For what it does right, I mainly think it's the combat system and story/character interactions. Let me start by saying while the combat system feels very wonky at first and takes some getting used to, it certainly has potential. I'm thoroughly enjoying it now that I've gotten the hang of it. The best way I could describe it is that it's like each weapon has 4 different attack strings. However, I do think it could use a bit more polishing. Perhaps it could use charge attacks as we're used to during each of the attack strings, which would result in some serious variety. But the combat is still a ton of fun and I'm glad they ditched the charge system in favor of this. Perhaps the single best thing about this game is the story. There is literally so much detail it's mind boggling. There are tons of character dialogue and little quips from character to character, I love it. No one in their right mind could say any character is ignored in this game, that complaint from past installments is moot here. If you ever felt one of your favorites was shafted before, they certainly will be given better treatment here, and it's great to see Koei utilizing all the characters they'v introduced, as I've felt that in the last few games nearly half the roster could be cut and you'd hardly notice because Koei seemed to not care about them or forget them. I'm so happy individual stories have returned, and this game shows Koei can do individual stories in a way that doesn't sacrifice story quality. Not only is the story quality still good, but if you don't feel like completing certain characters stories because you fear it would be too repetitive, then no worries, there is no reason at all for you to feel forced to play through a story you don't want to.

Now for the bad..I absolutely hate hate hate the open world. I knew this would be the aspect that would make or break this game and it's so bad that it nearly breaks it. First, lets start by saying that the open world is downright barren. It's practically nothing but a bunch of open fields and wooded tree areas. There is other variety but majority of it is grasslands and woods and it gets so boring to look at. Nearly all the battles take place in nearly identical looking fields and forts. It completely destroys any sense of originality in map design. Did you love how the Yellow Turban Rebellion always took place in a sandy desert? Hu Lao Gate in a snowy area? Or like how certain battles had iconic features such as He Fei Castle having absurd traps? Fan Castle and Tong Gate in pouring rain? Guan Du and Wuzhang Plains at night? Well too bad because now they are all practically identical. Open fields and woods with forts/castles thrown in for the bosses. It makes all the battles feel so much duller, every battle is practically the same as the last aesthetically, apart from the enemies you fight all the battles may be the same battles for all intents and purposes. Battles also aren't near as much fun anymore. If you were like me and loved the tight and condensed action of prior DW games, where you had allies and enemies fighting all around you, and could within 30 seconds go from fighting in one packed area to the next, you won't like this. You may fight a horde of enemies in a fort or a base and then have to ride your horse for several minutes before finding anymore enemies. It makes all the battles feel more like a collection of small skirmishes instead of actual battles like they used to. It really takes away from the heat of the moment. Let's also talk about how the open world doesn't really have much for you to do that's truly fun. Almost all of the things in the open world feel more like a distraction than a welcome addition. After not very long you'll hate the thought of wandering more through fields to hunt lifeless animals for hardly any true reward you'll care about at all. If you're like me you'll just want to ignore the entire open world aspect and just skip to the next fight. Only problem is that often times getting to that next fight involves riding on your horse for long distances that bore you and annoy you. Also, while I know DW has never been the best graphically, the open world has really held this game back. The draw distances aren't that impressive, textures take longer to pop in correctly, and things look more like they did in DW7, which means lots of green and browns. I suppose that fits the more realistic angle of the open world, but I liked the more stylistic looks of DW6 to something like this. I actually feel like DW8CE on the PS4 looked just as good as this game, which is disappointing considering this is a PS4 launch in 2018, not a PS3 game ported to PS4 in 2014. I will say I haven't experienced any frame rate drops like some people have been complaining about.

So overall I think with this game Koei has done a tremendous job with the combat and story. Both are the best they've ever been. Hats of to Koei for accomplishing that. However, the open world is so awful that it nearly ruins the game for me. This is the first time I've played a DW game for the first time and after playing for a while start to get bored and annoyed and put the game down for a break. In all previous releases I was so hooked I could barely force myself to put the game down to go to bed. It sucks because I really want to keep going to see what else the story has to offer but I'm not sure I can, the open world is just a huge mess that takes away from what could have been an otherwise great game. I can't help but feel that the open world has a huge mistake for DW. I hope moving forward Koei keeps this state combo combat system and sticks with this format for storytelling but goes back to map based battles instead of this open world concept. However just make the maps very expansive and open, DW3 managed to somehow pull that off, try to recreate that same feeling while potentially making the maps even bigger. All in all, I can't help but think this game is 2 steps forward and 3 steps back for the series, I'm not as pleased as I had hoped to be

[Dong Zhou]

Very intresting perspective Cao Hong, sorry your not enjoying the open world aspects to the point where it is undermining the stuff you like.

[Kong Wen]

I always manage to eke out some nuggets of enjoyment from these games (although they certainly haven't been the same since DW5 or so), but I'm planning on waiting until this one goes on sale in a few months.

[Cao Hong 14]

Thanks Dong! I wish I could say I am enjoying it more than I am, because I was extremely excited for this game prior to launch. It certainly had enough new things that sounded exciting to pique interest. I'm just not sure what Koei was thinking with open world. It was an ambitious idea, and I applaud them for trying something new, but it just doesn't work. If you look at nearly all other developers who have pulled off successful open worlds, they are all massive AAA developers with huge budgets and resources to help nail the open world down. Koei simply doesn't have what it takes to pull it off. They've shown they know how to do a fun hack n slash game, but if they venture outside of their forte then they start to stumble.

Despite my frustrations with the game, it's not entirely awful. I'd still recommend you guys who are interested to give it a shot and see what you think for yourself. Perhaps waiting until the price goes down like Kong Wen mentioned is your best bet, I'm not sure I could recommend paying full price for this game.