Dynasty Warriors 9

[Dong Zhou]

The cloned movesets bother me a good bit, but only for certain characters like Zhang He, Sun Ce, and Xu Shu who lost some really unique and fun weapons

Agreed on that

I am one of the few who dislike the new open world. I agree that in the past we were getting more and more cramped maps that were very linear but I am worried with the open world that Koei will just copy and paste generic zones for the majority of the map. I am concerned that I will be assaulting the same castle over and over and over again.

That is a big concern.

With the story, I'm still a bit unsure about it too. I suspect each character will have some unique conversations in pre-battle(in the style shown in screenshots and the PV) and is confirmed to have their own ending. Outside of that I suspect the battles presented will be pretty uniform, as long as said character was alive while that battle took place. I hope there is a bit more variation, but I doubt it considering the size of the roster. While it may get redundant to play through the story that many times, at least every character will be given a fair shake. In all likelihood I, and most other players, will only play through our favorites from each kingdom and leave some alone. However, completionists should be happy at how much they have to see. I liked the focus of the kingdom storylines but they just felt so short and lacked replayability. Not to mentioned a ton of characters got shafted in order to create a more cohesive narrative with a select few primary protagonists.

I wasn't a fan of kingdom mode going into DW7 but the kingdom mode turned 7 into one of the strongest games of the series for me. I'm not not a hack and slash man (as I understand it, DW is not shining example of the genre) so the appeal has tended to be characters and story but pre 6, we had a major problem of too many stories and "how many times is Chi Bi already?" (Wu really suffered from this). So my worry is we will get light stories and that same "not Chi Bi again" though maybe with houses, careful use of dialogue for quests and a bit of tailoring, it could work here. My other issue I tend to have with open world or games with big expanses ala Dragon Age Inquistion, it can feel like centuries before the next story instalment It may be it's big focus will be light story, big work on gameplay

I do agree that the problem with kingdom modes is you play it once and your done, I would happily have had more time. Whoever isn't in roster for that story (I was always a fan of rotating them over the games to make up for it) got hit hard by kingdom mode. I felt the attempts to fix that in 8 satisfied oobdy, it didn't really adress the issues that kingdom mode brings and it sacrifices what makes it work: being able to concentrate on a few stories to make them cohesive and impactful.

I will get DW9 bar "oh gods, the horror, the horror" reviews and I am excited

[Sun Fin]

The cloned movesets bother me a good bit, but only for certain characters like Zhang He, Sun Ce, and Xu Shu who lost some really unique and fun weapons. I actually prefer some of the weapon changes on characters compared to what they wielded in DW8, such as Xiahou Ba, Zhang Bao, Guo Jia, etc. some of which are more fitting and others that are close enough to what they used to wield. I'd much rather Koei nail down a fun combat system, an engaging story, and a lively open world than ensure all 90 characters have their own weapons.

There are only a handful of weapons that it would really bother me if they changed. Needless to say Ce's tonfas was one of them! I was devastated to lose them.

[DragonAtma]

Even if multiple characters have the same weapon, they can use the weapon differently. Long ago (2010?) I was idly musing about the idea of Gemfire Warriors with exactly that; one character would have a longer line of regular attacks (YYYYYYYY etc.), one would have longer charge attacks (YYYYYX, etc.), one would have deeper charge attacks (YXXX, etc.) and one would be a balance between the three.

[Dong Zhou]

Website has new music and segment on housing (furniture has a point like crafting)

Civ costumes:

Cao Xiu 6.5: Should learn to smile. The robe is a nice idea, lovely silver and gold patterns but maybe wrong shade of blue and he needs better hairstyle

Xun You 6.0: I like the robe in and on itself, good colour with gold not too showy while lovely pattern, but it needs something light to balance it out and the face doesn't quite gel.

Man Chong 5.5: I know he is a heavy drinker but surely he has more taste then the outer robe? Ugly yellow edges, nice inner robe, not a fan of the hairstyle

Xu Sheng 6.5: The robe is pretty good, blue trousers don't gel well with it, nice pattern, needs to learn to smile, relaxes hair a litte.

Cheng Pu 7: I feel like someone has earnt the scowl of death, got a fierce face. I would possibly have swapped the grey on the shoulders but otherwise a fine outfit, gold adding richness to the red and purple, relaxed hair a bit.

Zhou Cang 7.5: Good green with pretty gold patterns and a flare of red at the bottom, has a smile and a relaxed look.

Xin Xianying 6: I'll be honest, I find this style tends to be plain even when things gel. This doesn't in the bottom half thanks to colour scheme, I like the bit around the neck

[Dong Zhou]

A really minor bit about buying food

Main costumes:

Yue Jin 6.5: I feel if your going to do two scars, make them different. Feels powerful, top armour looks a bit plastic, nice trousers

Lianshi 7.5: Quite pretty, I like the flower in her hair, nice boots and nice dress. I do feel the gold at shoulder doesn't quite work

Fa Zheng 6: It's an intresting idea but it doesn't quite work for me, I'm not sure the dark green is the right shade for him. I like the coat, the boots and the gloves individually. Maybe pose not helping

Guan Xing 5.5: That weapon does catch the eye. Face changed? It feels like they try to do too much with the armour, you have green and red robe, lots of armour and gold, it doesn't form a coherent whole

Zhong Hui 5: Too busy all round while that chest armour is awful, the leg guards are too big. Some nice blue stuff like the rich robe and the rather nice neck guard

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Civ's:

Yue Jin 6: Get a haircut! I like the costume in theory, nice blue, good patterns but it doesn't quite mesh on him

Pang De 7.5: Good haircut, makes his face feel different in the right way, the dark blue and black mixes well

Wang Yi 7: Hopefully we will see a bit more varity of styles in future but the colour suits her well

Xun Yu 5.5: Not a fan of the hairpeice, the black outter (with an ugly gold) and blue inner might work as individual pieces but feels like they clash

Lian Shi 6: Fine dress but poor choice of colours, good hair

Lu Xun 6.5: I like the general idea and it almost works, the red inner robe is good, the hair is good but the grey and brown overobe doesn't quite suit the look

SSX 4.5: Doesn't feel SSX, roses in hair aren't a bad idea generally but they illsuit SSX's current hairstyle, pink and green clash, centre part doesn't work.

Han Dang 6.5: No pom-pom's so he chant his name? Fine solid look, nice pattern on the pink

Zhu Ran 8: Can we make this his main costume? Gold glistens a bit too much for me on the white backdrop but like the thing by his ear, the general look with the white with bits of black and red behind it.

Fa Zheng 5.5: Colours of blue and purple don't seem to work for him

Guan Xing 6: It isn't a bad combination but I can't be the only one who thinks Christmas elf?

BSN 6.5: Not a big fan of the yellow but looks pretty nice, nice pattern on the green and she looks better without the hat

Wei Yan 6.5: Wild hair, sense of power, nice solid green robe with just enough gold. I like the idea of a more toned down mask

Zhang Bao 7: bar the ugly orange belt, quite nice green with gold mystical beast patterns

Pang Tong 6.5: Perfectly fine but just brownish bland

Jiang Wei 7.5: The three colours, dark green underclothes, white robe and turquoise edges work better then I would have guessed

Guan Yinping 8: She looks good, the flower and more relaxed hairstyle, trim of red on the nice green dress with white supporting. It just seems to suit her

Zhong Hui 7.5: Very nice shade of blue, lovely pattern on bottom, gold makes a good pattern on edges

Zhang Chunhua 8.5: The lovely purple and blue goes well together, nice patterns and love the haircut

Lu Lingqi 4: You know when sometimes parents overdress their little princess for a really formal event? I'm put in mind of that. Clashing colours in bottom half, top half is fine but doesn't mesh with bottom while I think the pink around her eyes staying while adding deep red roses creates a bad impact.

Zou Ci 7.5: Without the hat, he almost looks sensible (ok maybe not that far with that moustache, eye thing and beard) but nice deep purple with grey making a nice contrast

[Cao Hong 14]

Dong, I usually feel your critiques of the DW9 costumes are a bit harsh as I feel on the whole they are the best costumes most characters have had at least since DW5, if not ever. However this time I think you were almost being too lenient on Yue Jin, that man's outfit is atrocious in my opinion

I'd give it maybe a 3 or 4 out of 10. The armor on top looks too plasticy, the trousers are way too baggy and don't quite work in my opinion on a character who is supposed to be a speedster as they look too loose. The scarf is unnecessary on a character like him as well. Meanwhile I absolutely love the new looks for Guan Xing and Fa Zheng. In my opinion the new outfits for Guan Xing and Zhang Bao do wonder for them and make them feel like an imposing duo, rather than two anime-ish teeny boys as they did in DW8 in my opinion.

I'll agree that out of the civil outfits released this week Zhu Ran and Guan Yinping stand out as the best. I like almost all of them though. The only ones that rub me the wrong way are Sun Shangxiang, Lu Lingqi, and Guan Xing. The two girls bother me because they aren't the girly-girl types and yet their civil outfits would have you believe they are, not fitting at all to me. Also, Guan Xing would have looked much better in robes to me and Zhang Bao in the outfit Guan Xing has.

[Dong Zhou]

I suspect a lot of the 6.5 and even 6 costumes will look better in game and I find (bar the clearly low or really high scores), people should flick my score up 1 due to my score system for "nice" tends to be lower then others

I feel the same with SSX and Lu Lingqi. It doesn't mean they can't ever have a girly outfit but it isn't even done well

[Cao Hong 14]

Yeah I really feel that Koei did an excellent job with the costumes this time around. They found a great balance between the more modern DW6-8 costumes and the more traditional DW2-5 ones and it works really well in my opinion. There are a few notable examples of characters they really botched in terms of costume design this time like Guo Huai, Guan Suo, Xun Yu and a few others but all around I thought they're a huge improvement over the past few games.

What I'm most curious about at this point is how the story will work. They have confirmed that we're back to individual stories and that every character has their own ending, but what exactly will make playing someone like Xiahou Dun different from Xiahou Yuan? Since they cover most of the same period does that mean if you want to view both of their endings you would have to play through the exact same battles over and over again? I would hope that Koei implements something to try and get characters to only participate in battles they were relevant to. For example, just because Guan Yu was alive and around until 219 doesn't mean if you select him that you should be forced to go participate in the invasion of Yi and other battles he had nothing to do with and instead prompts you to only opt to fight in battles around Jing after a certain point.

Idk, I just feel like I have a good grip at how most other aspects of this game are gonna play out but the story is still just one big mystery to me. I hope they explain it better soon.

[Dong Zhou]

I do like the costumes as a general trend. When they go for something a bit less flamboyant, there is going to be less "wow" (there still has been some) and less "MYYYYY EYEESSSSSSSSSS" horror but they are generally good costumes overall, I certainly like a lot more then I dislike and even some of the dislikes are "not my taste" but fine costumes. I would like a bit more variety in civi costumes in an ideal world where there was unlimited time and money but I just like there are civ costumes

Indeed, I have big questions about the story has well. I think there is a "if you pay Guan Yu, you play up to his death" which means if you then follow up with a Jiang Wei like figure, his battles will differ from Guan Yu's. The concerns would be the Dun/Yuan, avoiding "and oh look, the same battles again"

[LiuBeiwasGreat]

As for playthroughs that are too similar, let's just say you probably don't want to play as Zhou Cang, then Guan Yu, then Guan Ping all in a row