Dynasty Warriors 9

[Dong Zhou]

I was always planning to wait for sale as have plenty of games anyway but this does seem a divisive game

[Kong Wen]

I think they had to be ambitious and mix up the formula, to be honest. The pattern was starting to get kind of stale, and you could see it in the gradual decrease in attention people would give to actually covering the intricacies of the individual games. It was starting to become "this is another DW game, you know what you're getting" (it was like that for a while). When you add in the licences games they're doing for other companies actually outshining their original series (Hyrule, Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem) in terms of charm and features, they were due for a shake-up.

Bear in mind that they already braved a genre-flip once with DW2, when they converted what was previously a 2.5D one-on-one fighter into a large-map hack & slash and carved out a nice niche for themselves for a while. That one worked well for them, and I think they simply thought the time was right. I'll go so far as to say that the time was indeed right and maybe it was their implementation that was off. Hopefully they can learn from this and refine the particulars for a DWX that is to DW9 what DW3 was to DW2. It can be hard to remember now, but DW3 was seen for a long time (and still is by many of us) as the pinnacle of this series.

[Sun Fin]

I agree with Kong Wen, they needed to change and I think this is a positive step even if it needs lots of work for the next installment.

I was planning on getting this after my masters interview on 22nd based on DaoLun's reviews. However I'm still enjoying WO3 so I might hang off purchasing it until the price goes down somewhat.

[Cao Hong 14]

Oh absolutely. I completely agree that DW was getting stale and the series most definitely needed to try something bold in order to breathe new life into the series. DW9 couldn't have been DW8 2.0 and survived. However, it's more of an implementation problem than anything here. Koei was hoping that the open world would be a big enough draw that it would be worth sacrificing other aspects of the series that were actually good. However, it didn't work out in my opinion. I hate to say it but I really agree with almost everything Jim Sterling said in his videos(he uploaded another one yesterday that elaborates further). What DW9 does is take what would have been typical battles in previous games and spreads them over a huge, boring piece of toast(the open world), so thin that they're not really fun anymore. Battles start to feel more like a chore of riding from one fort to the next where you fight little bases along the roads and then grapple hook into said fort and rush the boss, then rinse and repeat so many times they all just start to blur together.

I hope DW10 is able to improve the open world if they do stick with it. As I really do want this series to succeed, while managing to change at the same time. Even though DW9 isn't that great, it needed to happen. It's better that they tried to experiment and failed than stuck with the same formula of mediocrity.

[Ranbir]

I really like this game. A serious breath of fresh air from a 50time rehashed series.

I feel like I'm back in the days of dw3/4 where the game is a lot more grounded, is challenging and that getting 1000 kills is a big accomplishment again.

Also the size of the map is huge and the fact it all plays out in real time is a big sexy to me. I think this game will shine a lot if/when they make an Empires version.

[LiuBeiwasGreat]

I really like this game. A serious breath of fresh air from a 50time rehashed series.

I feel like I'm back in the days of dw3/4 where the game is a lot more grounded, is challenging and that getting 1000 kills is a big accomplishment again.

Also the size of the map is huge and the fact it all plays out in real time is a big sexy to me. I think this game will shine a lot if/when they make an Empires version.

I am still in the yellow turban scenario and I have 2,300 kills If I keep ignoring Zhang Jiao I am confident I can reach 3,000

[LiuBeiwasGreat]

OK, sorry about the double post but it has been like a week so I don't feel so bad

I have finished chapters 1 and 2 with Liu Bei and Zhang Jiao's story aka chapter 1

I feel comfortable saying that the open world rather stinks and isn't helped by the almost completely inactive AI and bugs.

The combat system isn't that bad, but honestly half the time I feel like I am actually button mashing combinations of square and triangle (I am playing the PS4 version) and having it lead into new attacks, I can almost string quasi unlimited combos it seems. I do kinda miss being able to pick exactly what kind of combo I want to do which I feel was easier in the older system but I don't dislike the new one.

I will admit my fears about attacking the same castle over and over again didn't come true, instead I am attacking the same tiny camps over and over again which might be better, might be worse I am not sure.

Like some reviewers have said the battlefield is incredibly stretched out thus you can have some sequences that are really fun with tons of enemies and then loads of dead space dotted by tiny camps which are really repetitive.

I haven't done much with the crafting system, only did a little bit of hunting by shooting some tigers, 90% of which didn't seem to actually care that they were being shot with arrows unless I got close enough to pet them. Perhaps the next time I play I will try to look over what I have collected and see if I can make anything interesting.

I see myself finishing Liu Bei's chapters, and perhaps two or three more characters in time but I don't foresee myself doing much more then that. I might try to finish at least one character from each group, we will see. I foresee that the latter campaigns will involve less camp to camp fighting and more rushing to the end with minimal participation with the armies.


Oh, last thing, I have been having this occasional bug where I capture a camp and when I try to move on to the next one I automatically lose the camp I just took, thus I cannot take the next one as the army progression hasn't gone that far. I can head back to it where it will show me that it is a friendly camp but when I move away from it suddenly it is contested. I have to simply abandon that front and move on to the next one. This has happened twice so far, once near the end of Zhang Jiao's campaign and once near the end of Liu Bei chapter 2. Not sure if anyone else has had this happen to them. Not game breaking by any means, just had to go someplace else.

Also I find it kinda silly that as Liu Bei I had to talk to Wang Yun and join with Cao Cao to trigger the story of chapter 2. Why am I started south of Luo Yang anyway? Also I didn't pursue Lu Bu I beat up Zhang Liao and Lu Bu just left. I did beat up Dong Zhou though, he didn't take long to beat, Zhang Liao, heck even Xu Rong gave me more trouble.

[Cao Hong 14]

Yeah i think the general consensus among the majority is that the open world sucks and is probably the biggest gripe fans have with this game. Where the fan base gets divided though is whether the open world as a concept could have ever worked with DW or if it was more of an implementation issue.

The more I play this game the more I am in the opinion that an open world could never work with a DW. Implementation is clearly an issue too, but I think the open world and what most open world games entail are at direct contrast with what DW has and should strive to be, a fast-paced, condensed action, hack n slash game. Open world games are usually more geared toward RPG games for a reason, because they allow for slow leveling, fantastical worlds, meaningful exploration, and slower more strategic action gameplay. For one, the world of DW is too barren to be exciting to explore(they would have to take much greater creative liberty if they wanted the world to be interesting, the reality is that 2nd century China would have been a pretty barren place in most parts, as the game depicts), and for two, DW players generally don't want to have to wait around for slow progression, they want to get into the actin and they want it right away, that's what the series has always been about at its core.

Honestly, if DW was going to have gone for a real shake up, I would much preferred that they went with a LoCC type game but retain aspects of the former hack n slash approach.

[LiuBeiwasGreat]

The open world concept is very interesting when it comes to a hack and slash genre. The problem when it comes to Dynasty Warriors (in my opinion) is that we have an open world surrounding a single fight. Yes the Yellow Turban rebellion wasn't a single battle so in theory having multiple battlegrounds and fronts sounds great. Unfortunately most of the fighting is done by generic mooks and generic minor officers i.e. the various captains. It would be awesome if each front was a mini level with various officers facing each other, making the player feel like a real fight is going on.

Have Huangfu Song leading Cao Cao and company against Zhang Liang and a group of his guys going on in the central plains, Zou Jing leading Liu Bei's people against some Yellow Turbans up north etc. After you finish your battle your leader will dispatch your character and a few other officers to aid in other battlefields, after you finish enough it would trigger Zhang Jiao to rise up in Ji with a large force and officers from all of the various sections can converge on him for the chapter end battle. So, basically I am asking for more scripted events, would make the game more fun in my opinion.

Chapter 2 was definitely better then chapter 1 though. Having to fight through Sishui Gate, then Hu Lao was nice. However the epic feeling was lost when the majority of the coalition just sat around waiting for me to clear the way for them. Also perhaps it was because I was with the main force, but I didn't even see Sun Jian or Yuan Shu anywhere.

I started Chapter 3 but haven't really played much in it, I was sad that it skipped right to Tiao Qian, I wanted to fight along side Gongsun Zan for a while then get the call to aid Xu against Cao Cao. Would have been nice to first do a few skirmishes against Yuan Shao then aid Kong Rong before moving south into Xu.

[Ranbir]

I think the open world works great. Finally the scale of wars and battle meets expectations. The whole coalition forces vs Dong Zhuo actually felt epic as I marched from my Ye south western camp to cross the Y river and take Sishui and Hu Lao step at a time. No more 40metre by 40 metre battle maps that came across as corridors. Enemy troops blocked the battering ram I cleared the way and now I get to see it creep up to the gate to start smashing it down. Same with siege towers. And the alternative side where I'd have to defend against that. Sure the AI, as ever, isn't the best but it's the best 'feels' of war that DW has done since 3/4 when we were first introduced to this concept; and all the dreams we had for the franchise back then.


Finished Lu Bu story so far, Unlocked Zhao Yun and am working through him now because I think this version of the game will have the most epic version of the Changban Run in the franchise. The distance travelled will fully reflect the heroism of Zhao Yun's feat.

The movesets are fucking amazing. The animation, definitely getting the more holy crap this is real martial art(+exaggerated effects) styles.

My only issue is, still, that the characters are still anime caricatures. This has been an issue since DW6 and I think if the franchise wants to fully embrace the epic scales of war then they need to bring back the characterisation of 3-5.

I know the AI will be dogpoop but the Empires version of this is gonna be amazing, Whole of China in a large real time war for supremacy!