Dynasty Warriors

In all fairness to Koei, I'm probably not the best person to review this game. As I've said before in other reviews, I like Fighting games, but I'm not the type of person who plays a game like this to it's real potential. I can never seem to remember (or try to remember) the scads of button combinations required to truely get the experience the developers were trying to create.

With that said, I will offer my opinions, and tell the observations I have made about this game.

First, a little about Dynasty Warriors. Dynasty Warriors is a weapon based polygon fighting game made by Koei.  The game is based upon the historical novel "Romance of the three Kingdoms", which has also been translated into Koei's  wartime strategy games. The game closely follows this storyline which unfolds upon legendary battlefields.

The Story is this (Somewhat quoted from the Dynasty Warriors Manual): It's China, about 1800 years ago.  Two hundred years after Emperor Guang-Wu revives the Han Dynasty, war and chaos once again ensue.  The Eastern Han Dynasty is now wrecked by bureaucratic infighting. There is one group, the dreaded Yellow Turban rebels who roam the country removing officials by force.

During this, an urgent message is sent to the nobles to raise troups and defend Emperor Shao. Dong Juno (an opportunistic warlord) defeats the rebels and takes the capital of Loyang. He then declairs himself the prime minister, and begins his campaign to rule the country.

Prominent nobels are alarmed at this, and form a league against Dong Zhuo. At the same time, they individually strive to establish their own kingdom, in hopes of uniting their own people under a new dynasty. During the next 100 years, China is torn apart by the warlords, and warriors who are trying to leave their mark on history. 

Eventually, three men gain regional supremency (around the third century). They are: Cao Cao in Wei, San Quan in Wu, and Liu Bei in Shu. These men are aided by warriors who disdain defeat. When these warriors meet, hardened by a hundered battles, only one can become "Musou- The Warrior Unequled."

Dynasty Warriors is definetely a solid title. It is vey unusual to find a game of this caliber from a newcomer to the field. Koei, is much better known for it's wartime strategy/simulation games.

This game runs at 60 fps, and has super fluid animation. Graphically, the game is excellent. The backgrounds, effects, and characters are all very well done. Not as many polygons as in a game such as Virtua Fighter 2/3, but they look pretty good none the less. Little details really stand out in this game like the shadows. They almost look completely real.

There are 13 historical characters. A decent amount, that rivals most of the better fighting games. As I said before, they all looked good, and animated well, but I do have a small complaint. None of the characters reminded me of characters that you would identify with. In other words, they don't seem to have the lasting appeal of say some of the more popular Capcom characters. I didn't see anything in them that would make them truely unique. Still, they all fit well in their current gaming environment. 

As with any good fighter, there are plenty of standard moves as well as special moves. You have your standard attacks like slash, and thrust, and some special blocking/attack moves like parry/redirect. In the special move department you have different attacks for each fighter. For instance, take Zhao: He has the following: Dragon Strike, Dragon's Fury, Dragon Spiral, Dragon Bite, Dragon Claw Swipe, Pommell Blow, and Tornado Strike. When each of these is released, the graphic effects are amazing. Additionally, each fighter has a Chi meter that increases with each positive hit, and decreases on the negative. Once this meter is full strength, you can execute a special attack called the "Musou". Another awesome sight to behold (albeit a hard one to achieve).

I really like weapon based fighters. They add an element not found in your regular "beat-em-up" games. I especially liked this one because of it's exceptional weapon clashes. That, along with the varied weapons lend much to it's replayability.

The sound is great!! You can almost feel the weapon clashes, and the thud of your characters hitting the ground.

Well, I've been going on and on about how good it is, yet it didn't get a perfect score. Matter of fact, it scored relatively low in the gameplay, and replay value catagories. I bet your wondering why??!!

The game has one glaring flaw that cannot be overlooked. Move response feels kinda slow. Press an attack, and you feel a pause before it takes effect. I don't know about others, but to me this is very bad. I tire of it way before I tire of the faster moving fighters. It's really wierd too, the game looks fast to watch, but when playing it feels slow in response to button pushed. I bought Fighting Vipers only the week before, and to play the two side by side there is an enormous difference. Still, after several hours of play you will hardly notice the delay in response.

To sum it up, this is a very solid entry into the fighting game catagory. It's got a few  faults, but overall it is a winner. Koei must be congratulated for a job well done.