Instead of the curated campaigns with specific mission setups and objectives in main-line titles, here you’re tasked with conquering the kingdom in whatever means you see fit.

The “Strategic” element of Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is a term I’d use… loosely. It descends into a drab affair, where the interesting setup of a scenario quickly gets bogged down in the nothingness of the gameplay systems. Cutscenes start to repeat within a quarter of a full conquest, your objectives will be rehashed dozens of times and you’ll sift through the same uninteresting menu options hundreds of times. It hardly inspires enthusiasm to want to jump in to each of them.Īfter completing one full campaign, I’d seen everything the game’s offering had about 3 times over. One campaign of conquest is identical to any other, save for some surface level differences. In practice, they all play in exactly the same fashion. In theory, it should offer plenty of variety to shape your dicing carnage through thousands of fodder foes. There’s a handful of scenarios (that you’ll have played dozens of times before in every other entry…) you can pick from which offer various starting setups for factions, territories and officer allocations. I actually felt a bit stupid for doing it considering I’ve blasted a couple of these games before.Ĭonquest is built to be a more strategic, tactical offering of the typical button-mashing action of the regular DW games. A brief triple tutorial can get you up to speed if you’ve never tried a Musou game previously, but if you’ve played any DW game before you won’t need it. The only mode on offer in 9 Empires is conquest – there’s no free-play or single battle options. But even my defence of its button-mashing action has its limits, with Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires pushing beyond said limits in less than 5 hours.Īs is standard for Dynasty Warriors titles at this point, you’ll instantly be met with the same menu options as previous entries.

I like Dynasty Warriors, as demonstrated by my unfortunate 180 hours on Dynasty Warriors 8: Extreme Legends. The strategy systems are bare-bones, mission types are non-existent and there’s little tangible satisfaction from playing this entry. Empires versions have always been, shall we say, identical in their design, but 9’s offering is basic at best and phoned-in at worst. A new open world approach was met with concessions to unique characters move sets, lack of mission variety and negative reception. The release of Dynasty Warriors 9 plummeted straight into the territory of lackluster innovation.

However, lack of innovation and creativity can severely hinder multiple sequels’ appeal over time, especially if the original concoction is repetitive from its inception. Clearly, there’s some value in sticking to a formula, as you’ll maintain the player base that returns consistently for the same experience. Indeed, whether it be Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty or FIFA, it’s become almost an adage used to beat them with. One of the easiest insults to hurl at a long-running series like Dynasty Warriors is that it’s overly repetitive with little to no innovation present between installments. The Three Kingdoms return to war again, but has this age old conflict run out of carnage? The Finger Guns Review of Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires. The Dynasty Warriors: Gundam games only took on the title 'Dynasty Warriors' when being localized for the west, and share nothing in common with other Dynasty Warriors games aside from the same massive crowds of enemies present in almost all Musō games.The Three Kingdoms return to war again, but has this age old conflict run out of carnage? The Finger Guns Review. The series is known for the ability to choose from a wide selection of generals and important personages from all sides of the conflict, and for its 'warriors worth a thousand': characters strong enough to kill dozens of foes in a single attack. Known as Shin Sangoku Musō in Japan, the Dynasty Warriors games are set during the hundred year period in Chinese history known as the Three Kingdoms period, or use characters from the era in a different setting.

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