DW9's attempt to reinvent and revive the series proves a homeopathic remedy
Playing Dynasty Warriors 9, it's remarkable how little has changed in a title that purports to be the biggest shake-up in the franchise since they left the fighting genre. Worse than that, the switch to the open-world genre not only feels half-baked at best but brings some of the series' long standing issues into much clearer focus.
Swapping the individual stages for one giant map of China, Dynasty Warriors gains scale but trades depth. Whilst there's decent variety in the main targets (Xuchang, Luoyang, Chibi, Chengdu etc.), the smaller castles all look very much the same and the objectives are repetitive. Most objectives are of the "go here and kill this officer" kind, and whilst the game does very occassionally mix it up they could, and should, have done a lot more to individualise each battle. Standout events like Chibi simply lose a bit of their luster. This might have been more tolerable if Dynasty Warriors 9 had done a better job of making you feel part of a larger conflict, but ultimately it just feels like previous games but with more terrain in between. You're still running around to specific places, killing specific people and moving on.
The map might be colossal, but there's little to do outside of battle. You can hunt animals (a slightly harder version of killing enemies) or fish (press a button), but there's no compelling reason to actually do those things. The radiant side quests are mundane and clearing out bases feels dull when you consider that is what the main objectives are doing anyway. And whilst socialising with officers in your hideaway is cool, it's a distraction at best. Luckily none of this is necessary at all (and in fact a big issue with this game is overlevelling), but that doesn't excuse the poor quality.
And in what might be the worst casualty of the switch to open-world, unbelievably, there's no co-op mode. As someone who first fell in love with the series playing Dynasty Warriors 3 with friends, this omission is pretty stupefying. Co-op is one of the best things about Dynasty Warriors and losing it feels like a bitter pill to swallow.
Whilst the base combat is pretty good, and there's still a lot of fun in the Dynasty Warriors formula, it's a massive shame that many officers such as Zhang He have seen their signature weapons stripped away for generic replacements. Enemy AI is still dumb as hell, with my much-hyped showdowns with Guan Yu and Liu Shan ending up with me killing both of them with arrows as they stood there, motionless. In fact, the game is pretty buggy in general, with Hulao Gate failing to open and the game also allowing me to unintentionally gain two trophies as a direct result of glitches.
And even when it's not breaking, it still feels janky. Traversal feels really strange at times, with horses feeling awkward at best and a bit ludicrous on slopes. There's still too many times when the enemy is bashed through buildings, and little nuisances like falling through boats and getting stuck behind houses. This stuff has always happened with DW, but somehow it feels less acceptable in an open-world environment that supposedly encourages exploration.
And the last stanza: performance. On Base PS4, performance is poor. After an admittedly expediently released patch you are offered either "movie" mode or "action" mode. Movie mode sticks to 1080p, but the cost is 30fps being an absolute luxury with a number in the teens a not uncommon experience in high action areas. Action mode does substantially enhance (not perfect) the framerate, but at the cost of reduced resolution and some staggering texture pop-in. Given that the game isn't very good looking in the first place it's not a nice experience and feels rather too similar to a PS3 standard of visuals. And whilst I can't speak personally for the console upgrades, Digital Foundry's article says it's the worst performing game they've tested on the Pro and X. Dynasty Warriors has never pushed the boundaries of visuals and the enemy count is impressive, but it's still well short of where any action game has a right to be.
It's a shame, because in fleeting moments Dynasty Warriors 9 does hint at a truly reinvigorating path that the series could have taken. Instead the game feels much like the product of a purely business decision by Koei Tecmo to make an open world game with as little effort as possible. Consequently Dynasty Warriors 9 suffers from a lack of care and whilst series veterans will be able to find some fun, you'll be left thinking how the game could have been so much more.
