As a guy who has reviewed more spinoff-ish Dynasty Warriors games, (2 on the PSP, and Dynasty Warriors 6) on this site, I see some points that I can agree with, but other points I have to contend and/or suggest. I apologize beforehand, but I think I am going into a rant here.

Reason 1: The combat is absolutely cathartic, which is why I buy some of the games, but the assertion that the game can get tense moments needs to be given a handful of caveats. Namely, you need to be in harder difficulty settings for that to happen. Assuming you also have some top gear/weapons and some levels on you, you can and will breeze through the stages and campaigns in normal and even hard difficulty settings.

But what I think most observers need to understand about most Dynasty Warriors games, and this is to the franchise's credit, is that the killing is a means to an end. In most stages you have an incompetent commander akin to the king chess piece: Lose him/her and it's mission fail. This means that I, the player, have to go to the leader's aid and kill off key officers who are attacking the main base. Killing also allows me, as a fighter, to take bases that raise troop morale. In Dynasty Warriors 6 (and I will use this game as the main example, much to many fans' chagrin), it is to defend workers from building their catapults and battering rams. Long story short, the killing has some purpose to it, and mastering the art of both wave-clearing and 1 v 1 combat (against stronger officers) will determine just how far you'll go in the campaign.

That being said, if you are really are trying to differentiate between the fighting styles of different characters, I don't agree: it's a pretty small difference. Especially in later games, where all their moves that actually matter seem to combine both the wave-clear and nuke qualities to them [most evident in normal difficulty and lower]. But I could dig that the combat has a "rhythmic element" that makes it work. But why not start an attack with Triangle- Square, instead of starting with square. Why not have a character that doesn't have a Musou attack at all but compensates with extra stats or better ability to take objectives? I am not a game developer, and I can already point out some minor touches/compromises the franchise can take to at least make the inputs KINDA different.

Reason 2: Can't argue with anything here. The game does a pretty good job of using the source material, either in educating the gamer about the period or creating their own fantasy scenarios.

Reason 3: They are not great characters. As you've noted they are archetypes and stereotypes abound. Sure, one of a kind archetypes/stereotypes in the Dynasty Warriors-verse, but nothing special as someone who has. I'm a fan of several characters but ultimately at the most basic superficial level [ie. are you good looking, smoking hot, or super smart?]. On the plus side, it is great to see more characters added in to encompass the whole 3 Kingdoms period. Earlier rosters had most of their characters exist before 234 [date for the Battle of Wu Zhang Plains], and now later games have characters who fought in battles after 234, so more options there.

Going off topic, I wonder if any future games would promote Liao Hua into a unique/playable character. The dude's military career spanned, get this, close to 8 friggin decades, first as a Yellow Turban soldier and later as a longtime Shu officer. Now that's one character who has really been through the wars and met a lot of great allies and foes, and a guy that Koei can work with. Maybe replace him for Zhang Chunhua, who is kind of redundant as a Sima family member when we already have 4 of them? (haha, sorry. But I do admit that the Jin roster could use a couple of bodies, so it's a good choice overall. And tsunderes in Japan are always in demand anyway.)

Reason 4: I am going to defend Dynasty Warriors 6, against the wishes of maybe the entire DW fanbase. I do agree that the Renbu system had some major problems; way too easy to gain infinite combos. I also felt that the developers were lazy because not everyone had a story mode [that part really bummed me out most of all] and some characters overlapped in weapons [case in point, Diao Chan and Zhen Ji, who have identical attack animations and barely any differences aside from aesthetics]. And less characters? What's the loss when considering none of the characters lost are special only in the superficial sense?

But guess what DW6 also introduced? Grab attacks per character, a more systematic way of storming castles (defeating wall catapults, defending builders), and secondary objectives that you most likely want to weave into your battle plan as it gives you advantages in the battle and extra XP after the stage. Each character also have a certain skill that can help, like a half god-mode, half speed-boost, or fire attacks that can take down bases, full on war god mode and so on. I love some of the stages that really get me locked in, like the Battle of Yi Ling [Shu side], which had my camera going on a swivel trying to protect Liu Bei from certain death [as well as all the other subordinate officers]. I also love the labyrinthine design of He Fei Castle in the Battle of He Fei [conveyor belt trap, fire towers and so on].

DW 6 is flawed, yes. But was it a crashing failure? Absolutely not. Would take that over Dynasty Warriors 1 [the fighting game], so there's that.

Well, I hope that my comments could add a tad bit to the discussion. All in all, it's cool that you did write an article defending the franchise, but even you must admit that there are things the series can do to be better.

RC

I have a friend who's big into the game and I couldn't for the life of me understand why. Reading this shed some light on it. How do you feel about some of the clones that came out. He asked me to play a level of one of them that came out for the PS3 I think.

You got me interested in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Are there any other volumes released in English and are there multiple series?

As a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors games and their various spin offs (I have put so, so, so many hours into Gundam 3), I'm just going to go ahead and agree with the stuff you said in the intro post. I haven't yet picked up 8 but damn if I'm not looking forward to doing so soon.

I played the shit out of Dynasty Warriors 4 and enjoyed every second, but didn't touch the genre again until Ken's Rage, which is my one and only Platinum Trophy. I had pretty much gotten my fill with 4 and the only reason I decided to play Ken's Rage is because I love Fist of the North Star. That I ended up actually enjoying it was a happy accident.

I'm actually with you on this one hailinelly. I'm no Dynasty Warriors fan but as someone who plays Fifa every year when they come out with a new instalment and as a fan of a couple of series' that I feel get short shrift on this site I understand what you're saying. That said, no matter your intentions your blog post will change nothing.

Patrick will still call MGS dogshit out of nowhere and Jeff will still say he doesn't get that people like Dynasty Warriors. Time moves on.

@hailinel: Yea I love this series. Being of Chinese/Japanese/Mongolian descent, Romance of the three kingdom was a big part of my culture growing up. I read through the whole series by the age of 12 and picked up Dynasty Warrior 3 right after.

One thing I have a problem with though, is that they should add more interesting mechanics to the game. Make it an action rpg/ make an open world warring-state china/ add weapon customization that actually change the looks, whatever just give me something new.The formula is great, I just want more from it.

It's not that it's weird, it's just that the quality simply sucks.. I mean come on all you do is going around slashing countless numbers of mindless 0 threat goons and the occasional dude that puts up more of an fight, in tiny areas, the textures are bad, the models on everything apart from the main characters are horrid and to top it off framerate issues? are you kidding me now?

I mean seriously how can such a simple mindless game that plays on tiny areas with terrible graphics have framerate issues? that's unforgivable.

Good blog!

I really enjoyed what they did with the Story mode in 7, and I had a lot of dumb fun with the crazy crossover storyline from Warriors Orochi 3, but as far as the gameplay goes I've gotten to the point where I wait for the Empires expansions. 7 added a lot of really cool elements to the game, and most importantly character creation made a comeback, in a really cool way. Being able to replace each character already in the game, on an individual basis, with your created characters is an awesome idea, as is the online create-a-character sharing.

My first attempt at the game I started out as a Free Officer, to see what that was like, and ended up right in the middle of a battle between Lu Bu and Pang De, because a war broke out in the territory I was currently resting in. I joined in the fight, narrowly won the battle, and then Lu Bu sent word that since I'd managed to survive his ruler was interested in having me join his army. I joined because I thought Lu Bu was likely to smash my head if I disagreed, and the next thing you know I'm a lieutenant working for Sun Ce's empire- he made demands on a regular schedule, telling to me do things like train my troops to a certain level of performance, or lead skirmishes against other territories, or just gathering enough resources and stockpiling them for the kingdom's use when the deadline came around.

I enjoyed it, but quickly realized an obvious and extremely interesting downside to not being the ruler myself; I had gone out and captured several enemy officers by luring them into my territory mid-battle and laying down an ambush. I was looking forward to offering them a chance to sign up with the army (especially Wei Yan), and then I got a string of messages: Sun Ce executed every last one of them (Even Wei Yan)! It seems obvious in retrospect that as a Lieutenant, I don't get to make the call on what happened to the prisoners I took, but it was a very jarring moment that reminded me just how low on the totem pole I was.

I still stuck with Sun Ce, and eventually was promoted to Marshall of his army- a position formerly held by Lu Bu, the guy who recruited me. I can't imagine he was happy about that, but we didn't really have time to find out, because I'd built up my relationships within the ranks of soldiers and formed an alliance with Sima Yi and Cao Ren. As soon as there was a break in the constant warfare with other empires, I rebelled and fought a battle at the palace, with Sima Yi and Cao Ren watching my back while I punched Sun Ce into a puddle and took his territory and empire for my own.

The issue that I had next was that, thanks to the change in leadership, all of the commanders on my side had left and spread out, leaving just me and my two allies to hold down what was at the time one of the largest empires on the map, and now suddenly a very easy target. What followed was a series of increasingly desperate defensive battles while I sent messengers to bring people back to the fold, my troop numbers dwindling with every drawn out battle. Eventually most of them came back- Wang Yi, Xiahou Dun, Zhu Rong...

That whole run through Empires Mode was a glorious mess. When they release Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires, I'll be there (provided they still have character creation).

is the Samurai warrior games related to the dynasty warrior series ? That series of games were always weird to me.

@librorumprohibitorum: This seems to be the best translation. It should be noted that while DW is a really stupid occasionally amusing game the book is a ridiculously high caliber piece of literature that is more influential than every other book ever written short of the Bible and the Quran.

Worth noting is that Orochi 3 has some really solid in jokes and humor and perhaps due to the lack of shitty English voice acting is more palatable in general (though the original Samurai Warriors had excellent VO) if you know anything about Warring States Japan or the Three Kingdoms period in China.

I've never played a dynasty warriors game but I kinda wanna play 8 because it looks so dumb and like mindless fun.

Oh certainly. I knew Dynasty Warriors was hamming up the adaptation to make it a bit more entertaining for the player, but I entirely forgot what it was adapted from. I've always been interested in that era of China and Japan and I've never really knew where to begin, and this seems like a good place to start because I used to be way into the clans and these historical figures when I played the hell out of Dynasty Warriors 4.

Also I'm currently into really old political dramas and this is about as old as you get so I think I'd really like to read this.

Now, after having read this, I can say that I agree with you on just about every point. Good read, and thanks for doing this!

I remember greatly enjoying Samurai Warriors and I got into a Dynasty Warriors craze. That proceeded up to me getting Ninety-Nine Nights and after that.... I was done with the genre.

However, with this recent talk about Dynasty Warriors 8... well, it has gotten my interest again.

Nice blog.

Until I saw the recent quick look I've only ever heard the name Dynasty Warriors and some of the mockery that came with it. My reaction to the quick look: Holy hell this runs like shit! Anyone who enjoys this must be crazy!

Now I know I was dead on. So thanks!

But seriously that game ran like shit. If they're gonna constantly throw a mindless wave of enemies at you they could at least have gone through the trouble of making it run okay...

@pyromagnestir: There are a lot of great responses to this blog I'll address when I have time, but to you, I'll once again state that the performance issues with DW8 are on the 360 version only, and the ljkely result of an unfortunate porting job from the PS3.

Ha. Glad I wasn't the first one to think of his previous Divekick comments. I was gonna say something last night about that but then got distracted by Rogue Legacy for hours on end yet again.

I've read your post and come to the conclusion that I would have to play one of these games to have a sense of what you're talking about. I really can't judge until then, right? At least not much further than saying watching DW being played is very boring. I will say there is some appeal to me.

Nice read.

I've played my fair share of Musou games (Dynasty Warriors 4 and Samurai Warriors 1). They are exhausting games in the repetition of their actions and their amount of content, but they do have their charms. Hmm, this might be the right time to pick up the latest one.

Whoa. Nice response! Let's see if I can't respond in kind.

1. You really don't need to be at the harder difficulties for these games to get tense. That Nanman Campaign scenario I mentioned was at the game's default difficulty, as was that moment in Dynasty Warriors 8 I mentioned with being swarmed by officers and mooks.

As for the different characters' styles and how they control, differentiating characters in the way you suggest would be more detrimental than positive. Musou attacks, for example, are a major component of the combat. Take them away from a specific character and you neuter their basic effectiveness. Your options for compensation also don't sound particularly thought out. Maybe a musou attack could have more unique properties, but to outright remove them without offering a functional concept in exchange doesn't really say much other than wanting to change something for the sake of change.

3. Three-dimensional they're not, but they're still great. As I said before, they're flanderizations; they have certain personality traits that are intentionally exaggerated. But it's not just about their base personalities. It's about how they look, and how their character concepts, as pertain to Dynasty Warriors, relate to the source material that they're pulled from. And while some will never not be ridiculous (Zhang He, again), the way that these characters somehow relate to their historical origins can be creative and entertaining in their own right. Like how Zhang Chunhua's attitude and temperament manages to cow Sima Yi (fitting, given the records indicating he became frightened of her after she murdered one of his maids), or how in the Samurai Warriors series, Ginchiyo Tachibana's electric motif is entirely derived from the fact that in real life, her father survived being struck by lightning. These aren't the sorts of aspects that people that don't know these figures won't necessarily get, but it shows that even for the purposes of these characterizations, the developers did their research.

Also, Liao Hua sounds like he would be a great addition to the Shu roster. No need to swap out Zhang Chunhua, though. :P

4. What's the loss? You call their appearances superficial, but for those that enjoyed the presence of those characters in past entries, to see them inexplicably dropped was a major disappointment. Though they might play similarly, it just doesn't feel right ofr Xiaoqiao to appear in DW6 without her sister, and given that Xingcai was just introduced in Dynasty Warriors 5, why leave her out? Scaling back the roster wasn't a case of addition by subtraction; after all, it didn't make the remaining roster any better or more unique. It was a case of just plain subtraction.

And while Dynasty Warriors 6 may have added more objective variety, the core issues remained. Many of the good aspects found in DW6 made their way into DW7 and 8, with siege weapon-based objectives and trap-filled fortresses. Did Dynasty Warriors 7 feature grab attacks? No, but it did ditch the Renbu system, and in its place brought multiple weapons and switch attacks. Dynasty Warriors 8 made the weapon switching more meaningful with the elemental alignments and also brought back the Rage system from Dynasty Warriors 5. While DW6 certainly evolved certain elements of the formula, its contributions are far outshone by its mistakes, and the means taken to correct them in DW7.

Also, it's not very sporting to pit DW6 against the original fighting game, given that the fighting game was never a shining point in its genre. (Not that such a comparison makes DW6 look particularly good, either. :P)

I've played a couple of similar games produced by other developers. I think Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes has its good points, but the stages are too small, filled with a lot of narrow paths rather than more open maps, and the various stages themselves never varied based on which character you play as. I also played Ninety-Nine Nights on the 360, and I found the core combat and characters in that game fun as well, but it was also dreadfully short, with some characters having story modes that lasted a mere two or three stages. But it's my understanding that the development of N3 was kind of a mess, so the fact that it turned out in the state that it did is kind of amazing in itself.

Again, the DW8 QL was the 360 version, which was a poorly optomized port of the PS3 game. Beyond that, you don't seem to desire actual discussion as there's little evidence you actually read what I wrote beyond the title, so I'll leave it at that for you.

Yeah, Samurai Warriors began as a spin-off of Dynasty Warriors, but set in feudal Japan rather than Three Kingdoms China. Despite that, the franchises have actually evolved quite differently; Samurai Warriors was the first title that offered active EXP gathering and mid-stage level ups, branching story paths (which were sadly dropped in SW2 and 3), and featured mechanical differences in the way that the Musou gauge was segmented. Some of the evolution that Dynasty Warriors has undergone was a result of Samurai Warriors experimenting with certain aspects first.

There's also the Warriors Orochi series, which is a crossover between Dynasty and Samurai Warriors.

I think that @fredchuckdave has pointed you in the right direction. The edition I read (with the cover inserted in my blog post) was a two-volume edition. The novel doesn't have any sequels and isn't part of any series.

Thanks!

You might be right, but it seems that the post was at least of some value despite that.

Whew! That's a lot of replies. Good to see so much discussion!

I've only played Dynasty Warriors 4 but I played the hell out of it.

My biggest frustration with the Quick looks and stuff is that they play the first level of the game and declare that all you do is mash the attack button. Well no shit you can get away with that in the first level of a game on normal, how many recent games are there where you can't do that.

As the difficulty ramps up you absolutely have to start playing smarter. I didn't see them saying that Gears of War 3 and Halo are pieces of shit because normal is easy.

This is why we are friends, Halinel.

Yeah, I know that really isn't adding anything to the conversation. I apologize. I just find it refreshing to find someone who appreciates the games as much as I do. And props for mentioning the Nanman stages in DW4. They were intense.

You are weird

No apologies necessary. (And where did those line breaks in the quote come from?) It's just refreshing to read a lot of positive points of view on the series.

Hey Hailinel!

Fun Blog man, always fun to read about somebody's passion for a game/series. I think I'm going to get off my butt and actually read Romance of the Three Kingdoms now, it's been on my to read list for over a decade.

Points 2-onward I'm pretty much on board with. I'm not sure the characters are that well defined, but given the enormous size of the cast they have they do a pretty good job of at least making them look unique. Which in my mind is the main thing a game like DW needs to do.

Point 1 is where Dynasty Warriors (and Drakengard which to me is very similar in some of its' mechanics) tends to lose me. Just a personal taste kind of thing and this is just my personal take on the older games (as you may remember I admittedly have not touched this series since the PS2 era)

In a way DW reminds me of Arena League Football. Don't know if you ever seen a game of it, but the major difference between AFL and NFL in my opinion is not the walls, amount of players or shortened field but rather the scoring. In AFL games teams basically seem to score on 80-90% of their possessions, which devalues the dramatic value of a Touchdown's specialness because it happens with such frequency. There isn't that drama/tension like there is in the NFL where you don't know which of the four outcomes will happen on any drive (touchdown, field goal, punt, or turnover).

The breathtaking power and ease which you tear through dudes in DW is simply awesome, but like the touchdown in the AFL it loses its' appeal to me fairly quickly because it's so constant. And to make matters worse I feel like I end up just pressing square for an hour or so with the occasional musou when I'm near a named opponent. I do agree that they do a good job of mixing up the Musous between characters, enough so that there are some I really struggle to use effectively. But you only get to change characters between stages, which can take a good while for me anyway since I'm usually shooting to max kill counts before the timer runs out.

And you're right it's surprisingly easy to get yourself into trouble quickly, but for me at least I find that happens because I start to zone out and not pay as close attention as I should be.

I do agree with you that the fact it is so simple makes it very accessible and easy to switch characters realtively easily (one of the things that makes Smash Bros. such great games and a massive improvement that was made to DOTA 2 from DotA).

Most games are too probably too complex for their own good but DW feels to me its' one mechanical requirement short of greatness. I think that's all it might need.

You mentioned left trigger/right trigger with CoD. That's true but CoD and shooters like it, has another mechanical requirement that makes a big difference in keeping it feeling dynamic and variable. That's aiming with the right analog stick. You don't really need to aim with anywhere near the same kind of precision in DW, expect for the occasional ranged attack (do they still have those?). So there is one less component in DW imo than FPS games. Which for me is why one feels varied and the other can feel monotonous.

Just give me one more mechanical consideration so I'm not hyper conscious of how much I'm continually mashing Square and I'd be in love with this series once again.

just my two cents on the series, but I really ought to give it another go. Its been awhile.

@slag: The thing about Call of Duty is that, even though you're using the right-stick to turn and aim, it still allows for far less precision than would be asked for in other FPS titles. The moment you hit Left Trigger, you lock on to a target. In a way, that's really not so different from the most basic requirement of dealing damage in Dynasty Warriors being that you're actually facing the enemy and have them within your weapon's reach.

The series still has ranged attacks, but nothing like you might remember. In the old PS2 games, the characters could all fire arrows, but that was eventually dropped. In the last several entries, weapons available have included throwing knives, a bow and arrows, a crossbow and the like. That being said, the series combat has grown in general since the PS2 era with characters being able to equip two weapons that can be swapped on the fly and more recently the rock-paper-scissors mechanic. If the last game in the series you played was on the PS2, you might be surprised at how much things have actually changed since then.

fair enough. At this point it becomes mainly a question of perception. To me it's still different enough, but I can see your point of view.

The series still has ranged attacks, but nothing like you might remember. In the old PS2 games, the characters could all fire arrows, but that was eventually dropped. In the last several entries, weapons available have included throwing knives, a bow and arrows, a crossbow and the like. That being said, the series combat has grown in general since the PS2 era with characters being able to equip two weapons that can be swapped on the fly and more recently the rock-paper-scissors mechanic. If the last game in the series you played was on the PS2, you might be surprised at how much things have actually changed since then.

OOoo two weapons, that does sound much better. I didn't see much that jumped out at me in the Quick Look, but I did like the weapon trinity idea.

I want say DW 4 was the last I played, although might have been 3 (I rented them). The one I played the most of was definitely 2 (which I own). So yeah been awhile. :)

@slag: Just for the sake of comparison, here's some footage of Dynasty Warriors 3 (in all it's horrendously English dubbed glory):

And here's some high-level play of Dynasty Warriors 8 with a maxed-out character on the highest difficulty setting.

That juggling! This is some mastery at work here.

That's PS3 I'm assuming?

If so than man GB really should have Quick Looked the PS3 version. Holy cow does that look a million times better than the 360 version they showed. The framerate is incredibly better, glad that would be the version I'd potentially play.

Well I think you sold me. Once /if I get through this massive backlog I just built up with summer sales and whatnot I think I'll give DW another go.

@hailinel: So I meant to ask, how does this game handle "Other" characters, like Diao Chan or Lu Bu? Are they just unplayable in the story mode?

Ehh, I still find those games awful and boring but that's cool if you can enjoy them. They obviously are still being made for some reason.

I'm also a fan of the series, but I think I come from a different angle. The thing that keeps me coming back is being part of a larger overall battle that I have an impact on. I really like the parade of little side objectives and how your success or failure at them can bring on momentum swings that completely change the tone of the battle, possibly culminating in your army mobbing the final enemy general or you having to desperately defend your base. That side of things doesn't really get explored to the extent I would like. DW6 actually took some steps farther down that road and it's still my favorite of the series, but it seems like they're committed to heading back after the backlash. Anyway I wouldn't call the games masterpieces but I haven't found anything else that scratches that same itch like it, so I keep on coming back. Some nostalgia for the ridiculous voice acting and characters doesn't hurt either.

Fuck I can't buy any more games, August is too packed, but now I really want DW8.

@slag: Yep, it's the PS3 version, all right.

You have to unlock them first, but characters like Lu Bu and Diaochan are playable. They each have story mode scenarios as well under the Other category, but they aren't nearly as long or as involved as the faction storylines.

*Edited for trying to use grammar close to midnight. Now it should make sense.*

I broke down and bought this today finally. Only cost 10 bucks after I traded in Injustice and Bioshock: Infinite.

Only played it for an hour or so but already worth it, didn't like those 2 games at all.

I have wierd gaming tastes XD

Nah, not weird. I haven't even played Infinite, much less bought it.

I have a friend that's a huge fan of the series, and he pretty much feels the sameway as you. Though for me not so much at all, the last DW game I enjoyed abit was strikeforce, and that's because it tried to do something new by making you feel like a super saiyan.

The series as a whole never really evolved its gameplay formula much. Every new entry was always just small improvements but nothing special. Fighting waves and waves of enemies gets boring fast to me, and for most part its always the same story, but its just my opinion.

Though I usually end up arguing with my friend, because we both have different views of the DW series.

I played a bit of the first Strikeforce. It was really interesting, though I didn't really get into it much at the time. I wasn't really expecting a Dynasty Warriors take on Monster Hunter, which is what those games essentially are. I should probably give it another go at some point.

real off topic, but you would really dig the movie "red cliff"

*Googles*

Damn, that does sound awesome. Thanks for pointing me to that!

yea no worries. that movie really to me real invokes dynasty warriors. it was a pretty awesome movie.

i watched it through illicit means (cause it is a foreign movie, not that easy to legally find in the US) but i believe it is on netflix now.

just a heads up though, there's 2 versions of that movie, a theatrical version

and the international version

i think netflix only has the theatrical version, you would want the international version.

Fortunately, there's a domestic Blu-ray edition of the international version readily available on Amazon.

ooo Are we just discussing awesome Chinese battle movies? Because Hero and Curse of the Golden Flower are two of my favorites. :)

truth tellah speaking more truth here, those are awesome movies.(hero especially, loved that movie)

couple of my favorites is red cliff, and the warlords.

thats the one you will want to get, with how you're a fan of this Chinese dynasty stuff, i think your gonna love that movie.

Already bought it. :)

Also, like you and @truthtellah, I enjoy Hero, though I haven't seen the other movies you've both listed. At least, as far as I can recall. I'll have to rectify that at some point.

For me Dynasty Warriors was a game I really enjoyed for one entry (3) and then after that found the rest too samey for my liking. I get the appeal of a kinda mashy and mindless hack-em-up or whatever, but I just think Dynasty Warriors looks and feels a little too cheap. I want a little more flair and polish to my mindless games.