Quick Look: Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition

@pyrodactyl: Oh, well I never said Pirate Warriors was better than those either way. We were talkin' bout Musuo games yo. I've not played those games so I would not make a judgment call between the two though I have read up on them. Even if they are good the point is they'll never be able to cram 100% of all the great things about that series. Let's just be glad we get any One Piece games that are half decent.

To me, there are lots of different angles from which you can approach and enjoy Dynasty Warriors. With more recent Dynasty Warriors, the spectacle of doing something over-the-top with easy controls and the option to have variety with two different weapons really brings more to the spectacle as well (I think trying different character, and trying all their different weak and strong attack combinations is a good way to get into the game, Jeff was doing very few of combos, nor did he use weapon switching to cancel out of attacks and combo). Dynasty Warriors Next is one of my favorite DW's specifically because of the pace and a chain attack that lets you cancel during any combo and build up huge combos, and the game has mechanics to actively encourage that. There's also just the fun of juggling and getting good at killing larger and larger numbers of enemies, the harder difficulties are pretty demanding.

There's also looking at it similarly to Diablo, where you do attack-attack-strong attack instead of click-click-ability and then loot.

Another common way to look at it is as the evolution of the old school beat'em up like Golden Axe, with food pick-ups on the ground for health and with tons more variety, spectacle, mechanics, and characters.

Yep, just as obnoxious as every other DW quicklook.

I mustn't be extreme enough to play this game, because it looks dreadful.

@edmundus: Dynasty Warriors: Unity

Wow! Dynasty Warrior quick look threads bring out the absolute most smug, insufferable nerds on the planet. This thread is really fascinating. Someone should do a study or something.

Hahaha

At 40:18, Vinny does his best Christopher Walken impression.

The voice actor for Lu Bu is the guy who does half the voices for the bosses in World of Warcraft. I can't hear his voice without thinking about WoW.

Xtreme and Dynasty Warriors in your title is a deadly combination.

@herbiebug: Dynasty Warriors (and The Three Kingdoms novels) take place in China, not Japan.

Heck yeah, and he's the Announcer for Super Street Fighter IV. It's a weird trifecta of thought processes I too experience between that and WoW when I hear his voice. "I will not move when Flame Wreath is cast or the raid blows up!"

Dynasty Warriors is my favorite series. Thanks for the Quick Look!

Your playstyle is lacking, but that is understanding when you are apathetic towards the series.

It is no different from sports Quick Looks in that regard, I suppose.

Thats the same whistle used by Jongos in Banjo Kazooie

I loved playing the Warriors games when I was younger - and Sengoku Basara 3 recently - but I wish these guys would change the gameplay up a bit. At least upping the enemy count to thousands of clones on screen instead of a mere hundred.

Next gen maybe...?

I liked early DW games but for a really long time the spinoffs/ripoffs (Samurai, Gundam, One Piece, Sengoku Basara... But not that Fist of the North Star one) have been far superior to the actual core games. I'm just as bored as Jeff with this thing.

Also Xiahou Dun has always been and always will be the only character worth playing.

As someone who has never actually played any Dynasty Warriors, this looks interesting enough to pick up for cheap. I don't understand how Kessen never got more installments than the 3 it has.

Oh lol, most of the time, Jeff's jaded snide is a bit too much, but for this game I found it pretty funny. I have no investment in this series whatsoever. I kinda agree with Jeff on this series.

That said, I really like the original-Xbox game Kingdom Under Fire, which was a high-fantasy, weird RTS/3rd Person Action hybrid thing. It had some really cool ideas and mission-design. I would play another one of those.

Edit: Also, this voice-acting is hilarious, even without commentary.

Especially since the cost of terrible games is going up up up in Canada at least.

@neonie: i meant game is designed in japan.

This makes me wonder how different (better?) some of those historical Chinese epic films would be if they featured dudes on horseback riding in a circle punching guys with big gloves.

Anyway, I've always actively ignored DW information and this didn't really sway me, but some of the comments about other similar games I also willfully ignored are at least giving me things to look into. Thanks commenters.

"You know, I just want to take my mind off things, not have to think about good games."

HAHA

I've never played a sports game where you can just spam one button over and over and still win.

I feel exactly how Jeff is about this franchise.

I like Dynasty Warriors. I also like potato chips. I enjoy both in a fairly unconscious way. Both are probably not good for me and if you were to make a T graph of the pro's and con's - well, the con's would kick ass.

Crap - now I'm hungry for potato chips.

I swear to Christ....if they make a Viking Warriors and you all love it, you deserve ALL of the DLC that publishers cook up.

They DIDN'T play the PS3 version last time. They played the inferior Xbox 360 port.

I imagine a 3rd person MOBA would be interesting, yeah.

@jeff If you're not even going to TRY to look at the game, why even bother doing quick looks on it? And @hailinelmade a great blog explaining why the series is enjoyable after you shat on the base game last year, which you conveniently ignore here. Might want to read that, assuming this is something you actually care to understand and not just shit on a game series that you've LONG ago decided you hate.

I find it surprising that Jeff isn't a fan of Dynasty Warriors, it seems right up his alley..I totally get why people wouldn't like it though.

Personally I just think they need to get the series away from the same handful of battles they've revamped like, thirteen times over. Orochi was a step in the right direction.

I have to say I love the Dynasty Warriors series, they are such dumb games where you mash the button (a whole lot) and listen to some awesomely bad metal and the voice acting is horrible. It's Awesome!

And I also say i'd rather play this than all this 8 bit looking indie crap which is getting published.

I don't get it, people rave about some game that looks like its from the 80's and has 2 action mechanics, but hate on Dynasty Warriors...

Lu Bu OUT!

You can play as Lu Bu, but can you play as Big Bo?