Dynasty Warriors 7

You know, there are a lot of people out there who don’t get the Dynasty Warriors franchise. How does such a singular and simple formula continue to be Koei’s bread and butter after so many iterations? Well I can’t answer that question, nor shall I try. This is a review of Dynasty Warriors 7 as done by a fan of the series since 3. I have fond memories of the first time I played Dynasty Warriors 3 and I will follow the series to the end. Are all of the games good? No. Will I buy them all? Probably. I can’t explain how it works but I am sucked into the franchise and I can’t escape. Even as I type this up I am listening to the soundtrack to 4. No lie! So anyways, after the sidebar, is Dynasty Warriors 7 good? Well the easy answer is yes and no.

This is now the second proper Dynasty Warriors game to grace the current generation consoles. They have never really used the consoles to the full potential in my opinion. The graphics still are not up to par with other games you would see on these consoles. This iteration does however offer the most depth I have seen thus far. The main story mode is present and that is, for better or worse, about the same and I will get into that a bit later. But the new mode this time around is the Conquest mode.

Conquest mode is something new since 6. Basically you as a player are forging your way through the land one battleground at a time. You first choose who to play as, not that it matters too much because you can change at any time. The characters also carry over any skills they may have acquired during a story playthrough as well as any money you have saved up. Once you reach the main game board, which is a rather large map of a China made up of Hex spaces. There are several types of spaces which consist of city spaces, weapon spaces, unique character battle spaces, arena spaces, and stat boosting spaces. There are a few others but those are the main ones. Basically, aside from the city spaces, these are one off battles whose objective can range from protecting the main camp from an onslaught of generals, to rushing to the rescue of an ally, as well as chasing after a fleeing general or even helping an ally reach an escape point. These will take place on sections of the maps you have already played in story mode. Your reward for winning the battle depends on the type of space, stat boosting will boost a stat weapon spaces give you a weapon etc. This is also where you will find the games 2 Player mode.

I suppose this is a step in the right direction. After countless iterations of the same game with the same formula, it is hard to find anything innovative in this franchise and I applaud them for their efforts even if it feels like very minimal progress. The downfall of this system, as I am sure is obvious, is that at the end of the day you are still grinding on the same levels you have played countless times, listening to the same songs, even if they are pretty sweet guitar heavy tracks, and everything just becomes repetitive. You can only play this mode for maybe an hour before you just get burned out. But that’s the Dynasty Warriors way and if you have made it this far in the review you already know what you’re getting yourself into.

The story mode this time around is pretty different as well. At least from what I remember of 6. There are some noticeable character changes, not really new characters just remodeling the same ones so they look different. And for the most part I hate the new look. What the hell did they do to Xiahou Dun? He has emo hair! What happened to Liu Bei’s face? Sure that mustache was silly but it was Liu Bei! So yea you are either a fan of the new look or not, I for my money am not but unfortunately it appears they are the new standard. Anyways, the story mode follows Wu, Wei, Shu, of the after story of the three, Jin. There is the lead in narrative, then you are either dropped into a staging area or dropped right into the battle itself. The staging area is new. You can walk around the camp, talking to some of the NPCs and buying weapons. It’s a neat feature but really just a proof of concept. I would like to see this expanded in the next installment. As far as I can tell, they have tried to really make this mode more historically accurate then in games past. It is not a story about conquering the land, rather it is the story of trying to bring an end to the constant fighting. At the end of the day, there are still 3 territories they just don’t fight as much, and at the very end, which is the end of Jin, your last battle doesn’t even give you a sense of ending. The epilogue talks about how the fighting continued after your character died. This brings me to my next point about the story mode, death. Man people are dying everywhere. It’s so weird because I don’t remember any other Dynasty Warriors game killing off its generals so frequently or putting such an emphasis on it. Even when you go to the staging area in the next battle the music is all sad and every kind of morns a little. It is a weird choice but I suppose probably more accurate. I mean I have a hard time believing that these guys can go charging into battle time and time again and manage to return with their lives every time.

Like every other Dynasty Warriors game thus far, You run around a map smashing on that square button and occasionally pressing triangle or circle all the while pilling up that K.O. count. There is a trophy for racking up a 3,000 death toll so that should tell you something. I give Omega Force credit for trying so show you something new game after game. They are all the same. But at the very least, they don’t seem exactly the same. And that is the key to sell you or me or every other fan out there the same game every single time. Dynasty Warriors 7 has some nice hooks, but in the end it is the same as Dynasty Warriors 3. 3 was my first exposure and I still have fond memories of playing that with my friends as limited as it was. So really if you are new to the series, this is no better or worse than the others and not something that I can honestly say will win you over, but if you are returning for another round, you know when you say, man I could go for more Dynasty Warriors as I did, then this will give you your fix. And hey, this time around you can collect trophies, so there’s that added addiction for you.