Dynasty Warriors 5

"Just another DW game?"

Intro- Dynasty warriors five is the latest entry in the main series. This is not just another Dynasty warriors game, because it brought some of the best ideas yet to the series like the Musou mode and the base system. It also boasts the largest roster. This is the only dynasty warriors game that I feel Koei actually tried to do something new and not just rehash like they did with Dynasty warriors 3 and 4.

Story- Dynasty warriors games are based on the era of the three kingdoms, Shu, Wie and Wu. Each one of them is trying to put an end to the chaos by conquering China taking control of every territory. In the game, you can play as any officer or ruler from that era and go through a series of battles in a mode called Musou. Every character have his or her own Musou mode, so this time you won't start at the Yellow Turban Rebellion no matter who is your character like in previous Dynasty warriors games. Also each character have his or her own ending now.

Gameplay- If you have played any dynasty warriors game before, then you already know the basics. Before a battle begins, you get to choose your weapons, items, and a chance to look at the battle map. You also get a briefing telling you what are the victory/loss conditions. After that you begin the battle. The maps are huge, you can easily spend few minutes getting from one end to the other. You will usually be fighting hundreds of enemies at once, all by yourself. Killing enemies is easy and quick, you have different kinds of combos at your disposal. Depending on the weapon you are using, you can perform anywhere from a normal 3-hits combo to a devastating 8-hits combos. That's not all you can do, you can use some kind of magic called musou attack. Every characters have a special musou attack, like a huge fireball, energy blast you get the idea.

How do you win a battle is up to you. You can go and kill every single enemy, or you can take a strategically approach like take enemy basses, my favorite strategy is to kill enemy generals, what's a better way to beat an army than to kill their leader? There are even more ways like cutting off enemy supply lines.

The new additions to the series are the base system moral. Well moral is not new but its never been a factor until now. Moral is basically how your troops are feeling, if it goes down they will show weaker performance, if it gets really low they might start retreating! So how do you raise moral? There are two ways to do so: Taking over enemy bases and killing enemy generals. By doing either one you raise your army's moral and thus increasing your chances of victory.

Graphics- this is the only area where Koei never bothered to improve. The graphics are not terribly bad, but they look almost as they did in dynasty warriors 4. Character models are still ugly, but what I most hate about the graphics is the environment. Seriously, there is no details at all! The stage is almost empty, just enemies and bases. There is also the slowdown problem, it is not as significant as it was in Dynasty warriors 4 but its still present.

Sound- the voiceovers are horrible, no even worse. I would advise you to turn off the voice and music off, trust me you are better of that way. Koei is still using the same music from Dynasty warriors 3, can you believe that? Its not even good either. Well it was acceptable for the first time but Koei needs to use a different soundtrack in the next Dynasty warriors game.

Value- the replay value is huge, there are a total of 40 characters to unlock. That means 40 musou mode to play through. There is something called 4th weapon, 4th weapon is the strongest weapon in the game. Each character have a 4th weapon, to obtain a character's 4th weapon you need to complete special requirement during a battle on either hard or chaos mode. So yeah there are many reasons to go back to the game after you beat it. Then you have the “Other” side, this side not with any of the three kingdoms. They fight for their own army, one of the most famous warriors is Lu Bu.

Overall- If you are a fan of the series you will definitely appreciate Koei's effort to bring us a new, improved Dynasty warriors game. As long as you can tolerate the horrid voiceovers and outdated graphics. If you are not a fan of the series, this is a must-have action title, there is no better hack n' slash title out there.

Final score- 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/06