Dynasty Warriors 3

"Improving in nearly every aspect of its predecessor, 'Dynasty Warriors 3' makes a fascinating game that could've still used some refining..."

Synopsis
Improving in nearly every aspect of its predecessor, 'Dynasty Warriors 3' makes a fascinating game of pure addicting fun, and despite such improvements, it could've still used some refining.

The Koei's sequel of Dynasty Warriors 2 was an amazingly addictive game, which however, grew terribly redundant after several replays. The quests were the same for the 25+ characters, causing serious redundancy and a lack of enjoyment by the 5th run-through. Fortunately, unlike several companies which fail to redeem themselves, Koei makes the 3rd installment an improvement over nearly every aspect. It improves itself with such precision, that its predecessor, Dynasty Warriors 2, is a simply inadequate addition to the PS2 library.

Gameplay Elements:
The classic 'beat-em-up' gameplay returns once again from the Dynasty Warriors 2 predecessor. The gamer is plunged into a war, serving one of its army out of three possible selections, as a general of history (or a female of history) participating in an all-out war with the expected button mashing techniques. However, the gamer can now utilize up to 6 attack moves including juggling, strong attacks, weak/quick attacks and plenty more for each individual of the grand total of 38 characters or so.

While the predecessor of Dynasty Warriors 2 was a repetitive game that was deliberate and lacked any redeeming qualities for more than a rent, 'Dynasty Warriors 3' inputs a larger quantity or strategic elements than its predecessor. While Dynasty Warriors 3 still retains its button-masher quality, the possibility of better juggling tactics, combo maneuvering and a flair of style throughout the 6 buttons make Dynasty Warriors 3 a notch above the rest of the button-mashing games.

The level of redundancy will completely change as the characters are granted the ability to equip items that give you abilities, ride horses, boost statistics and special privileges that amount to drastic changes of gameplay with each different item. Weaponry can amount to 4 weapons, each with different abilities. The 4th weapon is given pre-set abilities that determine its 'ultimate weapon' privileges. The sheer amount of customization throughout the obviously devastating number of players will make this game an endless gameplay delight with more than its fair share of originality.

Gameplay rises to a complete new level after the shoddy amount in the previous installment of Dynasty Warriors, which had 8. With the grand total of 23 levels, 38 characters and an endless amount of customizing ability, this game creates such depth to the highest degree that the realization of redundancy will almost soon be forgotten!

Logical damage distribution becomes more important in this installment as well. While the horses in the previous installment damaged enemy health at an alarming rate, Dynasty Warriors 3 tones this down relatively well. The transportation of Dynasty Warriors 3 increases to new levels as well. While every horse in the predecessor ran and damaged equally, Dynasty Warriors 3 completes a whole new breed of fast and slow horses, in dependence on your ranking (which can be boosted with the amount of people you kill, the time it takes and the bonuses you get). A low ranking would privilege you to a limitation of slow horses, while a level 1 ranking will grant you every horse in the game. Better yet, elephants are available in one level, stomping, trampling in such a comedic level that you will not want to stop!

Another new element introduced in Dynasty Warriors 3, is the the ability to equip bodyguards (from 0 - 8 bodyguards) a weapon and a command. The bodyguards can be given a command of defensive guard or offensive vigor in dependence on your strategy. Weaponry varies from long range bows and crossbows, to close-combat swords and spears. While this is surely an excellent idea to the already addicting game, Koei makes each bodyguard equip the same weapon and obey the same command as the next bodyguard. Another minor flaw is the poor A.I. of these bodyguards. Easily becoming an immediate target for slaughter, these bodyguards tend to require you guarding them instead of them guarding you!

What truly makes Dynasty Warriors 2 a forgotten title, is the ability to have a 2-player battle sequence in Dynasty Warriors 3. This increases the amount of fun and enjoyment and keeps the game lively. While this 2-player mode is exciting, the vision level grows to a minimum due to the small screen and the disappearance of some enemies become much more frequent. This hinders the gameplay ultimately, but still introduces fresh new ideas with endless amount of exciting gameplay.

'Dynasty Warriors 3' is truly a masterpiece with an endless supply of great gameplay, intriguing scenarios, overwhelming selection of characters and a plethora of items, weaponry and much more! 'Dynasty Warriors 3' will keep you going for days on end with its mindless action! 9/10

Visual Presentation:
'Dynasty Warriors 3' presents a more precise work on graphics than 'Dynasty Warriors 2'. Face expressions and vision was very minimal in the second installment. Koei, however, makes the character models and design in 'Dynasty Warriors 3' better, with greater precision on clothes and face, it is simple to say that 'Dynasty Warriors 3' looks quite glamorous character model-wise. This, unfortunately, does not say the same about the models of the identical enemies. Of course, not every enemy soldier cannot look the same, but the quality of the enemy soldiers in 'Dynasty Warriors 3' do lack the precision and work of the character design and models. This, however, is only a minor flaw.

The bigger, if not the biggest flaw lies in the lack of vision. The war tends to pack in plenty of warriors, but often, this chaotic war tends to make several warriors disappear and reappear continuously in several areas. This also causes slowdown, drastically lowering graphic quality.

The worst graphical area of 'Dynasty Warriors 3' is indefinitely the atmosphere. Running through a large plain is great, but the graphics in the environment still lacks an extremely large amount of detail, that it whittles in comparison to the character models.

Overall, 'Dynasty Warriors 3' is a very beautiful game. But as much as it would deserve a high score, the games that were released when 'Dynasty Warriors 3' was released attains a much higher graphical experience, with better environments and detailed models. This game's visual presentation simply lacks greatly in comparison to the games of its time. It is one of the areas that truly need to be worked on to deserve an exceptional score. 6/10

Audio Presentation:
Probably the worst criteria of the game, and probably a step back from the previous installment, Dynasty Warriors 3 inputs voice-overs. Voice-overs are excellent... if executed well. This does not go the same for Dynasty Warriors 3. It seems that many remarks have already gone around about the shoddy work of voice acting. Some people joke that the voice acting was specially selected off of the streets. True, this is the criteria that simply does not redeem itself or improve over its predecessor. The acting is horrendous, especially in areas where seriousness is most vital. Certain horrible voiceovers are placed in when a general dies, for example, and simply obstructs the gamer's ability to enjoy a war simulation. Perhaps Dynasty Warriors 3 would have went about the best if they simply put in text throughout the war, instead of the horrendous voiceovers that are in this game.

The music plays a tough rock melody throughout the war, each scenario and team with a different musical score. The rock music has been a controversial aspect with many Dynasty Warriors players. While it truly suits the war feeling of the game, it does not suit the quality of the Chinese war era. This simply does not make sense. However, I would most highly prefer a rock melody throughout this game moreso than the exotic string melodies of the Chinese.

Simply put, the Audio Presentation is stale and requires much more work on refining. Indefinitely a better voiceover would simply boost this criteria several 2 - 3 marks, but this simply isn't so with this game. While it is not as bad as several games, such as the first installment of the Resident Evil series, gamers have truly heard much better voice acting in games than this one! 6/10

Story and Composition:
The 'Dynasty Warriors 3' story takes on the Luo Guanzhong novel that plays a tale of the Chinese historical characters. Each with divine feats and dangerous pursuits, Dynasty Warriors 3 plays out an excellent conversion of the famous book, with several wars that have been acted out through this game.

The three kingdoms, Wu, Wei and Shu do not pose as a good or an evil entity. Their leaders are also presented as in the book: Cao Cao, the leader of Wei, Sun Jian, the leader of Wu and Liu Bei, the leader of Shu. While most versions of the Three Kingdoms novel favor Shu, 'Dynasty Warriors 3' does a relatively good job of making the legions equal in power and force.

The story and composition is simply better understood with the excellent library of character biographies. This is an excellent and almost unexpected addition to the 'Dynasty Warriors 3' installment, and can help people understand the Chinese history better.

The Story and Composition of 'Dynasty Warriors 3' preserves the ancient tale of the 3 legions, and ultimately makes a great interpretation with the great extra addition of character and biography interpretation. 9/10

Replayability and Extras:
Never has a game given so much... simply put.

The unbelievable boost of character selection, the exciting levels and the sheer amount of items are some reasons... but not all! The historical references that help better understand the story isn't even it!

Koei helps you play mini-games apart from the true story mode. Mini-games allow one player with its default statistics (no items and boosters) to pit against an endless amount of enemies to see how many they can kill before dying. Of course, a time limit of 90 minutes is displayed when pressing 'pause', but the excitement of it usually ends in 20 minutes. Another mini-game that is offered is the Time Trial, which enables you to select one character of default statistics to kill 100 enemies as quick as possible, keeping a log of records on the quickest time. Pretty useless, but nevertheless, a pleasure to have once tired of the long missions or the alternative mini-game. Besides the 'Challenge Mode', a 'VS Mode' is presented as well. several scenarios are given to you, which force you to pit against a friend. One allows you to simply fight one-on-one until a person dies. Another one simply forces in an infinite amount of enemies towards the two players until one dies. Another one offers teams of 4 on 4, 5 on 5 and so forth, the winner killing the captain of the team.

Simply excellent amount of replayability and an endless amount of extras makes this game perfect for this criteria! 10/10

Conclusion
Never have I played such a fulfilling game that lasts for so long. The pure fun can last for months, and single player offers so much! Koei simply outdid themselves, to the exception of poor visual/audio presentation.

A 'beat-em-up' game has never been so endless and offered so much as 'Dynasty Warriors 3'. Koei keeps giving and giving until the horrible point where it can't give anymore! For a game that is supposed to be redundant, 'Dynasty Warriors 3' puts in such enjoyable aspects that you begin to forget that the game's redundancy is supposed to bore you.

This game offers so much, but can also be played for simply a day with much fulfillment. This game is a buy and a rent... you won't go wrong with either. While preferences and opinions vary, the rent, then buy rule is always acceptable. However, if you liked the predecessor even slightly, it is almost evident that this one will fill in the gaps that the 2nd installment left behind!

How it all adds up!
(average is determined through the importance of the criteria)
Gameplay Elements: 9/10
Visual Presentation: 6/10
Audio Presentation: 6/10
Story and Composition: 9/10
Replayability and Extras: 10/10
Final Score: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/02, Updated 02/09/03