Dynasty Warriors 4

"Minor Improvements to an Excellent Existing Game"

If you love part 3, then you can't go wrong. Dynasty Warrior 4 might be the best in the series but there aren’t a lot of improvements from the last one. It’s hack and slash formula is perhaps the best one I’ve ever. I guess their philosophy is, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”.

Graphics: 9/10
Absolutely high quality in both it’s game play and FMV sequences. Although not as detailed as it can be, it’s prettier than the 3rd one, but from an untrained eye the game remains quite the same graphically.

Music/Sounds: 8/10
The music is actually a slower pace but some of the old background music remains the same. The Japanese language option is taken out, which is a shame. There are more dialogues going on in battle and upon meeting an allied general extra dialogues are triggered.

Control: 9/10
If you played this before, there aren’t any new buttons or moves added besides the jumping charge attack. Takes 3 minutes to learn the control and about 30 mins to understand the flow of the game.

Story: 8/10
Generals of China’s past dukes it out on the battlefield over control of land.
Nothing new here, just a different chapter out of Romance of the 3 Kingdoms story.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where the fun lies. An almost never-ending fleet of soldiers rushing to their death or to take your life. Beware of your own allies; they might steal a kill from you. Important kills like generals will cost you weapon experience points, which is the only way to level up a weapon now. You also have an option of adding new equipments like elemental orbs that triggers attacks after each Triangle button attack lands. Certain characters have throws/grabs attacks. Also stay away from Lu Bu on duel mode if you can.

Overall Score: 9/10
Almost perfect eh? Nothing’s perfect so here’s the first imperfect score for DW4.

Buy or Rent?
I bought mine without the fear that it was going to be a bad game. I’m not disappointed in it but I don’t think it was that much better than the last one. If you were a wise gamer and a thrifty consumer, I wouldn’t recommend buying it if you already have part 3 or even Xtreme Legends. It’s basically an incremental update to a great product release several months ago. For those who can afford to buy games on a daily basis, it’s a good addition to your collection. It’s sure to guarantee more than 50-infinite hours of your life. Anyways, buy a game because you want to not because someone tells you it’s good.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/03, Updated 03/27/03