Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends

"Expected a lot more but still turned out to be a great game..."

Remember when Dynasty Warriors 3 was released and a while later Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends was released? Well, the one thing that mde DW3:XL really special was that it had the full DW3 and many extra's. This is what I expected out of DW4:XL. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Since I don't own DW4 I don't get the full enjoyment of DW4:XL but to my surprise this game turned out great... even though there was no musou mode. Musou mode (or story mode) is basically when you choose a general and you go through many battles until you unify China. The battles follow the history depending on which side you choose. Also there are movie's shown at the beginning of each level. This mode was featured in the Dynasty Warriors' before and I'm sure all you veterans know what this is. But this mode isn't here.

The Dynasty Warriors series is a popular series made by the gaming company KOEI. The games are based on the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. A period of war lasting around 100 years and starting around 184 AD. The game mainly focuses on the 3 kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu. Of course the games don't follow the history exactly since they follow the novel which isnt 100% historical.

There aren't that many differences from DW4 and DW4:XL. They added 2 new modes: Legend mode and Xtreme mode.
Legend mode consists of 42 scenarios. Each character has a scenario which shows one of the highlights of their career... at least that is what KOEI calls it. Of course not all of these are historical. Some of them are quite the opposite of what really happened for example:
Zhang He chased down Shu troops but was cut down in an ambush. In the game you have to fight off the Shu troops and successively win.

Xtreme mode is quite fun even though it is repetitive. You choose an officer (all officers start out with their basic stats) and you lead him through as many victorious missions as possible. There are 3 missions you can choose to go to each time. Each mission has different objectives and different rewards. The point of the missions are is to gain as many points as possible. The more points you get, the more gold you earn. Using gold you can hire troops, officers, and buy health since health is extremely rare in the battlefield. If your characters has hardly any health left and no gold to buy more you can easily exit Xtreme mode and it'll save your character so the next time you choose to play he will be built up. The items will be carried over also.
The exciting thing about this mode is that there are many things that happen in the battles. You may rescue an officer who may decide to join you, you may betray one of your allied generals and defeat him, you can do a task which was asked by a general, etc.

A new challenge mode was added. In this challenge mode you try to win as many duels as possible.
Level 11 weapons, new items, 2 new difficulty levels (which are useless), and improved A.I.
You can enjoy this game fully if you own the original DW4. Your officers stats will be carried over and you can play the legend mode with your experienced officers. Also by having the original you can actually play musou mode which was left out here.

Overall this game is great. The graphics are awesome. The music is wonderful. Mixing in some heavy metal and classical Chinese instruments creating a nice sound. You'll be hooked on this game for a while and it'll be fun to pick it up every now and then and play.
I recommend buying this game if you own the original DW4. Sure this game is fun without it but it can be much better by mixing it with the original...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/03