Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends

"A nice addition to a great game."

Having pretty much done everything there was to do on Dynasty Warriors 4, I looked towards its expansion for some more play time. Though the expansion doesn't offer as much as I'd hoped for, I've still yet to completely finish it. The Dynasty Warriors games, a series based around the Chinese Three Kingdoms era, has been one of my favorites since the release of Dynasty Warriors 2, and I've been hooked ever since.

The story of the Three Kingdoms, at least the story that gets shown in the game, tells of characters from the kingdoms of Wu, Shu and Wei, and the battles that the characters went through in attempts to take over China. I'm not that well versed on the story, seeing as the gameplay has really been the only part that mattered to me, but it's interesting to have a little foresight into the battles before you go on a killing spree.

The gameplay is simple: You choose a character, and you go to town on anything that gets close. As your characters finish stages, he or she will gain experience and items that will make them stronger. As your character gains experience, he or she will gain extra slots to equip items in, and will acquire extra swings for their weapons.

One mode of the gameplay is Legend Mode, which has you choose a character out of the 42 available, and you play a stage that centers around something the character did during the war. These stages can range from Lu Bu's kill 2000 peasants to Liu Bei's kill less than five peasants. Not all of the stages revolve around killing thousands of enemies, but most of them will require you to at least kill a few hundred while trying to achieve other objectives, like Diao Chan's stage, where you have to sneak through a castle and assassinate the madman inside. Some stages will take you only a few minutes to complete, where others might have you struggling far closer to the one hour mark.

The other mode in DW4:XL is Xtreme Mode, where you play an unlimited amount of small stages, starting with fresh characters. After each stage, it will take you to a menu, where you can either save your character with his new stats, or choose another stage to play. Every stage will let you choose one of three areas, all which have different requirements to finish and people to fight. Also, after each stage, you'll be awarded experience and gold, which is used to buy items that can increase your characters stats, restore health, and hire other units to fight on your side. As far as I know, this mode continues until your character dies, but the highest I've ever managed to get was somewhere around 700, so I can't be sure.

You can also play challenge mode, which in addition to the original four modes found in Dynasty Warriors 4, there is also the unlimited duel mode. This mode pits you against an unlimited amount of opponents until you finally succumb to death. The duels in this mode aren't like the duels you'll encounter normally, but instead have no time limit in which you must defeat your opponents.

Other features besides the modes that were added include new difficulties, Beginner and Expert, which can add or reduce the challenge of the game if you find it to be hard to begin with. There are also level eleven weapons, which come equipped with certain items built into them, and more unlockable items. The game also sports a more intelligent A. I., but it's still a pushover if you know what you're doing.

The games visuals are, as far as I can tell, the exact same as the original Dynasty Warriors 4. They might have tweaked the graphics to allow more peasants on the screen at once, but I couldn't say. Either way, the visuals are great, and won't be something you find yourself complaining about.

The music sounds like toned down rock with a Chinese feeling to it, and it fits the game to a key. On a lot of stages you won't even hear the music over the screams of the dying, but it sounds good while running to another group of sacrificial lambs. The only problem I have with the game in this category is the voice acting. I'm not one of those people who complain that they should have left in the original Japanese voices, because I wouldn't use them at all, but it seems no matter how hard people try, American voices sound horrible in games, and for the most part, this one isn't an exception.

The new Expert difficulty doesn't really make the game any more challenging, it just depends what stage you're playing. If you're playing Huang Gai's legend, you might as well stick it on beginner, but if you're playing Xiahou Dun's legend or Sun Quan's, watch out. Those stages are some of the most challenging in the game, and even seasoned veterans will probably die once or twice. I still haven't been able to pick up Xu Zhu's level 11 weapon.

If you own the original Dynasty Warriors 4, there isn't much here that should entice you. If Xtreme Mode sounds like something you would spend hundreds of hours playing, then by all means pick up the game, but don't buy it if you're expecting a plethora of new options. If you don't own the original, then pick this up if you can find it. No matter what type of games you like, you should be able to find something you like here. My friend played strictly rpgs and nothing else, but once he played this game, he rushed out and bought himself a copy to play. This game, or at least the Dynasty Warriors 4 trilogy, is one of three games that I can honestly say I've played for 1000 hours, and I'm still not done.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/04, Updated 04/18/05