Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires

"To invade Cao Cao or not to invade Cao Cao.."

Usually when a company milks a franchise to the extent that KOEI has done, things would start to get bland and uninteresting. Of course, there can be exceptions to this rule, when the company adds some features from another genre to make it all that interesting. KOEI has two long running series based on the ancient Chinese period known as the Three Kingdoms, Romance and Dynasty Warriors. KOEI has decided to take elements from both and mix them into one game to make Empires.

*****GRAPHICS*****
Not much improvement over Dynasty Warriors 4, except maybe a few level designs changed here and there. There are also some extreme cases of slowdown, but I've only had it happen once to me. Despite the lack of improvement, they are still well done.

*****SOUND & MUSIC*****
The same soundtrack has been kept from Dynasty Warriors 4, with a few new tracks. I personally enjoy the new tracks, which include a new intro and title screen music. If you didn't like the rock-type music from DW4, not too much has changed.

*****GAMEPLAY*****
The most interesting and best aspect of Empires. The mass battles from Dynasty Warriors 4 are still there, although they are a bit different in style. Empire Mode has you assigned to a particular region of China, that is assigned by either history or selected at random under the fictitious setting. Once you have a region, the strategic aspect of the game starts. You can do many things at this moment, like make alliances with other regional leaders, tax the countryside, and other things leaders could do in a situation like this. After choosing a set of plans to implement, you can choose from a few things to do before ending that turn. You could invade a neighboring region, do a joint attack (only if allied), or simply wait and do nothing. Invading or helping out one of your allies will get you the classic DW4 battles.

Battles are played out a little different than they were in DW4. Each battlefield is separated into bases. To take over that specific base, you have to defeat all enemies in that zone. There are bases that are designated to be main bases, so battles usually consist of taking over the enemy's main base (game over if yours is taken over). One thing that disappoints me a bit is the ability to power up your weapons during battles. Instead, you require smiths during the political aspect of the game to level up your weapons (also need to make items during this part). Items disappear if you use them during a battle, so that's another thing that makes me a bit ticked off.

On another note, the Edit A Character has been improved by a good bit. CAWs can now use any weapon used by the playable characters, as well as the moveset and types (denotes how many items can be used, etc.). Much better improvement over DW4's CAW system.

*****REPLAY*****
Unfortunately, you can't pick a specific battle that you want to play and once you complete an empire, starting another one might seem to be a bit redundant.

I don't know where exactly to put this, but I enjoy the improvement they made to the Archives area of the game. You can view a character's moveset, voice options, among other things of the sort now. Not too much of an improvement, but a rather good one.

*****CONCLUSION*****
This game feels like a definite rental, maybe to some of the Dynasty Warriors fans out there. The strategy aspect of the game is nice, but the dumbing down of the battles can make it a turn-off to a lot of players.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/04