Dynasty Warriors 6

"Too many drawbacks to be a true sucessor"

Let me start out by saying that I am an avid fan of the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series. I'm not one who finds them old after playing one. I've enjoyed 3, I enjoyed 4, I enjoyed both Samurai Warriors, hell, I even enjoyed Warriors Orochi. But with the release of Dynasty Warriors 6 Koei didn't put forth enough effort, and it truly shows.

DW6 follows the same principles as other games in the series. You kill hundreds of peons and go for the officers, completing certain objectives along the way and reacting to certain events.

One strong point of the game is the new system of missions. No longer do you simply get the message of "Destroy the Ballista!" and have the option of completely ignoring it with little effect on the game except maybe a minor morale loss. Every mission now has 3 missions which sometimes differ from character to character, and always differ based on which side you play as. Many are time related and others are simply achievement based.

Here is where DW6 implements something that truly sets it above others in the series. No longer can you farm kills as long as you want, sitting outside a gate and racking up kills. While each 100 kills nets you 100 exp and a morale boost to the nearest officer, this pales before missions which range from 300-500 exp (occasionally more, and with bonuses on hard/chaos) as well as a weapon for your character, and often large morale boosts, scripted events or drastic changes to the battle. Battles now have a purpose to them rather than the previous "Kill peons. Kill officer. Kill other officers. Kill leader. Win."

The inclusion of a skill tree is also another thing that greatly improved this game. Each character has a unique skill tree offering different bonuses to your special skill (a new type of mosou-like attack in this series), bonuses like 2x attack at low health, improved drops, improved horse performance and the like. However, the skill tree is brought down by the fact that you can complete the entire tree on every character. Meaning you make decisions and develop your character in a certain way...for the first 30-40 levels. By the time you hit level 50, you'll have completed the skill tree, taking out the possibility for customization.

Things like siege weapons, swimming and ladders are also nice improvement. Siege battles are nothing amazing, but they do add some variation to levels.

One huge drawback to this game is the fact that only 17 characters have musou modes. While I suppose you can create your own musou modes through free mode, it just isn't the same for me. And, often, it's mediocre characters who have musou modes. Why does Sun Shang Xiang have a musou mode, someone who never historically saw battle, while Ma Chao is sidelined? Many characters saw overhauls as well, sometimes for the better, others for the worse.

I found that the changes to Zhao Yun were quite positive. But characters like Liu Bei and Sima Yi are turned into overall weak characters. Dian Wei's range was reduced to almost nil, while Xiahou Dun's is greatly increased. This comes with a tradeoff for a weak weapon and a small attack area during charge attacks. Other characters share identical movesets with others.

The weapon and attack systems, though, are where DW6 really places itself in the $20 "I'm bored, why not?" area. No longer are there different levels of weapons, with higher levels being more common on higher difficulties, and imparting with them more attacks, more damage and new skills. Neither is there the system of weapon experience that was in DW4.

Instead, there are 3 new weapons that work on the "Renbu system." Renbu can best be described as momentum, similar to Style function of Devil May Cry. You gain renbu for dealing damage and lose it for taking damage. As your renbu increases, you reach new renbu levels. Your max renbu level is increased through your skill tree. You start with a max of 2, then improve to 3, and finish at "infinite", or rather 4.

The three types of weapon, strength, standard and skill. Strength tend to have the highest attack power, and it generally decreases down the line. As your renbu rank increases, strength weapons gain more damage, standard weapons gain more reach/length, and skill weapons gain attack speed.

However, the renbu system is everything that is wrong with this game. Instead of the attack combos of previous games (charge on 1 - air attack, 2 - unique, often officer killer, 3 - crowd clearer, 4 - unique), each officer only has two attack types. These combinations never end. One can continue pressing the basic attack button and go through the combination indefinitely. Regardless of what attack in this combo you charge attack, you will go through the same attacks. This makes each character boring, presenting you with only two options for every encounter. The inclusion of special attacks does not make up for this in any way.

Characters like Liu Bei really suffer. When one of your two attack combos involves throwing one character into the air, you're faced with little diversity in your gameplay.

Frankly, the only way to make combat enjoyable is to rely on horse combat, which, while slightly monotonous, now includes levelled horses with 4 types of stats and jumping.

I won't say that this game is bad, per se, but compared to the great games that were it's predecessors, it's just a sub-par game. Missions and many more scripted events add some new depth to the game that previous ones lacked, but the combat system and the lack of content overshadow these.

My recommendation: If you're a die-hard fan, go ahead and grab this game. If not, rent it and check it out for yourself. Otherwise, stick with classics like the older Dynasty and Samurai Warriors, and if you can handle bad graphics and a horrible story, check out Warriors Orochi.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/20/08

Game Release: Dynasty Warriors 6 (US, 02/19/08)