Dynasty Warriors 6

"Typical next-gen upgrade to a long standing series, complete with typical flaws"

Whenever a new console comes out gamers see their favorite frequently released game series get what is supposed to be an upgrade. The problem with this upgrade is game designers have to not only make a new game, but also retool, or totally rebuild, the engine to take advantage of the new console, but still get the game out in the same amount of time (roughly) as they released previous games. The result is a game where you see steps being taken in the right direction, but isn't truly fleshed out as much as is should be. We've seen this happen with the newer sport franchise releases, Ratchet and Clank, and now Dynasty Warriors.

Let's start with the steps taken in the right direction. The big additions to this installment are the Renbu combo system, special attack tomes, targets, and the skill advancement tree. Renbu is a gauge that builds up as you do longer chains of attacks. As you fill the renbu gauge you'll raise in renbu level and be able to do longer combos and sometimes have better range on your attacks depending on character. If you don't continue to build chains then the renbu gauge will decrease and you will delevel. Chains are fairly easy to get so this isn't about skill in comboing as much as it is making sure you keep moving forward and don't stop and run to the other side of the map to claim a worthless base that noone else took care of. Some characters benefit from this system more than others which adds a little depth to things. An archer (oh yeah, there are archers now, and not pretend archers like Ina from SW) has no problem building up chains and so she can run anywhere on the map and not worry about renbu which is nice because it's much less important to them than, say, a character like Sun Jian whose usefulness is wound up completely in his renbu rank.

Special attack tomes are dropped by enemies and will allow you to do some sort of unique move. For the archer, it's volley that makes arrows rain down as an AoE and does lots of damage. Speedy characters get True Speed which makes the character run really fast and spin their weapon around becoming a whirling blade o' death which is very effective to put the kibosh on an annoying duel should you find yourself caught up in one (more on duels later). Stronger characters get Swift Attack which temporarily gives you full Renbu and will do more powerful attacks (this also caps your Renbu so it's nice if you are using a character like Sun Jian who is dependant on Renbu). Strategists get Fire and Rockfall which are AoEs that have special bonuses in certain situations.

Targets will be familiar to anyone who played Warriors Orochi. Every map has 3 optional targets that give bonus XP when they are met. For example: 'Defeat Such-and-such character in X amount of time' or 'Knock down this wall in X amount of time' these add an extra little challenge and are welcome additions.

The skill tree is a new way to earn skills and have a little control in how your character develops. For every level you get a skill point and you can use this point to advance up a unique skill tree for your character. These are mostly for giving certain stats a bonus, allowing you to carry more tomes, increasing the cap for your renbu gauge, or enhancing the effect of your special attack, but sometimes you get a neat little skill like running faster or greater troop motivation.

Now for the negatives. The biggest thing that bothers me is how the charge attack combo system was removed. Before if you pressed X,X,Y you'd get a different end to the combo than if you went X,X,X,X,Y. This led to a bit of flexibility, one combo might be better for crown control while another does more damage to a single enemy. Now no matter when you start doing a charge combo, it's always the same combo. Each character has only two combos that you alternate using. This is a major step backwards in my opinion and really makes the game lose a lot of depth.

There is also a major lack of modes. 17 characters get a Musou mode and everyone else can only do free mode or challenge mode but since characters in challenge mode aren't leveled like the ones from other modes there is no reason to explore and build up any other characters. It's fun to try them out and all but since you can't play through a story mode and there is nothing to unlock (that I know of) it seems a bit pointless, like your practicing for something that doesn't exist. One of my favorite things was seeing a character appear in several battles and becoming curious about them and then playing their storyline and gaining an appreciation for them. Now there are only a handful of characters you can play and it's really annoying when the characters they picked are characters you absolutely hate to play. I'm a Wu fan (everyone picks a side) and two slots got wasted on Zhou Yu and Lu Xun. Replace Zhou Yu with Sun Ce (you wouldn't even have to chage the cut scenes) and Lu Xun with...really almost anyone else and that'd be an improvement. Also there is an annoying problem of characters being clones of one another, but thats just a sign of how rushed the game was.

Speaking of cutscenes, there is a nasty big of pixelization thanks to low quality FMVs. Dear Koei: This is not the PS1 or even PS2 era anymore. In game graphics don't look that much worse than FMVs anymore, if you can't produce high quality HD FMVs, don't bother with them, just add an animation of the character models moving their mouths and be done with it. Then maybe you'd have some space for more character's storylines!

One thing that isn't really a positive or negative is the new character design. It's nice to see a re imaging of some of the characters especially Gan Ning who always looked like a pirate from the seas of Generia. Really it comes down to personal opinion whether or not it's an improvement, but I do wish they hadn't done away with some of the more unique weapons, I know spears, swords, and bows are probably more historically accurate but when we're talking about a game where a single swing of a weapon kills 30 men realism is forced to take a back seat.

Overall I like DW6 and while it won't be as forgettable experience as, say, Warriors Orochi, it was a step backwards and I'd prefer to keep playing SW2 over it. I hope they skip the Xtreme Legends and Empires for this game and instead work on making DW7 the game that DW6 should have been, they should have lots of time now that a good engine was built.

And I just remembered I'd said I'd talk about duels earlier. While they are no means as formal and annoying as in DW4, duels take place when an officer comes up to you and you hear a gong, all the foot soldiers form a circle around you and you and the the officer fight to the death, if you get too close to the enemy's side of the circle then the foot solders will suddenly gain an AI and actually attack you instead of stand there waiting for death. That plus the fact that the officer you're fighting becomes a lot tougher make this an annoying aspect but if you have True Speed you can just activate it and blitz the foot soldiers to cancel the whole thing, this is extremely gratifying.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/08

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