A New Dynasty
Dynasty Warriors 6 finally mixes up the formula like everyone's been begging for, but does it do enough?
Published: March 20, 2008
For how long now have games reviewers been begging KOEI to do something new with the Dynasty Warriors franchise? 5 years? Longer? Well, they finally did it, building an entirely new next-gen-only engine, introduced a new combo system, completely overhauled all the characters and... well, didn't do a whole lot else. Mustn't piss off too much of the core fanbase, I suppose, and god knows how bent out of shape they were about some of the new character designs before the game even hit.
It introduces something of a paradox for KOEI: do they start messing with a good thing just because every review out there seems to harp on the fact that they've been playing the same game for years, or do they stay the course and let a slowly dwindling pool of absolute die-hards have their games every six months or so? It could be said that Dynasty Warriors 6 finally tried to serve both parties, and in many ways, it does feel better. Maybe not a whole lot fresher, but at the very least it's slightly different, yet not so much so that it would grossly offend anyone.
We've covered some of the changes to the series in our earlier previews and at the risk of sounding like a lazy bastard (because, well, I am), I'll point you to more detailed breakdowns of how things are mixed up. Suffice it to say that the missions have gotten a little more varied than just killing such-and-such a person, and the new Renbu system that lets you grow more powerful with every sequential hit actually makes building combos fun again. In short, the game is actually good, a blast at times, even, but I wanted to at least get the more analytical side get some shots in before I started gushing.
I really can't help it. I don't know what it is about the series that has kept me coming back for more than a dozen games now, but there's something in those lines of code that's like crack to me. It helps that this new engine is a little sexier, allows me to do stuff like swim around and presents some fairly decent looking character models (though I let the nitpicky side have his say when it comes to the visuals in a moment). I know that this is basically the same game that hit almost a decade ago and yet I can't bring myself to be bothered by it all that much when I'm in the middle of an hour-long, epic battle against thousands of enemy troops. I just like having something mindless to play, and compared to the other games in the series, Dynasty Warriors 6 is easily the best of them I've ever played. Yeah, fine, there, I said it.
Again, if you'd like to listen to me prattle on about the improvements to things, click that link a couple paragraphs up. It's not worth repeating here when all I can really muster to defend the game is that I inexplicably still love it after all these years. Broken down into its disparate parts, the game doesn't seem like it would hold up. There's still a startling amount of fade-in from enemies, who join fights from the ether not 10 feet from you, and while there are certainly more characters on screen now, there's also the odd bit of slowdown, and the environments are textured and bump mapped and made pretty, but they aren't really any more dense or varied in a lot of cases than the PS2 stuff.
The audio is just as basic. Yes, I love the mix of driving percussion, wailing guitars and traditional Chinese themes all rolled into one and played back at a action movie pace, and I dig the explosions, the battle cries and screams of agony as I wade through the masses. I also still hate hearing the same line uttered over and over and over again after killing an officer or in the middle of trying to accomplish an objective, and for the most part the voices themselves are still pretty laughable, and can stray into oh-god-where's-the-mute-button territory at a moment's notice.
Again, though, this isn't going to matter to the Warriors faithful. They've put up with this for 14 games now, do you honestly think just because it's on a new system that they're going to stop. They might slow, sure, but as is perfectly illustrated just a few paragraphs back, I can see why the game should such, but the bottom line is that I still have fun with it. It's still a blast to me and I still ended up pouring hour and hours into the game when by all accounts I'd played more than enough, finished one too many storyline and added just one more level to a given character than was needed.
I can't explain it, but I can tell you that for those of us still hooked, Dynasty Warriors 6 is as good as they come.
It introduces something of a paradox for KOEI: do they start messing with a good thing just because every review out there seems to harp on the fact that they've been playing the same game for years, or do they stay the course and let a slowly dwindling pool of absolute die-hards have their games every six months or so? It could be said that Dynasty Warriors 6 finally tried to serve both parties, and in many ways, it does feel better. Maybe not a whole lot fresher, but at the very least it's slightly different, yet not so much so that it would grossly offend anyone.
We've covered some of the changes to the series in our earlier previews and at the risk of sounding like a lazy bastard (because, well, I am), I'll point you to more detailed breakdowns of how things are mixed up. Suffice it to say that the missions have gotten a little more varied than just killing such-and-such a person, and the new Renbu system that lets you grow more powerful with every sequential hit actually makes building combos fun again. In short, the game is actually good, a blast at times, even, but I wanted to at least get the more analytical side get some shots in before I started gushing.
I really can't help it. I don't know what it is about the series that has kept me coming back for more than a dozen games now, but there's something in those lines of code that's like crack to me. It helps that this new engine is a little sexier, allows me to do stuff like swim around and presents some fairly decent looking character models (though I let the nitpicky side have his say when it comes to the visuals in a moment). I know that this is basically the same game that hit almost a decade ago and yet I can't bring myself to be bothered by it all that much when I'm in the middle of an hour-long, epic battle against thousands of enemy troops. I just like having something mindless to play, and compared to the other games in the series, Dynasty Warriors 6 is easily the best of them I've ever played. Yeah, fine, there, I said it.
Again, if you'd like to listen to me prattle on about the improvements to things, click that link a couple paragraphs up. It's not worth repeating here when all I can really muster to defend the game is that I inexplicably still love it after all these years. Broken down into its disparate parts, the game doesn't seem like it would hold up. There's still a startling amount of fade-in from enemies, who join fights from the ether not 10 feet from you, and while there are certainly more characters on screen now, there's also the odd bit of slowdown, and the environments are textured and bump mapped and made pretty, but they aren't really any more dense or varied in a lot of cases than the PS2 stuff.
The audio is just as basic. Yes, I love the mix of driving percussion, wailing guitars and traditional Chinese themes all rolled into one and played back at a action movie pace, and I dig the explosions, the battle cries and screams of agony as I wade through the masses. I also still hate hearing the same line uttered over and over and over again after killing an officer or in the middle of trying to accomplish an objective, and for the most part the voices themselves are still pretty laughable, and can stray into oh-god-where's-the-mute-button territory at a moment's notice.
Again, though, this isn't going to matter to the Warriors faithful. They've put up with this for 14 games now, do you honestly think just because it's on a new system that they're going to stop. They might slow, sure, but as is perfectly illustrated just a few paragraphs back, I can see why the game should such, but the bottom line is that I still have fun with it. It's still a blast to me and I still ended up pouring hour and hours into the game when by all accounts I'd played more than enough, finished one too many storyline and added just one more level to a given character than was needed.
I can't explain it, but I can tell you that for those of us still hooked, Dynasty Warriors 6 is as good as they come.