Dynasty Warriors 7 | Review

I finally get my first chance with a Dynasty Warriors title, that's right, the series that I usually use at the low end of the spectrum when comparing games. What made me request the title from Tecmo Koei? Well, mainly because I have enjoyed the majority of games played and reviewed from this publisher with the exception of a few, so it is about time to give Dynasty Warriors another try since playing it last on the PlayStation 2. Now for those of you unfamiliar with the series, it is considered to be a tactical action genre, but the 7th entry is released on the series' 10 year milestone mark and boasts more playable forces, new dual-wielding combat system, online coop, and conquest mode.

I know I have reviewed many games similar to Dynasty Warriors from Koei, but never the real deal. I was greeted with a few gameplay modes and a handful of forces to choose from. This is just a small idea of the amount of content because you can play though with each force or start your own journey in conquest mode and let me just say, both are long. Content doesn't mean anything though if the game cannot keep your attention. Dynasty Warriors did this in spades with how fluid it runs when the screen is full of soldiers and you are leaving a trail of bodies in your wake. The new feature that I personally enjoyed was the ability to equip two weapons that are interchangeable on the fly and have special abilities that are released when swapped.

Now for the parts that didn’t mesh well with the gameplay or took away from the experience…there always has to be something. For Dynasty Warriors, the load times, camera, and controls while on mount are those things. I know with a title like this that there are going to be longer load times because of the large battlefields and numerous enemies, but the load times are really long even if you are just going back to a city in conquest mode, you still have the same wait times to that of regular missions. Yes, the camera, all it takes is an enemy or boss to move behind you and you will watch your health gauge drop quickly as you try to find them while moving the camera, luckily you can press LB to position the camera behind you, and while helpful it doesn’t resolve the issue. Lastly, I did not like the controls when riding my mount, or horse, mainly because attacking while on it is slow, and it is much easier for enemies to knock you off than it is to knock enemies off of their horses.

All in all, I was impressed with the title as it offered a lot more than I expected. There is a lot of replay value with the long story mode with multiple families and the conquest mode that is just as equally long. Though there were long load times, the ability to handle the fast fluid action and mass amounts of clones, uh I mean enemies, without a drop in frame rate is an impressive feat in itself. The changing of weapons and trying to figure out the deadliest combination with each is what really had me coming back for more. As someone that really didn’t like the franchise in the past, it has come a long way and converted me into a fan…kudos to you Koei Tecmo and Omega Force!