I have vague recollections of playing at least one Dynasty Warriors title, so I'm somewhat (if by "somewhat" you mean "barely") aware of the history that turned the franchise into its namesake. What I was unaware of was just how much went on between my first Dynasty Warriors experience, and what the series has become.
It now consists of literal tomes worth of different historical factions comprised of, generals, warlords, and soldiers that took part in, battles, assassinations, and the millions of branches and hypothetical possibilities that follow, which make this a very confusing game for anyone but hardcore Dynasty Warriors fans and veterans.
The growth of the Dynasty Warriors franchise escaped me, and with the eighth game now upon us, attempting to explain the experience is a challenge to say the least. It's akin to trying to understand the last season of "Lost" when you've never watched a single episode. That's no fault of developer Koei, but they sure don't ease you in either. As such, this feeling of overwhelmingness stuck with me throughout my entire DW8 experience. While a friend with significantly more knowledge helped me with some of the finer points of the Three Kingdoms spin-off storied elements, gameplay, and otherwise, I was still irrevocably lost. The easiest place to start is with the basics.
In the first Dynasty Warriors game, there were a dozen selectable characters, more than a respectable amount for any game on the original PlayStation. But with Dynasty Warriors 8, we're now up to a whopping 82, and the Xtreme Legends version brings in an additional five on top of that, and they all have their own skills (or lack thereof) for the games' equally ungodly amount of weapons: swords, fans, spears, and more. Even if your character isn't the most well-versed with one particular weapon you've just found, you'll find yourself experimenting with it just for the hell of it.
Regarding the mammoth selection of characters, options are great, and I'm sure most players would be elated to have over 80 characters to choose from. If you've followed the DW series, then you'll probably have no problem telling the locations, events, and characters all apart. But I missed out on the franchise for the last few years, so I couldn't tell Luoyang and Bai Rao from Liang and Cao Cao. There's close to fifty characters with family name of Zhang along, two of which are Yis, and another two are Yings, and that's just one confusing aspect throughout the decades of history the game takes course over.
The game breaks down into four different modes of play: Story, Free, Ambition, and Challenge, all relatively self-explanatory:
* Story mode - just like in Dynasty Warriors 4's "Musou Mode," this is the main narrative for DW8, presenting a campaign of sorts for each of the game mode's selectable characters. They'll tie into actual historical events and characters, along with a good number of hypotheticals tossed in for fun. Great for history buffs.
* Free mode - best stab at an arcade mode, free mode leaves out cutscenes, and is best for gamers looking to either level up their characters and find more equipment, scout different levels for another mode, or to play as characters the campaign doesn't allow them to.
* Ambition - players are tasked with building a palace as a safe haven for peasants, with the goal of building enough of a population to garner a visit from the emperor. Players raise the funds by, what else? Battles, with each type providing currency, fame, partners, different buildings for the homestead, and more.
Regardless of whatever mode you pick, the one thing that ties them all together is that you'll spend an extra-ordinate amount of time on the battlefield. To keep things interesting, and add a certain amount of strategy, Dynasty Warriors 8 brings in a rock-scissor-paper styled system dubbed the "Three-Point System," where in each weapon is assigned a certain affinity of either Heaven, Earth, or Man. As suspected, each affinity is effective against one, and weak against another. You'll have to switch between weapons based on the enemies you encounter.
Unfortunately, this system does little to stave off the game's singular downfall - monotony. With so much of the game based around combat, and so little to keep it interesting, things will get old. Fast. Even the most fanciful looking of combos can be pulled off without even a modicum of difficulty.
In true Dynasty Warriors fashion, the layout of the maps are enormous, and you'll wade through a barrage of faceless, nameless enemies for hours before you even get close to completing the level. You can call on your trusty steed to help you traverse through the level faster, but it's still a draining, tedious process, one that's set to start all over again as soon as you finish a level.
Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is certainly solid, but suffice it to say, it's just boring, and when boring gameplay is what takes up (at least) a good three-quarters of the game, that's a big problem. As such, I can't recommend this game for anyone but the hardest of the hardcore Dynasty Warriors fans. Anyone else would do fine to avoid any version of Dynasty Warriors 8, Xtreme Legends Complete Edition or otherwise.
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Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends was reviewed from a PS4 code provided by the publisher. It's also available on the PS Vita, PS3, and is headed to the PC.