Premise
Dynasty Warriors has made a mint on retelling the famous historical era of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, and the same applies here. There have been some drastic changes this time around with the story-telling though, as narrative style and atmosphere has been greatly changed from previous DW games.
First, and most notably, is the inclusion of a new kingdom, Jin. The Jin dynasty began after the kingdom of Wei united China and ended the Three Kingdoms age. The inclusion of this important faction has broadened the narrative greatly, as previous Dynasty Warriors titles would start at the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184 AD) and would wrap up roughly around the time of the battle of the Wuzhang Plains (234 AD). DW7 has broadened the story by starting earlier than the Yellow Turbans, and continuing on to not neglect the years of China’s true unification. Yes they still take great liberties with historical accuracy, but either way the expanded timeline is a welcome addition to the story.
Another change to the story is how it is told. Traditionally, in almost any telling of the story of Three Kingdoms, the kingdom of Wei is usually painted as the treacherous and evil people and their first king, Cao Cao, made out to seem worse than the devil himself. Also in retellings usually the kingdom of Shu and their leader, Liu Bei, are made to look like the flawless and saintly type that are bigger goody-two-shoes than Christ. The Narration now changes, depending on which kingdom you play as, expressing that kingdoms point of view, daring to now have expositions making Cao Cao sound like a hero and other situations hinting at hypocrisy from Liu Bei. Not a huge point again to many, but I was very stoked about this.
Finally, the story just has a darker, more urgent sense to it. There are still a handful of goofy and over the top characters, but the comic relief has been pulled way back and the characters more reflect soldiers and officials who would be experiencing the drawn out woes of a nation divided in war. Female characters are no longer all ditzy airheads that let out a childish giggle at every situation, but rather now serve more as a focal point of foundation than most of the male leads, another long overdue change that needed to be made. The characters feel more real, for the most part, and once all the elements are in place, this game does the historical retelling justice in spite of liberties with the historical facts.
Graphics
A new game in a franchise should always be expected to be the prettiest, and DW7 doesn’t disappoint… for the most part.
Character models are excellently done and their movements look and feel real, from the acts of running to swinging a weapon, the characters move in a realistic way now, showing that the old 3D models were finally scrapped and new ones with motion capture were created. Graphically the characters have received a thorough overhaul, with some having whole new looks, while others have gone back to updated versions of their classic looks that fans missed from previous games. Most importantly to the changed looks is that the characters look alive, some characters have been made more vibrant, others are much less so than in their previous outings.
The environments of the world also have received a new bump in graphics, though they’e not on par with vast rolling locations like you would find in Elder Scrolls or Fallout, they’ve still gotten a nice bump and new textures to look more like what one would expect from Chinese locales.
A big down in the graphics is the skybox, it looks awful. I bawked at how such a graphical mess could have been overlooked in the final testing. The improved graphics everywhere else have made this oversight a glaring one, and eyes can’t help but wander to the pixelated disaster floating above their characters’ heads in a cut scene.
Sound
The music is standard Dynasty Warriors, heavy rocking guitars will accompany one level, while pounding techno will play in the next, with traditional Asian orchestrals playing in the cut scenes and menus.
The voice acting also isn’t something to really get too worked up about. Tecmo/Koei has made the effort to bring in some more professional sounding voice actors, which greatly benefits a majority of the game’s cast, but there are still a lot of poorly written, and even more poorly executed, lines in the dialogue; this could arguably be from the translation into English, but there are still just as many misses as there are hits.
Gameplay
DW7 is broken into two game types, story mode and conquest mode. Story mode traditionally would have players select a character and then play through embellished missions loosely based on historical battles. Story mode now has the player select a kingdom to play as, and the story of that kingdom becomes the player’s adventure, changing character at each vital point in the history of that nation; this takes story mode from an hour or two of gameplay to six or seven hours, if not more. The other game mode is conquest, a mode that roughly resembles the Dynasty Warriors Empires games, where players participate in a game that’s essentially a “unite China with these resources” sim rather than a historic adventure.
At its core, DW7 is the same as its predecessors: pick a character, jump into a story, hack and slash your way to victory. While the mechanics remain unchanged, a lot has been added to the presentation and execution. In DW6, Koei was very ambitious and gave every character a new look, voice, and in many cases, new weapons. This was met with mixed reactions as some players loved the changes, while others were upset that some characters lost their trademark weapons, such as Sun Ce with his tonfas and Zhang He with his claws. Koei has made amends by now letting every character carry two weapons for the player to switch between, allowing players to mix and match a combination that fits their play style.
Gameplay has also taken on some of the elements of Samurai Warriors, Koei’s other historical hank and slash franchise. The changes are for the better, as previously overpowered power moves and combos sometimes left the game feeling less than challenging. The power moves are still there, but they are now strategic blows, rather than crowd-clearing combos that can be held for a minute or more.
The hack and slash is still there, but it feels refined and improved.
What I liked
The new multifaceted way the story is told, making all sides have their times as heroes and villains. New character models look great. The fresh, darker look at the story and the hardships that those who participated in it. Choice of weapon loadouts with a streamlined combat system. The female characters are finally legitimate individuals and not just flirtatious eye candy to work as cheap fan service. The inclusion of Jin!
What I Would Change
Many characters are still given the short end of the stick in regards to those they’re made to represent, primarily Xu Chu who is still represented as a simpleton, Wei Yan who is still presented as an inarticulate savage and Zhang He who is still portrayed as an effeminate gender-guess… I mean it’s still funny but… still. I’m aware characters need gimmicks, but sometimes they feel insulting to their historical counterparts. The skybox is awful, just awful.
Final Thoughts
Dynasty Warriors 7 is true to its tradition, but still packs in more variety than it’s been given due for. I doubt this game will draw in many new fans to the franchise, but it serves its purpose as a sleek hack and slash app that’s fun to be a part of. I find it sad that a market who salivates for the next generic first person shooter will not give this franchise a chance for not fixing what isn’t broken, it’s worth at least a rent and a chance; not a candidate for game of the year, but stil la game I happily will keep in my library.
