Customer Reviews

Dynasty Warriors 6

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fun game but not altogether the epic I hoped it would be. I like the new characters designs and the different fighting styles and all that. Being able to take on hundreds of people at once and rake up a thousand kills on a regular basis is pretty cool. The graphics are brilliant but, I don't know, it just seems to be missing a lot of the content that Dynasty Warriors 4 had. Not to mention characters. Not only does this game feautre no new Characters but it subtracts from those already existing. Where is Meng Huo? Not in this game. Granted I haven't unlocked every acheivement but still if he was in the game there would be a nanman level or you would see him somewhere. (And why even have a Zhuge Liang Storyline without the nanman campaign? It would be like a Robert E. Lee Story without the battle of Gettysburg. Kinda lame.)

How is it that this game has less characters than the previous version. Generally the series gets more characters as it progresses not fewer. Not only that but of the few that remain, only a handful have musou story modes which is kinda lame(sure it would probably be hard to make storylines and movies for each character but that doesn't mean I have to like it) You can play the less popular characters in free mode but it just isn't the same.I tried creating my own storyline for Yuan Shao by having him play through a bunch of free mode battles but realized I couldn't since the battle of Guan Du only has two sides in this game. Cao Cao's and Lu Bu's. (Lu Bu wtf? How did he get involved in that battle) Speaking of Lu Bu, unlocking him is the only reason to play through half of the musou modes. Some of the charcters aren't as cool as the other, in my opinion.

Getting over the characters, or lack of them, and onto the actual gameplay the game plays well. The new renbu system is interesting once you figue out what it is. Although the same basic attack, charge attack scheme is in play, charge attacks are separtate from your main attacks, meaning that you can't put together any super charge attacks like in previous games. The charge attack looks the same whether you press it first or use it as a follow up to a series of regular attacks. That means that once you get unlimited renbu you don't even need to use the charge attack. You can just hammer on the x button. The charge attack is only really useful for breaking enemies blocks. Speaking of enemies, they are a bipolar lot. On the one hand the regular enemies do almost nothing but stare at you while you hack them to pieces while the officers while hand you your buttchecks. Also certain officers will get angry and then they do tremendous damage, enough to kill you in three or four hits. When they get into this state they glow with a flame. I've come to refer to these powerhouse's as 'flamers'. When you see a deadly flamer you need to save the game unless you want to risk losing all the exp you have gained in the battle. Unlike some of the games in the series you can't save your exp from a failed attempt. Sometimes free mode is the only way to get your chosen hero past a certain point.

Really though, long story short, while I like the game I would have liked it more if more characters were in it. Maybe they will fix this when they come out with Dynasty Warriors 6: Xtreme legends.

I love dynasty warriors. Been buying it since #3. However, this one was just lacking in a lot of areas. There are only like 5 musou campaigns for each kingdom, which results in WAY less campaigns than previous games. Also, I have the weapon system. I liked it when you progressed through levels of weapons, and it was possible to get a special weapon for each character. Here, the different weapons don't seem to have any difference - the first one and a level three one might be exactly the same stat wize.
Just in general, lacking compared to old games.

Dynasty Warriors 6 marks the tenth or so game in this series by Koei, and it seems they're finally starting to make some changes. However, in this instance, they have largely been for the worse, and veteran fans like myself can't help but feel a bit dejected by the technical flaws, terrible story and characterisation, and complete lack of strategy.

As far as the story goes, most characters spend their time standing around looking broodingly into the distance, pretentiously pondering what all the carry-on is about and reluctantly going into battle only to discover their true selves and their destinies.

Although the graphics have improved a great deal (especially the environments) the gameplay seems to have regressed into an even more monotonous button-mash blow-out and still lacks any kind of strategy (unless you count "race around and do everything yourself" a strategy).
What's more is that everything slows down in big battles, which I didn't think would be happening on the new platforms. Another surprise is that the drawing distances of enemy soldiers are pathetic, which is really not good enough for the next-gen consoles, especially considering games like Dead Rising where you can have hundred of visible enemies on screen at any time.

Overall, I get the impression that someone new to the series might be quite delighted by their discovery of the Dynasty Warriors world. However, those like me who have compulsively been playing these games for some time will most likely be disappointed by what seems like a regression into even more mindless gameplay that completely lacks any strategy whatsoever.

DW6 is not as fun as DW4 or DW5. The gameplay/display interface was redone and needs to be worked on. The game is also very grindy and I completed all the campaigns in 3 days. However, I do like the new dynamics added to the maps and graphics.


If your looking to boost your Xbox Live Score quickly, I strongly suggest buying this game used.

Before I get to the game, I'll first let you know where I'm coming from.

I am a Dynasty Warriors junky.

With the out of the way, on to the game!

First, let's get the bad out of the way.

There are only 17 Musou. That means that there is a large likelihood that your favorite character has no story mode to speak of, and that the only way to play them, is to go to free mode, pick a board, and have at it. To make it sting a bit more, as far as I've seen, the spare characters don't even have unique events, as in earlier DW's. And, because having one wound isn't enough, I'll add another. Most of the characters are copies. In other words, Diao Chan and Zhen Ji have the same weapon and moveset. And they aren't alone in this respect. Since you are now holding both of your arm wounds, I'll go ahead and punch you straight in the face with this, some characters were taken out. Yes, even though the makers had no problem just copying weapons and movesets, they still removed characters. The ones I missed the most were the Nanman. I always liked their stages, because they were so different from the rest, what with the jungle setting, elephants, and enemies that actually dressed different, as opposed to just wearing distinguishing colors.

I'm not really a fan of the Renbu system. Not that I'm against them trying something new, it's just that I don't really like what they tried. Essentially, you have a bar that builds up the more you attack. When it fills, you go to the next level, and your character gets a few more moves added to his/her chain. There's also a third level, and then an infinite level (or as I call it, level 4). If you don't attack, then the bar slowly depletes. Also, there are certain attacks that immediately lower the bar, such as rocks thrown at your head.

The point of it, I suppose, was to keep you fighting. However, it comes off as an artificial way of doing it. After all, there is nothing else to do in a DW game, so why did they feel the need to force me to perform the only task there is to perform in the first place? Also, if you get a horse with the ability "Renbu Gait", then it's all irrelevant. As long as you're on the horse, your bar wont deplete. That sort of forced me to stay on the horse for all travel purposes. I guess I just don't like time limits (why there still is one for every level, I don't know), but there you have it.

Now let's get to the good.

Slow down is a thing of the past, and that's good, because I have never seen this many characters on screen at once. There are many times where I simply had no idea where I was in the crowd. Which is a good time to swing your weapon.

Most of the characters have gotten major make-overs. Of course, whether you like them or not will simply be too subjective for any reviewer, but I personally liked a lot of them.

One thing I don't see mentioned is that the game claims to have motion captured actual martial artists for many of the moves. I think this is a major cool point. It may take some (but not all) of the more fantastic moves out of the game, but it's a fair trade. Characters like Lu Xun make it feel like your in control of a kung-fu movie.

Even though there are only 17 Musou, the ones that are there are much improved, with scenes before every fight, and sometimes after, as well. If/when they finally flesh out the rest of the cast (DW:7?) then going through the separate musous will be quite the experience.

A couple more points I want to make before rapping up. In DW Orochi, you were given the ability to whistle for your horse, which was a HUGE quality-of-life improvement. That has been carried over to DW:6. So, if you hop off, and fight your way through half of the level, you can just press down on the d-pad, and your horse will run up in short order.

And then there's the terrain. The landscape is much improved, and feels more alive. Now, if you go up a hill, you don't have to travel back down, you can just jump off the side. And if you ever wanted to jump from on high while riding your horse, and fall on the group of people unfortunate enough to be called "enemies", then now you can. They will also cower and scream about being ambushed if done right. Nice.

In the end, the differences in this game are enough to check out if you're a fan of the series. However, if you are patient, I would actually suggest waiting for the next chapter, or to see if they add any downloadable content, as this game does feel like a trial run, before the fully fleshed out version, what with the lack of musou, copy-cat characters, and flat removal of characters. As for me, I enjoy it greatly, and will continue to do so.

I've generally liked Koei games from way back when they made games for the SNES. I'm pretty much a long time fan. I was pleasantly surprised with the recent installment of the Dynasty Warrior series. In the beginning I noticed the change in how many of the characters look and their weapons. Liu Bei looks radically different as well as the leader of Wu, Sun Jian. Wei warload Cao Cao looks pretty much the same. It's still the same basic hack and slash, but the enemy NPC's are a lot smarter than they were on previous incarnations. The game is a little more difficult to play through than it was before. There are newly designed levels and a new design system for leveling up that was utilized by Final Fantasy X. A definite buy for Koei fans.

Graphics are awesome! It is a combination of some of the earlier versions with the ability to win even better weapons that do greater damage! Definitely worth getting!

Having played a few Dynasty Warriors and similar titles before, I knew what to expect from this game, and it met my expectations completely. Dynasty Warriors is just good, fun hack-and-slash game play with just enough character leveling to keep it interesting for a long time.

As with previous games, the story is broken down into separate characters, each with their own storyline. Until you level up a fair amount, some of the later battles in each story can be very difficult, but leveling up with free play is just as fun as playing through each story.

One thing I miss from the earlier title (either 4 or 5, can't remember which one) is the selection of personal guards, which level up along with your main character. Leveling up a warhorse in DW6 is fun, but not quite as fun as leveling several other secondary characters. Leveling a warhorse also requires you to use the horse a lot in each level, and I never liked the combat while on a horse as much.

The Good:

* Graphics - DW6 looks great, and the environments are more interesting than in previous games.
* Ladders - the addition of climbing offers another fun option when getting around.
* No lag - Previous games (PS2) had a LOT of lag. After 20+ hours with this game, I have not encountered any lag, and I love it.
* Replay value - with so many characters, each with a separate story line, and the variety of challenge modes, there is a lot of fun gameplay here.

The Bad:

* No Japanese audio - the English voice acting isn't horrible, but I would prefer the option of Japanese dialog w/ subtitles
* Two-player split-screen cannot be adjusted - This is my one big problem with the game. The screen is split horizontally, and on a wide screen tv this leaves each player with a very wide but very short field of view. This might work for some people, but I find it hard to see what I need to see at times, and I feel the game should have the option to split the screen vertically as well.

These are two minor bad points that do not detract much from the overall experience. I rate the game 5 stars for fun, and 4 stars overall because of these missing options. If you enjoy hack-and-slash game play, or even button-pressing madness, you will find a lot of fun in Dynasty Warriors.

I don't have too much previous experience in the Dynasty Warriors series, but I can tell you that this game is pretty similar to the other DW games I have played. You start out with 3 choices of characters to play their story. More unlock as you progress. I've been playing the game on normal so far and you actually have to pay more attention to the whole battlefield more than I have in the past games. You have to watch out for other generals a lot. My coworker farted near me and I have to evacuate.

Dynasty Warriors returns with it's 6th installment and for fans of the series, it doesn't disappoint. There have been many versions of 3,4 and 5 but 6 is the first actually built for next gen systems and it shows.

Dynasty Warriors has been a very successful franchise (especially in Japan) that uses actual historical battles and figures from chinese history. The game has you re-enact these battles and largely pits you in a 1 vs 1000 role to decide which clan will dominate the land. You choose a soldier that's part of a clan, each with their own story lines, and even though there are other officers and soldiers at your side, you are the one to decide victory or defeat. Success of the clan depends on your skills, which improve with every battle. Life, strength, weapons, horses, combos and special attacks will all see dramatic change as you power up by defeating officers and claiming treasure left behind. These are huge scale battles that can take up to 45min to 1 hr. to complete, depending on how you go about victory. The accessable thing about DW is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. There's no blood or any of the other horrors of war to make us believe we're simulating reality. It's really the best way to go for a game like this.

Many criticize this series for it's AI which, in reality, doesn't really seem that intelligent. Most enemies and allies seem to stand around the battlefield while you do all the work. DW6 hasn't changed that much. There's a seems to be some more activity and chaos but not much over past iterations. Your fellow soldiers charge in and out and set themselves up for battle, but upon watching them, you see that they do very little to increase your chance of success. While foot soldiers are largely inactive, the officers are much more aggressive on both sides. Some are quite challenging. Lu Bu is a beast and more dangerous than ever.

There are some new additions here that are noteworthy. There are some new characters, new move sets for older ones, and new abilities like swimming and climbing ladders. I also like that you can start out with a selection of horses so you don't have to run everywhere like in previous versions. Not only that, but at anytime, you can hit the D-Pad and your horse will find you so you can ride to or away from any situation that calls for it. Most noticably are the improved graphics. While not mind blowing as some of the newer games, they are much better than before. The character models look very good as do the menus and cut scenes. There's still some pop up from characters but the framerate seems smooth and didn't slow down when many were on the same screen. The landscapes are still a little bland but in the heat of battle, you don't notice them much anyway. I also still like the hard rock tunes that jam out on the menus and during battles. Why ancient chinese armies and metal go together, I don't know, but it's always worked for me. The character voice acting seems a little better this time too.

I do wish we had been given more control over the armies. There are some tough battles where your officers are being killed and you have many squads sitting about on other places on the map. It would be great to be able to send them where they're needed the most. It's been a frustration in the series for years and I'd like to see it fixed. I'd also like to be able to charge my special attack while running. It was a great feature when implemented in DW4 but instead of having to stop and charge, I found many instances when it would've been alot more helpful to run while charging. I'm missing some of the variety from past titles too. Where are the native forces whith the elephant troops? Or the windmills that cause you to fight against the wind till you could destroy them? I'm not saying we need the same thing but I was hoping DW6 would give us more enemy and tactic types. Also, even though I know it'll probably never be done because it would take a ton of memory, I can't help thinking how cool it would be if all the bodies of the fallen from both sides stayed where they fell instead of disappearing. That would be very cool to see.

Nevertheless, I've been a big Dynasty Warriors fan since it began this formula with DW2 and I'm not disappointed here as I kind of knew what to expect. Fans know that each year is a slight impovement from before but that there's never anything drastic. I think this is a bigger leap beyond others though and don't see any reason for current fans to be disappointed. They should feel right at home considering the formula is largely unchanged. There's alot of playing time here with Musou mode. Solo or co-op Free mode and challenge mode extend the games life and give it legs. For those new to the series, I'd suggest a rent, or aquiring an earlier installment on XBOX or PS2. This series may not be for everyone, but it's for me.