Customer Reviews

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

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

 

 

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce has to be one of the most slept on games in today's market. With advertising constantly pumping big name games, DWSF is forced onto the back-burner. Not to mention Koei did not advertise the game in the US.

For long standing fans of the series, there is a bit of a change, but in my opionion still equals a good time. DWSF has a more fantasy feel to it with the introduction of "Fury Mode." Fury Mode allows your character to transform in a manner such as a Saiyan to a Super Saiyan. This mode allows for increased damage, speed, jump, etc. and can be followed by an ultimate musou attack.

Another change to get use to is the lack of mounted animals. When I say lack, I mean complete dismisal of the idea of riding a horse. You will ride/control no animal in DWSF (you can jump on giant dragon's backs however, as well as other crazy boss')as there are no animals to mount. This however makes perfect sense once you see the speed of the game and character abilities, riding a horse will simply slow you down.

Another major change in the series is the RPG type elements & upgrades. Past games threw experience at you and it was all clumped up in one category. In DWSF you can now level specific weapon types, as well as your characters abilties such as speed, strength, defence, attack, etc. You also can create weapons and add upgrades and abilities to increase weapon strength and effectiveness against certain enemies.

There are also no one on one duel challenges issued in game-play, something I personally miss but is acceptable with the new style of action presented in DWSF.

Koei still has issues with slow-down/lag even on the Xbox 360. You'll find yourself in a battle against several officers, surrounded by fire and you'll notice it takes 30 seconds to swing your weapon, not to mention jump or simply move. Slow-down is not terrible, it's definately playable and is experienced only in specific corners of certain areas and stages. Once you step to the left of change your camera angle, everything will return to normal speed.

There is no split-screen play as the game supports only one player per console. Thankfully Koei has finally brought co-op multiplayer back to the game (as well as multiplayer duels). In multiplayer you will be able to trade materials to create weapons, orbs, and other items with other players. If you're having an issue locatiing an item you can simply ask for the item from another player. You can also trade Officers with players online. This allows your traded officer to upgrade Chi abilities and gain experience at a faster rate ("Chi" is a power or attribute that aids your officer(s). Any one character can have up to five different chi abilities.).

As of now those are the most noteable matters I can think of sharing. I loved DW:4 for Playstation 2 and found myself quite disappointed with DW:6 due to no multiplayer/online support. DWSF however, is quite fun. It takes a bit of getting use to even for veteran DW players, but it's well worth the money. I'm into 102 hours of gameplay and as far as I can tell I've got many more hours to go.

**Notice**
The DEMO available on Xbox Live is quite misleading and does not represent the full game accurately. It will give you only a slight taste and will restrict you from customizing anything.

Ok I played the DW series since DW 2 and loved them all. I love the hack and slash games against a crap load of enemies. Strikeforce, however, has changed the game that I loved and turned it into...well, let's say they had good ideas but never seemed to follow through and perfect the idea. First of all, the aerial combat just plain sucks...why? The camera never stays on target for more than a few seconds...and half the time im trying to find my flying enemy who goes off screen and disappears. Further more. you don't really fly but dash a little in the air... Another is the targeting system. It seemed difficult to target a specific enemy if he isn't right in front of you. Even if he was in front of you, it was still difficult to target a specific enemy. Doesn't sound too bad but try targeting a enemy when you have like hundreds of lackeys and 2-3 boss types attacking you at once. Gets old real fast. Another issue i had was the giant animal bosses like the lion, demon unicorn, and others. The problem i had was once again the damn camera made the fight difficult and awkward since it seemed to zoom out every few seconds making me trying to locate my character. really annoying after like the fiftieth time. I was expecting an epic game but instead koei comes out with a game full of flaws and annoyances that prevent me from really enjoying the game. This is probably one of the worst DW game to come out on any system.

Ahh Dynasty Warriors. If there was a good example of a mindless beat-em-up game, the Warriors/Musou series would easily define it. Any Warriors/Musou game you find from Koei will follow the formula of a one-person army that aims to turn the tide of battle by defeating many enemies and a handful of officers. To some, this is all you really need to enjoy yourself after a nice rough day. To others, there's not a lot of depth involved in these games so one may prefer something else for their time.

Then comes in Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce. Taking a huge departure from the Warriors/Musou series by adding different concepts, Strikeforce aims to provide players with a few mechanics usually seen in other RPGs. Borrowing a lot from the Monster Hunter series and the Phantasy Star Online/Universe games, Strikeforce is a multiplayer orientated game that focuses on gearing and leveling your character while taking on battles against opposing armies. Unlike the traditional Warriors/Musou games, the game is much slower pace with less enemies but more focus is on the officer battles that you encounter, including some big fantasy monsters that you normally would not see in these games. Instead of a huge map, each battle is divided into smaller zones.

Of course, this all sounds a bit boring if it wasn't for the fact that characters from the Dynasty Warriors series were amped up with a special "Fury" mode. As you're fighting, you can transform into a powerful version of yourself where you will do more damage, be able to sustain yourself in the air longer and overall, look very Dragon Ball-ish like in fancy armor. This adds a bit of depth in the game as you will be trying to maintain this "Fury" mode as much as you can. You will be needing this more often than not as the enemy officers that you encounter will do the same as well.

Each battle is like a mission that you undertake. You can invite other players (Online for Console versions, Adhoc for Playstation Portable) to undertake these missions in an effort to level up or obtain spoils which can be used to create more gear. As this is a mutliplayer orientated game, trying to solo the later missions end up being very very difficult and even just down right frustrating to attempt alone. This is also unfortunately setback by the fact that for the console versions, there is no local multiplayer and the PSP does not support infrastructure mode for true online play.

So, who is the intended target for this game? Long time fans of Dynasty Warriors might end up disappointed on the slower pace of the game and the lower enemy count on average. Each boss is also very difficult to kill in some cases and unlike the other Warriors/Musou game, there are less methods of breaking out of long combo attacks that the bosses do. Because of all this, a lot of patience and persistence is required for this game, something that most Warrior/Musou games don't really require all that much. As for those that enjoy games like Monster Hunter, might be turned off on the fact that the game is one that requires you to grind a lot as most of your victories will usually involve the gear and items that you have equipped.

All that aside, this game was originally made for the Playstation Portable as it is a game that you can take with you and play anywhere with. Because of that, I do recommend this game if you travel a lot and Monster Hunter wasn't up your fancy or you need something different and same as well. The console version does have the added advantage of having online multiplayer, which is a plus for the later missions. In both cases, having someone to play with is an added bonus and probably even a necessity. Which is why I gave this a 3, it is a very niche game that might or might not good for your typical gamer.

My daughter and I love to play Dynasty Warriors on the Xbox360. We have version 5 and version 6 Empires. They have the side-by-side split screen type of multiplayer layout. We team up to fight off the onslaught of bad guys that come at you in DW5 & DW6.

I purchaed this game after it stated that it was a multiplayer game. I assumed it would have the same interface as the previous versions....big mistake. As I started to play (with my daughter watching), I finally realized that I couldn't join her into the battle. We went through all of the setup screens and come to find that it was only multi-player with online players. So, no more split-screen, no more cooperative mode on the local level. That means, no more Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce.

Game was returned two days after it arrived. Maybe it would be good for a single player, but in the 30 mins that I went through the first battles, it didn't have the same feel as the other DW games.

Buy at your own risk!

This game, i love dynasty warriors, and i welcomed this new take on the series, and dont get me wrong, its amazing in all the classic DW fashion. But. the battlefields arent just vast, their segmented like the maps are in zelda. the crafting system is amazing, and to be honest it really is an amazing game for any DW fan out there, its just DW on a smaller scale, like the samurai warriors games from the PSP.

its a great game but its also one of those that if u play just a little to much it gets boring pretty easy. still recommend it though for the price and fast delivery

The Dynasty Warriors series is basically known far and wide for what it is. This expansion, "DW: StrikeForce", doesn't do much to change that.

Dynasty Warriors has a long, well-established concept. Based on the Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Dynasty Warriors is a hack-and-slash series where the player defeats entire hordes of enemies, and is probably the most famous example of its genre. Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce doesn't do much to change that. Based on Dynasty Warrior 6, "Strikeforce" replaces the standard campaign with a strange RPG-hybrid system.

In essence, the player picks a character out of the game's huge lineup. This character is dumped into a tiny village consisting of 8 shops and a bulletin board. The board is used to take quests, which are short, gimmicky, and uninteresting. There's sort of an advancement system in the village, where you upgrade your character's stats, weapons, and abilities. However, it carries over to gameplay really poorly, because it's all just numbers. In addition, you get one character per campaign. If you want to play a new character, you have to start a new campaign. That's it. The whole role-playing system means that character advancement is the main point, so if you want to play as a different character you have to start all over again.

The gameplay itself is the same Dynasty Warriors stuff everyone who's played any other DW game is used to, but it's really slow and boring. The controls especially are awful, and feel totally unnatural. When a character runs, the transition between "starting" and "stopping" feels really awkward, and there's no sense of momentum (which is kind of important in a game where your main tactic is charging directly at people). There's rarely a semblance of actual large battles - it's just the player running around by themselves in an area full of enemies. Even the hack and slash is boring, especially when compared with more modern hack-and-slash franchises like Devil Kings.

The graphics look okay, but the effects look incredibly awful. There's only a few stock animations, the different elemental effects like fire and water look really cheap and fake, and enemies are just sort of knocked around when you hit them - there's no feeling of impact or anything. Objects clip into other objects all the time, and it all ends up looking totally fake. It's a game centered around spectacle and violence, and that's all it's got going for it. Why don't they work harder on that part of the game?

Overall, there's nothing to recommend Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce. Even people who like the standard DW formula will be disappointed, because there's somehow less content than there usually is. All the myriad problems just add up to a big waste of time.

Rating: 2/10.

If you have played Dynasty Warriors over the years you would've thought this one was no different. Same characters with different (Cool weapons), different environment, and same game play that I loved for years. When I got this one I was excited but I thought that they were going to keep to the rules but upgrade it somehow. It was a major disappointment. First off when I was trying to fight, there was no combination like in the others. Second the camera angle was off so I couldn't see who I was fighting, and third I didn't understand how to upgrade my weaponry and skills. I miss the origial Dynasty Warriors. Don't waste your money on this unless you can accept the challenges I just told you about.

I got this game for my boyfriend for Christmas. I can't say firsthand how it is, but he played it everyday he could. He loves it. Doesn't appear to be much different than other Asian warrior games he plays, but he assures me it is.

Like many other DW fans when I heard about this game I was estatic. I needed to have it. I read the reviews and I watched the gameplay videos. They showed me the same thing Ive seen in every DW game, but this one was severley lacking in many areas. I hated this game right off the bat. It's a watse of money, I recomend that KOEI tries REAL hard to make the next one better. This game could kill the genre.