Amazon.com: Dynasty Warriors 6: Playstation 3: Video Games

31 Reviews

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
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4.0 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not too shabby, February 29, 2008

By	Yossarian (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

At this point, you either like the KOEI "mass battlefield" games, or you don't. Dynasty Warriors 6 picks up right where the others left off, with more of the same. Once again, we're thrown back into what sort of passes as Chinese history, taking up the roles of one of the Three Kingdom warriors and hacking our way to glory.

First off, the game has never looked better. DW6 is a clear jump up in graphics from even the recent Samurai Warriors 2 for the PS2, and the battlefields are familiar while looking much, much nicer. DW6 does a good job of making use of the PS3's heavy graphics horsepower, filling the levels with flowing water and leaf-dropping trees that actually are cool to look at.

Second, the combat is just as fun as ever. As always, one is able to slaughter entire fields full of enemies, collecting dropped bags of weapons and experience to crank up one's stats. Some of the weird DW affectations remain, such as squads of troops that mysteriously appear out of mid-air around you. All in all, however, the combat system holds up well even though it has basically been reduced to pure button mashing even compared to earlier versions.

Each iteration of Dynasty Warriors seems to add some good things while unfortunately removing some old standbys. For example, DW6 retains horses and even lets you level them up, permitting one to obtain strange steeds such as one that freezes anyone it runs over, or gives you a free weapon at the end of each level (presumably carried off in its teeth). Loose horses even run around on the battlefield smashing into people, instead of just standing around like idiots. Another new feature is a skill tree that is filled up with little skill points based on levelling, although there's really not much thought put into it. However, other items from earlier versions are sorely missed: new weapons do not appear upgradeable with money (indeed, there is no gold to be found) but instead are simply found as-is. Nor does one receive a bodyguard hireling who can level up; it's a horse or nothing. Having a bodyguard bomb thrower or monk who hands out life foods is sorely missed. Harkening back even further (DW 4, if memory serves), the inability to make a customized character or use a first-person bow and arrow still rankles. DW 6 adds the ability to climb up ladders onto walls or archer towers, but no ability to then use a bow to shoot people below. It's kind of silly.

Lastly, it's worth noting that the game is quite challenging. Even at the historically cream-puff "Normal" setting it is pretty easy to get murdered, notably by the over-juiced "fury" characters. I had an 18th level character with pretty good weapons get killed in two hits by some commander who wasn't even legendary tool Lu Bu. Interim saving is key even on the lower difficulty settings.

All in all, DW 6 is a good addition to your PS3 game library. I just dream of the day that KOEI puts good features into a DW game and DOESN'T remove all the good ones they'd added the prior time around.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but a little less of more of the same, February 21, 2008

By	D. S. Sim "phillipthorpenstein" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

***Short review***

Good: Hack-n-slash fun still abounds, fans will not be disappointed, smoother game play, higher body count possible, Renbu combo system allows for high hits, leveling up horses
Bad: Hard to see individual battlefield map, small amount of lag still present in two-player, no real major innovation (skill system is arguable), no body guards (arguable)
Ugly: Zhou Yu in thigh-high boots ; Most ignored item in the game is a comb.

***Regular review***

The lack of any major innovations does not hamper this game from being entertaining. You still play as some warrior from China's Three Kingdom's era, making your way across the land by cutting down scores of nameless soldiers along with their named Generals.

You build up your warrior's abilities by participating and winning in battles based on several criteria, such as number of men killed, targets acquired, etc. Your rank as a warrior increases based on the experience you earn at the end of the battle.

Furthermore, at the conclusion of a successful battle, considering how well you did, you might have the option of getting skills. Each skill slot on the skill tree is worth one acquired skill point and will give a boost to your warrior in various ways like more attack/defense power, more health, or some special attribute. I believe this is the same way you level up in one of the later Final Fantasies, cannot remember which. This skill-tree system is one of the new features in Dynasty Warriors.

The gameplay itself is very similar to the previous 4 dynasty warriors (the first one being a one-on-one fighting game). There is a newer way to fight, the Renbu system, that has replaced the weapon as being what determines the length of a combo. Essentially, the Renbu system gives you the option of making ridiculously long combos. It is not unheard of getting combos up to and over 200, whereas something like that would be far more difficult to do in previous editions. I find it less personal than the old way, but that is more a preference; it does not at all detract from the fun. Perhaps thanks to the PS3 hardware, it is much easier to get insane body counts. I was able to get over 2200 in one battle, which I have never done before in any other Dynasty Warriors. I suspect this will be the norm for larger battles, though I averaged out around 1000 (this is when I am not looking for enemies to kill).

Health boosts are harder to come by in this game. Towns, gates, and other bases are more crucial in this game to recover your energy. These places are captured based on the body count needed to capture it; the body count falls faster when you kill corporals or generals associated with the base. Larger bases, larger body count. In order to get into an enemy base, you have to knock down the gate. For larger walls with larger gates, you may get the option of climbing up a ladder. Another new thing not seen in previously. And health boosts in bases do regenerate, as long as the base remains on your side.

There are also no body guards in this game, them being replaced by a more detailed horse component. You begin the game with the option of riding a horse or not. You can choose one of several horses, and level them up by taking them into battle. Most horses on the battlefield belong to the more major generals, and not all of them will have one. This makes picking a horse before the battle begins a good idea You will be able to win more horses by picking up saddles within a battlefield. These can give you access to more powerful horses (though, I have not found out yet how to gain more famous horses like Red Hare). Gaining a new weapon is the same as the previous editions; find a weapon box and there you go. The strength of a given weapon is based on the difficulty of the setting and battle.

Technically, the game is of course superior to any of the previous installments. The music sounds as good as you expect from a Dynasty Warriors. It is not great, but it does the trick. Thankfully, the voice-overs are not as bad as the series is known for. But it looks like the sound effects have taken a hit; musou yells and other dins of battle were not as apparent.
The PS3 does a great job in putting bodies on the screen to be knocked down, which is great on single player. Two player, though, there is some lag when you or your partner are within large groups of soldiers. Although, clearing out the bodies will return the speed of the game to normal. The graphics are pretty good, though for some reason the characters seem a little smaller than on previous editions. Even on non-HDTVs, the graphics are decent. I was not impressed, however, with the musou attacks. They did look as devastating and battle-turning as some of the previous editions were. The crunch of laying a musou out on a large group of enemies was not as satisfying as I wanted it to be.

One major gripe, however, is the lack of a bearing point when you flip your battlefield map from the whole field to what is around you. You will constantly be switching to the start menu to gain your bearings. It is easier to see your arrow on single player, near impossible on two player. This may change with a larger screen tv.

In conclusion, if you are a fan of the dynasty warrior series like I am, then you will buy this game and enjoy it. It will be worth the money just to get through the story of each of your characters, and it hardly gets old (at least for me) to constantly cut through throngs of hapless, ill-paid soldiers. Even though the game did not blow me away and regardless of some of the minor drawbacks, this is a must have for the hack-n-slasher PS3 owner.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done, February 29, 2008

By	William Kerney (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

This is the first Dynasty Warriors that is actually fun to play. No more running back to your horse (you can whistle for it now), no more having to tediously kill all the gate guards to stop enemy reinforcements, no more having to kill hundreds of enemies hunting for meat buns (if you take a base now, it spawns food on a regular basis), mounted combat is now a feasible way of killing enemies, randomized loot, a fun levelling and advancement system, etc.

It's still all about mowing through waves of enemies and fighting enemy generals, but it's actually fun now, instead of tedious. I'd recommend it for anyone that got turned off by the older Dynasty Warrior games.