Developer/Publisher: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.
Platforms: PC,PS4,PS3
Release Date: Feb 26, 2015
Where to buy: Steam, Amazon, PSN, Xbox Live
I think at this point I can safely say everyone knows how I feel about the series. However, did you know this is actually my first time playing a “Empires” title? I actually had to sit and think if I ever really did or not, but alas I never truly played one. So let’s sink our teeth into it and see what there is to offer. Since I tend to get quite detailed with the dynasty warriors reviews, I will break it into different parts and try to keep it as short as I can. If you are new to the series, I highly recommend you check out my previous Dynasty Warriors 8 review, by clicking here, as I will be only covering whats new in this release.
Character models look outstanding.
Visuals: Visually the game does look a little different from previous PS4 Dynasty Warriors titles. The actual textures look sharper, however the phenomenal bloom effect that was in Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends has been toned back some, most likely to deal with the massive number of enemies that spawn on a map. It also seems that some characters were given some cosmetic,weapon, and stat updates. For the most part these all work relatively well. My major complaint is the abysmal pop in. It is the worst I have seen it in a long time. Enemies will disappear right next to you, and magically reappear about 5 seconds later. This becomes really frustrating when you are using a musou attack to kill a officer, and they magically disappear when you use your attack, and magically reappear after. There is no excuse for this bad of pop in, and I will not try to justify it in any way. There is also some major slowdown when you are trying to destroy a turret. I constantly deal with slowdown on every turret. It seems unavoidable, and it’s a shame. Thankfully, officers have been given a visual treatment as well, and the character models are by far the star of the show here. They look very detailed, and add a lot to the overall presentation.
Sound: Thankfully, Empires nails the soundtrack of the game wonderfully. You are able to choose from a number of songs while loading into a stage, allowing for you to pick whatever song you prefer. Previous tracks from past Dynasty Warriors appear as well as some new tracks just for Empires. However, the voice acting is a whole different story. They finally made the voices Japanese, which I feel adds a more serious tone to the game. That being said, the game seems to not know which voice belongs to which character. There were numerous times a male character would be voiced by a female voice actor, and vice versa. Diaochan would have a deep male voice in my file, and no matter how many times I restarted my empire mode, she would always have that voice. This seems to be a common issue at launch and I really hope they correct it in a patch in the future, as it is a big issue for many at the time of this review.
There is a lot of character customization options for creating your own officer.
Gameplay: Same Dynasty Warriors game play you’ve come to either know and love or hate and despise. The Empires series is known for adding much needed difficulty, and thankfully the game does deliver in that aspect. This was the hardest Dynasty Warriors title I have played yet on it’s hardest difficulty. Strangely enough however, Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires only has 2 modes to play through. You have the usual free mode, which has become standard for all releases and Empire Mode, which is the bread and butter of this game. You choose either a officer you created, or a pre-existing officer, and commence your task of uniting the land under one banner. You can choose to rule your own kingdom, which allows you to manage your army, choose what it is your country chooses to invest in, and wage war against all other kingdoms in the area. The goal is to be the last one standing. You use materials and gold that you acquire by owning land, and winning battles, to strengthen your empire and build shops that will give you better weapons and items. You will need these if you want to survive in the later part of Empire Mode, as officers hit like a truck and have a ton of hp to burn down. You also manage your troops, which you can gain in many different ways through the course of the game. These aspects add a great strategy element, and allow you to tackle enemies in a whole new way. In some cases, you may be able to skip some fights all together by just being diplomatic.
Empire Mode is fun and all, but with only having free mode and empire mode, the game feels lacking in content compared to most Dynasty Warriors releases. It will however, give you a challenge if you want to crank that difficulty up. You will need to actually use your head to win some of these battles. You cannot just go in and smash whatever is in front of you anymore. Strategems make their return and offer a lot of really useful abilities such as lightning and fire attacks to keep you in the fight for longer. You will want to combine Strategems, items, weapons, and your character level to have the best offense and defense possible for any given situation.
Overall the game is a solid entry into the Dynasty Warriors series, however I feel the asking price of $49.99 USD at launch is a bit pricey when you look at what you get. As much as I love Dynasty Warriors, for the amount of content you get I would wait for a price drop to around $30-40 USD to get your moneys worth if you are not a huge Dynasty Warriors fan. While it is a fun and solid title, I just cannot recommend it for the current asking price to anyone but a Dynasty Warriors fan who knows what to expect, as there just is not enough content at launch to warrant a 50 dollar price tag.
