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Review

Apr 04, 2022

DYNASTY WARRIORS 9 Empires Review

Lights Off
4 Awesome
Retails for: $59.99
We Recommend: $59.99
  • Developer: Omega Force
  • Publisher: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.
  • Genre: Action, Simulation, Strategy
  • Released: Feb 15, 2022
  • Platform: Windows, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch
  • Reviewed: PlayStation 5

The Dynasty Warriors series holds this special little spot in our gaming hearts for quite a few of you out there and me! It’s a form of comfort food that is just so pleasing to play, no matter how rough around the edges it can be. I enjoyed my time with Dynasty Warriors 9 way back, and the Empires’ release gives me more of the same with the added management aspect of the Empires side series.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the Empires line of Warriors titles, it is a more strategic endeavor. It’s nothing like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games but does give you more control over an army than your typical “one warrior kills 2000 enemies” gameplay. You’ll be asked to manage people, money, relationships, and territories, so if you’re looking for a little more than a standard beat’em up, maybe give me a minute of your time.

So in Empires, you’re tasked with two separate forms of gameplay. The first is your standard Musou combat which takes your character onto the battlefield and defeat as many enemies while completing tasks. DW9: Empires changes things slightly as you only do the castle sieges. Unlike previous games where you had a variety of maps and missions, DW9: Empires consolidates them into a handful of maps that revolve around storming a castle. If you’re a long-time player, you may be thinking how boring that may be, but with the added battlefield missions being thrown into the mix, they give you something to accomplish alongside the titular “defeat main boss.” I found that even though I wasn’t doing the Yellow Turban Rebellion the same way it’s been done in over eight releases, I still was having a darn good time with the combat. The action is just as engaging as ever and thanks to character customization, most playable characters, which there is a lot of, feel distinctly different.

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Much of that feeling comes down to equipment and mods that you can apply to your characters, Musou ones, or player created. Omega Force has included a gem system that offers you a wide assortment of combat permutations to benefit your battles. You’ll come across gems that give you elemental powers or ones that will earn you bonuses by executing certain moves. The gems are not easy to come by, though, and in the early game, you’ll find that they are few and far between. You’ll be glad to know that anything you’ve acquired in your playthrough can be used elsewhere in the game. Included with this is the new Secret Plans mechanic. These are unlockable cards you earn that four of can be applied per character, and they are activated in battle, resulting in a variety of effects. These cards add a new strategy, from attack buffs to elemental attacks, and even health recovery while on the battlefield. Using these cards results in a cooldown before you can reuse them during the battle, so keep that in mind.

The second form of gameplay in Empires is the actual Empire part. Your character can be loyal to a territory, or you can venture out on your own, take over a region, and try to rule ancient China with your own band of warriors. It’s here that you will make the strategical decisions that will help you in battle, help you with acquiring new warriors, or gain new land to rule over. You’ll be given the option to dabble in domestic affairs, diplomacy, military and human affairs, battles, and an opportunity they call stroll. Most of these are self-explanatory; diplomacy has to do with trades and allies, while domestic affairs focus on how your territories earn money or feed their people.

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The one that stands out is the stroll option; you are given a list of people who want to talk with your character during a stroll. You’ll find people who want to either join your ranks or want you to drop everything and join them, or maybe for alliances. This is all done through an in-game menu, but you’re allowed to go to an open world map of China and move to different locations yourself. Unfortunately, this map is enormous, and there is not much to do between the territories or big settlements. Besides finding Musou warriors to talk to and potentially recruit, you’ll run into animals to kill for your empire’s food and bandits to defeat for money. Other than those occasional pop-ups, the map feels lifeless. I’m glad it’s an option to pursue, but there’s just nothing that you can accomplish more efficiently than using the straight-up menu.

As for how this game looks, it’s ok. Looks about as good as I remember DW9 looking, but the performance is strange. I’m reviewing this on a PlayStation 5, and I’m given two graphical options. A Performance mode and a Graphical one. I usually stick with performance modes to keep the frames at 60 or higher, but this option produced terrible screen tearing. Rotating the camera really made things unpleasant to look at, and unfortunately, you’re constantly doing that in battle. Otherwise, the performance mode looked great. If you choose graphics, then it brings things down to 30 frames per second, but I could not see any graphical differences for the life of me. Both modes looked identical; the only benefit 30fps had was no screen tearing. So I ended up playing in that mode.

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The last thing I wanted to touch on was character creation. Omega Force went all out this time around, giving you some stellar creation options. Not only are you given multiple options when it comes to things like armor and outfits, but they even have finely tuned sliders for facial stuff so that you can go nuts in making characters look how you want. They even have a plethora of vocal grunts to choose from; it’s crazy cool how deep it is. You can take your created character in the game and use it during the primary Conquest mode. Any created characters you’ve made can appear in the Conquest mode as warriors to recruit; it’s cool. They even have a relationship system where your player character can have sworn brothers/sisters who will get boosts or will focus on you during battle. Heck, they even included marriages. Yes, you can marry another warrior, and they too will focus on you in a fight to help you out. Unfortunately, it’s only Male/Female relationships, which I get based on the time period. But the lack of representation in this day and age sucks. Other than the actual relationship, your two characters can even have a child together, and you can take that child into a new Conquest utilizing stats from both parents; it’s a cool system.

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Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is an excellent addition to the warriors series. The strategy aspect is fun to engage with and can get quite addicting as your game progresses. I found myself saying, “ok, just one more month of decisions to make; then I’ll save and quit.” only to do another round of strategic decisions. That same brand of fun and fast-paced Warriors combat kept things exciting during battles, and when you combine both gameplays, you can easily put away hours upon hours into it.

A PlayStation 5 code was provided by the publisher for review purposes