Dynasty Warriors 9 (PS4) - Review | SquareXO

Rob Pitt writes: Dynasty Warriors 9 is finally here! It feels like I’ve been waiting an eternity for the next game in the series of hack and slash games from developer Omega Force and Publisher Koei Tecmo – when in reality it has only been about five years if you don’t include the PS4 ‘Extreme’ edition and the ’empires’ edition of DW8. The Dynasty Warriors format is still very niche and doesn’t appeal to everyone so it’s great to see that they have really pushed the game this time around to try to change things up a little and also to try and make the game more appealing to a wider audience. Although, they made a few changes which made a long-time fan almost give up on the series as I couldn’t wrap my head around some of their ideas upon my first play of the game. So, let’s take a deeper look at Dynasty Warriors 9 and see what’s changed in this long-running series.

[bacrec1]

The no coop thing is killing me.

[rob-GP]

I know - I can see why - it's a vast open world where time progresses as you fast travel so in order for co-op they would have to disable time or disable the fast travel - but still, I imagine running around with three mates would be awesome.

Personally, I've not played a Musou game in co-op since Samurai Warriors 2 on my 360 when me and my mate used to set up two Xbox's in one room and play that way with each other - so losing co-op didn't really affect me that much, but I can see it affecting a lot of peoples decision on buying the game

[paradigmfellow]

This is the worst Dynasty Warriors. Tecmo Koei screwed this one up.

[rob-GP]

Really? I'm seeing quite a few people saying that and personally, I thought the same when I first started playing it - but after about 20-30 hours I really started to enjoy it. I'm currently at around 160 hours playtime and I'm one trophy off the platinum yet I still haven't played and unlocked all of the events - I think I have like 50 out of 151.

To me, it feels like when Need for speed jumped from picking a mission to being an open world where you had to drive to a certain area to start the next race or event - it's a big jump for the DW franchise and one which was bound to have issues initially, but they can only go forward and the first major patch already added features I requested and fixed various issues I was having - so I guess we just need to wait and see what happens next and how the Empires version plays out.

[paradigmfellow]

All of the characters feel homogenous, gone are the eccentricity of all the characters, the unique weapons are all gone (90%). The maps are now disgustingly huge and it feels like you are just throttling through empty space. Some of the most epic battles are now reduced to god awful sidequests. All this does is just want to you to go to the final boss as fast as possible, there are a few instances where they programmed for this not to happen, but it is just epic boring. Oh and sieges are pointless, just climb the damn wall and kill your objective.

[blackblades]

What a piece of crap troll, been on the other reviews saying the same crap. Buzz off foo!

[paradigmfellow]

Nope. I am a fan of the series, and I want my voice to be heard.

[rob-GP]

tbh, I agree with the points he brought up as it's what I thought when I first started playing it. I almost gave up playing is as I honestly was thinking that the devs had ruined the franchise - but thats when I upped the difficulty and things changed.

Yeah, you can use the stupid hookshot and go straight for the main mission (I believe the hookshot either shouldn't be there, should be bought or earned much later in the game - not there from the beginning) but if you do then you are gonna have your arse kicked!

You basically have to complete the important side missions and a few of the EXP missions in order to get the main mission level lowered, get support from your allies and be strong enough in order to overcome the main objective. If you're playing the game on beginner then yeah - the game is piss easy - but so is every DW game if you do that and don't enjoy a challenge.

Look at breath of the wild - you can literally go straight to gannon if you want, or you can take your time and explore to make the final fight easier - same things - they have taken inspiration from Zelda and even Assassins creed in their first jump to open world.

Regarding weapons, yeah - I'm not a fan. I prefer it where you are forced to use a characters weapons as being allowed to use any weapon you want means you can technically just pimp out one weapon and use that on all the characters. But again - you don't have to do that, it's your choice if you want to make it easier for you. When you play as a new character - decide you're only going to use weapons that character likes and don't equip that high level one - even make your own gems so you aren't using the best ones you already made.

When you step back and look at it - the game is letting you take the easy route, sure, but it isn't forcing you too. I played for about 30 hours until I really started having fun - I'm on 165 now and I'm still loving it.

[blackblades]

You sure not acting like a fan, it's like you sh!tt!ng all over it.

[paradigmfellow]

How so? I am not insulting anyone. I am pointing out the obvious, I am giving voice to what others are feeling. If anything you are the one that seems to be closedminded and afraid to think critically about issues.