Tecmo-Koei’s Dynasty Warriors franchise, to this day, remains one of their most successful properties. Widely synonymous for the “hack and slash” genre of gaming in general, the Dynasty Warriors series has been alive and well for 16 years, an accomplishment in the landscape of the gaming world nowadays, and despite what others may consider bumps in the road for the long-standing “1 vs. 1000” series, the argument can be made that the Dynasty Warriors series has never been stronger.

With the upcoming release of the 8th main title of the series, Dynasty Warriors 8 is striving to turn the player into the “ultimate one-man army” in a manner never before seen in the previous games of the franchise. However, while the series has made its name from the evolution that it helped spark within the “hack and slash” genre, the franchise didn’t exactly begin as most gamers know it today.

The game that started it all was, in fact, a little known PS1 title known as “Dynasty Warriors” or “Sangoku Musou”in Japan. Unlike the future installments in the series, this game was a one-on-one weapon fighter similar in style to Soul Blade. This game functioned and played like most arcade fighters at the time, with an added focus on defense and parrying, with the game’s setting based on a historical frontier rather than a fictional landscape.

Having previously made a name for themselves with the “Nobunaga’s Ambition” series, the company known simply as “Koei” at the time reached toward a new history, striking gold with their focus on Ancient China and the era known as the “Late Han” Dynasty into the “Three Kingdoms” Era of History, creating the strategy series named after the novel, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.

Seeking to use this property in other manners, Koei would go on to create the first “Dynasty Warriors” game, turning the strategy game into a one-on-one fighting game, with several notable generals of the era represented in an arcade-style 3D fighter. Outside of the setting, however, there wasn’t anything to tie in the game with the actual history, the game focused on providing the experience itself rather than the specific details of each general in the game.

Three years later, Koei would reintroduce the series as a whole as “Shin Sangoku Musou” in Japan, bringing the series straight into the “beat ‘em up” genre for which it’s now become known. In order to keep brand awareness of the title within the United States, the title was simply called “Dynasty Warriors 2”, linking it back to the original PS1 title. Now, every character from the original game who had belonged to one of the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu, or Shu had returned as well as a plethora of newcomers to the series as the one-on-one fighter had been done away with, the 3D hack and slasher taking its place entirely and laying the foundation for the future of the DW franchise.

Every character now had several different combo attacks by using different combinations of Square and Triangle (Up to 4 total presses), as well as the powerful Musou Attack that can be used to clear entire areas around the player. Every character had also been given stats for the player to develop, enabling you to take your characters and grind them through the stages via stat-boosts that are dropped by enemy generals placed throughout each map, the higher stat boosts rewarded for higher combo counts.



Also of note was the fact that every character was now placed in their appropriate kingdom, as their kingdom would lay the basis for the new mainstay feature of the DW games, the “Musou Mode”, which was a mode that would allow you to play as any of the game’s playable generals within Wei, Wu, or Shu, and play through their involvement through the battles their kingdom had fought until China would be unified.

The battles themselves would also be based on famous, historical battlegrounds during the Three Kingdoms Era, such as Chibi and Hefei. It is also here where the game’s signature musical style would take root, the recognizable guitar chords and drums blaring in the background as you carved through the enemies in front of you. As a whole, and for its time, Dynasty Warriors 2 was a brilliant “first” title, setting the basics for the future of the series and, as a result of this set-up, would mold the series into the franchise we know today, and, for its time, what DW2 did for the PS2 was lay down a great foundation to build from in future installments, and since this game had laid the groundwork, the only place the series could go, from here, is up.

In one short year, the next game in the series, “Dynasty Warriors 3” or “Shin Sangoku Musou 2”, was released on the Playstation 2, and if DW2 laid the foundation for what’s to come, DW3 was the building built upon that foundation. Dynasty Warriors 3 was the game that would introduce many of the features that we’d see become staples of the series. Not only did we see another massive increase in the roster itself (Thirteen characters were added), but we would also see many battles for the first time in the series, adding more depth to the game’s Musou Mode as well as giving these new characters specific missions that would explore their histories, such as newcomer Sun Ce being given his own missions regarding the foundation of Wu and the death of his father, Sun Jian.

This game would also see the introduction of items as well as weaponry sets, two features that would remain part of the series from here on out in one way or another. Each character would also, once acquiring the proper weapon, receive a new 6-Hit Combo limit, giving every character a 6 hit combo as well as a new 5th Charge (Used for floating and follow-ups) and 6th Charge, which was often used for crowd clearance.

Another notable addition to the franchise as a whole was the introduction of elements. While the system works differently today, elements were introduced in DW3 via each individual’s ultimate “4th Weapons”, adding a sense of mysticism to characters who didn’t innately possess such powers. These “4th Weapons” would be obtained via completing specific conditions on the Hard Difficulty, which, depending on the character, would be quite the task to undertake, but this was subverted with the inclusion of the Co-Op feature, enabling you and a friend to play together and undertake these battles to help each other obtain the ultimate weapons.



Lastly, this was the first game to be fully voiced, the previous title only featuring small voice clips here and there. DW3 introduced a dual language track to the series, with Japanese and English voices, and for many, the DW3 English Dub has become something of a “cult hit” for fans of the series, giving us lines that would be recognizable amongst DW fans (“DON’T PURSUE LU BU!” and “YOU FLAMING IDIOTS!” anyone?) for years to come. Questionable dubbing aside, DW3 would be considered, by many, to be the best game of the series for all of these reasons (As well as the difficulty of the game itself), but within a year, Koei would begin a new series tradition.

Seeking to improve upon the formula they had set for themselves in their last installment, Koei would begin releasing “expansions” to the series, with the first one hitting DW3, and accessed by using the game’s “Remix” feature, requiring you to use the original DW3 disc for the PS2 to read its data before re-swapping to the expansion title, mixing the two games together into one package.

These expansions would be known as “Xtreme Legends”, and, as their description would imply, they would expand the game’s content, adding in things such as new modes (“Challenge Mode” additions were made here), new weapons (Every character would receive a new, “5th” Weapon as an alternative to their “4th”), new difficulties (A “Beginner” and “Very Hard” Mode), and even new items as well as higher limits for previously existing items. Such inclusions would later become the standard in the “Xtreme Legends” line of games, as the main series titles would subtract these features for the purposes of the expansion.



However, perhaps the biggest thing added by this game was the inclusion of Musou Modes for generals in the “Other” faction of officers, the “Other” faction consisting of warriors who didn’t belong to Wei, Wu, or Shu. For the first time, this allowed players who had enjoyed playing as these officers to experience a brand-new “What If” Musou scenario which would see them take these officers beyond their normal time-frame and even take actions that change the course of China’s Unification. This was perhaps the biggest feature of DW3XL, as it enabled the roster members who were there, formally, to fill in space to serve more of a purpose and give them their time to shine. This feature, originally introduced in DW3XL, would become a mainstay of the main series as well due to the positive reception of the new Musou Mode additions.



As a whole package, the release of DW3 and its expansion, “Xtreme Legends”, was the first “crown jewel” of the DW series, having a blend of just the right difficulty and a massive amount of content at the time, not to mention the amount of grinding one could get lost in with the game’s roster of characters and the massive amount of new stages added to DW3+XL. DW3+XL took what made the previous installment a good “beat 'em up” and expanded upon it to an almost-RPG level, adding objects a player must be at their highest stats to have a chance at collecting, as well as encouraging the co-op experience (Something that would be used at my house every so often) with the ability to obtain the ultimate weapons with a 2nd player in case the lone player would get stuck in his efforts.

The strides taken to improve the series did not go unnoticed and, despite some flaws such as a weird “auto-target” lock that could cause you to break combos, DW3+XL, as a complete package, is probably the best of the DW games from the PS2 era because of the leaps and bounds of improvement and, in general, finding what worked for the series itself. With DW3+XL, the identity of the series would be established, and to capitalize on it, the series would continue onward, and having found its identity, it was time to tweak the game, but not all tweaks are welcomed, and as the graceful ballerina, they would be forced to make a beautiful recovery and return to form.

Two years following the release of DW3XL, “Dynasty Warriors 4” would launch, followed “Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends” later that same year. The Dynasty Warriors series had officially found its stride, but with that in mind, DW4 opted to change things within the DW series. Along with the standard changes for a sequel (New characters, redoing the maps, new maps/stages), the game would undergo several gameplay mechanic and overall quality tweaks as well. For the first time, elements were now confined within orbs, which were the same as ordinary items. Every character also now had their own set-number of item spaces, doing away with the usual “5 items” you could equip, and varying them from 4-6, often depending on the type of general they were within their original source material.

While the change added variety to the officers, it felt incredibly tacked on for the sake of diversity. The one saving grace of this feature is that Orbs and Horse Saddles did not count toward the 4-6 Item limit as it was. Another highly notable change was the voice acting from this point forward, as this was the first Dynasty Warriors title to use recognizable voice actors within their titles, with names such as Kirk Thornton, Steve Blum, and even Crispin Freeman taking up various roles in the series, with some such as Tony Oliver and Terrence Stone becoming series mainstays.

As a result of this, the amount of laughable dub lines would be drastically sliced down from the DW3 days, resulting in a dub that was very much enjoyable in the sense that it was meant to be enjoyed. Another welcome change made in DW4 was the tweaking of character move sets, making each character play less and less like each other despite how some officers (Most rulers for instance) would share a weapon.



Perhaps the three biggest changes in DW4 would more directly affect how the game was played, with the first notable change being done to the weapon system, replacing the weapon hunt for a quick “level-up” system, where every single charge attack you landed on an enemy general would give experience points, and every general you defeated would give a decent amount of EXP toward your weapon. No more keeping track of weapons as you now only had to level up your lone weapon to Level 9 before undertaking the usual “Hard Mode” task for the Level 10 Weapon, which, in comparison to the previous game’s “4th Weapons”, were nothing truly special, only giving a notable strength bonus with no actual item effects or elements attached to the weapon, the effects only returning with the Level 11 Weapons introduced in DW4XL. While the level-up system was a great way to make the weapon unique to the character and personalized, it also robbed the game of some of its own charm, the hunt of grinding for the right weapon replaced with an arbitrary level-up system that always leads to the same weapon.



The other two large changes are linked to each other by default, as DW4 introduced a brand-new Edit Mode, and while it was severely limited, it was a decent first effort, giving players the ability to create their own officer with the ability to wield a Sword, Spear, or a Pike as well as one of two Edit Mode-Only weapons in either the Great Sword or the Rapier. To coincide with this new Edit Mode, the entire Musou Mode had been revamped, opting to take you through a Kingdom’s story itself rather than the story of each individual officer.

Each Musou Mode began at the Yellow Turban Rebellion by default, regardless of the character you used, resulting in no incentive to play the Musou Modes more than once outside of unlocking characters and stages you may have missed on the first run. In fact, because of this change, the game’s “historical base” was noticeably shaken as rulers and officers who would be long dead (Sun Jian springs to mind as especially note-worthy here) would actually be leading their army far beyond their years, giving no regard to the source material.

While the idea of a Kingdom-based Musou Mode added a massive amount of length to the Musou Mode itself (As well as enabling you to use your Edit Mode officers in these non-specific Musou Modes), it dulled the experience, turning Musou Mode from an enjoyable trip down your character’s history to a grind-fest made for the sake of unlocking characters and stages.



Even DW4: Xtreme Legends, once released, didn’t add nearly as much content as the predecessor’s expansion. “Other”-aligned officers would have their Musou Modes playable in main games starting with DW4, resulting in less content available for the expansion to add as DW4XL added two new modes in total: The Xtreme Mode and the Legend Mode. Legend Mode would serve as a new mode to add several new stages to the game, retelling parts of history that may have otherwise been neglected while providing your specific characters missions in which they can earn their Level 11 Weapons.

Meanwhile, the Xtreme Mode acted as a sort of large-scale survival mode, giving you the simple objective of using your one officer to conquer China or survive as long as you can. While the modes themselves added some longevity to the game and even re-added some of the individualism of the characters and their stories, DW4 and DW4 Xtreme Legends was perhaps the first minor “stumble” in the series as, despite the improvement of several DW3 flaws (That aforementioned auto-target issue? Gone.), the game had cut itself at the knees by sacrificing replayability for those fixes.



One extremely shining portion, however, which would be a mistake not to mention, is the musical styling of DW4. When I was younger and played DW4 upon its release, I honestly couldn’t fully “appreciate” how the music had changed as DW4 opted for a more “period/regional” sound to the music, the screeching guitar lowered and replaced with the more appropriate sounds of the region and culture. Now, looking back at the soundtrack as a whole, while there are still songs that don’t hold up well to my ear, the soundtrack in DW4 is staggeringly good and a very welcome shift in the musical sound of the series. However, despite how well the music has aged (And despite fixing some of the flaws of DW3), the game itself has not aged as gracefully, the faults of DW4 more readily noticeable now than they were in my youth. It was clear that the series needed a return to form, and such would come with their next installments.

Two years following the releases of DW4 and DW4XL came the releases of “Dynasty Warriors 5” and its own “Xtreme Legends” expansion. Whereas DW4 sought to tear down and build anew, DW5 revisited the past of the series, re-implementing what worked and combining it with what was universally well liked within DW4 itself. A notable example of this would be the Items system, retaining the system, yet normalizing the amount to 5 items per character.

The weapon system would also be reverted back to the style of Dynasty Warriors 3, enabling players to find and even farm for weaponry that had the potential to surpass their Ultimate Weapons, with the only change done to this system being the new “Weight” system, as Light weapons enabled faster attacks at the cost of slightly-lower damage output while Heavy weapons slowed you down while preventing your character from flinching, adding some unique incentives to how you managed weaponry based on the character you chose.

Continuing with the tradition as well was the further alteration of movesets, with characters who shared weapons becoming even further decloned, the 5th Charge’s purpose altered entirely for every character, and the new “Evolution” attacks which were tied to your weapons, enabling up to 9 Normal Attacks per combo. Even the True Musou, a powerful attack used when on the brink of death, had been altered since its inception in DW3, now becoming a special technique all its own rather than an elemental Musou. Along with this, to promote faster combat, regular enemy troops were made weaker than before in an effort to show the difference between fighting a general and fighting a normal foot soldier. The difference is immediately noticeable for any players of prior DW titles, the game being made “easier” in general due to this single change.



Another feature that saw a clear influence from DW3 rather than DW4 was the returning Musou Mode, ditching the Kingdom Musou Modes and returning to the individual Musou Modes for every single officer and expanding on this concept, providing more backstory for every mission you embark upon as each officer offers their insight and thoughts on each upcoming battles, adding a nice personal touch to the stories told by each officer. Every character’s Musou Mode was a unique experience once again, creating the incentive to develop, play, and build-up your warriors that was missing from DW4. However, as a result of this, the Edit Mode from DW4/DW4XL had gone missing in the original DW5.



While the Edit Mode had been cut from the original DW5, it would make its return (Along with Xtreme Mode and Legend Mode) in DW5XL, with a fully upgraded slate of attire for your created warrior to equip, mix-and-match, and carry into battle. To give the players something to use their Edit Officers for, DW5XL would also introduce the Destiny Mode, where you would take your Edit Officer through the ranks, starting out as no different than the peons of which you’ve slaughtered thousands and developing him under the general of your choosing until he finally stands his ground as one of the armies’ top generals, your master rewarding you for the job you did in the battle and how easily you accomplished each goal. Stats and Weaponry you attained in this mode carried over once it was completed, giving you a lot of incentive to play through the highly-addicting Destiny Mode to develop your character.



DW5 and its expansion would propel the series to new heights, with everything from the gameplay to the music (A blend of the previous styles) to even the story-writing being completely revamped and brought to a new standard, as well as the Edit Mode being utilized to what would be its fullest within the confines of the main series, allowing the player to grow attached to their character as they rose through the ranks of their ruler and learned new tactics under their general. However, the next-generation was rapidly approaching, and the Dynasty Warriors franchise would be heading along for the ride as the next game was announced to land on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and in 2 years’ time, Dynasty Warriors 6 would launch.

“Dynasty Warriors 6” hit the next generation with much anticipation due to the newly touted features. A brand new graphical engine brought the look and feel of the game up a noticeable peg, as well as adding more interaction with siege weapons and even allowing players to swim across water, something unable to be done in previous games due to hardware limitations. As a whole, DW6 was looking to innovate and reinvent the series properly, and prior to its launch, it was looking to do just that, with every character completely redesigned and even given new weaponry along with the brand new “Renbu” system, which appeared to make the combat flowing and graceful, something that many fans admitted that the series would benefit from. Once the game was out in the wild, released to the masses, the end result was…a rather interesting experience.



If DW4 had sacrificed replayability for the sake of innovation, DW6 would be the game that flipped the entire series on its head for the sake of it, and the change was jarring at its best and downright abysmal at its absolute worse. Free Mode and Musou Mode returned, but so did the clones from the days of DW2, the hard-work to undo the clones completely undone on itself as well. Only 17 of the game’s characters had their own, unique moveset, and as a result, they were the only ones granted a Musou Mode, a huge negative in regards to the longevity of the game itself.

While certain characters were given weapons that were more “historically accurate” (With certain exceptions such as Lu Bu), this had been done at the cost of originality as well as functionality, the roster now consisting of more than 50% of characters playing like each other, but perhaps the strangest of all was that this was the first game to have a roster count lower than that of its predecessor, cutting a grand total of 6 characters while adding no newcomers (Also a first for the series) to the game’s roster.

Even the Renbu System, which made the combat play and look much smoother, would be mishandled, your Renbu count going down drastically for every charge attack you were hit with, resulting in your Renbu going down to its base, where you were stuck using a string of only 3 or so attacks in comparison to the final string of 13+ strikes while you built the meter back up, only to have it knocked down again. While the Musou Mode’s story was well-written as a whole, the new cutscenes shining through as the game represented pre-battle sequences beautifully, the fact that only 17 (with the PS2 version increasing the number to 23) characters from a 41 character roster could be used within Musou Mode was another horribly sour note.



It was clear that the Dynasty Warriors 6 experiment had potential, but the potential was, unfortunately, squandered due to unnecessary cuts, decreased replayability (Something that the DW series thrives upon), and the gameplay not living up to what it seemed to be. It was also apparent that DW6 was intended to be a genuine evolution of the brand itself, with the character models and designs fully redone, doing away with the previous designs in prior games and properly “rebooting” the look of the series.

However, it was simply not as enjoyable of a game it could’ve been, the Renbu system crashing and burning being the most painful “takeaway” from this game due to the immense amount of praise leveled on it early on. WIth the release of DW6, the main branch of the series would go silent longer than usual as the team was working on spin-offs such as “Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce” on the PSP and main consoles. After some time, the formerly-dormant series would see another rebirth, and much like DW5 did, it brought things back in place…with a twist.

“Dynasty Warriors 7” would be released three and a half years after the release of the previous main installment, but within the first announcement of the long-wait for news, DW7’s promise had already exceeded most expectations as it was announced that not only had the Renbu system been done away with, but the game would now expand its timeline, the previous games only going as far as the year 234AD for the most part, and with the expansion of the timeline, the “Jin Kingdom” was introduced, guaranteeing a slew of newcomers to the roster from this new kingdom as well as the other Three Kingdoms.

In doing away with the Renbu system, rather than tweaking what they had with that, they had opted to return to a similar format to the DW5 moveset system, using the 6-Hit Combo system while tweaking it yet again, with the different charge attacks no longer being linked to specific purposes like past versions. Indeed, the producer of the title has mentioned that DW7 was not the full return of DW5 while also not the complete abandonment of DW6, but instead, it was a new system altogether to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the series known as “Shin Sangoku Musou”, and between the graphics and the gameplay, it showed.



DW7 would bring back older concepts (An Xtreme Legends title was made for DW7) as well as introduce new changes to the why the game was played. Replacing the old “Musou Mode” was a fully-cinematic, Kingdom-based “Story Mode”. Unlike the previous attempt at this, the game told the story directly from the novel, with some deviations when allowed. In fact, the Story Mode, told from the years 184-263 between the 4 Kingdoms, would even reign in the character traits certain characters were known for for the sake of providing an experience tied closer to the source material, giving you a glimpse of the time period for what it was through the lens of the game itself. Each Kingdom’s Musou Mode was a 6 hour trek through the various battlefields, clocking in at 20+ hours of story told through a manner that had never been done in the series, resulting in a Story Mode in which you could genuinely get behind any Kingdom, as well as seeing each of their stories to their proper end.



Doing away with a “Free Mode” in the traditional sense (Only reintroduced loosely as a character select option to Story Mode in DW7XL), DW7 would introduce the “Conquest Mode”, which would have you develop and grind your characters through the entirety of China as well as somewhat rectifying one issue in the Story Mode, as not every character was represented properly, some characters flat-out missing during certain sections of Story Mode due to their lack of focus. In the Conquest Mode, a mode filled with upwards of 150 maps, every character was given a set of legendary missions in which they would be able to participate in, as well as missions for characters to obtain the 7th Weapon (Of a full-slate of 10) for every weapon tree, whereas the player would be able to buy the rest of their weapons. When DW7XL was released, it had fixed the one problem with the game’s Story Mode, giving story missions to every character that had been missing one in the original game, as well as giving center-stage to 2 highly anticipated newcomers and 1 returning face for the first time in an Xtreme Legends expansion for Dynasty Warriors.



In keeping with the idea that the system of DW7 was its own concept, it would also introduce the ability to switch weaponry, as well as allowing other officers the ability to use any other weapon in the game. This change, while great on the surface, would also strip away some of the uniqueness of the characters, as characters who shared weapons would only now have what is known as the “EX Attack” to set them apart from others, resulting in, again, quite a few clones. Items would also make a return, but instead of “items”, these would now be moved to “Seals”, as they were now status effects you’d attach to each of your weapons, and since you can carry two weapons, it’s feasible to stack these bonuses together, granting you more freedom to do what you will with the weaponry given to you.

DW7, as a whole, did feel as if ten years worth of experience came together for one more game, promoting the series for a celebration of the long history behind it, and with DLC honoring the history of the series (Outfits from every game + the stages from Dynasty Warriors 2 were all playable), Dynasty Warriors 7 was a game made for the true Dynasty Warriors fan, as well as the skeptical newcomer who wished to see the history of the long-running franchise.







Where does the series go from there then? Dynasty Warriors 8 is due out to release July 16th in North America and July 19th in Europe, but with DW7 being the giant “ten year” celebration, where can the series go? Much like DW2 did for DW3, it’s clear that DW7 laid the groundwork for even more changes as DW8 has shown that it will be building from the pre-existing system of DW7 rather than collapsing it to start anew. With a roster of over 80 characters, a full “decloning” of the entire roster, reintroducing “What If” scenarios as part of the Story Mode’s grand narrative and, with the enhanced roster, visiting popular “What Ifs” for the first time (Guo Jia at Chibi?), Dynasty Warriors 8 is truly shaping up to be a grand send-off for this console generation for the DW series.

With the history of the series, it’s clear that as things changes, the more they stay the same…and that is perhaps the strength of the series itself. While the game follows the same premise of the “1 vs. 1000” introduced in Dynasty Warriors 2 (The original “Shin Sangoku Musou”), the feel of the game, the look of the game, and even the aesthetic quality of the game has changed since those days. From a roster boasting a mere 30 officers to 80+. From 17 unique styles at its lowest to 80+, with the possibility of DLC adding even more. From Three Kingdoms to four.



The franchise, in its 16 years of existence, starting from this 3D fighter to the Hack and Slash juggernaut it has become, has seen immense evolution that, despite the stigma the series retains for being “more of the same”, most franchises do not even dare attempt, and even if some of the changes would get reversed due to the feedback, it’s all experience that built the franchise into what it is now. On July 16th/19th, we will all see the next step in the long-running franchise, and now that the “celebration” has ended, it’s time for the “after-party” with the game striving to be the “ultimate one man army”, as following DW7 successfully will be the true test on the Dynasty Warriors franchise.

As for now, it’s a series that’s taken on many forms, yet they all remain as one. At its very core, the spirit of the series has remained the same, but the shell encasing it has, at times, been replaced and redone. While the shell may not have fit perfectly at all times, the series continued to find its way back to its renowned status as one of the gaming’s premiere hack and slash titles, proving that every change in the franchise can lead to bigger things in its future. It’s a series that has been ever-changing, yet still-remaining.







-Written by Lawrence (@d5385)

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