Enthusiastic guitar riffs, flashing lights and officious armour fitting can only carry opening cinematics so far. And let's face it: last week's Dynasty Warriors 9 intro footage was a bit dross.

Far more entertaining is the folks at Dengeki's latest look (via Siliconera) at DW9's sprawling open world, wherein we see the player weaving through forestland, tiptoeing around enemy garrisons, and swimming across a gorgeously still body of water.

In doing so, the following moving pictures run for just under 25 minutes as the player travels from the northeast corner of the map to the southwest—with some of the less captivating sections sped up along the way.

I've spoken before about my indifference to the Dynasty Warriors series in the past—no matter how much I've pined for a Seth Cohen/Ryan Atwood relationship—but that map looks pretty stunning. Some of its more barren stretches even remind me of Red Dead Redemption's overworld, but it's possible I've got that in the brain at the moment.

Moreover, if you've been following Koei Tecmo's character spotlight vids, you might like to check out the publisher's YouTube channel which has added a host of new faces in the last couple of weeks.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is due next week on PC, February 13.