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All the worst features of Dynasty Warriors 4, amplified.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 35
Date: September 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

What could the game designers have been thinking? I've been ambivalent about Dynasty Warriors 4 to begin with, but I'd learned to accept its shortcomings. But in this installment in the series, it's almost like the shortcomings are the only things left. They took the least fun and most annoying features of Dynasty Warriors 4 and made it the sole purpose for Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires, and the result is a supremely monotonous and charmless game.

First of all, it's as if they felt that the old enemies weren't powerful enough, with their dozens of archers interrupting your every move, ally soldiers who love standing around watching you get pummeled, unlimited Musou (special) attacks for enemy generals, and overlarge maps that take forever to navigate. Now to add to your misery you have:

- Enemy generals who respawn indefinitely;
- Enemy troops no longer have to emerge at a gate; they can literally materialize beside you from thin air;
- Enemy commanders can pull one six-hit combo that takes half your health;
- The player can be infinitely juggled so that you can lose your entire life bar if you fall down just once. If the computer opponent happens to be behind you, you may as well kiss the fight goodbye;
- There's a new type of enemy, the Sorceress, who can shoot endless flame/ice/lightning at you so that you won't be able to get up for about a minute straight;
- Special items aren't available every turn; you have to wait for some kind of production schedule;
- There's a low limit as to how many generals you can have in your roster;
- And no, your characters, items and achievements from Dynasty Warriors 4 don't carry over.

The game mechanics have been altered so that now the emphasis isn't on fighting (uh, isn't this a fighting game?), but capturing these annoying "strongholds". And to do that, you have to kill every single enemy within a large radius. So if one enemy troop hides in a nook from you, you'll have to run around looking for him. Also, you now have to run from place to place and ignore enemy generals just to capture these strongholds fast enough that your allies don't screw you up in your other locations. Level after level of this -- it's amazingly dreary. You can forget about using some of your more eccentric generals; the only characters that matter now are ones with a very long weapon range and crowd-control abilities. I may have 10 characters available, but the fighting mechanics (and super-cheap computer opponents) mean that I only use two, Xu Huang and Lu Bu. They may as well have gotten rid of all the other available characters, because trying to use Zhang Jiao or Meng Huo in this game is suicide.

The gaming equivalent of an eternal root canal. Save your money.

Not quite the DW game I'd come to expect...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Since buying the PS2 just to play DW3, this is the first DW game where I felt a little jipped from. Let me just mention it's got all the same familiar characters, all the same action and some welcome additions. So why the disappointment? This game does not come with a 2 player co-op mode, at all.

What it does have is a more flexible officer edit mode where you can customize from 6 models, voices, tactical skill and use any weapon from any officer. There are still only 4 slots, and your custom officers show up in the empires mode game. You can import your DW4(XL) officers.

The empires mode is 1 player only. It's a cross between ROTK and DW. Of course the tactical side is very light compared to ROTK, and the battles are fought DW style. Of course I was expecting a 2 player co-op in empires mode, and I even hoped for a 2 player vs in empires mode. Sadly to say, this wasn't the case, therefore my disappointment.

If you are planning to buy this to play alone, this is a good game, highly recommended. For those of you who were thinking of buying this game for 2 players, I'm afraid 4 vs games which are all familiar from previous DW games with new twists will not be enough to get much enjoyment for very long.

An Element of Strategy - Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Having been a big fan of Koei and the Dynasty Warriors series, I was particularly looking forward to DW IV since I was beginning to get tired of the hack and slash gameplay of DW. In certain way, DW IV fulfills my need for something new but it fails to be a truly awesome game because Koei did not capitalize on some of its potentials.

Strategy is important in DW IV in the form of bases. To win most scenerios, you have to take over enemy bases or defend against your own. Therefore, you can kill everyone on the map and still lose, which makes the game very realistic. Also, you are able to recruit all kinds of officers into your army, whether they are from Wei, Wu, Shu, or some other region. This means you can customize your army to your liking. Furthermore, before each battle u can choose which general in your army you want to be, which gives variety to the game and is kind of cool.

The downside to DW IV is that to some people, it gets real old real fast. The map of China is not divided into very samll pieces and does not change, which means you'll be fighting a lot of the same battles over and over again. This repetitiveness is of course not new to most DW fans. but once I had to defend against both Liu Bei and Cao Cao, both of whom took turn invading the same territory for 10 turns. Imagine having to fight the same stage 10 straight times...

Another downside to this game is the lack of co-op, which I thought is one of the best elements of the DW. Japanese dialogue kind of makes up for single player, but Koei still stubbornly kept information on all weapons and kingdoms, which in my opinion no one really bothers to read....

Anyway, I think the game is a one timer, beat it once and that's it. Kind of a transition between the old and the new. But hey, whatever floats your boat....

Killer game but lacks variety

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: September 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game expecting it to be one of the best games I had ever played based on what I had heard about it but I was somewhat let down. Firstly, there is a serious lack of gameplay modes. Granted, it is only a thirty dollar game but even so, DW4: XL had at least two game modes; Legend mode and Xtreme mode. This game only has one main mode and that is the empires mode which is killer but I crave more.

Secondly, there is no option that allows you to play empires mode with a second player. The two player co op mode was what interested me in the dynasty warrior series to begin with. There's just something about teaming up with a pal to conquer China. The closest thing you can get to this sort of two player hack and slash fun is the versus mode though it's not as fun because I end up losing more often than not. Co op I like; versus, uh, not so much. The game should have included a 2p co op free mode or something so I don't have to change videogames everytime I want to indulge in two player beat downs. Also, you never really get the sense that your guys are improving. In the original DW4 half the fun was powering up your character so that he could go back and kick the crap out of all the characters he had trouble with before ie Lu Bu but in this game once you beat the game all the improvements made to your charcter are wiped clean.

But getting back to the positive, the empires mode is really cool. It is like the Xtreme mode from XL only much more developed. You are able to play as kingdoms and characters you never could before. Kick (...) as Ma Teng or Liu Zhang(even if they are just generic looking officers) When you beat the empires mode you will be treated to an interesting ending with plenty of Japanese rock music to keep you entertained. Gotta love it! Also the chacter edit is much better, which was my only real beef with the first two versions. Your officer actually looks like a real charcter and not a cheap generic loser with an empty sihlouette(sic? probably) for a charcter model.

Anyway, I would have to say this game is definitely a keeper for the Dynasty warriors fan, although all of the hardcore fans probably already have it by now. As a stand alone one player game it is probably better than Xtreme legends but I can't give a five star rating to a game with no co op story mode. To paraphrase the soup nazi from Seinfeld, NO FIVE STAR RATING FOR YOU!!!

Getting there is half the battle!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: September 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I never have been a HUGE fan of the Dynasty Warriors games but decided to pick up Dynasty Warriors 3, I liked it for a few days then lost interest. I then bypassed Dynasty 4 and the XL version. Then I read in a review about how Empires was half strategy and half old school dynasty. That sounded intriguing! I played it for awhile with a custom built character and then proceeded in building an army for battle. Now, the strategy side isnt as complex as you might think, its NOT a strict strategy game. It only is in the sense that it allows you to make decisions that give you more freedom to choose what to do and how things change. Anotherwards, you can decide to appease the peasants and some will help you in battle. You can ally with other lords at times and pretty much attack anyone close to your domain. You can trade items to other lords etc also, now the battle is the meat of the game here, have no fear it is JUST like Dynasty Warriors 3 battle system(As I mentioned I hadnt played 4). The strategy side really does enhance this new installment. It does it enough to make it stand apart from the other games in the series. Its simple - if you like the dynasty warrior games you'll like this one. It sets a different tone from the Dynasty Warriors "nothing new" formula, if it isn't broken dont fix it! Just add some refinement! so in closing, is it better than than the others? Almost! is it a GREAT game and revolutionary? Its getting there!, but it IS still Dynasty Warriors at its core so if you are a fan or enjoy a LITTLE dash of strategy in with killing hundreds of men at once then this is the game for you. It would be nice to have the bodyguard option again however and a two player coop, this is a GREAT price for ANY fan of the series or new fans wanting to try something new. I HIGHLY recommend this game!

Close to a five here! This game has ENDLESS replayability!!! You choose different options every time you play which makes the game different. Your allies and enemies change also!

ROTK+DW4

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: September 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When you add the two together you should come up with one heck of a game. What happened here is that the strategic, political and conscript aspects from ROTK were summarized into pairs, and issued to you as suggestions by your leaders. You can refuse their ideas, and save your gold, which you need to hire captured enemy generals. The map is a bit smaller than ROTK and with far less provinces. Despite this, the game is incredible. If you have ever wanted to fight a la DW while you were playing ROTK, this is it... You make your plans, hire men, whatever, then choose to attack or perhaps you sit and watch this turn unfold, saving money and manpower. Unlike DW though, the gates are everywhere, and they are now strongholds, which you must take to gain the edge. Also, generals can die 3 times in one battle. Oh yeah, they come back 3 times, and get harder each time. In a normal battle you might have to kill 15 generals... Actually only 5 but you did it 3 times each. They re-appear out of nowhere with a portion of their original force. Kind of annoying. A cool aspect of this is... For once you can finally be the only general on the screen, if you want that is. Send yourself in alone against 50000 enemy troops. The weapons and items are the same but harder to come by. Your provinces give you certain items, that you can only use once every 5 turns. Be carefull what you use. Your weapon gets stronger based on your level, just like DW. The number of men under your command is based on your achievements like in ROTK. Form alliances and help defend other lords. You gain rewards for this. During battle your AI generals can use their "skills" once per battle like in ROTK. Create an officer is better but nothing to get excited about. You can choose from a few different looks but the bottom line is you still look stupid. Oh, and I have yet to see any of the trademark Bodyguards. I miss that. Basically, Koei has taken good parts of each game and put it together. What more could you want? Oh yeah, no two player co-op, so I guess that is one thing you could want.

I hope this is what we can expect in Dynasty Warriors 5.....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I own and have been playing all of the Dynasty Warriors games since day one. I bought every Dynasty Warriors installment as it came out. There is nothing about this game series that i don't know and haven't grown to love. Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires is an EXCELLENT addition to my collection. I would follow all of the good reviews posted on this page because, those guys gave the game its proper respects. Even the guys who hadn't played all of the previous Dynasty games gave some really good perspectives. The one guy who gave it "one star" probably only played the game one time and i'd like to correct him on something - the generals and lieutenants don't renegerate indefinitely! When they rejoin the battle after the 3rd time you've defeated them, you'll engage in a duel when you encounter them again. If you defeat them in the duel, they're gone for good and you'll hear "enemy officer, defeated!" Or whatever your ruler says when he/she kills someone. You should try seeing what happens once you've gotten into a duel with every general and lieutenant on a single stage. This game kicks ass!

$$$DYNAST WARRIORS 4: EMPIRES$$$

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is game is very fun. It is a great game, as it can kind of teach you about the ancient civilizations of China and how the feudal hierarchy works. It is also great for gaming freaks or it can be something you can take your anger out on, because sometimes there is a great big group of enemies and you just rush through and slash them all down or use your musou attack and massacre a dozen at a time. It is a great game.
You also have other features like VS mode where you can fight against a Player 2 in different verse modes, and Edit Mode where you get to create your own custom character and add details to it, including what kind of weapon he/she holds, voice, clothes, and more. There is also an art gallery where you are able to view people in the game.
But, a game always has its down-sides to it, and that is why I rated this game's overall four stars. One of the cons is, when you are fighting, and archers some distance away are shooting at you and you keep getting stunned right there on the spot, and just when you are getting out of the stun, another one hits you, and the other archer right next to him hits you, and the other archer, and the other archer... It takes a while for you to get all the way up to them and slash them. Another con is the sorceresses. They are extremely annoying. They come in about groups of five or so. They keep hitting you with their spells and you keep falling down, just like the archers, except sorceresses are more powerful. They are also worse. They keep stunning you right there on the spot and you can't get up off the ground for like thirty seconds, because everytime you get up, another spell hits you and you fall back down again. Soon, you are forced to waste away your musou gauge for that little group of five sorceresses, and if you don't want to waste it, then you will be wasting your time running up to that group trying to slash them, and when you are one inch from them, they hit you again, and they run away to give you another distance to run to hit them. The last con, is when an enemy officer is riding an elephant and they just happen to corner you... This is the worst con in the whole game... They will run up to you and you will fall down, and push you up to a corner, and since they are after you, they will keep riding into that corner with their elephant and you will keep getting hit over and over and over again, and you can't escape because the elephant is so big you can't even move. You are just stuck there until you lose that battle. It is very cheap. That is the reason I rated this game four stars. It is still a pretty good game, but watch out for these.

Fun slasher game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

_Okay. So I bought this game mainly on the basis of my friend's recommendation. I was extremely happy with it, and surprised by the sheer fun of this game. Kill hundreds of enemy soldiers using many many unique weapons and styles of combat, and conquor China. I won't go into every specific detail about gameplay, but I will say this was a very well made game. I'll break it down in an attempt to overview important buying info.

-Graphics: Good. Not great, but good. Game experiances phantom slowdowns every once in a while though. Not -often- but so far three times in the time I've played it. I've beaten the game once, and I'm halfway through it again.

-Music: To be honest I've never noticed the in-game music. Too busy slaughtering unworthy minions. I really like the menu backround music though. Catchy.

-Gameplay: It's been said in other reviews that you will encounter enemy officers so absurdly cheap that they will juggle you from full health to nothing without you ever hitting the ground. I bought this game assuming it was an exaggeration by frustrated gamers. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE :( Okay, with that out of the way, comes the other incredibly annoying point in gameplay. Archers/sourcers. Ranged attacks that will range from knocking you back (stopping your momentum), to knocking you straight on your butt. Absurdly cheap and annoying and they appear in large groups. Good news is that they don't deal any appreciable amount of damage and can be disposed of quickly enough. Bad news is that they tend to appear alongside cheap officers.
__Okay, those points made, comes the good news. Officers are (keywords here) *not commonly* that cheap. The game makes it however so you have to be just as cheap in defeating them to stand any chance. But it's possible. Take note that charged attack combos are your friends. And for fair warning, I just went around, killed 820 minions in a battle (took 25 minutes), then got double-teamed by two such cheap officers.
___My last issue with gameplay is arrows. You get a bow and can use it at will. Aiming and firing is quite simple, and it does a decent amount of damage. The main use for it is hitting distant archers or dismounting people riding on war elephants. (you get to ride elephants and horses in this game, yes). What's my beef? You get a very limited number of arrows to begin with, and finding them in battle is rare. I don't see any point in making a rarely used weapon even more worthless. It'd be *balanced* if you had unlimited, since I can take out literally 40 enemies for the time it takes to kill one via bow and arrow. So they really limited something already limited.

-Controls: Almost everything you'd want or need. Except the gaurd button. You are given a button that gaurds you against pretty much all attacks from the front. One would assume this would mean from just the very front, but apparently not. Enemy officers can block attacks even from the sides. You however, can only block attacks from the few pixels in the center of the screen. In other words, does not work 99% of the time. This would be a most negligible point since I've only ever needed to block against officers. Namely, the cheap ones. However, they can block with almost invernerability, while you can't ever block their attacks. Makes those cheap guys even more frustrating.
__Last point on controls however, you do get a taunt! Very funny, especially when you kill two or three people by taunting. In this catagory I'll list that the camera is of course in third person, and it works well. Gaurd button also functions to reorient the camera behind you, which you will need to do from time to time.

-Replay: A game's true value will always boil down to it's replay value. I think the replay value is high. You can always start a new conquoring campaign. And campaigns will always be different every time. The other empires struggling for control will do different things each time, form different alliances, invade different areas and all that. Plus...the campaign mode comes with a "fictional" mode, where you start a campaign with RANDOMLY placed enemies. That just makes it all so much more interesting.

-Edit character mode: The product hilight makes much mention of the character edit mode. It's slightly overrated however. The game gives you access to MANY, MANY unique weapons, which is a big plus. And any custom character can use any weapon. But when it comes down to making your stats, you get only 7 different pre-made sets to work with. Something I found out is that character's run speed, not listed in the stat sets, is also effected by what you choose. Anyway, when it comes to your character's model, the options you get for dressing them up is vastly limited. Definitely better than nothing, don't get me wrong. But for a system that supposedly has been upgraded from a previous game, couldn't they give me more than 3 different heads for my chosen body type?
__In basic, it's nice, but don't expect as much as you'd get from the latest Wrestlemania game.

-Multiplayer: Weak at best. Don't get this game expecting it to be a fantastic multiplayer game. You get four different verses battles, none of which is particularly exiting. Co-op story mode would have been very easily programmed in, and this game would have been fantastic with it. Oh well.

-Other notes: This is definitely a slaher game, but it has its strategy elements to it. Pick who you bring into battle, what political moves you make, manage your gold. How you use your leadership may make your life incredibly difficult or easy, depending on what you do and what sort of luck you have that game. Remember things are different each time, so choose your decisions wisely.

_I gave this a fun rating of 5, because I think it is, but overall is 4 due to cheap officer fights. A little bit of cheapness here and there wouldn't be aggrevating, but spending 25 minutes decimating close to a kilo of troops to be gang-raped by two cheap officers? That's just not cool. As I said before, luckily it doesn't happen often, but if you play through the campaign mode it will happen to you, no doubt.
_I would rate this title a definite buy. How it stands against other Dynasty games I do not know, as this is my first. If that is the information you seek, I'd advise reading articles posted by others who have played them. Standing alone, this is a very fun game however.

Good blend of strategy and action

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: September 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you're a fan of the Three Kingdoms genre and played ROTK and Dynasty Warrios, and you love strategy and aciton, then this game is for you.

First of all, I didn't like Dynasty Warrios 4. I felt that the enemy AI is dumb. They just stand around and wait for you to come near them. For me, the best is DW3. This doesn't mean that DW4: Empires is better. The AI still stands still, and only the enemy generals run around the battlefield. What's worse is that you don't have bodyguards anymore.

For me the redeeming factor is the strategy aspect. Instead of a linear musou mode, your objective is to conquer all the provinces of china. You chose when to raise troops, build weapons, attack, defend, bribe, hire generals, etc. No more picking up special items because these are crafted by your citizens. Centain provinces have certain products and you can trade them with other items from other Kingdoms. You can also use them as gifts to win the hearts of enemy generals.

If you lose a battle, it's ok (this is what a lot of games lack). Attacking and defending provinces brings you to the Dynasty Warrios action mode.

Yet the action mode has strategy elements. The map is dotted with strongholds (spawn points) that you capture. Similar to Battlefield 1942. Your main objective is to capture the HQ (you can also win by defeating the ruler if present in the battlefield). To do that you must creep your way through capturing strongholds one by one. You can bypass some but remember that enemy troops can spawn there and cut your "line of supply". Strongholds are also useful on your end since they spawn food and soldiers. When I'm having problems in the front, it doesn't hurt to retreat to a nearby stonghold.

Enemy generals respawn at the HQ. Some people find this annoying. But since only generals can capture strongholds and the normal soldiers stand still most of the time, I believe this is an acceptable compromise to make the game more challenging.

If you form an alliance, your ally will send one of his generals to help you out in the battle.

Downside: the objective of all the action sequences are the same unlike musou mode in the other DW series. Some people will find this monotonous.

Yet the game is still lacking for my standards. I'm still longing for the day that you can command your generals and tell them where to go ala Kessen.

So if you like simple strategy games with a hint of action, I'd recommend this game. If you loved the DW series and all it's aspects, this may not be the right game for you. You could probably try Samurai Warriors (which I also like a lot because of it's branching missions). As a warning: this game is very different from the other DW games.

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