Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires

- This game is addictive. You start off a common ruler of a small plot of land and eventually work your way to conquering China. There are tons of things to do besides your classic DW battlefield combat. You'll recruit officers to fight as Generals along the way (I made LuBu my Marshal) and promote them/make them happy/unhappy. It's really fun actually. You can build buildings in each province you conquer and use them for various things like purchasing new weapons/armor/items. The local peasants of provinces you conquer have a happiness rating, so you have to make sure to keep your people happy if you want to be a virtous ruler. - There are hundreds of characters to play as. You literally can play as a nobody if you wanted to under a ruler's command and work your way up. - Graphics are amazing. Very fluid. Musous are now very artistic, especially if you are using an upgraded weapon with lightning/fire abilities. Over a hundred enemy soldiers can be on your screen at once, so its commonplace to wipe out 120 people in a True Musou attack. - You can set the in-game music to any Dynasty Warriors music created. I put my in-game playlist to DW4 "Eve" for my battlefield tune. -There is a lot of strategy that takes place before and during battles. Before battles you can place generals and assign them to bases, upgrade bases and level them up, and make objectives. If you complete objectives like "Kill 4 or more enemy generals in 10 minutes" or "Kill Zhao Yun within 3 minutes", you will get extra XP. During battles, you can command your forces to Attack, Defend, or Escort you. Yes, it's pretty badass to be followed around by Lu Bu, Dian Wei, and Guan Yu and destroy everything. - There are "Stratagem" cards you can collect that are essentially triggers you can initiate in the battlefield that do something special. Each has a recharge time. Like one Stratagem card is "Unite" which automatically brings one of your Generals to your side to assist you. Another can heal you every 30 seconds. So it's another aspect that is fun. - There is Free Mode if you have a strategy burn out or if you just want to upgrade characters and kill a bunch of fools

Great game

Un juego de estrategia y batallas musou bastante interesante No para cualquier tipo de público y menos los casuales. :)

Another fun warriors game from koei. Still can't beat dw5 empires but has nice improved graphics

Gameplay On The Battlefield If you have played even a single Dynasty Warriors game then you will find the gameplay here very familiar. You take charge of one of many historical Chinese characters and hack and slash your way through thousands of helpless peons , with the occasional officer putting a bit more of a fight. On harder difficulties you will have to use a bit more strategy, such as conquering bases, cutting off enemy's supply lines or new to DW8E using "stratagems". Stratagems are unique skills that you can use during a battle and can easily turn the tide in your favor. Some skills can help your allies like "Unity" which heals you and any ally near you while others hurt your enemies like "Fire Arrows". You can equip up to four stratagems to use during a battle and each can only be used once. There are many skills to choose from but not all are available to you, depending on the "Fame" of the character you are using you get a different set of stratagems. Fame is your character's personality, there are six different Fame types, "Orderly" , "Kind" , "Evil" , "Brave" , "Affluent" and "Wise". Empire Mode Empire is the main mode in the game. You begin by choosing one of over a hundred characters or even you own created one. There are five different scenarios to choose from, such as Yellow Turban Rebellion and Battle of Chbi, although not much changes from scenario to another except for the officers who will appear during your campaign. There is also one (yes just one) "Story" battle unique to each campaign. There are three main ways to play, as a ruler, free officer or subordinate. Playing as a ruler gives you the most abilities and freedom. You can choose to invade another kingdom any time you wish to. You can also employ/hire free officers to build up your army and use "Diplomacy" like striking an alliance with another kingdom. Your ultimate goal is to conquer every territory and unite China under one Kingdom, yours. But of course you will have to overcome other rulers trying to do the same thing. The game is turn based, each turn concludes when you take any action, recruiting an officer, invading a kingdom, or even just interacting with one of your officers will end your turn which also causes one-month to pass. I do find it odd that invading a territory passes one month, and speaking with one of my officers also takes a month..anyway, how you choose to play is up to you. You can be very aggressive and focus on taking territories, or build up your army and strengthen your defenses. You will find that other kingdoms love to invade your territories quite often, the game gives you three turns to enter a defensive battle and win it or that territory is lost. This can be a bit frustrating as you find yourself having to play defensive battles a lot. You can avoid this by appointing a "prefect" to each of your territories, when one of your territories with an appointed prefect is invaded the game will tell you that your prefect is leading the defense and attempting to repel the invasion..of course if 3 turns passes and your prefect fails to repel the invasion that territory is lost. This is a risk you will have to take if you want to avoid playing in defensive battles. When you take over every kingdom, the campaign ends and you get a rather disappointingly short 2 minutes ending. There are six different ending for each Fame type. Playing as a free officer is quite different that playing as a ruler. You can recruit other free officers to join you and form your own vigilante unit. As a vigilante leader you can't invade other kingdoms but you can join an army going into an invasion, or engage in a "skirmish" to earn gold . You can choose to "Raise your own banner" basically overthrowing the prefect in the territory you're currently in and take the land for yourself and becoming a ruler yourself in the process. You can also choose to serve a kingdom and then you will become a subordinate. As a subordinate, your options are quite limited, you will take orders from your ruler, impress him/her enough and you may get promoted to a prefect or even strategist. As a prefect you will be charged in the protection of a territory and as a strategist you will gain the ability to suggest courses of actions to your ruler such as invading a certain kingdom or requesting reinforcements. There are many ways to play Empire mode that each campaign feels a little different. You can be a ruthless Evil ruler, execute every officer you capture, raise taxes frequently to gain more gold, and betray your allies. Or you can be benevolent, invest in your kingdom, donate to the poor villages, form alliances with other kingdoms and release/hire captured officers. You can even choose to just be a common officer, do your job and free yourself from all the duties and burdens of being a ruler , like having to constantly defend your territories or building an army. This freedom is what makes the Empire games stands out from the other more linear Dynasty Warriors games. It's sort of like the GTA of DW. Edit Mode I know many who are willing to buy a game just for such a feature, luckily this is the best Create-A-Warrior in any DW game yet. You can customize everything, height and weight, hair style and color, scars and tattoos etc , there are dozens of clothes and equipment to choose from although many have to be unlocked using Bonus Points you gain by beating Empire mode. You can give your created character his/her "Main" weapon and also choose what their Fame is. You can create as many as you want, and you can even allow them to appear in Empire mode. You can also upload your created characters online so they appear in other people's game. Graphics and Sound Dynasty Warriors games were never known for their great visuals and sadly this isn't any different. The game looks almost identical to DW8 officers and weapons do look a bit better thanks to some added details, and the game runs very smooth never dropping frame rate even when the action gets hectic. The game is fully voiced..in Japanese, unfortunately there is no English dub. This was done as a cost-cutting measure according to Koei. At least they didn't hold back with the music, the game features dozens of music tracks from many older DW games, like DW2, DW3 etc this is especially awesome for long time fans who will instantly recognize their favorites from past DW titles. Of course if you never liked DW's rock/techno music to begin with there is not much in here that will change your mind. Overall While Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires does not revolutionize the series nor cure all of its problems , it does address the biggest issue that plague the typical DW game: repetition by adding much needed strategy elements and allowing the player a lot more freedom in how to play the game. Recommended