‘Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires’ Review: Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

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After the colossal disappointment of Dynasty Warriors 9, publisher Koei Tecmo and veteran Musou games studio Omega Force try to breathe new life into the Empires side-saga.

 

Dynasty Warriors and its siblings (Samurai Warriors, Warriors Orochi, countless collaborations and spinoffs…) are rare anomalies: they’re, by and large, games with limited fanbases, and casual players who venture into their realm often find themselves appalled by seemingly outdated visuals and gameplay, yet they’ve found more than enough success to become incredibly profitable IPs. So, what’s their secret?

 

Musou (which roughly translates as “unparalleled” or “matchless”) games follow a very basic principle: delivering the ultimate power fantasy of 1 person vs. thousands of enemies. The hack-and-slash gameplay is easy to pick up, and the games’ balance is thrown out of the nearest window most of the time (they’re really easy to “cheese” with certain moves), so it’s all about mowing down hordes of enemies and being as efficient on the battlefield as possible. That being said, most Musou games are tough as nails as you progress, since AI officers/heroes play by the same rules and can stunlock you to death if they land a critical hit on you.

 

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Dynasty Warriors and other Musou titles are limited by definition; gameplay is designed to be repetitive and stimulate the part of our lizard brain that goes happy when it sees dozens of nameless soldiers flying after a single blow with a massive sword. Variety must come from the structure of the missions, character progression, and secondary mechanics. Omega Force has typically been quite good at keeping things fresh while expanding its sagas’ rosters of legendary characters, but Koei Tecmo’s super-wide output of Musou games, plus their ascending collaborations with other gaming giants has sometimes translated into undercooked or lazy entries of their main franchises. And 2018’s Dynasty Warriors 9 was the biggest victim so far.

 

Developed amidst more profitable collaborations with Nintendo and other Japanese companies, Dynasty Warriors 9 felt like a paper-thin iteration of the long-running saga in spite of Omega Force’s efforts to bring open-world elements into the Ancient China setting the IP is known for. It can be argued that the studio lacked the time and resources to make this bold evolution of the classic formula work, but the new additions and reworked systems also came off as misguided; it’s no fun travelling a mostly empty open-world for five minutes just to get to another samey battlefield which lacks personality and unique level design because, well, it’s tied to an open-world. The core appeal of Dynasty Warriors was there, but 9 largely felt like mixing water and oil, plus the focus on half-baked open-world elements took away from more important aspects of the game.

 

Roughly four years later, here comes Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires, the ninth entry in the “alternate” Dynasty Warriors saga that blends massive battles and turn-based kingdom management with a slight touch of RPG elements. The obligatory open-world is gone (kind of), and the overall experience is much more focused. However, it still isn’t a good Dynasty Warriors.

 

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Firstly, Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires lacks any kind of co-op or Free mode, so we’re stuck with the main Conquest mode (and a mostly pointless tutorial) only. It’s not a big deal, as Empires installments’ main appeal is the kingdom management and the create-your-own-story elements only found in Conquest mode, but co-op and Free mode are classic ways to experience these games with friends, so many longtime fans will miss these features. The management and RPG mechanics are quite basic and mostly limited to character interactions that play out through text and cutscenes (which are often recycled from past games). They get the job done though, as you’re normally going through the motions to keep your numbers and income healthy, all of which helps build up the military strength needed to invade and defend territories across China. Your starting location in a campaign can determine your position within an army; starting out as a simple officer can be helpful for newcomers that need to figure everything out, but it also leaves you open to poor decision-making by (usually) suicidal AI leaders who are a bit too eager to annex new territories.

 

Recruiting officers/heroes and nurturing your relationship with them (marriage and children are a thing, by the way) are activities that play a huge role in how future battles and events develop, too. With hundreds of both generic and unique characters spread across the game (and allegiances changing at every turn), all of this adds a nice layer of unpredictability and progression to the core systems of the game. Furthermore, DW9: Empires packs a robust character creator which can house up to 850 extra officers that can become part of the campaigns as NPC characters as well — although some customization options are very obviously limited because countless small DLC packs are coming our way (classic Koei Tecmo move).

 

It all sounds more or less reasonable up to this point, but DW9: Empires sadly falls short when it gets to the action-heavy gameplay; striking down thousands of enemies and juggling legendary warriors to death remains incredibly satisfying, but the (repetitive) level design tied to sieges, regardless of whether you’re attacking or defending, makes almost every battle feel samey. “Secret plans” crafted by fellow officers and your own character can help spice things up, but the action is always too spread out when compared to mainline Dynasty Warriors titles and even past Empires entries. Siege weapons are always following the same paths, random battle events stop feeling random after three or four battles, etc. The levels themselves barely change, too. On top of that, any daring enough player can run across the entire battlefield, ignore secondary objectives (which help boost the troops’ morale), and smack the big boss in the face to swiftly win the battle. Much like DW9, this Empires installment feels unfocused and rushed when it comes to the meat and potatoes, lacking enough hand-made content or thought-out decisions to support the massive ensemble of characters and the (supposedly) replayable experience that must sell the entire package.

 

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Outside of battles and the kingdom/character management menus, DW9: Empires actually features open-world elements despite all previous evidence pointing to the contrary, and they’re somehow even worse and more pointless than DW9‘s. You can take strolls (which, beware, spend a full turn of the management system) that allow you to visit markets, interact directly with officers, and roam around the vast (but empty) map that surrounds the city where you’re stationed. Yes, there’s some stuff to do outside the city walls, but it’s all so barren and pointless that it barely counts as content.

 

There’s a slight improvement to character models and overall fidelity in the next-gen version of the game (the version used for this review is PS5’s), but Dynasty Warriors traditionally lags one generation and a half behind other big releases, so the presentation is unsurprisingly uneven outside the hero characters and some flashy attack effects — it’s problematic to come across severe pop-in and enough jaggies to cut through a thick log. But performance has to be great, right? Well, not really. A Performance mode that prioritizes FPS over resolution is offered, but it’s wildly uneven and introduces the worst screen tearing I’ve seen recently in a console game. If you’re sensitive to framerate fluctuations and/or screen tearing, you might want to stick with the Quality mode (4K/30), as Musou games are (and have been) perfectly playable with a locked 30 FPS target. Still, it’s extremely sad to play such a poor “next-gen” version of a game that’s quite far from being a technical marvel. The traditional-metal original soundtrack keeps whipping ass though!

 

It seems like Dynasty Warriors‘ ninth generation will go down in history as a bold but unfocused (and severely underbudgeted) effort to push both sagas forward — as I was reaching the end of my review time with DW9: Empires, I could only think of how great the eighth generation was. Four years have passed between the two DW9 games, but Koei Tecmo and Omega Force’s time and resources have clearly been somewhere else. As a result, there’s no reason to put your money in this one either.

 

Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is now available on PC (Steam), PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and Nintendo Switch.

 

Thanks to Koei Tecmo and Renaissance PR for the PS5 review code.