Title: Dynasty Warriors Next
Developed By: Omega Force
Published By: Tecmo Koei / THQ (Australia)
Console: Playstation Vita
Genre: Hack and Slash
Classification: This game has been classified M for Fantasy Violence by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC)
Review Conditions: This review was done on an Australian Playstation Vita version of the game. There should be minimal differences between the games.
Special Thanks: A copy of this game was purchased out of my own pocket.
For my first ever review of a Playstation Vita game, I would like to cover the launch title Dynasty Warriors Next, another installment in the very long running Dynasty Warriors series with the Playstation 3 Empires version being the source of my first ever platinum trophy. This title is perhaps a little bit different than other installments in the franchise as it does not conform to either the main, Empires to Xtreme Legends editions but instead sidetracks into a hybrid version of the games which features multiple means of playing the game and showcasing some of the means that the Vita’s unique control mechanisms can be implemented into the game. Unfortunately however…. while the core gameplay remains almost exactly the same as previous iterations, I would have much preferred they had left many of the Vita functions out entirely.
Most games in the Dynasty Warriors series are about button mashing. As a hack-and-slash game you are tasked with controlling a Musou warrior… who has improved battle capabilities and can easily pulverize many of the hundreds upon hundreds of other normal warriors on the field. For the most part the systems from previous games are retained including a vast variety of weapons, the target of capturing bases (Albeit simplified a bit as there is little preventing a powered up warrior from running to the Main Camp and taking it down to win a stage), musou attacks and a vast variety of stages which you must capture in order to unite China under your rule. If you enjoyed previous versions… you are bound to enjoy this one – if not…. you most probably will not.
The new inclusions to the gameplay are as you may expect, primarily related to the Playstation Vita functionality and vary from creative and adds a bit of added challenge to just plain annoying. I did appreciate the new dueling mode and even felt it was not used enough. The dueling mode is where you randomly have a one on one duel with a fellow enemy musou warrior and attack using the Vita’s touch screen, using a mixture of attacks, charge attacks and defensive manoeuvres in order to deplete the enemies health gauge before yours. Oddly enough, this game opted to not give players health bars, but to estimate their health through the amount of red “blood” that appears on the side of the screen – very annoying and very inaccurate. Other Vita functionities feature the touch bad and gyroscope features and mostly consist of preventing enemies from attacking you. It was to be a fine but still unnecessarily intrusive, especially considering that not every sitting position seemed to allow you to get every enemy in sight.
I mentioned above that this game was a hybrid of the main games right? You see, this game consists of four modes – three gameplay and one mini-game. The first gameplay mode is the classic Dynasty Warriors Campaign mode, where you follow the different armies of Shu, Wei, Wu, Jin and Others as you work through a plot driven quest in order to unique China and abolish the rival kingdoms. While you are granted some freedom as to what areas you invade, it is mostly linear and are frequently locked into using a single or a small set of characters which I suppose would be respectful of historical events and the events of the series. This mode has been present in most games and follows more or less a similar plot each time, and it is a good plot for a portable release in my opinion…. BUT if you are only in it for the story mode then I would strongly advise picking up Dynasty Warriors 7 which is also available in stores.
The second gameplay mode which is based off the Empires line of games and is quite easily the mode I spent the most time on is the Conquest Mode. From here you get to choose a Kingdom, and a selection of characters from any respective Kingdom you have collected cards for or of your own design and pit them up against each other in a two to five kingdom wars where you must use these parties along with any other recruited characters in order to take control of China. While there are fewer restrictions on who and where you attack (As there is almost no plot to adhere to), you are restricted to the areas you attacked by the level of regions that have routes to enemy regions. Unfortunately I would have liked it how in Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires how you could completely shatter the plot and have every region held by a different army, the system was still the same. Both aforementioned modes only let you prepare for battle with the use of stratagems, in which you spend gold to earn single-turn cards for each respective characters which can increase your stats or hinder your enemies depending on what ones are used.
This mode makes use of online functionality however similar to that of the systems used in Disgaea 4, you upload your character data but never actually play head to head with another player. Essentially provided you choose to play online, some of the enemy regions will be controlled by other gamers characters, which you can then attempt to defeat and even potentially recruit their characters to your ranks. This also has an aspect of poor planning however, as in my first playthrough my characters were left attempting to defeat a high level army with newbie weapons which proved to provide a good challenge but also not exactly beginner friendly. You can also play this mode offline which pits you against computer player characters and characters produced in Edit Mode which I will be mentioning in a moment. Given the limited options in comparison to other games along with ditching the mission modes that have been in many of the previous installments, I wouldn’t call this mode excellent, but I was more than satisfied with what they provided for a portable iteration and it did take up a good chunk of my weekend.
As with many of the previous Empires games, Dynasty Warriors Next comes equipped with an Edit Mode more or less based on that of Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires with more clothing options. You are given a grand total of 100 slots of bring yourself or any figment of the imagination into the world – but unfortunately it is not so easy to just jump in… and even after a weekend I had only designed 10 characters (In comparison to DWE:6 where I had all 100 built within a weekend). The game requires you to unlock both clothing, motions (Weapons) and stratagem cards and does take quite a while to build up. While I was disappointed I couldn’t just jump right in, I could fully appreciate the time it took to build up my EXP rankings in order to unlock new costumes and defeating a variety of enemies to collect their card (Maximum of One per Battle). Fortunately while the system seems to be built on the older systems, they have included improvements from DW7 such as the new weapons, but you cannot be switched during the middle of a game. With many items and weapons to collect in order to sway the tides of battle and many customization options – it should provide many hours of enjoyment.
The final primary game mode which the Edit Mode I felt contributed to most was the “Coalition Mode” Aka. ad hoc Mode. It allows you to join a number of barracks with up to three friends and dive into one of four games – Sentinel (Join Forces and Protect Bases), Marauder (Take back all the bases), Blitz (Take the enemy Main Camp as quickly as possible) and Sudden Death (One hit kills enabled.. on both sides). These games are simple fun and a nice little addition for groups of people who own the game to play together… but if not you are not really missing out on too much.
The final game mode is Gala Mode which lets you play one of a number of unlockable mini-games that bring the Dynasty Warriors setting into mini-games with best scores to beat. Many of these involve using the touch pad and gyroscope systems to attack enemies in a set number of time, but also throw in Steeplechase, Calligrapher and Augmented Reality derived Musou screenshots. The game occasionally forces you to play one of these mini-games when you defeat an online player (In order to share high scores), but other than that it is a nice feature that doesn’t hold that much importance to the game.
In terms of gameplay, it exceeded my expectations and while I didn’t warm to all the Vita improvements, the core gameplay was strong enough for a portable console and has the potential to be expanded through DLC and game campaigns. At the very least… you can make a character of yourself and enjoytaking on well known figures from the Three Kingdoms era of history. However there was one crucial problem that I had with my game that provided much frustration during my playtesting. At seemingly random points during my playthrough of the Conquest Mode, the game would crash with an error and send me back to the Vita Home Screen. Once or twice is acceptable, but overt the weekend I could count no less than 25 incidents where this occured. This might have been some error with my save file or perhaps another factor… but it had a detrimental affect on my gameplay experience even if it was enjoyable.
Moving away from the gameplay element, I would like to discuss the design and sound quality. Unfortunately given this is a portable version, the locale designs do not meet that relatively high standard I experienced in Dynasty Warriors 7, but at the same time recieved increased detailing and quality improvements from Dynasty Warriors 6. Characters on the other hand at the very least look comparable to that of the console versions, with detailed character models and even a greater variety of generic warrior battlers (Each humanoid, animal and machine) which worked with both gameplay and design. There can be a high number of allies and enemies on the screen at once, something the franchise is well known for and the Vita console puts up a good fight with only minimal frame-rate reductions at times.
In terms of music and sound quality, each of the characters only have a small to moderate sized collection of voice samples that play during battles, however voice overs during the Campaign Mode were of a good standard and from memory retain much of the previous voice cast. I would have also liked more voice samples (or at least the option to change pitch) in the Edit Mode – as 100 characters later and you only really have an option of 10 (5 per gender). The actual music is what you would expect from a Dynasty Warriors game with a selection of electric guitar and other similar toned instruments bringing a very action inspired soundtrack… but wouldn’t have minded a greater variety and diversity.
While the debate is still out on if this installment would win any new fans to the franchise, for those who have enjoyed what the series has offered previously…. it should once again prove to be an enjoyable addition to your collection with the added bonus of being portable. Aside from the certain and very random crashes I suffered with during my playthrough, it exceeded my expectations in terms of both gameplay, and the design which showed off what the Vita is capable of when faced with showing several dozen to hundreds of enemies on the screen at once without too much lag. This is a game I would recommend to those who are looking to diversifying their Vita game collection a bit.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: C+
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: B
Gameplay: A-
Replayability: B+
Personal Opinion: B
Overall Score: B+
