Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Reviews

Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is ranked in the 34th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9 / 10.0
Nov 26, 2015

Ultimately, I came away from Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires extremely satisfied. The tactical elements outside of battle were well balanced as to be challenging while fair, and the combat carries over the best elements from the main game. It's a bit of a specific niche it's catering to -- fans of Dynasty Warriors combat and long-term strategy elements -- but if those two things are your jam, then Empires should have you hooked.

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Digitally Downloaded
Matt S.
Top Critic
Feb 24, 2015

Also, until Koei Tecmo starts localising the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games again, this will be the closest we get to that superb series in English. While I do want to see the Romance games again as well, I'll take this in the meantime.

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8.5 / 10.0
Feb 24, 2015

A Dynasty Warriors title fused with deep strategy concepts that make it much more like Civilization. If you yearn for more than just killing thousands of enemies on a battlefield, check out Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires.

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Nov 18, 2020

Dynasty Warriors is still gracing consoles with enormous, repetitive, glorious video game brawls.

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8 / 10.0
Mar 1, 2015

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires provides you with the tools to create your own epic tale of love, betrayal and war, but it won't spoon feed it to you; your imagination must do some of the work to flesh out the experience. The change of pace from the frantic combat offered by the strategic elements of Empire Mode helps keeps things fresh, but if you aren't able to invest interest in the characters and the kingdoms, or can't stomach the cathartic but repetitive combat, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires may not win you over. For everyone else, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is quite possibly the best Dynasty Warriors game to date, on the verge of greatness.

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8 / 10.0
Dec 3, 2015

Aside from these mild drawbacks, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is a solid, entertaining adventure that successfully mixes depth and over-the-top combat. When off the battlefield, it adopts the feel of a strategy game and when customizing and advancing your hero, you get that distinct RPG vibe. And when you hit the battlefield, the contest explodes all over that small screen.

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Feb 17, 2022

I have to say, I had a lot of fun with Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires. The level of customization here is crazy, the political parts of the game are easy to understand, it’s fun to stroll around with officers, and the combat here is great. I feel like if I were playing this on a higher difficulty the strategy part would get insane, but there are a few different levels to choose from. This means every player can adjust this until it feels right to them. It took me around 10 hours to do one campaign and see a good bit of the events this one has to offer. There is still plenty of gameplay on the table here for me. If you are fan of these games, this one would certainly be worth the $59.99 asking price. There is a lot of meat here to keep players happy for a long time. If you want a graphically stunning version, the Switch version probably isn’t the way to go, but it runs well enough that if you want to have it on the go, it certainly isn’t a bad choice.

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7.8 / 10.0
Mar 2, 2015

Omega Force certainly takes the core gameplay of Dynasty Warriors and boosts it considerably. A wider and deeper landscape for networking, invading and scheming, and sometimes playing as a politician, helps to make this title more than just another hack and slash experience. This depth will overshadow the lack of visual upgrade for current generation hardware.

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Krista Noren
Top Critic
7.3 / 10.0
Mar 10, 2015

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires manages to mix two largely different gameplay types into one game and makes it work. There's a lot of content to play through, and a great amount of customization. It provides hours upon hours of content without getting too boring or repetitive.

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Feb 23, 2015

If Dynasty Warriors is your guilty pleasure, then Empires would be your guilt trip.

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7 / 10.0
Feb 24, 2015

Deep but confusing strategy layered over classic Dynasty Warriors.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 26, 2015

This is not your typical Dynasty Warriors sequel. Empire plays out like a game of Risk, where fast-paced action sequences replace rolling the dice. Unfortunately, the developer doesn't take the novel concept far enough. Fans may enjoy the fast-paced action and emphasis on character building, but everybody else will be left scratching their heads at the outdated graphics and repetitive gameplay.

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7 / 10
Feb 23, 2015

Despite being a little overwhelming at first, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires blossoms into an engrossing, addictive hack and slash adventure that fans won't want to miss. It's a shame that the game's bogged down by poor presentation and an unstable framerate, but along with the property's trademark combat, strategic elements add some variety to the mix, and the vast amount of customisation options and role-playing systems allow you to forge a legend that's more than worthy of the Three Kingdoms.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 2, 2015

Familiar fun for fans of the series with deep customisation options and an impressive Empire Mode, but the repetitive combat formula hasn't evolved.

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3.5 / 5.0
Mar 8, 2015

Being a fan of the series, I actually installed this latest instalment even though it does become repetitive but the mindless hacking and slashing on the battlefield is quite fun. The mechanics work well but the gameplay is definitely showing its age and once again, hopefully Koei can try something new in their next instalment besides making it a 1080p game.

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7 / 10
Apr 12, 2015

A minor evolution, but a highly enjoyable one

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7 / 10.0
May 4, 2015

The new features in the expansion are highly enjoyable and make Empires worth replaying, just to get the chance to try everything out. Having kids and using the enhanced stratagems are definitely the top changes; even if the battle system might feel old, it adds value to what already is a concrete battle system.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 11, 2015

At the end of the day, Empires mode is arguably where the crux of the experience lies and as such it really does add a lot of crucial depth to a series that is regarded in many circles as a largely one-trick pony. It's just a shame that similar evolutions aren't forthcoming in other areas of the game which, some nearly fifteen years on, are now starting to look really quite old in the tooth.

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7 / 10.0
Feb 23, 2015

Although Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires follows in the tradition of a core game followed by its Empires equivalent, the combat feels stale and despite its massive cast there is very little do with it.

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VGChartz
Top Critic
6.8 / 10.0
Feb 26, 2015

Perhaps brush up on Dynasty Warriors 8 first, and if you like what it has to offer, then Empires might be for you.

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