Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires Reviews
Despite missing a lot of features from the previous Empires game in the franchise, I quickly became addicted to the strategic and hack-and-slash gameplay within Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires. Once the management mechanics click, it’s easy to lose hours as you command your minions or follow your ruler’s orders. However, we can’t overlook the amount of content ‘missing’ when compared to DW8: Empires, various customisation menus, Free Play, Gameplay Modes, and co-operative options, all absent without any comparable or additional features. But, if you’re a fan of Musou games and aren’t too bothered about playing with a friend or having full control over customising everything and creating your own scenarios, then you’ll enjoy Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires.
While Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires didn’t blow us away by doing something fresh with the franchise, that’s never been the point with Musou titles. The game gives you more of what you want: colossal battles in which you regularly rack up thousands of kills and see epic rivalries between great leaders emerge and die before your eyes.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires isn’t ground-breaking, but it is pretty dang fun. Obliterating hordes of foes is always a joy, and the strategic nation-building gameplay is a pleasant change of pace that gives you a bit of a power trip to boot. If you’re a fan of Musou games but want to mix it up a bit, Empires may be your game. Just know that it’s largely another Warriors game, and it may get old after a while.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is a solid action game, but it deserved more polish. I had fun playing it, but there are more interesting titles on the market and the Switch version is definitely not ideal. Even so, perhaps a newbie to the style like myself might consider it a good gateway to exploring other similar games.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
An entertaining mix of genres, but a bit monotonous and relies on its players to be big fans of both styles of games.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is a title that will most likely only admirers of the particular combination of musou and management that has always distinguished this strand of the famous saga.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Across the board, Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is not really a bad game. It hits a certain niche and mixes in your typical Musou genre gameplay with strategic political choices. It’s not really a game for everyone and is quite repetitive, but then again the franchise is known for its repetition and has been around forever. It’s completely up to the player if they enjoy this type of rinse and repeat gameplay or not.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empire is a strategic rather bland, with fights in musou style just passable. The result is still a decent game, though clearly aimed only at fans of the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Overall I enjoyed my experience with Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires on the Xbox Series X. Its shallow character creation system was disappointing and could dampen your time with the game. Unfortunately, the game did not take advantage of the new hardware, as its visual look dated, despite its solid animations. I feel after the indefinite delay the developers might have changed course a bit and that’s why we got what we did. Both the Domestic Affairs and Way of Life systems are welcomed additions. Especially if you decide to play as your child in a second playthrough. I can say that Dynasty Warrior vets and new players alike will have a lot to look forward to in the game, despite its glaring shortcomings.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires has that great gameplay that really kept me motivating. The graphics on PS5 did the opposite, however - that world and the textures seem to have fallen out of time. Fans of the series will surely like the game, newcomers should check it out somewhere first.
Review in German | Read full review
Overall, Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires, while sporting enjoyable combat and lots of content, is unfortunately bogged down by a myriad of horrible technical issues and repetitive level designs.
Whilst this Empires title deviates slightly from the standard Dynasty Warriors formula, it is still fun if you’re looking for a hack and slash game with a bit more strategy. There are issues that plague the game, especially with the use of an open world that lacks reasons to explore and the absence of same-sex marriage. Although with that said, Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires still can be interesting during the siege battles and the beautiful character customisation. At least it’s relaxing to tear a new one into the cannon fodder!
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires doesn't do anything that previous games in the series haven't already done. A lack of variety and graphical issues that should not be present in 2022 hold this back from being a must buy, even for die-hard fans.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires improves on the original Dynasty Warriors 9 in some ways and in others it still feels like the same half-baked game. The Conquest mode is a lot to learn but you can spend a lot of time in it once you do. Making decisions, bringing in soldiers, defending your kingdom and so on can be a fun time waster but it won’t be for everyone. It’s also disappointing that the combat and visuals in some other recent Musou games were more enjoyable than what is in this one. If you’re a fan of the Empires games then you’ll probably enjoy this but just don’t expect some kind of big leap over what came before.
Dynasty Warriors Empires has always been for the die-hard fans. Those who enjoy the hack n' slash combat and love adding their own tactical twist. Those wanting to direct custom campaigns and create their own musou legend. Even if DW9 left a sour taste, there's some solace to be found here within its repurposed carcass, though redemption may still be lost.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires attempts to mix features introduced in Dynasty Warriors 9 with strategy elements but fails to do so due to a variety of issues, such as the low difficulty level, limited character creation options, and a generally unpolished experience. A better implementation of open-world mechanics would have done wonders to update the Empires' experience, but Omega Force decided to play it extremely safe, resulting in a game that only die-hard fans of the series will enjoy.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is clearly aimed at the Musou fans who want more to experience more strategy, however, all of the strategic elements can become really convoluted and if not a tad repetitive. It feels like there is a lot of missed potential here with bland maps and an experience that feels pretty bare at times, it's still fun but it's defiantly not one of the best titles in the series.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is tailor-made for super fans of the franchise. While players may feel like a lackey at the start of any new Conquest campaign run-through, rising up the ranks and having the Prime Minister agree with your suggestions can feel rewarding. If you enjoy making decisions about whether to increase ration development or to collect tribute on a monthly basis, or politicking in general whereby interacting with important people gets your heart racing, then by all means check out Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires. The rest of us will get by on regular Dynasty Warriors 9 just fine.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires improves upon the foundation of Dynasty Warriors 9 but it still has a large amount of issues that comes from AI, the textures and the overall feel of the open world being bland. Combat is tighter and the invasion maps feel satisfying.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires brings new gameplay features to the table, but remains the same Three Kingdoms era slaughter fest fans have been enjoying the past twenty years.