Dynasty Warriors 9 Reviews
Dynasty Warriors 9 exists at the nexus of a lot of different desires on the player community side and the development side. I just want to wander around inside a big space and win epic battles in long-ago China while coveting the throne. That's what I'm in it for, and that's what it delivers. If you're in it for that, you might like it too.
Koei wanted a brand-new look of Dynasty Warriors, so they decided to transform this game from an action game to an open world RPG. But this open world is like a rough stone, which has poor appearance and thoughtless design, with many boring side missions and too much time wasted on the way. The new combat system is fine, yet terrible graphics, tons of bugs, and low frame rates still ruined it, made this game a complete failure.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
A bland hack 'n' slash with tonnes of content but painfully repetitive and simplistic gameplay that can't sustain itself
Dynasty Warriors 9 attempts to revitalize the franchise with a fresh approach to its standard formula and kind of succeeds.
One can't help but feel that Dynasty Warriors 9 had a lot of potential. With more time in the oven it could have been a much better game than it's now.
Dynasty Warriors 9 is far from perfection. It has technical issues, its gameplay needs time to be appreciated and seems a bit lazy when he must do something different from action. But it's also powerful and passionate, strictly following Guanzhong's original Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Perhaps the limited open-world system will seem a missed occasion, but the advice we can give is to give it a chance, and to do it out of any preconception.
Review in Italian | Read full review
There are lots of great Warriors games out there. Hell, Omega Force and Koei Tecmo gave us the fantastic Dragon Quest Warriors II and Fire Emblem Warriors in 2017! You can never go wrong with Samurai Warriors 4. Hyrule Warriors is so good, it is coming up on its third port! And there are times when I still swear Dynasty Warriors 4 is the best entry in this series. Dynasty Warriors 9 is not a good Warriors. It is not a good open world game. It is a broken, tedious mess. Fortunately, fans of the genre have plenty of older entries to enjoy. Maybe in a year or two, after Omega Force has more experience with open world installments, we will see the Warriors formula work with this genre.
Dynasty Warriors 9 is a significant departure from past titles, but a poorly implemented open world leaves much to be desired.
The game I played is an absolute technical disaster that barely runs. New elements haphazardly pop up with no consideration on how to fit them into the gameplay. Basics such as storytelling take a massive leap backward. Dynasty Warriors 9 isn't just bad. This is a Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 level series killer.
Dynasty Warriors 9 suffers from a lot of issues, most stemming from the terribly implemented open-world. Assets are reused, it's buggy, repetitive, bloated, empty and bland. These shortcomings are made all the more painful by the obvious potential this game had, and how fun the base combat can be once players waded through all the other nonsense.
So, an open world Dynasty Warriors. One certainly must commend Omega Force for constantly trying to innovate with their games rather than just churn out the exact same thing with marginally improved graphics with every installment. However, as the most recent in a long-running series, it begs the question: should you buy this one with all of it's faults or should you just stick with the last one, which sticks closer to the formula that made the games so beloved? Well, that depends on what you're looking for. The combat is a lot smoother than in the past games, and though the characters can be a tad one-note and the dialogue can be a tad wooden there is more of an effort to show rather than tell, and of course the graphics have vastly improved. At the same time, the pace of the game outside of the combat is a lot slower, the voice acting really could use improvement, and of course the change of genre leaves just the one game mode and no local multiplayer. It feels more like an adventure than a war, which I'm sure would excite some fans while disappointing others. However, I'm not here to review the entire franchise, I'm here to review this one game. So for a moment let's erase all comparisons to past games. How is Dynasty Warriors 9 as it's own singular entity? Well, it certainly has it's faults, but it's definitely a ton of fun if a tad easy for an open world RPG. The combat is smooth and satisfying, the farming and crafting aspects may not be electrifying but they aren't annoying, the map is pretty large, and even the story and dialogue has the camp and occasional hilarity of one of those foreign B-movies you find on netflix so you grab some friends and a pizza and have a jolly good time laughing it up at the unintentional hilarity. Even the stuff in here that could annoy some, like the homemaking and the gathering, isn't something the game forces you to do, so you can just ride around like the unstoppable war machine you are. While the game may be a tad lackluster as far as being an entry in this particular series goes, as a game in it's own right I think Dynasty Warriors 9 is definitely worth checking out when it goes on sale. It has some good aspects, has some hilariously bad aspects. I can recommend it, but 60 bucks is a bit steep for B-movie camp. Aside from that, I think it's definitely a game to check out.
Despite my complaints, the game is still strangely addictive and a blast to play thanks to how smooth the combat feels. Exploration is fairly pointless, yet I found myself doing it for hours and being entertained. The story is a real highlight, seamlessly being able to go through each character's storyline. Dynasty Warriors 9 presents a lot of significant changes that almost make it feel like a spin-off, but I can appreciate what they tried to do and still had many hours of fun with this title. I'm actually excited to see what they do with the series next.
We'd rather Omega Force just stuck to what they're great at: making excellent hack and slash games. And Dynasty Warriors 9 isn't one of those.
Koei Tecmo and Omega Force can neither be faulted for their resolve, nor their aspirations. The franchise has always had its cult audience but the Musou style has rarely broken into the mainstream outside of the big licenced spin-offs, like Hyrule Warriors[i]. [i]Dynasty Warriors 9 feels like an attempt to remedy that. Open World games are this generation's go-to genre and transforming the Story of Three Kingdoms has actually worked in many regards, but this feels like an early and flawed attempt at that bigger picture. Where it works best is in its classic elements, but the open world needs a lot of work. Perhaps by the time Dynasty Warriors 10 they will have learned from their mistakes.
Even with open world gameplay which is a nice addition to the series, Dynasty Warriors 9 is still far from what it wants to be. Positive changes are there, but they are not enough to convince new players. However, fans of the series will have a great time playing it.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Dynasty Warriors 9 is a game that, despite some problems in this first attempt in the series to make an open world game, establishes a great way to retell its story, reinventing very well the combat system and bringing the series closer to an RPG, thus marking a great step forward for the franchise.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Koei Tecmo has done a remarkable job of telling the many stories of the many people that make Romance of the Three Kingdoms such a compelling book and period of history, and the beautiful cinematic consistency makes it the most perfect realisation of everything Koei Tecmo has been aiming for with this series since way back on the PlayStation 2.
"I think that the button mashing days are behind most of us in 2018, and Dynasty Warriors just doesn’t give enough to the modern gamer."
Dynasty Warriors 9 tries to be an overhaul among all of the games that share the "one man against thousand" formula. But it is more of a major upgrade than an overhaul. Dynasty Warriors 9 is an exciting and definitive buy for those who are new to the series or are returning to it after a long absence. But for its loyal fans and those who had their fair share of the "one man against thousand" formula, Dynasty Warriors 9 is just another game in the series without any significant value
Review in Persian | Read full review
Open world might not be the right step for Dynasty Warriors. Something like Dynasty Warriors Empires would be a much better fit, as even hardcore Dynasty Warriors fans are going to have trouble overlooking the problems present in this title.