OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Shoddy Open World
Weak Graphics
Samey Combat
Bringing on a new open-world structure, Dynasty Warriors 9 feels like one step forward and two steps back. The combat fans love may still be here, but the new missions feel simplified from what came before.
Dynasty Warriors 9 - Opening Trailer
Dynasty Warriors 9 - Feature Highlight Trailer
Dynasty Warriors 9 - Action Trailer!
After the resounding success of Dynasty Warriors 8, Dynasty Warriors 9 feels like a major step back. What's lost in the move towards an individually-centered story spread across a massive open world far outweighs the minor benefits that are gained. While the excellent button-mashing gameplay stays intact with great tweaks and additions, it wasn't enough. The lack of multiplayer, missing alternate game modes, and emptiness of ancient China left me far from satisfied.
The musou genre needed new ideas - but reinventing it as a shoddy open-world game wasn't the answer.
Dynasty Warriors finally gets the overhaul it's long been waiting for… and while it addresses a few old problems it creates just as many new ones.
Unfortunately, the changes in Dynasty Warriors 9 are a bit too superficial and kept too much of what made the series suffer in previous titles.
The hack-and-slash moment-to-moment action works in its favor even when transitioning to a new style of play, but Dynasty Warriors 9, like some of its predecessors, is clunky and unwieldy; hampered by the aforementioned bugs and performance problems. If you're into the idea of playing an open world game where its arcadey elements are entwined with therapeutic but sometimes dry exploration, maybe give it a shot.
The open world, RPG elements and new battle system make Dynasty Warriors 9 the first refreshing entry in this old series. This is without a doubt the way to go for future games in the Dynasty franchise.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Sadly, this isn't the breakthrough fans were expecting. Omega Force took a pretty big risk with Dynasty Warriors 9, and while its open world integration can be seen as a small triumph, this newest entry is marred by its heavily outdated approach to combat design.
