Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends Review
Game: Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
Available on: PlayStation 3 only
It is incredible that given that Dynasty Warriors is a highly commended, hack and slash action franchise that began as a one on one fighter nearly fifteen years ago, and has spawned a mind boggling number of sequels, yours truly has never played so much as one instalment. Not once have I entered into a battlefield representative of an iconic fracas in the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms saga, and lain waste to a boat-load of enemies, using a variety of imaginative weapons and characters borne from old tales of lore dating back thousands of years. I feel like I have been letting myself down in this respect, so, lucky for me that I get to sample the latest in Tecmo Koei’s Omega Force developed flagship series, and finally get to step out onto an ancient Chinese battlefield to smash someone’s head in like a Ming vase, many, many times.
STORY: Luo Guanzhong is one of the great names in Chinese literature, responsible for editing the legendary Water Margin (which in itself has inspired videogames, like classic Konami RPG Suikoden) but most famously for penning the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, in the 16th century. Considered to be one of the most important texts in Chinese literary history, it is a semi-mythical, part historically accurate story that covers the era from 169 to 280 AD, a period in Chinese history that was chock full of wars, feuds and all manner of shenanigans just perfect for turning into a videogame.
Each of the Dynasty Warriors games cover various events from the novel, however Dynasty Warriors 7 took the action beyond the year 234 for the first time, and added a bunch of new characters and locales, most notable being the Jin Kingdom, home of the Jin Dynasty. It also took the gameplay of the series back to the old school, reuniting long-time fans with elements that had disappeared, whilst introducing some new weapons and trickery that gave gamers a fresh spin on an flagging formula.
Koei tell us that this Xtreme Legends update adds even more polish to an already high quality product, however it is worth noting that you will need to own the original game to access some of the features and full story mode. Essentially, this is an add-on to the original game as opposed to a true standalone product. Don’t let that put you off though, there is still tons here to do and see.
GRAPHICS: Dynasty Warriors 7 was hailed as the best looking game in the history of the series, with superior HD graphics (with stereoscopic 3D support), huge characters and stunning settings. It was the first time a Dynasty Warriors game had been given a proper graphical overhaul, and actually looked like it belonged in this generation. Things are very much the same with Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends. There are 65-plus excellently designed, beautifully rendered characters, ranging from samurai-style badasses to pretty girly girls in flowery costumes. The magic effects look completely amazing, particularly the crazy Musou attacks that can decimate a whole platoon of foes, and at times there are a ton of enemies on screen, with no noticeable effect on the speed of things.
SOUND: The music is a combination of traditional Chinese arrangements, with a side order of screeching rock and metal. It is fairly forgettable stuff. The voice acting, however, is top notch. In the original Japanese, with subtitles, it sounds impressive enough, but even the English voice-over is quite decent, if you forget the fact that the lip synch job is done with the Japanese speech in mind, rendering it slightly odd. A meaty array of weapons clinking, dicing things up and exploding complete the aural assault rather nicely.
GAMEPLAY: What you get with Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends is fast paced, third person action, where you control your selected character and hack and chop your way through literally thousands of enemies, using magic, different weapon types and fancy footwork to rack up huge combos. That is apparently what you always get with a Dynasty Warriors game, and whilst it is a little repetitive, it is extremely good fun.
The preceding game confined things so that in Conquest Mode you were restricted to specific characters for missions. Not so here, where you can select your favourite combatant, either on your own or co-operatively with a friend. There is a new difficulty level, called Nightmare, which is just that, and will present a heck of a challenge to new players. There are new characters, boosting an already huge roster. Weapons have been rebalanced and tweaked, and I am told that the once ridiculously deadly archers – bow and arrow wielding enemies as opposed to our radio soap favourites – have been toned down somewhat. God only knows how annoying they must have been before then.
There are two new additional game modes, the most interesting of which is Challenge Mode, which allows up to four player online competitive co-op play over a number of stages. Legend Mode is the meaty part of this package and takes all of the characters, including the newbies, and allows you to complete story missions with the aim of upgrading your castle. Between missions you visit towns where you can select your weapon loadout, train to learn new moves, and purchase new items. There is an element to this that vaguely reminded me of classic SNES God Sim/platformer Actraiser, in that the more stages you complete, the more the town will grow in size. The better the town is doing overall, the better your attack power will become, and the more treasures and goodies the townsfolk will bestow upon you. It is a nice little touch.
Along the way, Legend Mode allows you to unlock Titles, which can be attributed to your character to boost stats and award particular abilities that you will need in order to progress. Each stage also has hidden weapons to unlock, and how to get them is clearly outlined prior to each mission.
There are other modes that put a fun spin on proceedings, Rampage challenges you to execute as many people as you can against the clock, and another mode which asks you to fight it out on a narrow bridge, taking combat to a claustrophobic level. You can upload your scores from the Challenge modes onto online leaderboards, so there is much enjoyment to be had in massive slaughter.
Sadly, the new content is hamstrung by the fact that in order to fully enjoy the game in all its glory, you need to own the original Dynasty Warriors 7 game. You cannot use the Remix, Story or Conquest modes without doing some disc swapping. This is even worse if you bought the original on Xbox 360, as this is a PlayStation exclusive. Admittedly, being able to transfer all of your stats across from Dynasty Warriors 7 is very handy, if you do actually own it.
LONGEVITY: The new modes will give you a good amount of play time for a budget price. I don’t own the original game myself, yet even with a limit on what I was able to access there was still plenty to do and see. A game with such a vast array of characters, missions, weaponry and rich tapestry of Romance-era mythology is always going to keep you going for a while.
VERDICT: I cannot help but think that this would have been a release far more suited to DLC, particularly given the necessity for owning the original and swapping discs around that could have been avoided. It still provides plenty of first class action and in an ass-backwards twist of fate has now got me tempted to purchase the original game to see more of what it has to offer. Fans will lap this up, the games sell by the truckload in Japan and to devoted fans, but caution is advised if, like me, you are new to the series, you may want to give Dynasty Warriors 7 a going over before you decide to take it to the Xtreme.
