

Not only is he an amusing character, his weapon – a command scroll – summons soldiers to perform his attacks for him, bringing archers, guardsmen, and even charging cavalry into the fight while he gives the orders. Lu Lingqi brings back Lu Bu’s old cross pike from DW6, and is fairly decent, but Chen Gong absolutely steals the show. Yu Jin fights with a trident that can be charged with various elemental powers, Fa Zheng wields a length of magic cloth that allows him to blink around the combat area, while Zhu Ran’s fire arrows are tricky to use, yet entertaining in battle. The new characters are certainly some of the more interesting in recent memory. With Lu Bu getting his own story, it’s only fitting his army gets a few new playable characters as well, with the strategist Chen Gong and his daughter Lu Lingqi joining the fracas. The main three kingdoms get one fresh face each, with Wei receiving Yu Jin, Shu adding Fa Zheng, and Wu answering the long-awaited call for Zhu Ran. Each of the existing story modes are offered a bunch of extra chapters as well, and it’ll certainly take a while to see all the extra campaign installments.Īs with every Xtreme Legends release, some new characters are on offer. He Who Must Not Be Pursued gets a shorter story than the main kingdoms, though it can be split off into “historical” or “hypothetical” stages by performing certain tasks in-game. The most significant addition in Xtreme Legends is a full story mode for the series’ most iconic character, Lu Bu. With the jump to a new generation, the series also makes its PlayStation 4 debut with a Complete Edition, combining the base game with all the Xtreme Legends material and offering some graphical upgrades. Xtreme Legends continues the traditional DW release cycle, adding characters and content to Dynasty Warriors 8. It was, quite frankly, the best Warriors game I’ve played since the classic Dynasty Warriors 3 on the PlayStation 2. Dynasty Warriors 8 went some way towards making amends, however, providing a deeper combat and weapon system, a ton of extra content, and some great new characters. Its expansions have been a little lazy in recent years, half-localized and lacking in fresh content that they are.

Koei’s latest efforts with the series haven’t helped perceptions. I like Dynasty Warriors, and while it’s becoming increasingly “okay” to admit that, the stigma remains. Of course, they also claim it’s about mashing a single button, further damning themselves as jesters who should be ousted from civilized society, shunned and cursed for the fools they are. People who say Dynasty Warriors games are all exactly the same don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
