Doug Jacobs

After over a decade since Dynasty Warriors 2 came out for the PS2, Tecmo
Koei finally hired an actual Chinese language coach for the voice actors.
Now legions of DW fans finally know that Cao Cao is not prononounced "Cow
cow".


On a more serious note, this latest outing returns to what was great in
previous DW games. Gone are the one-on-one battles that were do-or-die in
DW's 4 and 6. Gone is the ridiculous 'Super Saiyan' mode from Strikeforce.

In its place is the older style of gameplay that keeps things moving
pretty quickly and a story mode that does a very good job presenting the
overall story. Cut scenes are actually meaningful now, as opposed to
random snippets that even fans of the original novel had problems
identifying. Characters actually die in their proper times and will tug
at your heartstrings just a little.

The downside is that the Story Mode does not give you a choice about which
character you will use for each battle. To make up for this, upgrades you
acquire in one battle for things like additional health or attack
strength, now transfer to whatever character you're using. You can also
decide which weapons to equip as well, so if you want someone to use a
sword instead, no problem. However, some characters are better with
certain weapons than others, and using their chosen EX weapon allows them
to perform certain attacks that are unique to him/her. The only downside
is that there's only 1 moveset per weapon. So if you equip the round
chakra bladed weapons that are a favorite of Sun Shiang Xiang (one of the
girls in the game) on a big burly guy, he'll now lithely prance around
battlefield like you would expect her to do.

As for the battles themselves, if you've played any DW title, you know
what to do. Run around, mash the attack button, slay 100s of peons, and
take out those enemy generals. The movesets in DW7 are a bit better than
those of the past, where you basically just had to rely on 1 or 2 combos
for the entire game. Also each character has a few unique moves to work
into the system to keep things a little fresh. DW7 does have a mission
system akin to earlier games, and you really do have to pay attention
to the missions. Failure to do so will make it very difficult to win the
battle. For instance in one battle I failed to take out the enemy's
calvary bases fast enough, resulting in my forces being literally trampled
to death by a flood of calvary units. Like a wave they washed down the
hill and into my home camp, where my demoralized general didn't stand a
chance. However none of the battles have felt overwhelming so long as I
kept up with the missions.

I really recommend this game, if just for the Story Mode. This takes you
through the 4 separate kingdoms' stories with very few repeated missions
between kingdoms. The narrative move things along quite nicely and there's
no need to mindlessly grind characters as I had to do in DW6 just to be
able to survive later levels.

Of course if mindless grinding is something you enjoy, then check out
DW7's Conquest Mode. This is essentially "Free Mode" from previous games, in
which you can use any character to play through the battles from Story Mode
as you write your own history as you fight to unite ancient China under 1
kingdom.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.