Dynasty Warriors 9 - PlayStation 4

I've seen so many negative reviews and I am not sure why after playing this for a while.This is STILL a Dynasty Warriors game. The only differences are that it's open world and the game does not demand that you be forced down one alley to kill things. You can choose your own direction across huge maps, kill ALL the mooks and more intelligent AI, and keep going on your way being a happy murder-lord of the era. There is actually a ton MORE to kill in this game and you can still do it mindlessly if you so choose. Or you can go about it intelligently and kill things faster.I enjoy the new features and new challenges, I love that I can buy my own houses. I even adore that archers are even more of a pain in the arse and the fact that I feel like I need to go around and kill all of them first before diving into a mob to go crazy. Most of the time, the packs of animals are more of a challenge because sometimes they spawn when I am picking up plants.This game is fun, it's still Dynasty Warriors, not horribly challenging but slightly more challenging than previous titles. And you can go just about everywhere!

DW veteran here, played it since 2. I believe this is a weak installment to the series as a whole, not the worst but way far from the best. I could just give it a 1 star but I have played it a decent amount of hours (albeit in short increments) without wanting to return it so I will generously bump it up to 2.New combat system takes some adjusting but can be fun, and I do like the way stories are told in this game with the open world giving you a new perspective on where these battles take place in relation to the layout of the land. Unfortunately this could be the only good things I have to say about this game.I highly dislike crafting in video games but it's the only means of getting the best weapons and gathering materials isn't difficult but it can still be tedious, the open world is an ok idea in theory but was not done well, way too much barren land you have to traverse between event areas.My biggest gripe? Clone characters and unique weapons being taken away. Sun Ce lost his tonfas and became a clone of Zhou Cang, Zhang He lost his claws and became a clone of Wang Yuanji and Xun You, Wang Yi lost her emei daggers and became a clone of Sun Shangxiang, Ma Dai lost his brush and became a clone of Zhang Liao, Cai Wenji lost her harp and Zhen Ji lost her flute and both became clones of Diao Chan, Yue Jin lost his hook swords and became a clone of Taishi Ci, Guan Yingping (my favorite character, this really hurt me) lost her double-mace and became a clone of Pang De, I could go on but you get the idea. The last time characters lost their unique weapons was in DW6, and that's notoriously one of the worst in the series. I won't say this game is worse than 6 because it at least has a decent combat system and the cloning in 6 was much MUCH worse.

Yeah, this game has it issues. Frame rate has its ups and downs, rendering is a bit wonky from time to time, and the English Voice actors may give you ear cancer. However, I have to give this game 4 stars because despite its faults, it's a great addition to the series. The English voice acting can easily be substituted with the Chinese dub, so unless you can't read, that problem is out of the way. Koei, though they aren't perfect, did release a very early patch that tried to help fix up some of the frame rate issues, which basically means that they are going to try to improve the game where it lacks and not just leave it the way it is (I hope).The people who have been claiming the open world is too empty, well I'm sorry to say that ancient China didn't have people around every corner and behind every tree, they didn't have castles every 20 ft, and soldiers didn't roam random locations across the country looking for a fight. Yes, realism isn't Dynasty Warriors strong point, what with being able to swipe 50 soldiers in one direction with one swing of the blade, but environments I don't mind being realistic. Soldiers do come in large formations in this game however, especially in areas that are actually under sieges, and bases that are being raided (Areas where the current chapter is focusing on) so I imagine that unless you want to head deep into the hills to fight high level bandits in small packs and other creatures of the land, I suggest you go there.Speaking of which, the Bandits, wolves, and other possible enemies found in the wilds aren't going to just be everywhere either. They are located in areas usually away from battles or where there are high amounts of valuable minerals and treasures which is a welcome addition to the series usual and adds a sense of adventure when wondering around.The combat system is a great in this game, not that the original system was terrible. The combos are great and it adds more branching of attacks dependent on the enemies positioning during the attack. The grappling hook, I personally feel, is a bit overkill. I don't even use it unless climbing areas that are otherwise unaccessible, like mountain ranges, or if a mission requires it. The crafting is great because it allows traversing the map in search of materials, which in turn allows you to go sight seeing and unlocking codex entries on your travels while visiting the local hotspots of ancient China. (The great wall etc.) "Brigande" groups are also a welcome addition from the norm, as the majority of soldiers look alike and these groups do not. A prime example is the Qiang tribe, which has barely been shown or talked about in the previous Dynasty Warriors games.The open world aside, the games narrative is also much better this time around as well. Characters each have their own storyline which is a welcome return from some of the best games in the series. This means more points of view per chapter rather than just one or a few. As with each game they try to be more historical accurate, or at least try to stay true to the books and this game adds many perspectives and missions that shed light on parts of the story that have been overlooked in other titles. The cutscenes, though graphically off at times, are almost always great. You can tell, unlike the last few games, they truly try to capture more emotion in the characters (both with dialog and facial expressions), show off badass fights (Xiahou Yuan and Huang Zhong), and portrayals that were formerly wrong (Chen Gong is a prime example).Story gets 5 stars, Open world concept gets 4, Combat gets 3 (good but the original style is still the king), AI gets 2 (as usual only way to get strong reactions from enemies, is to have it on higher difficulties), and voice acting gets a 3 (only thanks to Japanese/Chinese dub). That's a sum total of 3.5/5 in my book. Koei is trying to break the formula of map after map, and slash after slash and this is a good start, with side quests that involve foraging, hunting, and fishing in what seems to be a beautifully detailed map (not exactly graphically however). All the while keeping some of the great things both story and character wise that we know and love. I look forward to seeing what they plan for this game in the future and the updates that fix the faults. 👍Edit: After a long while the game has improved alot with great new features but sadly I had to dock some points. It's gotten better but retained alot of the flaws I'd hope they'd fix as well. Maybe Dynasty Warriors X will be able to take what 9 was trying and perfect it.