The following statement will probably destroy all credibility I have but I now feel strong enough to come forward and say that my name is Aaron (hello Aaron) and yes I am a Dynasty Warriors fan. I love the games, I've even played the Wii game with the terrible motion controlled attacks. Naturally I feel a stab of anxiety when I read reviews for the games that blast them as repetitive rehashes with little inovation. So I now feel compelled to step forward and say yes, I love Dynasty Warriors (and Samurai Warriors incidentally) and with good reason. Hopefully the following words will be a floating buoy of hope, it's brass bell ringing sharply, as the stormy tides of negativity roll over it. At the very least the following article may convince a few curious souls to give the games a chance and if this fails I've always got the hunger strike to fall back on.

Despite the fact it’s been around since the halcyon days of the first Sony Playstation and has an expanded library that puts most game series to shame by sheer weight of numbers, Dynasty Warriors is a series that is as often derided and disregarded as it is beloved. Dynasty Warriors has seen over 21 games released across 9 platforms since its inception. Fair enough that is including the Extreme Legends expansions for a few of their iterations and the Empires version of their recent games as well. But it doesn’t include the spin off titles from the series such as Samurai Warriors, Dynasty Warriors Gundam and Warriors Orochi (a fantasy spin off featuring characters from both Dynasty and Samurai universes fighting demons) which adds another 12 titles to the Dynasty Warriors stable. So that’s… give me a minute... carry the two… 33 individual games in the franchise and counting. In the words of the immortal Keanu Reeves ‘whoa’. The numerous Pokemon and Naruto games that launch every year have nothing on Dynasty Warriors. You'd almost think EA was the parent company of Koei the way they churn them out.

So why the hate? Why isn’t the series as crazy popular as it is in Japan in our Western nations? A major problem is that the games aren’t immediately accessible to the casual player. The first game I ever played in the series was Dynasty Warriors 2 and I have to admit, I was not impressed. It was a video shop hire on a rainy day and I didn’t know what to expect other than playing a Chinese general and fighting hundreds of enemies, which sounded pretty great to me. Unfortunately I didn’t know my Musou mode from my Freeplay and was quickly flummoxed by the lack of direction on the huge battle field of the first mission. Having become used to gentle difficulty curves and tutorials I was failing the levels without even knowing why and it annoyed the crap out of me. I wasn’t late in returning Dynasty Warriors 2 to the video shop the next day. So that was almost it, a potential love affair with a game series stymied before it could even begin. Then a few years later I picked up a copy of Dynasty Warriors 4. Can’t say what drew me to it; I had just finished GTA Vice City and my limited student budget at the time meant I wanted a game with maximum return for the dollar. Something I could sink more time into than a measly eight hours and the promised 42 playable characters was attractive.

The game is not always historically accurate or completely faithful to the book. While it is possible to play out events as they happened it’s equally possible, depending on what side you are fighting for, to change history in the game. Added to that is the fact the characters that you play are often able to pull of some spectacular super human moves, almost becoming godlike in the recent release Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce for the PSP (watch for the review soon). Rather than mere hacking and slashing an average combo sees you smack an enemy into the air, fly after him slashing wildly, then smashing into the ground sending other enemy troops flying in all directions. Some characters blast laser like bursts of energy or teleport behind their attackers. The Samurai Warriors series features ninjas with a number of different magical abilities and firearm equipped characters who can blast opponents at range.

The basic moves and combos for the characters are generally the same with a button for light attacks, heavy attacks, Musou and jump. Shoulder buttons are used for blocking and in the Samurai Warriors games changing stance to use a few extra abilities. Combos break down to mashing the light button or using light heavy, light light heavy and so on. As you advance in level and your main weapon improves your combo levels increase. Although the basic move lists are almost the same between the different characters their actual attacks vary. Some will pull of area of effect combos and others will have a rush attack based on the same button combo. Most of the games feature a Musou bar that fills up as you kill enemies and hitting that produces a super attack that can kill dozens of enemies at once. You can also team up with your bodyguards or a coop team mate (in splitscreen) for an even more devastating Musou attack. Recent instalments of the series have seen innovations in the levelling system and the way in which battles are carried out. Encountering an enemy general may result in a one on one duel to the death that takes place as the regular soldiers crowd around you cheering you on. When ever you reach a certain level of kills in each battle, usually in groups of fifty, your companion generals will remark on your prowess and skill and reaching 1000 kills makes you an object of total fear on the battlefield and sends enemies troops running.

Strangely, the things that put most people of the game are the same things that fans love about the series. The music of the Dynasty Warriors series which combines traditional Chinese instruments with wailing guitar riffs is equally beloved by fans and reviled by opponents. The numerous playable characters (Dynasty Warriors 6 was reduced, in a move that actually angered long term fans, from over 70 characters in the last game to only 41) are often criticised for being a confusing overload for new players and while this may be true it’s also one of the games biggest draws and it can be a lot of fun trying out different characters until you have a stable of favourites to level up and improve and follow from game to game. One of the games biggest and most frustrating faults is the fact that when you die the battle is lost and you have to play it over. All it can take is a bit of bad luck or running into Lu Bu at the wrong time and you are done for. Even worse is coming right to the end of a lengthy battle only to have the timer run out (you get one hour for each battle) or your commander, who might be on the other side of the map, gets himself killed thus losing you the battle. When you first play Dynasty Warriors this is going to happen to you often and its enough to make anyone quit. It's just a matter of becoming familiar with the game and how it works. For instance it’s important that you listen to alerts which happen frequently during battles. When someone is struggling or losing morale it’s often a case of hopping on your horse and heading straight there to rescue them to maintain your armies front. If a battle is going particularly badly a general on your team might decide to defect (or this may have occurred historically) and you need to race back to your commander to protect him from the turncoat. The mini map and with its morale meter, clearly visible in screenshots, gives you a good idea of whats going on, with flashes indicating actual battles and not just troop clusters, when your commander is in trouble he is highlighted and easy to locate. So long as you're paying attention.

Dian Wei is one of the games 'tank' characters. He knows how to clear a room and its not with John Farnham tracks

There’s no denying that the game can be a bit repetitive at times and this is one of its biggest complaints in reviews, the button masher factor. The gameplay is essentially the same. Keep killing soldiers, kill a general, kill more soldiers, kill another general and so on till you kill the enemy commander. At least that’s easily the impression you would get from a few hours play. But on deeper inspection there are numerous battles with different objectives such as capturing a castle or destroying siege engines. Some of the missions involve escorting someone or protecting your own siege engines or castle from enemy attack. One memorable mission has you chasing the warrior Guan Yu on horseback through a series of gates while being attacked by his allies. I have to confess the game rubs my unlockable addiction the right way. You unlock over half the characters available by completing the game and completing certain requirements in certain battles. Every character has unlockable alternative costumes and unlockable weapons. The ultimate weapon for a character usually requires you to do something extra tricky in a particular battle. If you are a completionist freak like me Koei know just how to get you in the mood.

Koei are often unfairly accused of bilking their fans year after year with their releases and sequels. I've read reviews that equate fans realtionship with Koei to some kind of abusive sub/dom arrangement with the fans taking the role of the zipper masked person who sleeps in the basement. Unfortunately... I mean forunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Koei are actually very responsive to the wishes and requests of their fans, asking them which characters they like the best, which new characters they'd like to see in the new game and what features should be dropped or included in the next game. The various innovations and improvements in Dynasty Warriors 6, such as swimming, climbing ladders and assaulting buildings and fortifications, were all direct results of Koei asking the fans what they wanted through their official forums. As far as developers go Koei are among the best the business for listening to and responding to their fanbase.

Dynasty Warriors has a lot of space to grow, particularly as far as multiplayer goes and online coop and versus for more players than two at a time would be a step in the right direction. Dynasty Warriors 6 broke some new ground for the series trying some new features and remodelling the gameplay rather than just increasing the character count and marginally improving the graphics as the previous games had. The PSP title Dynasty Warriors Strike Force is all ready being hailed by series fans as the best version of the game so far and is specifically made with up to four player coop over wireless in mind. I will freely admit the games aren’t for everyone, if you’re not willing to invest the time and get into the minutae of the Dynasty Warriors universe and are more comfortable with the ‘ten hour game experience’ then it’s not going to be your cup of tea. But in my twenty five years of gaming few titles have eaten up as much of time or just been as flat out enjoyable to play as Dynasty Warriors. If you’ve never given the series a shot based on its middling review scores then I highly recommend you take a chance Abba style and grab a copy of Dynasty Warriors 6 for the Xbox 360 or PS3 the next time you see it. Then at least I'd have one person to play online with!

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