It's been a few years since the last entry of Koei Tecmo and Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors was released on the last generation of consoles. After a long wait, the famed Musou series finally returns in the expansion Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires.
The Empires expansion of the Dynasty Warriors series combines the action-packed Musou gameplay with strategic and tactical elements that featured in Koei’s earlier series Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires, like its predecessors, retells the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, recreating iconic battles such as Yellow Turban Rebellion and Battle of Chibi and features famous warriors.
Like other games in the Empire series, players will pick from one of ninety-four historical characters who are tasked with unifying China.
Each of the characters come in different ranks- Ruler, General, Officer and Unaffiliated.
Rank will determine what activities a character can perform inside a faction. There is also a character creator option that allows players to create their own warrior, which isn’t that detailed but enough to make a unique character.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires core gameplay loop is made up of two different parts, combat and a kingdom sim.
Working on a monthly time scale, players will decide the kingdom's policy, assigning an importance rating to each one.
During a six-month period, players will be able to focus on one police per month which includes domestic affairs, human affairs, diplomacy, and military affairs.
Each of these options will affect the resources of your empire and after a six month period the war council will resume and you can select new political objectives to focus on for the next six months.
This strategic side of the Dynasty Warriors Empires can be pretty hefty from the get-go, but it does give players full control over how and when they invade other empires, making alliances and more.
It won’t be for everyone, but it's nice to see this level of decision making implemented into a hack and slash game. One of the newest features is territory stroll which allows players to interact with allied and unaffiliated officers in towns.
Interacting with the right offices you gain allies who can help slay bandits and unlock extra commands.
The overall level of strategy runs really deep, even after becoming Emperor, but unless you are a fan of the empire series or invested in the characters it all can become quite dull and repetitive after a few hours of playing.
Combat was always the main selling point of the Dynasty Warriors franchise and it's no different here.
But there are some extra differences included in Empires, for instance, players will be able to assign a secret plan to one of their officers, which if successful can really give you an advantage in battle.
Enemies can also carry out secret plans, which carry the same risk and reward as it does for the player.
There are also invasion battles that will see players destroy the castle gates and defeat the enemy commanders
Using a special siege weapon which can be a ram, catapult or more to break down the castle walls will initiate the decisive battle. Invasion battles work both ways as well so it is important to defend your base.
Actual combat is pretty much the same as other Musou games where players will face off against hundreds of enemy soldiers.
The battle system will see players stringing together combos with special moves. Combat is still fun, but like with all Dynasty Warriors games, you only need to play one of them to experience everything, meaning there really isn’t anything new on offer.
There is some level of strategy like knowing what elements to use against certain enemies or how to whittle down the break gauge, but most players can just button mash their way to victory.
Characters can also be customised by utilising gems or by changing titles, but it all feels really superficial without any visible impact.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires comes with two visual modes on the Playstation 5 which are Action and Movie mode. I suggest prioritising the action mode as it really helps to stop some of the frame drops during the busier parts of the game.
Verdict
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is clearly aimed at the Musou fans who want more to experience more strategy, however, all of the strategic elements can become really convoluted and if not a tad repetitive.
It feels like there is a lot of missed potential here with bland maps and an experience that feels pretty bare at times, it's still fun but it's defiantly not one of the best titles in the series.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is out now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S and Microsoft Windows
