After Dynasty Warriors 4 or Samurai Warriors 2 (I forget the exact Chronology), I stopped buying Warriors games until they decide to finally offer 4 player multiplay, because dammit, every console out now offers 4 controller 'ports' out of the box, and the only thing more fun than mowing down hordes of peons is mowing down hordes of peons with friends. (I did pick up Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, which has 4 player online).
I picked this game up because I do enjoy the Musou games, and what little I was able to find about this one piqued my interest, and I have to say, it is probably the best Musou game I've played in years (just because I don't buy the games doesn't mean I don't play them, I have friends).
The things this game has going for it are many. It has the normal Musou map structure, rather than the room structure most portable Musou games (and Strikeforce) used, which is a better design. It has a tactical element with the ability to instantly switch which general you're controlling. It also has the ability to direct your generals to specific locations without taking control of them (tap the map on the lower screen, then the general, then double-tap where you want them to go). This is useful for positioning people where you want them to go.
In addition, they've added a few new combat quirks that I like. They added a spirit meter (which actually appears as a bunch of circles, so I call them spirit balls), which can be used to activate a special ability for your general. It can also be used (by pressing the B button) to break guards. This Spirit attack also links combos (sort of like the Dash Attack in the Gundam Musou games) so you can string together even longer combos. You also use these Spirit Balls to activate Battle Tactics, which are things that more generally affect the battle. Like lowering enemy morale, doubling the combo meter for a period, or fully healing a character. Finally, if all your Spirit Balls are filled, your Musuo attack becomes Ultimate Musou (or some other silly moniker), which is
even more devastating than normal Musou.
It still has level progression and RPG elements, as well as items and improved weapons like the previous Musou games, so there's replayability to power your characters up. And since the main character is one you create, you can actually change your weapon types as well later in the game.
Inside each battle, there are also a series of mini-missions which you can complete for bonuses. Each mission also has a secondary criteria (like complete within a certain time, complete with a certain character and whatnot) that will give you an additional bonus.
It also has a call horse button, rather than trying to figure out where you left your horse. (I think you can also call a horse even if you didn't have one before, which is kind of cool).
Technically, the game is fairly solid, too. The 3D effects are understated but fairly well done, with the only quirk being in the very beginning of the opening movie that made my eyes go all weird (those of you who've seen it will remember the gathering shadow). The graphics aren't exceptional, but they're solid, with decent lighting, textures and geometry. Controls are responsive, and, basically, it's a Musou game. You know what you're getting into gameplay wise.
All this awesome does lead to some sacrifices though.
First, and most major, is the somewhat lacking number of enemies. Rather than legions of peons to mow down, you're more limited to hordes. On the other hand, they seem to have upped the number of enemy commanders in each battle. I have noticed that this leads to less pop-in than I'm used to in Musou games (especially from the PS2 era, but you still see it on the 360 & PS3)
There is no real multiplayer in this game, so it's all single-player. There is a way to build an army and have it do a faux battle with someone online, but it's not the same as getting with a friend to take back Japan.
There is only one story in the game. Now, in the previous games, it was a lot of fighting the same battles over and over again, but from different perspectives. Now, you can take different generals into the battles with you, but there's no change in perspective. That makes the game somewhat more repetitive, but if repetitiveness is a problem for you, I'm sure this is the game you want to be playing anyway?
Finally, the friendly AI is...it's just bad. You get a mission to take out a particular enemy commander, but you're busy fighting 2 other commanders, so you send your friendly generals to face the enemy commander (luckily the game pauses when you're giving orders), and they get there...and nothing really happens. Unless you're physically controlling them, it seems impossible that they will ever win the battle. Enemy AI is slightly better, but not by a lot. What this means is, any general you're not actively controlling is in near constant danger of imminent death on the highest difficulty (there's only easy, normal and hard that I've discovered so far).
Anyway, I, personally, am loving the game, and I think any fan of the series will enjoy it as well. It is not something that's going to attract people who haven't liked previous games in the idiom though.
Sqorgar said:
There's only one story, with the single player character, rather than having a Musou mode for all the characters. Also, I feel like the missions are too dominating over your strategy. They come fairly often and most of them have short time limits (30 seconds) that show you that they definitely intend character X to handle this mission. The way the characters are placed around the map and the types of missions seem like there's only one way to attack each level. But I'm only a few levels in, so this could easily change.
Actually, I thought that was the case, but apparently it's not. It looks like each mission has two parts. The top part is the actual mission. The bottom part is an additional requirement. You get a bonus for completing the mission, and an extra bonus for completing it and meeting the special requirement (after the battle it lists all the missions, and you can tell if you succeeded on the additional requirement because the reward next to it will be sparkly).
