Koei Tecmo recently revealed new features and characters for the newest game in the Dynasty Warriors franchise, Dynasty Warriors 9.
Koei Tecmo is well-known for their musou, action style games with the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises. The games feature representations of real and fictional warriors based from past warring periods of China and Japan. Players choose a warrior to embark on a unique journey in the games’ storylines and complete individual missions to further the quest for power or peace; the journey and missions change for each individual warrior.
Dynasty Warriors 9 will be the next title in the franchise, with a number of new characters and new features to experience. At the Tokyo Game Show 2017, Koei Tecmo revealed a trailer showcasing some of the new characters, attack moves, and new additions to the game’s story mode.
Characters in the trailer were seen using special attacks and weapons to fight against hordes of enemies, similar to other Dynasty Warriors games. On Koei Tecmo’s official Dynasty Warriors 9 website, the character roster has been updated to include the new reveals: Guo Jia of Wei, Zhou Tai of Wu, Guan Yinping of Shu and Sima Yi of Jin. Clicking on a character reveals a small paragraph about who they are, as well as a full-body view so players can see what type of clothing the characters have along with their weapons.
Dynasty Warriors games have never featured an open-world traveling experience, as the games use a mission-based advancement system; players would complete a certain number of missions in a designated closed-off area and advance the story or task set once the missions were accomplished. However, in the new trailer characters were seen swimming in open water, walking through towns and traversing a number of environments on horseback. Players will still be able to select missions similar to past games, but now the entire map of China can be viewed throughout the journey and not just through taking on individual missions.
The open-world experience adds a new element to the game that has never been done before, while still keeping in-line with the franchise’s classic fighting style. New features have been added to some attacks, such as the character’s ability to launch multiple enemies in the air and attack them all at once, or use objects around them for assistance such as “launching fire arrows into oil to induce explosions…” The method of attack may change depending on certain battle conditions, and players will have to use strategy to determine what move set is best with the new State Combo System. The system is categorized into “Flow Attacks that change depending on an enemy’s state, Reactive Attacks that optimally adapt to situations, and Trigger Attacks that change an enemy’s state.” Since the State Combo System has never been seen in prior Dynasty Warriors games, veterans of the franchise may look forward to mastering this updated fighting structure.
Gameplay footage of the Dynasty Warriors 9 demo has been posted on YouTube, showcasing some of these attacks and skills with characters Guo Jia and Xun You, as well as the new map features and open-world setup.
Dynasty Warriors 9 will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam in 2018.