| Average Rating: 77 out of 100
Owned by 230 users
On 40 wishlists
60
I have had a torrid love affair with Dynasty Warriors for years. It does not seem to matter how many times they crank it out, I buy new coppies of the rehashes. I agree with all of the review sites that bemoan the lack of originallity in the updates, but my love is a pure one. If I could link a song sample of "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, it would sum it up for me.
As a port of the regular game play from the PS2/Xbox versions, I think they did a very good job of makeing the sequences "bite sized" for on the go play. I have gone through a lot of this on airplanes and in waiting areas.
My biased review would put it at a 80-90 range, but I won't skew the review with that. Heck, it is the reason I bought a PSP at 12:10 AM on March 24, 2005.
59
For a launch title, just being a game that wasn't racing or sports was pretty cool, but the positive parts end there.
While Dynasty Warriors does have similar graphics to its home counterparts, the whole game feels like a weaker experience. Character models are jaggier, the draw distance is much worse, and the game suffers horrible lags at times.
I have more than once found myself geting angry at the game for slowing down and causing me to miss the opponent, which at some times has even effected the outcome of the game.
While I have to appreciate the fact that it was my first experience with a fully 3D portable game (as this was my first PSP game) the fact that the textures sometimes temporarily dissappear is somewhat annoying.
Overall, Koei should have worked more to make a game that runs good and looks good, not looks good but runs bad or runs good but looks bad.
The sound is one of the few strong points of this game. It has the standard Dynasty Warriors music which is a mixture of guitars and flutes, and overall sounds very good on the PSP.
The effects of weapons and "musou" powerups sound as good as ever, making you think you are playing the home version, if it weren't for Koei's mistakes on the graphics.
The only really bad thing about these sounds is that there are no voices whatsoever, which helped alert you of sneak attacks in the home version, since I would often get too involved to notice a small text bar.
Controls are another one of the few strong points about the game. It controls much like the home version despite the PSP's limitations.
Analog stick controls, dpad selects generals, and the face buttons are various attacks and jumps. The shoulder buttons are used for ranged attacks and other functions which I never really used.
In all, it's a pretty easy game to control, now if only Koei worked on the rest of the game, this would be awesome.
Here is another thing that brings down the entire game. The load times are often 30-40 second long when loading a battlefield, and all this loading does is bring you to the map and equipment screen. Then it's a 5-10 second load for each sector, which is about 1-5 minutes long depending on many factors.
Not only is this somewhat annoying, but after all that loading, you still get a laggy game.
Dynasty Warriors is slightly more strategical this time around, which works out good and bad.
Pros
• It's not the same exact game like all of the other DW games were.
• The game requires a little more thinking this time.
• Different environments change the fate of battle.
Cons
• Annoying load times for short battles.
• Smaller battles and battlefields.
• Less "free-roaming" during the battle.
Now while this is pretty good, the game is also backed up with over 200 generals and 42 characters which you can unlock. Not that you'll really bother to do it all, as the game's ending is always the same with each character and the levels often repeat themselves. Not to mention the fact that most of the generals are very similar.
Overall, this game will be appealing for a few weeks, but will lose it's charm and you won't really play it too much, unless you hate the excess of sports and racing games on the PSP.
Since PSP games don't really seem to be dropping in price, I wouldn't suggest buying this game new. If you are a fan of the series, or just want a game to occasionally waste time playing, by all means, go out and buy a used copy. If not, then maybe you should rent it first, as it is a decent game, but is filled with alot of problems, most likely due to laziness in developement.
In terms of PSP games of this genre, you might as well wait until Kingdom of Paradise or Samurai Warriors comes out, unless you desperately need it.
60
Although the game has good graphics, it seems pointless after awhile. I just got tired of pushing the buttons over and over and over and over again.
20
Why only a rent? simple because it doesn't have the replay value needed to own it. Its completely single player, which although good, it's also horrible. The point of a handheld it to be able to go around and comete with other people. Or at least that's how I perceive it. Like Gameboy had Pokemon, which was mainly multiplayer.
Not only was the game not worked on enough, it was just a small port, hopefully the Musou one their working o in Japan gets to come over here.
80
I really enjoy Dynasty Warriors. This is a must buy for fans of the Dynasty Warriors series and anyone who wants to enjoy some ancient Chinese warlord action. The graphics are really a marvel especially since it's a launch title. The gameplay flows smoothly with only a little slow down and there are always plenty of people to kill. One thing I didn't like was the portable aspect of it. What I mean by this is that you only fight small battles than go back to the map and choose another small battle. The only plus to this is that you get a chance to save your game. I think they should have done away with this small battle to map idea and just give you the option to save whenever you want. But overall this is a game thst is definately going to stay in my Godly and Almighty PSP's collection of games.
75
Nice graphics and game play. Gets boring after a while.
95
The game is really nice. The only things that were changed were that you play sections of the stage. This can be really difficult. Plus you have to be careful with your supplies, if they run out you lose the battle. More body guards to choose from. You don't keep the your level ups. This makes the game difficult and chanllenging at some points. Overall this games is awesome, and die hard fans will enjoy this game.
88
When I first saw this title I ran out and purchased it, being that I am a die hard fan of the series. To set the game off you're going to have to run through a few loading screens just to get the menu screen going. Which is a bad thing for me using the standard battery, the power depletes faster when the UMD is spinning. So I would say within 45 seconds to a 1 minute you should be up and running the strategy screen. Which can be confusing for the first timer, but easily remendied with some quick "X" pressing.
The graphics are wonderful for such a small platform, but there are glitches in the game as for seeing past your enemy at a certain distance they suddenly disappear and then reappear as you move closer to them. And the lack of response speed towards your attacks, you'll have like a rythm of five hits and then you have to wait a second to begin swinging again which sux!
The sound is nearly as good as the original game, but doesn't play a key roll to this title. And the scenes repeat themselves horribly, which makes the gameplay boring after awhile since "you have already been there and done that"!
76
OK, although all thh controls and everything for Dynasty Warriors are almost exactlly the same for the PSP, the gameplay is way different. You either get to play each section in about 30 seconds or 5 minutes.
Unlike the PS2 where you run around looking for guys, the PSP takes away that time and makes the guy start running away after you kill 2 or 3 battalions. This gets annoying because you conquer an area and then go to conquer another one and they reconquer the area you just conquered. AHHHHHH!
The game's still fun though because you can actually beat the whole level by taking out the enemy's main base. Have to work your way to it and if you die, have your base conquered or something else then you lose
85
Alot like the PS2 versions. But a great game to play while your stuck in a car. Trust me :-) Everything is well done. But suffers from the same lag problems as the other Dynasy Warriors. No big deal :-)
80
The Gameplay is solid, and played much like the PS2 version. I did find myself to enjoy it! And when friends wanted to play I growled and hissed at them to back off!
The graphics, were not as great as I thought they would be! The characters seemed smooth, but the textures were just awful! It looked like someone used water coloring for them. Althought it did have its moments. It did show how truly powerful the PSP is! BUT then again it did slow down at times in the middle of fighting HUGE groups of enemys! BUT hey! hehe, it chould be a bullet time effect? 
The Sound was decent, but I wish I chould play my own music... VIA GTA radio style. Load times where decent...
I'd say it would be a great game to have! It's alot of hack n' slash, which is alright with me! Just be warned DW fans, it may not live up to the PS2 version.
85
Though it is pretty tough, this game is enjoyable. If you are a fan of the past DW for Playstation, you should like this.
65
Graphically Nice
Visually impressive. Slowdowns may occur at times, but these are actually pretty neat because you get to watch yourself kill baddies in slo-mo!
Load times
These get frustrating, especially since you fight in at least 10-20 areas in each stage.
Replay Value
This game can be highly addicting. You just keep wanting to come back and try different levels with different characters of different alliances, which in turn unlocks more playable characters.
Thoughts
This game should only be purchased by diehard fans of the classic hack and slash series on the PS2. Dynasty Warriors seems hastily put together and very repetitive because of the different areas in each stage. This puts a lot more strategy into the game and requires a lot of patience.
In the menu this game looks like a checkerboard with marks on it to show where different generals and their troops are. You have to move your squad from area to area to defeat enemy generals and destroy supply depots. This makes for an overall boring system of gameplay.
Abother thing is the weapons. In the old DWs you leveled up a weapon after different battles and this weapon was upgraded for all of the rest of the battles. In the PSP version, your weapon levels up very quickly, but during the battle. This means that the weapon is always at level 1 at the start of every battle! This did not encourage me to play the game at all.
85
I enjoy playing this game. Its a good hack and slash type of a game.
80
First off I have to say how much of a sin it was that this game didn't have a multiplayer option. Dynasty Warriors is best played with a friend and having the PSP version not have the multiplayer option really stinks but besides that the game is actually quite difficult and fun for a singleplayer game.
I will start off with the graphics which are quite good compared to the PS2 version in some ways its hard to tell the difference between the games when your just looking at the action screen. But because the game will have you face off with 500-1000 enemies each level the game will slow down in situations where theres 20-30 enemies on the screen which can be annoying since it does mess you up and when your surrounded by 20 guys thats not a good thing.
The textures were very surprising though, especially the characters, you can easily see the plates of armor and diffrenct levels of clothing which does give the characters much more detail.
Now I will go into the sounds in the game which are done very well. The music in this game is great, I don't expect Chinese warriors to be listening to Heavy Rock but in this game it fits very well. The SFX are also done very well since your hitting so many enemies at once the sound has to be synced so you can hear each enemy's scream and this is done perfectly. When you're in a huge battle the SFX almost block out the background music which gives you the feeling of being in a large scale battle which is another plus.
Now for gameplay which I've come to believe is a little better than the PS2 version. They've added more options in the PSP version for making more combos which is nice and there seems to be more unique character moves then the ps2 version. They've also added a captain mode which is very helpful since the game is singleplayer. Captain mode gives you the chance to assign certain captains to your team some come with helpful abilites like rally which increases your troops morale. You can unlock more captains throughout the game and trade them also.
Now for the things I thought made the game receive an 80. First off, no multiplayer which I've explained before was just a terrible thing to do since this game would have easily gotten a 100 if they would have implemented it. The other reason this game gets an 80 is because of the map screen, every other Dynasty Warriors game would let you ride throughout the entire level but in the PSP game the level is cut down to 10-20 diffrent sections of battlefield. This slows down the gameplay and takes away from the real time strategy that the PS2 version had.
In the end Dynasty Warriors is a pretty good singleplayer game with a lot of replayable action.
75
Now, this was originally going to be a review on Need for Speed Rivals, but thanks to my local Gamecrazy (Who graciously sold my reserved copy, the LAST one.) I received a FREE used copy of Dynasty Warriors for the PSP. Now, I know 'Another Koei hunk of ^&*( where you kill stuff.' Not, not so? Don't believe me? Play it!
Yes, the swords, pikes, spears, and arrows are back and Ancient China needs you to kick the crap out of the soldiers attached to them. Empires, if you've played it, had a strategy element that didn't quite work. The PSP version fixes that, now you can COMMAND people, you read that correct. They each have a set of skills YOU control, it's an amazing sense when your whole army rushes on horseback with Attack +5. The "map strategy" element is still a bit weak and matters little.
Since a huge battlefield is too much for the PSP Koei sliced it up, you "liberate" areas and capture fortresses (Reinforces Troops + Heals your men) and supply posts (Refreshes Supplies, which is basically your time limit and Heals) There are also Urban and Rural battlefields. It's abit straight forward after that.
Gameplay - 7.5/10 (Because of repitition.)
Now, even for the PSP the graphics are abit...weak, to be nice. Ac!d and many other games look so much better, but that's not why you play the game, eh? Sound? Screams, weapons hitting, etc. All recycled from the older games, the music? The same, but I can never get the Chinese Drum + Guitar stuff, it hits home. 6.5/10
Either rent it or buy it, but the exclusion of Multiplayer will really steam some people, but not me (Since the nearest Hot-Spot is 20 miles away). I enjoy this title and am still playing it. and won't be trading this in for a looong time.
95
I have most of the DW series on PS2 and couldnt wait to get a hold of it on PSP. Initially I was like some other people, a bit disappointed with the change in game play.
The game now has about 1/5th of the screen on the right hand side setup for information. However this turns out to be a good thing :-) Pressing select during battle, displays the enemy on a overhead map on the right. Its actually alot nicer than overlaying the screen like on PS2, and the map display is actually very clear and tells you who and what is coming to get you :-)
Game wise this version is an excellent addition for DW fans - however newcomers may be put off by the difficulty of some of the levels. Im sure people will attempt to take on Lu Bu in the second map (esp when on the first muso run).. but DW fans know better :-)
There is a large amount of historial text that accompanies this game - its quite a good read if you like the historical side of the game. Also, with this are 200 characters to unlock in the game that you can then assign to your warrior as a formation.
When I read about there not being any pickups or such I was a little worried - but after playing, there is. So to allay DW fans fears, you can get muso and item pickups like in the PS2 series. I have managed to upgrade my characters quite well - admittedly you dont get to manually select items and such, its alot more like DW2.
Finally, I really like the change of battle format into areas. This makes for a real strategic game. Often there are more than one way to win a battle. In some of the later maps, choosing the wrong path can result in failure.. And the idea of supply dumps to regain your health is awesome - it added even more strategy to the game. Making you carefully plan your attack/defense and protect the supply depots :-)
Overall this is a great addition to the DW franchise. Im quite glad they changed it the way they did, since it makes the whole game feel quite new, and interesting. I cant imgine too many people _not_ enjoying this hack and slash with a dash of rpg, and some subtle strategy, it has elements for all gamers... good stuff koei..
97
The Dynasty warriors series has always been my favourite series, but this one is the BEST besides the fifth one. Graphics are great but I wish I had more freedom whan it comes to exploring.
85
hmmm, just a coupla quickies from the land of the rising sun. Im (painstakingly) translating the manual. Even Japanese people have trouble reading some of these charactars, especially all the chinese names, plus they use a historical style.
I bought this game first at a store in Japan along with the PSP at the behest of my better (female) half due to our long shared addiction for ancient chinese bloodletting on a massive scale coupled with one of the best fighting engines ever designed.
The segmented gameplay initially made me sad but once I actually played a few levels (ahem, thats stuck on the first few in hard mode) I kind of like it better than the free roaming just for the fact that you have to plan your route, and who to help, etc. Hint, if you win a stronghold section, you usually get a full life bar, and if you go back there later while travelling to another section it will fill as well. Watch out though, cause your army's moral will decrease and you may lose the battle without dying.
Moreover though its effectively dynasty warriors 3 (the horse cant jump, no bullet time in musuo moves) there are still jumping juggling combos and the enemies are waaaay smart. You cant just wade in with Dan Wei like in Warriors 3 and expect to survive. The AI is just as sharp as in Samurai Warriors, and you'll find yourself thanking the deities when the enemy decides to turn and run from that section of the map (thus not attacking you anymore).
When you choose your bodygaurds (the first option on the battle screen menu and section map) before you start fighting, they all have different abilities and levels. How many you can take depends on their level and yours. Heres the cool thing - when your fighting and really down on health, special attack etc, use the D-pad (Im assuming analog stick is movement) up and down to select the faces of your bodygaurds when theyre on fire. Then press D-pad right and they will give you a power up. This could be 30 seconds attack X2 or more life or musou, or.... seemingly nothing. You have to wait before using that one again but you can have up to four right? Try it. I guess it may be better to take just two really highlevel guards instead of four lamers, but NFS is cutting into my learning curve.
OK Gripe time: Where are the items, where is the food!!!, where are the skills? To be honest the skill structure a la Samuray Warriors was a cool but I would have preferred items like in Warriors 3 and 4 to upgrade stats on a per level basis. The food in jars and dropped at the scenes of large melees is sorely missed. Where are the elemental attacks? the level 5 weapons? Im not far in the game yet so I pray (I really do actually) that they are coming. I really miss the ability to deflect arrows like in Samurai Warriors. If it can be done I have yet to accomplish it. Lastly why oh why if the PSP is widescreen must I play in a 4:3 aspect ratio with the maps eating up the side? I can only assume this is a performance issue. Many have complained that its hard to watch your back and enemies always get you from behind with no warning. This is true (but in a real battle you wouldnt be stupid enough to stand in the middle of a crowd of enemies would you? hint hint) and with a wide field of view the annoyance of being blindsided would be much less as you could see more coming from the back and sides. However, I have already got the PSP version of warriors to enter super slow-mo twice, so I guess 4:3 was all that Koei could eke out of it.
Although the segmented play is great I think, I have to wonder if it impacts your ability to hunt down and slaughter ever last one of those retreating cowards, because as soon as they start to retreat, you cant hurt them any more and might as well just charge your musou for about twelve seconds as they run away. Maybe more realistic though, in the other warriors titles you could run 5 miles accross the map and back at a full sprint which perhaps did not ever come close to occuring in a real battle. Also, your charactar's level resets to 1 at the beginning of every new level, so what does it really mean? You do get increase in stats based on perfomance, but for 6600 points I got 3 points per stat for battle 1!!
After all in the end I am severely addicted to this game and you will often find me swearing under my breath on the train platform, beaded sweat on my brow. The initial charater choices are good; the combat is still good; the segmented map gives you sane strategy choices to make, and the bodyguard powerups are just enough to keep my from throwing my PSP onto the tracks everytime I die again. The game AI will keep you throwing that spear in all directions just to be sure nobody's charging you from behind.
OK now I gotta go play it again...
82
Why not make a game where you can fight hundreds and hundreds...of people?
This game is based on a playstation 2 game known as "Dynasty Warriors". Koei (the company) decided to create a game that involves Asia's historical wars presented in a mystical magical way.
In a time of great needs, kings would rise and a hero...well, let's cut the crap shall we. Koei's other intention was to test the power of a gaming console and it sets to do the same for the PSP.
This is a non-stop action game that pits you in the middle of war. What type? Couldn't tell you... Why? Don't know. What for? Don't really care, cause it boils down to the action plus the fact I don't speak or read Japanese.
What I do now, is that your placed on a map divided into sections and in order to win them, you have to fight hordes of enemies until they're defeated. Meanwhile, other sections of the map are in a continuous battle with or without you.
Each section varies on the time completed. It just depends how good your doing clearing out the enemies. The menu navigation can be tough with no english inside (even the loading is japanese). From what I see, the menu is based on setting up side-kicks to help you and being able to plan your strategy.
The load time aren't too bad, considering the amount of enemies that can appear on such a small handheld. Each section thereafter requires minimal loading. Once your in the game it's simple enough, run around and kick some ass.
The layout of the keys are simple. Jump, hit, special, 1st person (bow) and block. You will be constantly hitting that square button as your its your only way to win.
Graphically, it's a bit of a hit and miss. Character models look great. There are enemies as much as the eye can see. While that sounds interesting and is even impressive, it brings about a few flaws. The depth of horizon or bacgkround is limited. Enemies constantly dissapear and re-appear depending how much is happening in front of you. You will experience slowdown if the screen is filled up with bodies and you continue to use your special moves over and over. Finally, it can be all too repetitive.
On the bright side, it's fun to pick up and dive into a quick battle. You get to mount a horse and ride through enemeies (if thats what you call fun). And one level can last a lifetime. You also get a display of enemies killed which will continue to climb as you play (see how many you can kill).
All in all, it's still impressive to see the PSP handle this kind of game, however, it does carry those flaws. Is it enough to justify as a good game? Well, if your a fan of the previous versions, I'd say go for it, it's more or less the same (although the text is 100% Japanese). For those of you who haven't played it, well, think about an arcade game like final fight and throw in about 300 enemies or so (including sub-boss and main boss fights) and if that makes you excited then by all means, your in for a treat.
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