Dynasty Warriors 9 (PS4)

To start with I will make it clear that I am playing this on the PS4Pro, which seems to give a different experience.Those that go into this game with the Skyrim mindset when it comes to open world play are going to be disappointed. Yes, the world is huge. But it wasn't designed to be played like an open world RPG. It's designed to give you a greater sense of scale when it comes to the current scenarios battle at hand. You don't start on the enemy's door step and you must now break through outer castles and camps as you move the frontline forward. Move beyond the battle area out into the world where no fighting is happening and of course it will get quiet.It takes no more than 15-30 seconds average to travel between objectives, no longer than the loading and menus of previous DW games.The new combat system I find works really well. Very intuitive and adaptable. In previous games I found the charge attacks were pointless as usually mashing square got the job done. With the new system I find myself using the new moves with great effect and am able to string together almost never ending punishing combos, made even better once I had elements imbued into my weapons.The English voice acting is, admittedly terrible, more so than usual however the Japanese and new addition of a Chinese dub is greatly welcomed and is what I personally use.The overal gameplay is lovely and smooth. I haven't encountered any bugs, glitches or any noticeable frame rate drops (PS4Pro).The graphics aren't groundbreaking but it is Koei's first foray into a game of this scale. They are still nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be. The weather and elemental effects on the weapon attack are beautiful.The AI is also not what some make it out to be. It really is no different to DW7/8 so yes, troops do tend to stand there and take it but if you go too deep into enemy territory they really do perk up and attack you hard.There are limitless side quests to be down if you fancy a change of pace. You can go fishing or hunting. Purchase yourself a nice house and furnish it as you please whilst chilling with other officers. Cook meals that give temporary stat boosts or craft new items and weapons.There is always something to do. Just remember that this is Dynasty Warriors, NOT Skyrim or The Witcher.Saying that, sometimes it's just nice to hop on your horse and have a good ride enjoying the scenery. The Great Wall is a good run, and loaded with high level bandits!I have spent every chance I can get playing this game, it is insanely addictive and fun to play. It's just a shame that people are condemning this game for the exact same things that people took no issue with in previous instalments.This is easily my next favourite DW after DW3!

DW has been in desperate need of a revamp over the last decade, I would say the last brilliant one was DW5 - 6 was lacklustre, 7 was decent, 8 was just 7+ and this is an entirely new take, I'm a huge fan of the series so it is disappointing to say how poorly executed it is.The combat starts of ok, but gets boring really quickly which sucks when its the main component of the game.The world is artificially inflated and the way they've tried to incorporate battles into the open world map just means they can't implement half the stuff that we're used to. There's also little incentive to change character.

There is a considerable amount of lag for a game that use to run perfectly on a PS4!

Having read a lot of negative reviews prior to purchasing DW9, I feared the worst. However, I have to say i've been pleasantly surprised and I'm not one for handing out positive reviews unless totally deserved.I'm actually glad to see a departure from the hack and slash 1 man vs 1000 style that has been cranked out from the series since DW3, although arguably the allied army AI was a tad better up until DW4. I've been playing the dynasty series since DW2 and I actually always felt that DW2 had more of a feel that you were working with your army, that the playable character was an important factor on the battlefield but you still had to move up with your army, who used to be fairly decent at helping out (you used to have bodyguards who at higher levels were capable of defeating low level officers on their own). I can remember fondly in DW if wandering deep into enemy lines with a lower/mid level officer, you'd get royally destroyed. For the most part that feel has been devoid since DW3 and increasingly every subsequent DW game has become increasingly further from any battlefield realism and every title since has cranked out and up the how many can the playable character annihilate in the fastest time - every character in a sense had become Lu Bu by the time we got to DW7.DW9 going down an open world route has totally changed that and for me anyway its a welcome change, yes the set large scale battlefields have been traded for a more skirmish style battle system. Although I still got a large scale feel during the anti Dong Zhou alliance campaign and assaulting Hu Luo gate still had a battlefield feel about it. Due to the change in style, I actually feel like my character is making a contribution to to my army and the army has some use, rather than it all been down to a superhuman fighter to do all the work like we've experienced in DW3-DW8.Yes granted its not perfect, improvements could be made and the side missions and main missions could be expanded, more variety could be developed - the battle system could be reviewed made even more fluid perhaps, further extras etc. However, i'm enjoying the experience overall and willing to go with it as the series first step down this route. I'm hoping this is a watershed in the series and koei continue with the open world style while focusing on improving upon and expanding the 'world' and campaigns, whether that is via more content in DW9 at a later date or with the next title.I can understand why some reviews have been so negative, if you lapped up the hack and slash 1 vs 1000 format we've seen from DW3-DW8 and just wanted the cranking of more and more to continue, you will likely hate this. I on the other hand after 15 years of it was hoping for something different and DW9 has certainly delivered something different.For the fans that really crave more 1 vs 1000 hack and slash warriors 'traditional' action, Warriors Orochi 4 is scheduled for release this October (will include every playable character, 170+, from the koei franchises plus some new 'gods', in the traditional battle hack and slash format) . This may explain why the Dynasty franchise has gone down a different format this time around, perhaps the method is for the 'warriors' series to continue the 1 vs 1000 baton.