This....this is a awesome review! You took your time with it. As everyone should know, you went through every aspect of the game, which is a plus because some game reviewers will not do that. They may play a game for 2 days (without going through everything) and then give their opinion about it, which is pretty much half-assed. So great job, my friend! Also, this is just my suggestion. You are close to 20K subscribers. I think it would be great, if you do video reviews of the Warrior series games that you play in the future.
***** Glad you thought so! I thought this review came out pretty decent. There were even more things I'd like to go over, but I had to omit them at the last minute due to time constraints and having a deadline to get the review out. Nevertheless, that's what the written review is there for. I'll continue to do video reviews if people like them and have interest. As of now, I think there's a good chance I'll continue. :)
Wonderpierrot Okay. I did see it on your blog, but I haven't looked at it yet. I will look at it, when I have free time. I think you did a great job on it.
***** Well, if you already own the game you don't really need to read the review (unless you want my opinions) because it's quite long and in-depth. Also, this video is now ranked #2 in search for "Dynasty Warriors" and #1 for "Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires", which is pretty cool. I haven't had a ranking that high for some time. I wonder how long it'll stay there.
Wonderpierrot I don't mind reading it really. That's pretty awesome! I'm pretty sure it will stay up there. Wait until next month (English Version) and see if it starts moving.
Dude, just went to your blog! Been on here for a half an hour. Really insightful stuff. Your written review of this game is *perfect* (This video, too) Told me everything I could want to know. Hope UFG is working out for you!
I haven't had a chance to comment about this review. Very beautifully made and well done! The explanation is very thorough and I laughed on the part about the child bearing. I am pleased that the fame system is opted out on this installment. The leveling system is great! I like how you can avoid most invasions at the expense of some material and gold, this lets you focus on your conquest. The invasions were a bit annoying from 7 Empires. I'm definitely happy about the time reduced to 5 minutes instead of the 15. The Way of Life is a nice mechanic in the game to shape out your character. Now I cannot wait to play this game! Thank you very much for this review!
man I remember playing these games on the original xbox years ago and I actually went around trying to get the best weapons for each person and having the satisfaction o killing Lu Bu
Great review and I'm glad to hear defensive battles don't drag on anymore, constantly being invaded in endgame becomes a minor nuscience rather than a major one.
Just bought the game and I’ve been enjoying it a lot, rising the ranks in a land of chaos I married Wang Yi, and my daughter *got her looks from her mother.*
I think I will get this, I actually liked ambition mode because it was a little different and had this whole build your city up and stuff. I think this is what I really want from dynasty warriors. I never played an empire game so this is perfect
I really loved the video and I can see that all the work payed off. But I really don't think I will enjoy 8 Empires just as I am still enjoying 7 Empires. I really liked the fame system as it put people into categories so they can compete to see who is the better at obtaining different goals. Also I feel with the level system; whoever you play with in your first play through will be a higher level than everyone in every other play though you play meaning if on you first play through you play as Kong Rong, or someone like that, he will always have the upper hand in all further games you have. But the one thing I dislike the most is the new timer for defensive battles. I honestly feel now with only 5 minutes in a defensive battle; you won't be able to lose unless something awful happens to your character before and I want to feel I really deserve a victory when I have one.
I haven't really played a Dynasty Warriors game regularly since DW3, but I've recently gotten back in with DW8 and I'll probably be ordering DW8 Empires. There were changes to the combat system that I didn't really care for in the series between these games, but coming back and getting into the game it's made it more interesting in the long run. Especially with how the character roster has evolved over the years with changes to their moves and preferred weapons.
Thank you for the game review. I've never played or looked into an Empires game so I didn't know what to expect out of this one and your review seemed to cover everything there is to know. Also, your commentary about the game and raising ugly children made me laugh. That female character with Yu Jin's scowling devilish eyes lol
bgirlNOZOMI I think I should show you what VOICE they decided to give her. It just makes the whole package even more terrible. I might even make a gameplay video of that one child as a joke.
Wonderpierrot Two questions, was the ugly children thing patched? And can I stay as a soldier/general instead of being a ruler? (I havent played any DW games and the last DW game Ive played was DW4)
ryosama1988 No it's not patched. You just have to pray to get a good looking child. Even if their face isn't ugly, their clothing choice will be. You can stay as a officer under a ruler for the entire game, just not as a vagrant if you want to eventually win.
Xun Yu is one of Cao Cao’s long time strategists although he had a falling out with Cao Cao and he received a last present from his estranged lord: an empty box
5:25 "...Very very fugly children..." LMFAO that was so amazing, and your follow up statement "if you or your spouse have even one tradeoff, forget unprotected sex." HOLY CRAP. You earned my like good sir.
Amazing review my friend, I've long been into the warriors franchises whether it be from the dynasty warriors series all the way to the gundam series and everything inbetween, recently I've been wanting to get back into it as orochi 2 was my last one that I played to death and this game will hopefully bring me back for samurai warriors 4, orochi 3 ultimate and dynasty warriors 8. This review covered everything I needed to know and in a good but simple to understand manner Your getting a sub easily :)
I am a fan of Dynasty Warriors series that includes with empires series. Thank you for the review video, since I once saw the japanese trailer of it, and I have learned a lot of what this is about. Can't wait to see the english version of it.
Hahahaha this is the first review I've ever watched from you. You were quite serious at first and I was watching it seriously and appreciating the details. Then, you start talking about the "fugly" children in such a calm and serious voice, I laughed so hard. How awesome :) thanks!
I had wrote you a while back about the no generic officer scenarios I had created, but then we lost touch. Well the project has grown in popularity, and now I have taken on contributors to the project and will be posting 9 scenario's on the 23rd, with credit to the various CAW creators from the Gamefaqs and Koeiwarriors boards. Here is what the final project will be. 1) every character will be based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by looks, all 900 plus characters are unique enough to stand apart from one another. 2) Stats and way of life is likewise based on each individual to be as close to accurate as possible, while weapons will have a distinct DW feel for each general. 3) All officers are color coded in design by kingdom. 4) All final scenarios will be historically based, so Romance of the Three Kingdoms purists will really appreciate that set up, but so will any DW fan who wants a lot of flavor and style on their games. Anyways, looking through the various DW videos, I like your style above others, and would love it if you would join the project by donating CAWS and do the presentation video, giving credit to each contributor while introducing people to the project. We started on this when the game first came out, and has really become something with all the fantastic contributions and work people have helped me put into it. There is a rough draft up now, called Tribal Troubles. You can find me at Steelmidnight@yahoo.com, on the Gamefaqs or Koeiwarriors boards or I will check here from time to time. Check it out. we would love to hear from you and have you on board, and if anyone reading is a RTK fan, give it a go and tell us what you think on the boards XD Take care, man, hope to hear from you soon, Midnight
Hi brilliant review but the one thing reviewers always forget to mention is the online co op. Can anyone tell me if can you actually find a game, and if you do manage to get in a game, is the map full of npcs just like in single player? I hated it when you go online on both DW7/8 and you are fighting the same officer as your co op partner, but across the other side of the map. No one ever calls Koei out over the broken online mode.
I haven't played a Dynasty Warrior game since 6 I think. I remember being excited about the introduction of siege weapons as simple as climbing ladders and whatnot, and was sorely heartbroken when there were no ladders in the Empires spinoff. So far 8 seems quite exciting. I saw some footage of mechanical ladders, rams and even equippable catapults. For Empires though, I was wondering how much they'll bring over from the original. Will we be able to deploy all types of siege engines for battle, or is the game limited to just catapults and defense towers?
Useful video and thank you for this work. But Dynasty Warriors games are starting to be a child's play game like not being as hard is it should be. For example the older games of Dynasty Warriors were quite hard to play if you set it to Expert or something higher. I remember obtaining the weapons there was a lot more harder then here. Also before reaching 100 K.Os takes sometime to achieve, but here you can get that with one blow. 1000 kills is 100 kills in DW7 and 8. I hope the games of DW doesn't continue to go this way. Other than following the story, I found that DW is not really a game to enjoy because it became so much easy. Like kill and kill. I still think DW3, 4 and 5 were actually the best, but still like to play of DW games.
Definitely getting this game, but there are a couple things that irks me. Regarding characters having their weapons switched, it's great the Lian Shi has a change. Though another character I'd suggest changing is Huang Zhong's. He was one of my favorite characters to use back in dynasty warriors 5, and it's difficult to deal with him using just a bow and arrow now. 7 did fine with Huang Zhong because of the weapon switch. Since affinity weapons play a larger role in 8 though, it makes it more difficult to make the switch because every character has a unique moveset, and it bothers me to have weapons being different from each other. Another thing I miss that's reminiscent to Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires were the garrisons. It makes switching up characters more of a necessity than an option, which adds some level of strategy as to where officers should be placed. Though I must say that territorial defense (like reinforcing walls and whatnot which was also in 5 Empires) deserves a welcome back. Finally, I was watching another video talking about using strategisms, and while the grand strategies should be things to turn the tide, it disappoints me how other strategies for the most part have been downgraded to character/army buffs and enemy debuffs. I'm not sure if "ambush" is still in it, but I remember hearing the guy say that things such as "Elite Unit/Cavalry" and "Lockdown" are unavailable. Still though, it looks like an exciting game. LuBuFengXian (the youtuber I'm talking about) also made it more exciting that low level characters can stand a chance against high level enemy characters using the grand strategisms. Anyways, I'm still looking forward to this game, and am excited to begin making stories in my scenarios!
Awesome review, I got a couple of questions if you may. The game is definitely 60FPS or with some hiccups? I'm debating on buying it for PC or on console. So, on chaos difficulty, even when you maxed out your character, how difficult is it? If this game is a 7.5 for you? What would you rate DW8 and which game of the series would be your favorite? I'm a traditional fan of DW since the first game pretty much, I just don't want to buy it every year. I definitely like the previous Empires but I hope you can elaborate more on the 7.5 to see where it fits on my scale.
I don't know the fps and I can't measure it, but it should not be less than 30fps. If the PC version gets PS4 treatment (meaning it would be made equal to PS4), then PC or PS4 would have little if any differences. The choice would then depend on which platform you prefer to play on. Chaos is only hard because your player takes a lot of damage from enemies, even if you're maxed out. It is about equal difficulty to Ultimate difficulty in DW8XL/CE. I rated the original DW8 the same score, 7.5, so they are about even. Empires just gives a different approach to the gameplay, sacrificing heavy cinematic and storytelling to incorporate fine strategy elements. DW7 would always be my favorite DW game of the series, although most people would pick DW8. I just did not like the affinity system introduced in DW8 at all, which kind of ruined DW8 for me.
holy shit that intro is fucking epic... I'm really interested in this game not really played the dynasty warriors game but the concept and customisation in this one is really making me consider giving it a shot
Thanks for this! It was very informative and I really look forward to getting the game once it comes out in English. Also, on a side note: I didn't know you were a guy! Your voice is great! ;)
Getting a one soon. Now know what my first game shall be. Last empires game I had was 6. Also brilliant review got yourself a new subscriber my friend. :-)
Thank you for this funny and thorough review! :) Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper is the only one from the series I have played so far - I stumbled upon it two years ago and I was almost obsessed with that game - I liked everything about it and aside from following the story line I also spent hours playing different missions I had already completed just to improve the relationships between officers :D I'm excited for Empires but aware that it will be totally different from what I know from Orochi. I read that the time limit of battles is reduced to 5 minutes but you said it's only for defense battles, right?
Do you have any tips/guides to this game? I've only ever played Samurai Warriors 4 + SW4Empire, but am new to Dynasty Warriors Empires series, I'm use to the hack n slash gameplay but am lost to the strategic elements to this game. Also what would you say the easiest way to get your custom character married and to leave their lord/ruler?
An excellent review - it only further compounded my decision of pre-ordering the game! However, I cannot seem to find the answers to my questions anywhere and I was hoping you would be able to answer them. What are the online capabilities like for the game, and will the Xbox One version have the same? I have read many rumors that the X1 version will not have all the game modes that the PS4 version will. :/
Rain Requiem I haven't attempted to play this online, but if it's similar to DW7 Empires then you can invite another player to join you in battle when you do invasion/defense battles. You should also be able to just do quick matches, where you pick a stage, difficulty, etc. and just play online that way. I don't know why the Xbox One version will have less modes. Sounds like speculation to me.
Hey Wonderpierrot, I do have one question. I haven't picked up a Dynasty Warriors game in a long time, in fact since DW Empires 5, however I did love that game. Would you say it has improved or gotten worse since then? The characteristics I loved was its impressive strategic positioning on battlefields, how you could bottleneck enemy armies, plus jumping from one fight to another on the same battlefield to ensure victories. Also I found 5 hard, but in a way that made me want to play on and really conquer each territory.
+NobalGaming I'd say it definitely improved in the strategy portion. Since you mentioned battles, you have a much expanded arsenal of tactics you can execute during battle with the stratagems system, can freely control and order your allies (if your rank is high enough) and can even reinforce bases to prevent them from falling.
How long is DW8 Empires? Ive been playing DW8XL for 40 hours and i still havent beaten all of the wei story stages, not to mention I havent touched any other faction nor other game modes.
Great review, the last empires I played was back during DW6 when I first got my 360 and I loved unfortunately I missed DW7e but I'm hoping to get DW8e for the Xbone next weekend. Is there a chance of the English dub being in this game?
Wonderpierrot Are Koei planning to have another crack at Singapore and Pearl Harbor? Why do they hate adding English dubbing with their recent expansions? The Western voice actors are some of the best in the business. On another note, great review man. Cheers.
How close does the A.I follow the Three kingdoms story? I remeber in the previous game playing a CAW vagrant during the yellow turban rebellion and watching as nothing went like it should. I tried multiple times and each time it ended very weird.
Lelouchxzero1 Don't expect any coherent and consistent historical accuracy in any Empires games, as there's too much randomness for that to occur. Kingdoms and characters will do anything they please, even if it's against their historical actions.
Awesome review .I think doing a review of the Japanese version in English is a great idea to. It was inciteful and well thought out.more like this would not go amiss.
Very nice review! Looks like DW8 Empires has done a hell of a lot right. My mind is already swimming with scenario ideas! Can't understand what they were thinking with reducing defense time to only five minutes though. Would have preferred offensive and defensive battles to be equal to give the AI a fair chance. How many officers can an army reasonably have and can you assign officers to specific provinces like you could in the older Empires games? As someone who still plays RoTK eleven one thing that really irks me in the recent Empires games is how an officer can defend a place like Chengdu and then immediately attack a province on the opposite end of the country.
KingOfWei A kingdom can have a max of 60 officers. You can appoint a viceroy and nine other officers to six selected territories, but that's the extent of what you can do with assigning.
for anyone that got the north american digital version on PS3 did anybody got that issue where in the strategy phase when you change your character costume and back out the game freeze cause that been happening to me and it annoying
downloaded today, any tips for a beginner, never played a dw game but the moves look awesome and i like character customization. so please give me some tips
I am so fricken glad that Keoi has finally gotten thier heads slightly out of their asses long enough to put out an empires game on pc. We havent gotten one in the US since what...DW4? Its about fricken time! Cant wait till the 27th.
I can't for the life of me get the workings of this game. The first issue I fall upon is me making my own Officer-character. But after that I can't seem to find out how to actually use this created character. If someone could just explain that to me, it'd be great.
Wonderpierrot i have been searching for a while now but have yet to find anything so who better to ask lol, do you know if they have any unlockable costumes for edit officers? Or are they all available from the start? Also, love your videos, and thanks for the awesome review!
But, isn't there something about defensive battles that you need to keep in mind? I remember lu bu feng xian's dongbai playthrough, where some defensive battles he kind of lost defensive battles even though he was doing fine himself. IIRC, you have a certain base you still need to defend in order to win the fight normally. Dunno where I heard that though. >> I'm still looking forward to this game regardless. It's goign to be awesome. Let's just cross our fingers this game isn't too buggy.
hickwarrior There are two bases you only need to defend, the main stronghold (camp) and deputy stronghold. If you lose the deputy stronghold, then you will get a narrow victory, which can be considered a defeat. That's why I state you should keep your bases in check. Most of the initial bugs have been fixed, but lately I've been getting hard freezes I haven't before after updating to patch 1.05 (which came out a few days ago). Hopefully everything will be worked out before the English release.
Once again, great video and great review! IGN and GameSpot should be taking notes here! The only thing I don't like about this Empires is how fixed the weapons are and the inability to customize elements. Other than that, this game looks to be above and beyond DW7E especially with that stupid fame system gone, THANK GOD!!!
phangfang I mentioned the preset weapons and inability to temper weapons in the written review, but this was also true in Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires (you can't equip weapon seals), so it's not exactly different and hence not really worth mentioning. But yeah, it would be nice to have some customization options in weapons.
I'm new to this channel. Does it use a 7-10 rating scale like the major reviewer? Does this channel use an actual rating system where 7.5 means it's a safe bet that you'll like it.
Tony Floyd For editing characters only, it is the exact same. The only difference is more outfits. Also, you have more choices in terms of weapon/moveset selection, since DW8 expanded in that area compared to DW7.
One question though. I am hyped about the whole strategy aspect, but in late game, when you have maxed out youtr characters and weapons, does the strategy still have an impact or can you breeze through thousand of enemies on your own, running from one side of the map to the other in 5 mins?
momtchil The strategy is only really prevalent outside of battle (i.e. strategy phase). During battles you aren't required to do much strategy to be victorious, unless you go to battle severely outmatched in troops (which is rare). Besides that, your allies are very capable and can even do all the strategy for you, since they take over bases quickly and execute their own stratagems. Your own character here hence doesn't matter that much in that instance. In fact, the only strategy I do in battles is mostly using healing and buffing stratagems. The rest is just taking over bases and maybe run to the main camp to defend it if necessary.
So you can customize the appearance of your army, but can you, if i wanted a unit that was 100% archers and another 25% archers 25% tiger tanks and 50% troops, could i do that? That is the type of customization and strategy iv wanted from Empires for years now. Also, it looks look the graphics are worse than DW8, or am i mistaken?
Colin notyou0k Nope. If you can customize that hardcore then I would've mentioned in the review. The troop types are randomized and based on where they are situated on the battlefield. And the graphics are the same from DW8, since it's basically the same engine.
I'm having trouble getting the Master Of Strategy trophy/achievement. From what I've read, there are 65 strategy commands. I've done all of them with both genders and still nothing. Is there anyone who got the Master Of Strategy trophy/ achievement who can help me?
I'm pretty damn late with this comment but would you recommend this game to someone who has never played a dynasty warriors game? I think it looks really cool and want to gib it a try. I've played hyrule warriors but that doesn't seem to be very comparable to this.
Sai1523 You should consider playing a non-Empires Dynasty Warriors before tackling this one. I recommend Dynasty Warriors 8, which is directly based from this game.
My only issue with that is that I feel like I would get burned out playing the original 8 and not look at this game again. Idk I just see a lot of people complain about buying a similar game multiple times.
I played every romance of the three kingdoms they ever make. its a shame they stopped making the three kingdoms games am a super fan of the three kingdoms games and with the this new game coming out in just a few weeks. I couldn't be happier. you know what impresses me the most of this game is the making of all most everything. banner flags to troops to horses. even know children. the most impressive things they added to the game is weather effects that will changes the games tactics. I am looking forward to this game most divinely, I remember gemfire .I got to play that game when it first came out. wow I forgotten about that game until now.. when bladestorm 1000 year war comes out in march. please do a review on that game. would be interesting. the one thing from DW7 empires what was annoying was the every level of the character was accurately the same, the attack from the AI right from the start of the game kind of took the fun factor out of that element of the game. did they revamp that so its more like a steady attack base instead of everyone attack in the first turn of a new game?
I grew up watching my older brothers play all the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. That's the only way I knew of the RoTK games before Empires. Funny enough, my brothers loved RoTK while absolutely despise Dynasty Warriors (they call it "Die Nasty Warriors"). GemFire was my first foray into the RoTK/Empires gameplay. I didn't dare play RoTK because I felt it was just way too deep for me, haha. I haven't played any Bladestorm games before, but I might give the next one a shot. I won't guarantee any review, however. The AI will tend to attack you and others' territories fairly early, but not right at the beginning of the game. They will attack you A LOT later on though, but thankfully you can avoid going to battle by repairing attacked territories with just a small amount of resources (around 1,000 goods and gold).
Empires multiplayer would be fun.. be like the beat em up version of league but with stratagems and armies. Plus helping out your ally's and defeating enemies will feel all more satisfying lol. And of course I would rage more. xD but that's the fun of the game.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
This....this is a awesome review! You took your time with it. As everyone should know, you went through every aspect of the game, which is a plus because some game reviewers will not do that. They may play a game for 2 days (without going through everything) and then give their opinion about it, which is pretty much half-assed. So great job, my friend!
Also, this is just my suggestion. You are close to 20K subscribers. I think it would be great, if you do video reviews of the Warrior series games that you play in the future.
***** Glad you thought so! I thought this review came out pretty decent. There were even more things I'd like to go over, but I had to omit them at the last minute due to time constraints and having a deadline to get the review out. Nevertheless, that's what the written review is there for. I'll continue to do video reviews if people like them and have interest. As of now, I think there's a good chance I'll continue. :)
Wonderpierrot Okay. I did see it on your blog, but I haven't looked at it yet. I will look at it, when I have free time. I think you did a great job on it.
***** Well, if you already own the game you don't really need to read the review (unless you want my opinions) because it's quite long and in-depth. Also, this video is now ranked #2 in search for "Dynasty Warriors" and #1 for "Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires", which is pretty cool. I haven't had a ranking that high for some time. I wonder how long it'll stay there.
Wonderpierrot I don't mind reading it really. That's pretty awesome! I'm pretty sure it will stay up there. Wait until next month (English Version) and see if it starts moving.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires or dynasty warriors xtreme legends? What is the best ?
This is by far one of the best reviews i EVER seen. It was in-depth, and you covered every detail i was looking for. Thanks bro.
The only empire i played was the very first one on PS2. It was like magic to me! Leaping ahead of time to 8 now, and its all i could ever wish for.
I absolutely love your reviews. So professional and to the point. Keep up the great work! :D
LOL you killed me with the children part!
I can definitely see the level of quality and video editing you put into this review. Great work. :)
So good. Thanks for this review, big DW fan for many years. Getting it today based off this!
Dude, just went to your blog! Been on here for a half an hour. Really insightful stuff. Your written review of this game is *perfect* (This video, too) Told me everything I could want to know. Hope UFG is working out for you!
I haven't had a chance to comment about this review. Very beautifully made and well done! The explanation is very thorough and I laughed on the part about the child bearing. I am pleased that the fame system is opted out on this installment. The leveling system is great! I like how you can avoid most invasions at the expense of some material and gold, this lets you focus on your conquest. The invasions were a bit annoying from 7 Empires. I'm definitely happy about the time reduced to 5 minutes instead of the 15. The Way of Life is a nice mechanic in the game to shape out your character. Now I cannot wait to play this game! Thank you very much for this review!
You just summed up all the greatest things about this game. Have fun with the game!
man I remember playing these games on the original xbox years ago and I actually went around trying to get the best weapons for each person and having the satisfaction o killing Lu Bu
Great review and I'm glad to hear defensive battles don't drag on anymore, constantly being invaded in endgame becomes a minor nuscience rather than a major one.
Been playing every Dynasty Warriors and Empires spin off since #4 and you pretty much just sold me on continuing the trend.
Just bought the game and I’ve been enjoying it a lot, rising the ranks in a land of chaos
I married Wang Yi, and my daughter *got her looks from her mother.*
I was contemplating whether or not to get this game. Thanks for the info bro.
I think I will get this, I actually liked ambition mode because it was a little different and had this whole build your city up and stuff. I think this is what I really want from dynasty warriors. I never played an empire game so this is perfect
But after you built the emperor's residence the goal of the games changes and you have to conquer the lands to unite China under your emperor's rule.
I really loved the video and I can see that all the work payed off.
But I really don't think I will enjoy 8 Empires just as I am still enjoying 7 Empires. I really liked the fame system as it put people into categories so they can compete to see who is the better at obtaining different goals. Also I feel with the level system; whoever you play with in your first play through will be a higher level than everyone in every other play though you play meaning if on you first play through you play as Kong Rong, or someone like that, he will always have the upper hand in all further games you have.
But the one thing I dislike the most is the new timer for defensive battles. I honestly feel now with only 5 minutes in a defensive battle; you won't be able to lose unless something awful happens to your character before and I want to feel I really deserve a victory when I have one.
I haven't really played a Dynasty Warriors game regularly since DW3, but I've recently gotten back in with DW8 and I'll probably be ordering DW8 Empires. There were changes to the combat system that I didn't really care for in the series between these games, but coming back and getting into the game it's made it more interesting in the long run. Especially with how the character roster has evolved over the years with changes to their moves and preferred weapons.
Thank you for the game review. I've never played or looked into an Empires game so I didn't know what to expect out of this one and your review seemed to cover everything there is to know.
Also, your commentary about the game and raising ugly children made me laugh. That female character with Yu Jin's scowling devilish eyes lol
bgirlNOZOMI I think I should show you what VOICE they decided to give her. It just makes the whole package even more terrible. I might even make a gameplay video of that one child as a joke.
Wonderpierrot Two questions, was the ugly children thing patched? And can I stay as a soldier/general instead of being a ruler? (I havent played any DW games and the last DW game Ive played was DW4)
ryosama1988 No it's not patched. You just have to pray to get a good looking child. Even if their face isn't ugly, their clothing choice will be. You can stay as a officer under a ruler for the entire game, just not as a vagrant if you want to eventually win.
Thanks for the reply!
4 Empires is the best Empires version
Another great video! Keep up the great work!
Xun Yu is one of Cao Cao’s long time strategists although he had a falling out with Cao Cao and he received a last present from his estranged lord: an empty box
Very nice video and informative review! It'd be great if you could do more of these in the future!
5:25 "...Very very fugly children..." LMFAO that was so amazing, and your follow up statement "if you or your spouse have even one tradeoff, forget unprotected sex." HOLY CRAP. You earned my like good sir.
TheFearsomeWaffle "Trait off". :)
Very comprehensive yet succinct. Thanks!
Amazing review my friend, I've long been into the warriors franchises whether it be from the dynasty warriors series all the way to the gundam series and everything inbetween, recently I've been wanting to get back into it as orochi 2 was my last one that I played to death and this game will hopefully bring me back for samurai warriors 4, orochi 3 ultimate and dynasty warriors 8. This review covered everything I needed to know and in a good but simple to understand manner
Your getting a sub easily :)
I am a fan of Dynasty Warriors series that includes with empires series. Thank you for the review video, since I once saw the japanese trailer of it, and I have learned a lot of what this is about. Can't wait to see the english version of it.
Hahahaha this is the first review I've ever watched from you. You were quite serious at first and I was watching it seriously and appreciating the details. Then, you start talking about the "fugly" children in such a calm and serious voice, I laughed so hard. How awesome :) thanks!
this was very informative, thank you I can't wait for it to be released in America.
I had wrote you a while back about the no generic officer scenarios I had created, but then we lost touch. Well the project has grown in popularity, and now I have taken on contributors to the project and will be posting 9 scenario's on the 23rd, with credit to the various CAW creators from the Gamefaqs and Koeiwarriors boards. Here is what the final project will be.
1) every character will be based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by looks, all 900 plus characters are unique enough to stand apart from one another.
2) Stats and way of life is likewise based on each individual to be as close to accurate as possible, while weapons will have a distinct DW feel for each general.
3) All officers are color coded in design by kingdom.
4) All final scenarios will be historically based, so Romance of the Three Kingdoms purists will really appreciate that set up, but so will any DW fan who wants a lot of flavor and style on their games.
Anyways, looking through the various DW videos, I like your style above others, and would love it if you would join the project by donating CAWS and do the presentation video, giving credit to each contributor while introducing people to the project.
We started on this when the game first came out, and has really become something with all the fantastic contributions and work people have helped me put into it.
There is a rough draft up now, called Tribal Troubles. You can find me at Steelmidnight@yahoo.com, on the Gamefaqs or Koeiwarriors boards or I will check here from time to time.
Check it out. we would love to hear from you and have you on board, and if anyone reading is a RTK fan, give it a go and tell us what you think on the boards XD
Take care, man, hope to hear from you soon,
Midnight
Hi brilliant review but the one thing reviewers always forget to mention is the online co op. Can anyone tell me if can you actually find a game, and if you do manage to get in a game, is the map full of npcs just like in single player? I hated it when you go online on both DW7/8 and you are fighting the same officer as your co op partner, but across the other side of the map. No one ever calls Koei out over the broken online mode.
I haven't played a Dynasty Warrior game since 6 I think. I remember being excited about the introduction of siege weapons as simple as climbing ladders and whatnot, and was sorely heartbroken when there were no ladders in the Empires spinoff.
So far 8 seems quite exciting. I saw some footage of mechanical ladders, rams and even equippable catapults. For Empires though, I was wondering how much they'll bring over from the original. Will we be able to deploy all types of siege engines for battle, or is the game limited to just catapults and defense towers?
There are no rams since there aren't any castle doors to break. There aren't any ladders either. You get towers, bases and catapults.
Useful video and thank you for this work. But Dynasty Warriors games are starting to be a child's play game like not being as hard is it should be. For example the older games of Dynasty Warriors were quite hard to play if you set it to Expert or something higher. I remember obtaining the weapons there was a lot more harder then here. Also before reaching 100 K.Os takes sometime to achieve, but here you can get that with one blow. 1000 kills is 100 kills in DW7 and 8. I hope the games of DW doesn't continue to go this way.
Other than following the story, I found that DW is not really a game to enjoy because it became so much easy. Like kill and kill. I still think DW3, 4 and 5 were actually the best, but still like to play of DW games.
I swear I thought I was watching a Japanese promotional gameplay trailer of dw8 instead of a review
Nice review! Very informative. I can't wait to get my hands on the English version this month :D
This looks really fun! awesome review! I really hope this comes out for the vita one day!
Definitely getting this game, but there are a couple things that irks me.
Regarding characters having their weapons switched, it's great the Lian Shi has a change. Though another character I'd suggest changing is Huang Zhong's. He was one of my favorite characters to use back in dynasty warriors 5, and it's difficult to deal with him using just a bow and arrow now. 7 did fine with Huang Zhong because of the weapon switch. Since affinity weapons play a larger role in 8 though, it makes it more difficult to make the switch because every character has a unique moveset, and it bothers me to have weapons being different from each other.
Another thing I miss that's reminiscent to Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires were the garrisons. It makes switching up characters more of a necessity than an option, which adds some level of strategy as to where officers should be placed. Though I must say that territorial defense (like reinforcing walls and whatnot which was also in 5 Empires) deserves a welcome back.
Finally, I was watching another video talking about using strategisms, and while the grand strategies should be things to turn the tide, it disappoints me how other strategies for the most part have been downgraded to character/army buffs and enemy debuffs. I'm not sure if "ambush" is still in it, but I remember hearing the guy say that things such as "Elite Unit/Cavalry" and "Lockdown" are unavailable. Still though, it looks like an exciting game. LuBuFengXian (the youtuber I'm talking about) also made it more exciting that low level characters can stand a chance against high level enemy characters using the grand strategisms.
Anyways, I'm still looking forward to this game, and am excited to begin making stories in my scenarios!
Didn't even know this was coming. Just had Dynasty Warriors 8 playing on my PS4 :) great game.
Very well done review, unlike some of the other on youtube who just say this or that
Great video as always, keep it up! :)
The part at 5:10 was cracking me up.
Anyways, great review; I dig your style. Subscribed.
Awesome review, I got a couple of questions if you may.
The game is definitely 60FPS or with some hiccups?
I'm debating on buying it for PC or on console.
So, on chaos difficulty, even when you maxed out your character, how difficult is it?
If this game is a 7.5 for you? What would you rate DW8 and which game of the series would be your favorite?
I'm a traditional fan of DW since the first game pretty much, I just don't want to buy it every year. I definitely like the previous Empires but I hope you can elaborate more on the 7.5 to see where it fits on my scale.
I don't know the fps and I can't measure it, but it should not be less than 30fps.
If the PC version gets PS4 treatment (meaning it would be made equal to PS4), then PC or PS4 would have little if any differences. The choice would then depend on which platform you prefer to play on.
Chaos is only hard because your player takes a lot of damage from enemies, even if you're maxed out. It is about equal difficulty to Ultimate difficulty in DW8XL/CE.
I rated the original DW8 the same score, 7.5, so they are about even. Empires just gives a different approach to the gameplay, sacrificing heavy cinematic and storytelling to incorporate fine strategy elements.
DW7 would always be my favorite DW game of the series, although most people would pick DW8. I just did not like the affinity system introduced in DW8 at all, which kind of ruined DW8 for me.
Good review. And it's good to see another Gemfire fan. Loved that game.
Love Gemfire and Dynasty. Guess I should buy
holy shit that intro is fucking epic... I'm really interested in this game not really played the dynasty warriors game but the concept and customisation in this one is really making me consider giving it a shot
+manic221 I think you should be careful when buying it, because it has also japanese subtitle...
+The Exile Japanese subtitles don't bother me I can read. plus I watch anime alot
If you haven't bought it yet get it. The older games were really good and this one improves on the other older ones.
Thanks for this! It was very informative and I really look forward to getting the game once it comes out in English.
Also, on a side note: I didn't know you were a guy! Your voice is great! ;)
Solid review. Good Job!
Awesome review! But I have played both recent DW and SW games and I wanted a little change up would I find more enjoyment out of WO3U or empires?
I LOVE IT! Thanks for reviewing it!
Getting a one soon. Now know what my first game shall be. Last empires game I had was 6. Also brilliant review got yourself a new subscriber my friend. :-)
Thank you for this funny and thorough review! :) Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper is the only one from the series I have played so far - I stumbled upon it two years ago and I was almost obsessed with that game - I liked everything about it and aside from following the story line I also spent hours playing different missions I had already completed just to improve the relationships between officers :D I'm excited for Empires but aware that it will be totally different from what I know from Orochi. I read that the time limit of battles is reduced to 5 minutes but you said it's only for defense battles, right?
Great review, ill be sure to link this to people when IGN give out there shitty, half assed review of this game.
I think that Koei-tecmo/Omega Force should patch DW8XL to include at least Xun Yu weapon in 8XL and add the edit mode in 8 XL
Do you have any tips/guides to this game? I've only ever played Samurai Warriors 4 + SW4Empire, but am new to Dynasty Warriors Empires series, I'm use to the hack n slash gameplay but am lost to the strategic elements to this game. Also what would you say the easiest way to get your custom character married and to leave their lord/ruler?
Great review, never owned an DW Empire game before but i'll be sure to give it a try !
Gemfire on the SNES was awesome.
An excellent review - it only further compounded my decision of pre-ordering the game! However, I cannot seem to find the answers to my questions anywhere and I was hoping you would be able to answer them. What are the online capabilities like for the game, and will the Xbox One version have the same? I have read many rumors that the X1 version will not have all the game modes that the PS4 version will. :/
Rain Requiem I haven't attempted to play this online, but if it's similar to DW7 Empires then you can invite another player to join you in battle when you do invasion/defense battles. You should also be able to just do quick matches, where you pick a stage, difficulty, etc. and just play online that way. I don't know why the Xbox One version will have less modes. Sounds like speculation to me.
Hey Wonderpierrot, I do have one question. I haven't picked up a Dynasty Warriors game in a long time, in fact since DW Empires 5, however I did love that game. Would you say it has improved or gotten worse since then? The characteristics I loved was its impressive strategic positioning on battlefields, how you could bottleneck enemy armies, plus jumping from one fight to another on the same battlefield to ensure victories. Also I found 5 hard, but in a way that made me want to play on and really conquer each territory.
+NobalGaming I'd say it definitely improved in the strategy portion. Since you mentioned battles, you have a much expanded arsenal of tactics you can execute during battle with the stratagems system, can freely control and order your allies (if your rank is high enough) and can even reinforce bases to prevent them from falling.
Great review thanks
How long is DW8 Empires? Ive been playing DW8XL for 40 hours and i still havent beaten all of the wei story stages, not to mention I havent touched any other faction nor other game modes.
Great review, the last empires I played was back during DW6 when I first got my 360 and I loved unfortunately I missed DW7e but I'm hoping to get DW8e for the Xbone next weekend. Is there a chance of the English dub being in this game?
Thomas Smith No chance of English dubs. KOEI said they would put English dubs but they went back on their word for some reason.
Wonderpierrot Are Koei planning to have another crack at Singapore and Pearl Harbor? Why do they hate adding English dubbing with their recent expansions? The Western voice actors are some of the best in the business. On another note, great review man. Cheers.
this is an excellent review.
How close does the A.I follow the Three kingdoms story? I remeber in the previous game playing a CAW vagrant during the yellow turban rebellion and watching as nothing went like it should. I tried multiple times and each time it ended very weird.
Lelouchxzero1 Don't expect any coherent and consistent historical accuracy in any Empires games, as there's too much randomness for that to occur. Kingdoms and characters will do anything they please, even if it's against their historical actions.
Awesome review .I think doing a review of the Japanese version in English is a great idea to. It was inciteful and well thought out.more like this would not go amiss.
Very nice review! Looks like DW8 Empires has done a hell of a lot right. My mind is already swimming with scenario ideas! Can't understand what they were thinking with reducing defense time to only five minutes though. Would have preferred offensive and defensive battles to be equal to give the AI a fair chance.
How many officers can an army reasonably have and can you assign officers to specific provinces like you could in the older Empires games? As someone who still plays RoTK eleven one thing that really irks me in the recent Empires games is how an officer can defend a place like Chengdu and then immediately attack a province on the opposite end of the country.
KingOfWei A kingdom can have a max of 60 officers. You can appoint a viceroy and nine other officers to six selected territories, but that's the extent of what you can do with assigning.
for anyone that got the north american digital version on PS3 did anybody got that issue where in the strategy phase when you change your character costume and back out the game freeze cause that been happening to me and it annoying
have not played Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires yet, but i think Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is still the best
Great review, man.
downloaded today, any tips for a beginner, never played a dw game but the moves look awesome and i like character customization. so please give me some tips
I am so fricken glad that Keoi has finally gotten thier heads slightly out of their asses long enough to put out an empires game on pc. We havent gotten one in the US since what...DW4? Its about fricken time! Cant wait till the 27th.
cool review, i might give it a try, loved dynasty warriors pretty much since 3 came out, if they would only bring back the bad ass bodyguards...
I can't for the life of me get the workings of this game.
The first issue I fall upon is me making my own Officer-character. But after that I can't seem to find out how to actually use this created character. If someone could just explain that to me, it'd be great.
Wonderpierrot i have been searching for a while now but have yet to find anything so who better to ask lol, do you know if they have any unlockable costumes for edit officers? Or are they all available from the start? Also, love your videos, and thanks for the awesome review!
Jerel McPhearson There are no unlockable costumes for CAW, but it's all unlocked from the start.
Okay cool still a buy for me either way! Been playing since Dynasty Warriors 2 don't plan to stop playing now! (^ - ^)
Thanks for the video! Does empire allow save transfer from Xtreme Legends on Vita? Or only from vanilla DW8?
But, isn't there something about defensive battles that you need to keep in mind? I remember lu bu feng xian's dongbai playthrough, where some defensive battles he kind of lost defensive battles even though he was doing fine himself. IIRC, you have a certain base you still need to defend in order to win the fight normally. Dunno where I heard that though. >>
I'm still looking forward to this game regardless. It's goign to be awesome. Let's just cross our fingers this game isn't too buggy.
hickwarrior There are two bases you only need to defend, the main stronghold (camp) and deputy stronghold. If you lose the deputy stronghold, then you will get a narrow victory, which can be considered a defeat. That's why I state you should keep your bases in check.
Most of the initial bugs have been fixed, but lately I've been getting hard freezes I haven't before after updating to patch 1.05 (which came out a few days ago). Hopefully everything will be worked out before the English release.
Wonderpierrot I see. And I also hope the english release is more stable as well. Now for the long wait.
I want to like empires as I love the main games and warriors orochi, but I always feel like I'm doing something wrong in strategy games
Very good and informative review, this might be my first empires game!
btw can you transfer data from previous dw8 games?
Androzz Senpai Only CAW as far as I can tell.
CAW? oh btw thanks for reply!
Androzz Senpai You can transfer your existing CAW from DW7: Empires.
what's the song playing at 7:08?
I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO can't wait for this damn game!!!
Another awesome review. But no mentioning of the multiplayer? Im between this or samurai warriors 4.
J Mig It has local and online co-op. I should mentioned them but I thought the multiplayer features were in the minority.
local only on PC. :(
I love this saga of video games
Thanks for review this game
Once again, great video and great review! IGN and GameSpot should be taking notes here! The only thing I don't like about this Empires is how fixed the weapons are and the inability to customize elements. Other than that, this game looks to be above and beyond DW7E especially with that stupid fame system gone, THANK GOD!!!
phangfang I mentioned the preset weapons and inability to temper weapons in the written review, but this was also true in Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires (you can't equip weapon seals), so it's not exactly different and hence not really worth mentioning. But yeah, it would be nice to have some customization options in weapons.
I'm new to this channel. Does it use a 7-10 rating scale like the major reviewer? Does this channel use an actual rating system where 7.5 means it's a safe bet that you'll like it.
The rating is out of 10. A 7.5 is above good, so like stated the game isn't perfect but is definitely recommended.
Might be a bit late here, but how is the character creation in terms of outfits? Is it as limited as Empires or are there many more outfits now?
Tony Floyd For editing characters only, it is the exact same. The only difference is more outfits. Also, you have more choices in terms of weapon/moveset selection, since DW8 expanded in that area compared to DW7.
One question though. I am hyped about the whole strategy aspect, but in late game, when you have maxed out youtr characters and weapons, does the strategy still have an impact or can you breeze through thousand of enemies on your own, running from one side of the map to the other in 5 mins?
momtchil The strategy is only really prevalent outside of battle (i.e. strategy phase). During battles you aren't required to do much strategy to be victorious, unless you go to battle severely outmatched in troops (which is rare). Besides that, your allies are very capable and can even do all the strategy for you, since they take over bases quickly and execute their own stratagems. Your own character here hence doesn't matter that much in that instance. In fact, the only strategy I do in battles is mostly using healing and buffing stratagems. The rest is just taking over bases and maybe run to the main camp to defend it if necessary.
Wonderpierrot Alright thanks, waiting to get when it releases in North America.
can you choose to use nanman sodliers? or use zhu rong and meng huo?
It sucks it's not on the PSN store yet. I really want it.
So you can customize the appearance of your army, but can you, if i wanted a unit that was 100% archers and another 25% archers 25% tiger tanks and 50% troops, could i do that? That is the type of customization and strategy iv wanted from Empires for years now. Also, it looks look the graphics are worse than DW8, or am i mistaken?
Colin notyou0k Nope. If you can customize that hardcore then I would've mentioned in the review. The troop types are randomized and based on where they are situated on the battlefield. And the graphics are the same from DW8, since it's basically the same engine.
Thanks for sharing .
Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires or dynasty warriors xtreme legends? What is the best ?
To be fair, Xun Yu isn't very new, as he was featured in previous games, but he wasn't NEAR as badass as he is here.
waiting for it ta dl can't wait I played all the others so yeah cool
Hm... I have several characters over level 100 in 8/8XL... so are you sure 99 is the max?
I'm having trouble getting the Master Of Strategy trophy/achievement. From what I've read, there are 65 strategy commands. I've done all of them with both genders and still nothing. Is there anyone who got the Master Of Strategy trophy/ achievement who can help me?
Is this game worth getting ?
Hi WonderPierrot coming from DW7 Empires, is 8 any Different?
+VampTalbain Yes, but it's too much to explain. So watch the video or read the written review in its entirety.
Can you become an emperor in this game? Just like in DW7 Empires?
This is a great review
I'm pretty damn late with this comment but would you recommend this game to someone who has never played a dynasty warriors game? I think it looks really cool and want to gib it a try. I've played hyrule warriors but that doesn't seem to be very comparable to this.
Sai1523 You should consider playing a non-Empires Dynasty Warriors before tackling this one. I recommend Dynasty Warriors 8, which is directly based from this game.
My only issue with that is that I feel like I would get burned out playing the original 8 and not look at this game again. Idk I just see a lot of people complain about buying a similar game multiple times.
I played every romance of the three kingdoms they ever make. its a shame they stopped making the three kingdoms games am a super fan of the three kingdoms games and with the this new game coming out in just a few weeks. I couldn't be happier. you know what impresses me the most of this game is the making of all most everything. banner flags to troops to horses. even know children. the most impressive things they added to the game is weather effects that will changes the games tactics. I am looking forward to this game most divinely, I remember gemfire .I got to play that game when it first came out. wow I forgotten about that game until now.. when bladestorm 1000 year war comes out in march. please do a review on that game. would be interesting. the one thing from DW7 empires what was annoying was the every level of the character was accurately the same, the attack from the AI right from the start of the game kind of took the fun factor out of that element of the game. did they revamp that so its more like a steady attack base instead of everyone attack in the first turn of a new game?
I grew up watching my older brothers play all the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. That's the only way I knew of the RoTK games before Empires. Funny enough, my brothers loved RoTK while absolutely despise Dynasty Warriors (they call it "Die Nasty Warriors"). GemFire was my first foray into the RoTK/Empires gameplay. I didn't dare play RoTK because I felt it was just way too deep for me, haha.
I haven't played any Bladestorm games before, but I might give the next one a shot. I won't guarantee any review, however.
The AI will tend to attack you and others' territories fairly early, but not right at the beginning of the game. They will attack you A LOT later on though, but thankfully you can avoid going to battle by repairing attacked territories with just a small amount of resources (around 1,000 goods and gold).
Didn't they make a three kingdom game last year?
Vadim Shaco RTTK 12 was released in 2012 but no English port and no plans to make 13 at all.
I played gemfire, rotk, and dynasty warriors and loved em all. Gemfire is still fun today
nice think you can do gundam musou reborn review
what is the difference between the free version and the full version Empire
You can't play the actual Empires mode in the free version, and there is a bunch of stuff in the edit mode that is missing
Empires multiplayer would be fun.. be like the beat em up version of league but with stratagems and armies. Plus helping out your ally's and defeating enemies will feel all more satisfying lol. And of course I would rage more. xD but that's the fun of the game.