Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends – Review

Who would have thought that we would see an expansion pack on a console? Apparently the guys at Koei figured it would be a good idea because last year they released Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends (Sanshingoku Musou 2 Mushouden in Japan) and it had some unexpected success. So with this & Koei knowing a winning formula, they figured a 4th instalment was in order, but better still, with a price comparable to what you’d expect for a PC game expansion pack. Koei’s expecting everyone who favoured DW4 to be also getting into this.

For those of you who haven’t played any of the Dynasty Warriors games on the PS1 or XBox, you’re a general in medieval China & you’ll fight for one of four sides. You will then be thrown into a melee of fighting mayhem; namely a large scale battle with some minor tactical objectives, but mostly just trying to chop and slash your way through.

If you have already played DW4, you’re probably wondering what new value the game brings to the table. You can unlock the level 11 weapons for your favorite characters in this offering. There is also a Legend Mode which provides a story for each character; instead of having to play through an army’s story, this one is your own. With one mission for each of the playable generals, that makes 42 new missions to play. Then there’s the more interesting mode for veteran players – Xtreme Mode – which turns into something like a large scale 3D version of the old classic, Gauntlet. You gain very few health items from soldiers in this mode but you will earn gold at the end of the level. At the end of each short battle, you’ll head to the shop and purchase items that regain health to increase your attributes then hire a group of soldiers or hire another general to be your sidekick. There’s a problem though. As you buy Meat Buns, Ointment or other items, they start to get more expensive. It isn’t like supply and demand; it’s just a constant upward trend. So as you start getting more gold and increasing your life attribute, it gets harder and harder to fill it back up, so in around every 5th mission, you’ll be confronted with a choice of missions called Kingdom Creation or Kingdom Defence. These missions will enable you to obtain items at cheaper prices but they are generally a lot harder missions, however, the payout is better.

DW4:XL doesn’t add any new characters into the game, so if you were expecting some refreshing additions to the roster, you will be disappointed with this aspect. The same graphically, there hasn’t really been much done to update the graphics engine. They’ve added some new maps but the series does require a total revamp. The character models and animations are nice but were really hoping that they would have also improved over the previous titles. Perhaps Koei should delay the next DW until the next-gen systems are available to do it justice. Because there is just so much happening at once, it does require a fairly powerful system for Koei to fully achieve something special with this series. Sonically, it seems like much of the music for DW4:XL is the same as DW4, and so are the rest of the sounds of battle. Unfortunately, the voices could still use some working on.

Female Perspective: Female characters included in the game makes it an attractive prospect for the female gamer, although not overly emphasized. By nature it’s a game that will appeal to the market that enjoys this genre, however those looking for great female characterization could probably do well to look elsewhere.

To conclude then, I kinda like DW4:XL. It’s still great fun, and I really don’t know how Koei does it with all the updates its getting, but they manage to keep this series fun and entertaining without really changing the overall mechanics all that much. But ultimately, for the person who’s already forked out for DW4, I would recommend renting before purchasing this, based on the limited differences between the two versions. Worthy, but only just.

Review by Danny