Dynasty Warriors Hands-On

TOKYO--The Dynasty Warriors series has gotten so popular that any time a new Sony platform is announced (which, granted, isn't very often), you can expect a new installment in Koei's ancient Chinese brawler franchise to quickly follow suit. As part of the PSP blitz currently at the Tokyo Game Show, we got to try out the first handheld entry in the series, which is being displayed under its original Japanese title, Shin Sangoku Musou. The game didn't deviate in any substantial way from the formula laid forth by its forebears, which is probably good news for anybody who has stuck with the series up till now.

The early demo of Shin Sangoku Musou launched us straight into the action by giving us a default character with a rather large polearm and sending us right into the fray. Dynasty Warriors is known for its ludicrous number of playable characters, and we imagine the final game will have at least several warriors to choose from. The demo did let us select from a list of what appeared to be different officers before we got into the fighting proper.

It probably won't come as a great shock that this game plays an awful lot like the other Dynasty Warriors games, just on a smaller screen. As usual, we ran around the expansive battlefields alongside like-minded warriors who were labeled with blue names (written entirely in kanji for this demo, natch). We were constantly on the lookout for soldiers bearing the enemy colors, as well as any enemy officers bearing a red name (a mark for certain death next to our vicious polearm). We had the standard array of basic combo moves and more powerful musou combo attacks that series fans will be intimately familiar with already. Interestingly, the game doesn't use the entirety of the PSP's exceptionally wide screen for gameplay--your battlefield view is close to a four-by-three size, similar to a standard TV. The right side of the screen is instead used to display a tactical map, officer health readouts, and so on.

Perhaps taking a cue from the recently released Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires, Shin Sangoku Musou on the PSP seems to have some strategy elements existing alongside the brawling. We achieved victory on the first mission of the demo in just a couple of minutes, and then we were presented with a large map screen on which we could select different battlefields to fight. Some of these battlefields were occupied by the enemy; others were held solely by our own forces; and a few in the middle seemed to be currently contested, with units from both sides present. We'll be interested to find out how this strategic element works when we get to see a more complete version of the game.

We'll admit, the graphics in this PSP Dynasty Warriors were a bit less impressive than those in recent PS2 versions. This was primarily due to the fact that there were noticeably fewer enemies (and allies) onscreen at one time as there usually are on the big console, which is most likely a frame rate-saving measure. The ground textures were a bit on the low-resolution side, as well, which was mostly obvious to us because we're used to seeing these games looking a particular way on the PS2. That's not to say Shin Sangoku Musou looks bad by any stretch; it just doesn't look quite as good as its big brothers. Of course, all of these issues are subject to improvement as development continues.

We played what seemed to be a pretty early demo of Shin Sangoku Musou, but the basic Dynasty Warriors style of play was already in place. The build was obviously set up as a specific demo to show off the polished aspects of the game. We look forward to finding out more about how the classic action fits together with any new gameplay elements as Koei shepherds the game toward its eventual completion.

For more updates, be sure to check GameSpot's coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2004.