The Dynasty Warriors franchise continues to move in the wrong direction.
STORY 5 out of 10. I am a huge fan of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, hence you may be surprised by this score. The reason I ranked it low is that the writers did not do a good enough job of immersing the player in the rich history of ROTK. They don't delve deeply enough into the relationships of the characters which makes games like DW7 better. Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, liu Bei and Cao Cao etc. makes the missions much more interesting. In DW 4, the writers did a very good job of staying true to the spirit of the source material, but also made it fun to play as a certain character. This is missing in DW7. Too wooden.
GRAPHICS 8 out of 10. Easily the best in the series, although there is a problem with vanishing enemies and, of course, the pesky third-person camera. Often, the action always seems to be taking place just behind and to the left of your character. Howevere, the game runs smoothly with no glitches as far as I can tell, colors are rich, backgrounds impressive. They also took one of my suggestions from years back: include older costumes for characters from previous games. Awesome. A problem I see with the new characters is the change from ROTK-accurate characters (Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun etc.) to what I call 'WWE' characters. The older characters, outfits, weapons etc. looked like they belonged in a historical Chinese epic (Huang Zhong etc.). The new characters look like they belong in a cage match in Madison Square Garden. New characters like Zhong Hui, Deng Ai and Sima Zhao and their goofy-looking weapons look like they either belong in a Final Fantasy game, or wrestling on Spike TV. A disappointment, but no surprise, really. Koei started doinjg this back with the Samurai Warriors series.
MUSIC & SOUND 7 out of 10. Typical Dynasty Warriors soundtrack...massive guitar riffs with a pop edge. Localization is good. Many voice-overs are done by the same actors from previous games. The sound effects are very similar to previous DW games, and in fact characters still use many of the exact same comments from previous games. One issue I have is that music from previous games ahs to be purchased through download from the PSN. Nuts to that. It should be included in the game. I can't believe we've arrived at the time when software developers who charge $60 to $70 per game are charging us extra for game music. Pathetic.
PLAYABILITY 4 out of 10. This is where my disappointment was greatest. With the capabilities of the PS3 Koei had a chance to really turn Dynasty Warriors into a battlefield experience. They could have added pre-mission tactical planning, more realistic seige missions, troop commands while on a mission. For instance, the Battle of Guan Du could have had actual supply lines coming out of the Wu Chao supply depot, which could have been destructible. You then follow the lines back to the supply depot, then acquire or command a fire unit to destroy the depot. Howevere, Koei chose to play it safe, apparently. DW7 plays almost exactly the same as previous installments in the franchise. Some seige machinery is interactive, but in a very juvenile way. A real disappointment. The morale meter was also removed, so it's difficult to tell how your forces are doing, overall. This could have been a really immersive game. Instead, it still plays very much like DW3.
REPLAY VALUE 7 out of 10. The features the new Conquest mode, very similar to the mercenary mode from DW5 XL, but online compatible. You can change characters mid-stream, too. While they eliminated Free Mode, the story modes are quite long. Combine this with the dozens of playable characters, and it would take the average person many hours to finish this game, if they were so inclined.
OVERALL 5 out of 10. After the disaster that was DW6, I had high hopes for this game. While the graphics and sound are good, the playability is stale and the chance for innovation ignored. The game is not immersive, relationships between the characters are not the focus and the new characters and weapons are so silly-looking it destroys the atmosphere. Koei needs to go back to the drawing board and reexamine why DW3 and DW4 were so much fun. Something has been lost.