Over 40 characters, with only three types of weapons (five if we count novel as accurate or include bows) to choose between them? The game makers shouldn't even try to improve anything else, simply avoiding boredom for the players by trying to give each character a different moveset will take all their time. Even when they had fewer characters, koei avoided just going spear/halberd/sword, Dw2 had Ci using his rods, DW3 had Tong with his staff, Zhuge Liang his fan for example. RTK can avoid doing this as nobody is going to play every character and it is based more on planning rather then killing every solder.

Dw isn't about war. DW has tentatively showed some aspects of it (Zhao Yun fighting a child soldier, character deaths, the protests in Yi about the invasion, Chang Ban peasants, burning the capital) granted but even that is a glimpse. It has never come close, or tried to, on being the same level of brutally depressing realism of Call of Duty Modern Warfare games or James Barclay's two novels on the Ascendants. While DW does take things from the historical works when it suits, it has tended to lean towards the novel: More honourable, not all the warlords are ambitious tyrants, Shu is Wei's biggest threat rather then Wu, magic in battle, the Guan Dao and so on. Even then, DW still neuters it. That isn't a criticism, DW simply doesn't try to be a realistic reflection of the war and never has, it has always tried to be a fun game (and a cash cow for the more strategic games I suspect) with interesting characters based loosely on the three kingdoms novel. It has never been a game which is going to leave the players thinking "If I was in Yu Jin/Liu Shan's position, what would I really have done? Would I have done a Pang De/Liu Chen or would I have sought to save those under me by surrendering?" 

Let us be honest about the time, it was horrible. It was so bad, the population of China pretty much collapsed, the famines meant people resorted to cannibalism, atrocities were committed by warlords and generals (Cao Cao's massacre of Xu, Gan Ning's acts of murder for example), let us not forget the results when a city fell. With rare exceptions (Liu Yu and Tian Chou from the top of my head, maybe Liu Shan and Sun Xiu) the warlords were ambitious gits who were ruthless in getting what they wanted. The moral system of generations was ill-suited to the situation which left Xun Yu and co having difficulty knowing what the right thing to do was, eventually the old Confucian ways reasserted themselves (by force in the case of overthrowing the liberals like He Yan), men were killed or forced to kill themselves for opposing their lord, for simply being a threat to the succession or simply died due to injustice against them. Woman were still property for the most part though some like Xin Xianying escaped that role, others like Zhen Ji didn't. Obviously not everything was bad, medical knowledge advanced due to  some excellent doctors, Wei and Liu Biao managed to revive literature, Sun Quan and his ministers turned the south from a place of exile into one of the most prosperous region of China and thus changed history, people could get jobs based on merit, eventually the famines in the north where stopped by reforms. None the less, this was a bleak period for the people and can you say DW has come close to reflecting this? 

There are aspects of history I would like to see added, or brought back, example not every ending being a happy one and character deaths of past games. I would retain the balance in the good/evil stakes like in 6 (would take it further) rather then revert back to "Shu=good" of old. DW will probably never be a three kingdoms Call of Duty, it isn't going to go for the realistic reflection of war and make us think of the horrors, it will probably always be a game with exaggerated characters wearing non realistic clothing, wielding unique weapons, trying to get 1,000 kills and being a little bit of fun. So the argument they should have realistic weapons as it is a game based on war, for me, doesn't really work

Almost all Other's are tyrants indeed. IF Koei wants to make something made up they should do that to Wei Yan

I mean he did betray Shu in the 4th book right

jeffhardy141

 The only other character I would call an out and out tyrant is Dong. Lu Bu's rough side is softened by Chan, Yuan Shao may be arrogant but he isn't evil, Jiao is a mystic hippy, the Nanman are Naman. The problem with Dong is that he doesn't come across as a skilled man, a threat to be afraid of, just a evil fat person without much character development.

As for Wei Yan, not going to happen I suspect as I think it would upset too many fans. Yes the novel twists his actions into an act of treason, but that part of the novel doesn't work nowadays as an anti Wei Yan/pro Liang propaganda. So many people now see the novel Wei Yan as a victim of Zhuge Liang's distrust rather then as a traitor that it hurts Liang's reputation

Zhang Jiao, always hated his moveset and his voice goes from funny to annoying.

Would like koei to work on making Dong a more impressive figure and change Sun Quan from Mr Bland of Blandsville into the historically entertaining figure that he was. Tries to burn Zhang Zhao out of the house so he can apologise to his adviser, hunts tigers barehanded, a charismatic figure who kept Wu's difficult officer core under control until old age dimmed his abilities, had massive drinking parties. Skilled ruler and warrior too yet koei somehow make this man so bland, watching paint dry is more fun. 

I agree with certain points, the AI one for example and feel meh about others like the trophy. I would disagree with the second point however, the one about removed characters and weapons.

Koei has perhaps overstretched themselves by having so many characters that all need new stories, new dialog and new costumes each game, which takes up time that could be used on working on the fundamentals of the game. Perhaps koei need to go further and cut down the musou mode characters to something like ten, lengthen their stories and concentrate on the main work needed to bring the game up to a far better standard. They can rotate the characters so DW8 would have ten different people and so on,helping keep stories fresh. In terms of weapons, assuming we include the novel's inaccurate weapons, you still have a lot of people with the exact same weapons aka spear, sword, halberd. Didn't mind the Lu Bu change, at least they were trying something different. 

Well I played the demo and I found it quit good and I'm thinking about buying.
So I was wondering is there any online or split screen offline coop?

DarkSevens

Nope, one player only

Awesome game, always glad to see it getting some praise.

Good games take time to make and while they do that, I can finish off the games I have yet to complete. Heaven knows how big my gaming pile would be if games took little time to make!

I would rather wait an extra 6 months for a game to be perfected then have it released before the makers were happy with it, I can read or do something else if I'm low on games.

I have done that once or twice but usually go back quickly to just doing 1 at a time.

Most of the time I get used games, probably 90%