Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires

Developed and Published by Koei Tecmo, Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is the latest expansion to the Dynasty Warriors series. The original Dynasty Warriors 9 came out in 2018 in the UK so has much been done to make this expansion impressive and how does the game fair now that it has been optimised for the Xbox Series consoles? Sadly, the original game didn’t impress my colleague those years ago, but having not played that title myself I went in without any prior knowledge.

There isn’t just a singular story here, it is more of a collection of stories. The intro looks pretty awesome as they always do with this game series but although the graphics look vibrant I wouldn’t say they are pushing the Series S/X too hard. The main menu is very direct and you only have one game style to play: Conquest mode. This allows you to select from different periods where certain scenarios are happening. I remember some of these events from previous games in the series and they are always interesting to experience.

I have started a few of the different Conquest choices and to be honest, they don’t differ too much. Usually, it starts with a cutscene with the leader and their first officer saying they are going to try and unite the land or something along those lines. After the cutscene, the same strategy sections then play out and I have to say I am not really a fan of this.

The whole point of the Empire‘s expansion on the Dynasty Warriors game is that it’s not just the usual slaughter-fest that the base game is. But the strategy elements just for me feel really flat and dull. Part of it is that it is just poorly explained and not that I ever played risk but I would feel like this is what it would be like. There is quite a lot to take in but I feel quite sure what the best options are. I feel there could have been more explanation on all the different options and maybe some recommended actions. It is designed so you can’t just invade everyone on every turn to try and steamroll the enemy. This is because you have limited resources and every invasion costs money, supplies and soldiers. Leaving yourself short in any area will see you at a massive disadvantage if you tried to invade again or if you had to defend yourself from an enemy’s invasion.

It is structured that you have a war council every 6 months and you have to set your objectives of what you would like to achieve. You can review the domestic affairs where you can improve your resources in the short term in preparation for an invasion or develop your land so you gain more resources each turn and play the long game? Maybe you want to train your soldiers so they are more efficient in suggesting plans or strategies. Or maybe you want to improve their fighting ability so they are more useful in defending or invading. There are many more options to choose from in regards to strolling around talking to your officers to improve your relationship with them or to the unaffiliated to try and recruit them for your cause. You can even try to poach enemy officers or broker a truce with another region to buy you some time to improve your army.

Usually the last of the 6 months is when your invasion usually happens unless you decided against invading in this turn. Defending an invasion could happen at any point in the 6 months and you do get a heads up so you can choose to fight in it or ignore it and hope not the defence holds up. The actual invasion or defence piece for me is where the fun happens. You get to prepare your character with his equipment and gems which enhance your fighting abilities depending on which gems you use. You can also assign secret plans which are special tactics that give you an edge in the battle once you have charged the meter to be able to use them. As with the base game you also have your four special attacks which differ per character and their unique Musou attack.  The combat is where the game flourishes as the 1 vs 1000 style is just pure fun and carnage.

When you are invading you need to take over as many bases as you can to deploy the battering rams and siege towers with which to bring the enemy defences down. Once the battering ram has opened the main gates you then dash to take on their leader and defeat them for the victory. Sounds simple but in reality, it is a bit of a juggling act as you have to be everywhere. The enemies will try and take all bases back, they will try and break your batter rams and siege towers. Your fellow officers may also be struggling and will ask for assistance. There are also special Secret plan events that you set before you start the battle. These can potentially turn the tide in battle but they require you to meet the conditions before they can take effect and the enemy will take try their hardest to scupper that event. Obviously when you are defending the roles are reversed and you have to defend for your life and take over as many bases as possible to deplete the enemy army. Then once the enemy general appears on the battlefield you have to bring them down for a successful defence. One of the most annoying parts for me that is not explained is after a successful invasion. Every enemy officer you take down you can potentially capture. You are then offered the chance to recruit them at the cost of resources, let them go or kill them. If you try and recruit them there is a chance they will decline your offer so you then have to either spare them or kill them. But it doesn’t explain the consequences of each option.

Some of these conquests can take hours and many sessions before you reach your goal and it’s designed that way so you can improve relations with your officers and possibly even marry one of your officers and have kids with them. Then as time progresses you also have the chance to have your child fight alongside you as a fellow officer but that is playing the long game and does seem a bit of a gimmick. Other conquests can be completed in one sitting so they are not all exceptionally long.

The only other feature of interest is the create your own officer mode where you customise the look and gender of your officer and base their actions off one of the many characters available. You can then use this custom character to be either the leader or an officer for the leader which is a nice touch.

But I have to mention the bad points aside from the quite dull strategy element. The graphics don’t look like they have improved from when the base game launched back in 2018. The character models never really looked bad but the maps themselves still look like bland blocky areas. Also considering this is supposed to be optimised for Series S/X I don’t know what has been optimised. There is still a lot of loading screens that occur that still take a while and if this is supposed to be optimised I can understand why the review of the base game was so poor.

Conclusion

 I don’t know who Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is for. The base game has a big fan base and the 1 vs 1000 combat is always fun to wade through. That’s no exception here the combat is still as fun as it ever was but unfortunately, the maps all feel the same and that battlefield rarely changes. I can’t get any joy from the strategy element and for me, it sucks a lot of life out of the game for little reward.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.