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Eirinn
01-27-14 09:56 PM
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OrdannonsX
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Yet another installation in the DW franchise

 
Game's Ratings
Overall
Graphics
Sound
Addictiveness
Depth
Story
Difficulty
Average User Score
7.6
10
5
9
9
5
5
Eirinn's Score
7.6
10
5
9
9
5
5

01-27-14 09:56 PM
Eirinn is Offline
| ID: 969359 | 2463 Words

Eirinn
Level: 154


POSTS: 2734/7900
POST EXP: 1300417
LVL EXP: 45887817
CP: 69368.0
VIZ: 1836533

Likes: 0  Dislikes: 0
I remember getting my PlayStation 2 a few years ago, when the PlayStation 3 was nearly halfway through it's lifespan. I received it as a gift, it was used and came with several games (most of which were games that I didn't want, but you can't beat free, right?). Out of the twelve or so titles that came with it, only three of them really stuck out to me, but I still loved my new and only console. Needless to say, I played those games to the near-death of them, and eventually wanted some new games. So when I went looking for some, I found none other than Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires. Swords? Massive battles? Strategy? War? I was almost adducted before I even put it into my PS2, however, I couldn't get it right then, and so had to wait about a month before I could claim this awesome looking game from the bargin bin. During that time, I thought about it often, sad but true. I will never forget the day I managed to scoop it up finally, with a few other titles in the same bargain bin. I immediately popped it into the PS2, and stared at the glowing screen and various company names as they scrolled by, with wide eyes, full of childlike wonder. Bear in mind, this was my first game since the PSX/N64 era that wasn't either a kid's game, or a sports game, with the exception of Narnia and Narnia 2. My first taste of almost modern action games! Heck, I hadn't even played an action game on any console in eleven years (again with the exclusion of the two Narnia games)! As I went into that first battle, I was only halfway prepared for what was in store for me.

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is set in China, and offers several campaigns to play through, along with many other options and modes. Variety is the order of the day here.

The gameplay is simple: you always either capture the enemy base, eliminate the enemies, or protect your home base. Straight forward, simple, and fun.

The controls are equally simple, with the only thing that could cause you any trouble being the parrying system, but in all honesty, you won't need to parry if you equip yourself correctly. In fact, I've beaten this game on the highest difficulty (and every other difficulty for that matter) and have yet to have a need to parry, which is an unfortunate thing in my opinion.

So now that we've covered my recent gaming history as well as unecessarily delving into my personal game collection and a bunch of other stuff that served as a better sleep aid than a bottle of Nyquil, let's get into the rating portion of the review.


Graphics: 10/10
Incredible.

Typically a game has to offer something more than flawless graphics to get a ten from me, it has to go beyond what's expected. This game however, manages to get the ten from sharp graphics alone, since it offers better graphics than just about every other PS2 game I own, with the possible exception of some PGA games, but the amount of content that's packed into this one (several areas that are all very large, a large number of people on screen at once, and more), makes accomplishing such a feat far more impressive.

The sprites are very smooth, look great, and animate fluidly and realisticly, with the exception of some exaggerated abilities like leaping seven feet in the air and doing a perfect backflip...from flat on your back, or jumping seven feet and freezing in mid-air while pulling off a three swipe sword combo attack (and actually going higher in the air with each swing), leaving us with so many questions, like Why are these people fighting, rather than pursuing a career in acrobatics? How do they levitate and even more pressing, how do they climb higher whilst magically suspended mid-air like that? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know. And yet, the lack of realistic physics don't even manage to ruin the effect of the game's graphics. I mean, what are game's, if not fantasy?

The environments are a little less impressive though, with grass that looks fake (something in a game is fake? Shock, right?), and slightly less than believable snow effects, but those are small things to complain about when the actual structural designs and other various surroundings are taken into consideration. The ripples that spread as the soldiers run through puddles and shallow streams, the particle effects that accompany attacks, and the blur effects of Musou Rage all succeed at impressing visually. All things considered, the occasional failed grass blade or awkwardly square hill are small potatoes by comparison to the many other things that make the rest of the graphics stand out.

Highlights:
-Everything except the grass. Can I say that?

-Smooth and realistic looking characters

-Nice effects


Sound: 5/10
Average.

In a world where console games are made on DVD's, it's often difficult to rate a game anything less than good on audio, especially when it's considered that a game's audio tracks anymore are Mp3, not MIDIs and digitized bleeps and bloops. Still, there comes along that game once in a while that has some of the most memorable tracks that you've heard in a game in ages, and makes you want to turn up the volume to max and enjoy it. This is not that game however.

Truth be told, I nearly rated this game a ten for audio, because it offers such a large variety of music to play to, and lets you hand pick the track before each battle. With over one-hundred and twenty tracks (though only around a hundred are worth having, as some are five second clips), there's a lot to be heard. Then it occured to me: quantity doesn't equal quality. Sadly most of the tunes here aren't that enjoyable in a game about fighting (light acoustic piano befitting a dramatic musical, anyone?). Nothing like slashing your enemies to pieces while jamming out with classical piano ballad instrumentals.

So yeah, spending a half hour cycling through over a hundred tunes, looking for a good one to battle to isn't that much fun. In the end, the quantity of tunes actually hurts this game's audio rating more than help it, as it includes plenty of tunes that should never have been included in the game.

The sound effects aren't bad, and really don't give any reason to complain at all, but they all kind of just end up blending in with everything so much that you don't really notice them. The quality is good, but the way they execute is more mundane than anything, since the whole game is just fighting battle after battle, making them quickly become completely overlooked. Kind of like those noises you heard at night in your room as a kid: you eventually outgrew the fear of them and they just became so ordinary to you that you didn't even notice them again. Either that, or you took a baseball bat and bashed that boogeyman's head so hard, he moved into your parent's closet instead. Either way, the effect of the noise wore off, and so do these.

Highlights:
-Plenty of tracks to listen to, even if some aren't exactly befitting a war game


Story: 5/10
Average.

This was tough now, seeing as how there are no real storylines in the game, save a couple of cutscenes, but there is an entire encyclopedia section explaining the entire story of the Chinese kingdoms through each warrior featured in the game. So as you can see, it's like the most detailed story in a game with no story to follow. Odd indeed.

However, should you choose to spend an hour or two reading through the entire encyclopedia section, you will have a good understanding of each character, the role they play, and what side they were on in each scenario. Had these stories actually been incorporated into the gameplay as they should have been, the story would have been a solid 12/10, unfortunately, KOEI missed the boat on this aspect of the game that could have easily set this game so far apart from the crowd.

Highlights:
-Detailed encyclopedias to read, if you can handle all of the text book like layout


Depth: 9/10
Excellent.

Two Modes to play here: Free and Empire. Free let's you have a battle on any territory in the game, select what officer you want to be, how many officers you want, if you want to attack or defend, if you want to have more, less, or the same amount of troops as the enemy, what equipment and tactics you wish to use (you can only use equipment and tactics that you have unlocked in Empire Mode), and more. It cannot be said that there is a lack of options here, and the large variety of areas, options, and settings, actually allows for several hours of enjoyment in Free Mode alone. This play time is only lengthened by the urge to beat your best time and KO counts for each area. Needless to say, being the perfectionist that I am, I spent several days playing Free Mode when I first got the game, and that's when playing probably four or five hours a day. This one will definitely suck the time away if you're at all a completionist or perfectionist.

Don't like the officers that are available to you? Create your own! The options here are numerous as well, with the option of using several different outfits, or mixing them together, as well as picking an appearance, looks, and fighting style and weapon(s) (go with Eastern Sword. Trust me).

Finished honing your skills and training your favorite officers stats? Head into Empire mode, and begin by quelling the Yellow Turban rebellion, then progress through several "stories". Build your empire, Hire officers, Fire officers, seek counsel of your officers, cause riots in opposing kingdoms, entice a foe's officer to turn on their master in battle and join your forces, poison the enemy troops, gain allies, choose whether you want to hire, release, or execute enemy officers that you capture in battle, rule your people with kindness or an iron fist, it's all up to you, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are more "Strategies" and Tactics than I could list here, as well as a wide range of weapons, items, and mounts that you can produce. The possibilities may not be limitless, but they are vast, and trying to exhaust all of them would be futile unless you wish to spend months working at it.

Unfortunately, the gameplay can't quite live up to the strategy portion of Empire Mode, with literally every battle being the same: capture a base, or protect your base. There's only so much depth that this kind of monotonous approach to gameplay can offer, and herein lies the downfall of Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires. The strategy phase is brilliant, allowing you to plot your next attack, work on foreign relations, balance a budget, work on your kingdom's defences, research and develop, build, work on Public Relations with your subjects, and so much more. Sadly, the battles are what it all leads up to, and they never offer much variety. Had they instituted various objectives for battles rather than Capture/Defend the base or capture the ruler, we would have had a phenominal game on our hands. Sadly, such is not the case, and we have far less enjoyable gameplay than we could have had because of that. At least what we do have is still entertaining and worth a few plays.

Highlights:
-Fully customizable gameplay in Free Mode

-More bells, whistles, and fun little twists to tinker with in Empire Mode

-Offers enough content to keep you busy for weeks, and possibly months


Addictiveness: 9/10
Excellent.

This is definitely something I'll come back to again, and probably many times, and let's not mention all of the time that I spent on this one before finally moving on to a new game. My family struggled to recognize me, and I spent the next three days tearing down "Missing" posters of myself all over town...okay, so I may have embellished that just a bit, but it gets the point across.

So while you may not be forever addicted to this game, you probably will have many long hours of fun exploring all of the possibilities that this one offers to fans of Strategy, Simulation, and Action games, especially those completionists and prefectionists among us.


Difficulty: 5/10
Average.

The challenge here is all dependant on the gamer and their choices. Want to be outnumbered? Want to take weaker officers to battle with you? You'll have a challenge on your hands. On the other hand, if you choose to have more troops and better trained officers, you'll have an exceptionally easy time. Finally, you can balance out your officers skills and and your numbers for a fair fight. There are also four difficulties to select: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Chaos. Finally, the weapons, items, strategies, and tactics that you employ will also play a large factor in the difficulty of the game. For example, if I take my created character into battle, even on Chaos, I rarely have a challenge on my hands, but if I take a character with a weak weapon, I can struggle even on lower difficulties. It's all in the option selections you make.


Overall: 7.6/10
Very Good.

If you're considering purchasing Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires I would recommend doing so, unless you already own a Dynasty Warriors game, as they're all pretty much the same, with only the smallest of variations. If you're looking for something that offers a lot of content, you'll struggle to find anything on the PS2 that offers more content and customization. However, if you're looking for something that offers variety in the actual gameplay, you may want to pass this one by, as even with all of the options and variations available, the battle system and in-battle gameplay never really changes any at all.

My personal recommendation? Buy it if it's ten bucks or less. Otherwise, you may be better off looking for a better title.


At the end of the day, Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is a good stand alone game that offers plenty of customization, but fails to match those options with varied gameplay. It's worth a few bucks, and will keep you entertained, but it isn't likely to become your favorite game. My opinion: buy it cheap, put it into your console, and enjoy it for a while.
I remember getting my PlayStation 2 a few years ago, when the PlayStation 3 was nearly halfway through it's lifespan. I received it as a gift, it was used and came with several games (most of which were games that I didn't want, but you can't beat free, right?). Out of the twelve or so titles that came with it, only three of them really stuck out to me, but I still loved my new and only console. Needless to say, I played those games to the near-death of them, and eventually wanted some new games. So when I went looking for some, I found none other than Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires. Swords? Massive battles? Strategy? War? I was almost adducted before I even put it into my PS2, however, I couldn't get it right then, and so had to wait about a month before I could claim this awesome looking game from the bargin bin. During that time, I thought about it often, sad but true. I will never forget the day I managed to scoop it up finally, with a few other titles in the same bargain bin. I immediately popped it into the PS2, and stared at the glowing screen and various company names as they scrolled by, with wide eyes, full of childlike wonder. Bear in mind, this was my first game since the PSX/N64 era that wasn't either a kid's game, or a sports game, with the exception of Narnia and Narnia 2. My first taste of almost modern action games! Heck, I hadn't even played an action game on any console in eleven years (again with the exclusion of the two Narnia games)! As I went into that first battle, I was only halfway prepared for what was in store for me.

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is set in China, and offers several campaigns to play through, along with many other options and modes. Variety is the order of the day here.

The gameplay is simple: you always either capture the enemy base, eliminate the enemies, or protect your home base. Straight forward, simple, and fun.

The controls are equally simple, with the only thing that could cause you any trouble being the parrying system, but in all honesty, you won't need to parry if you equip yourself correctly. In fact, I've beaten this game on the highest difficulty (and every other difficulty for that matter) and have yet to have a need to parry, which is an unfortunate thing in my opinion.

So now that we've covered my recent gaming history as well as unecessarily delving into my personal game collection and a bunch of other stuff that served as a better sleep aid than a bottle of Nyquil, let's get into the rating portion of the review.


Graphics: 10/10
Incredible.

Typically a game has to offer something more than flawless graphics to get a ten from me, it has to go beyond what's expected. This game however, manages to get the ten from sharp graphics alone, since it offers better graphics than just about every other PS2 game I own, with the possible exception of some PGA games, but the amount of content that's packed into this one (several areas that are all very large, a large number of people on screen at once, and more), makes accomplishing such a feat far more impressive.

The sprites are very smooth, look great, and animate fluidly and realisticly, with the exception of some exaggerated abilities like leaping seven feet in the air and doing a perfect backflip...from flat on your back, or jumping seven feet and freezing in mid-air while pulling off a three swipe sword combo attack (and actually going higher in the air with each swing), leaving us with so many questions, like Why are these people fighting, rather than pursuing a career in acrobatics? How do they levitate and even more pressing, how do they climb higher whilst magically suspended mid-air like that? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know. And yet, the lack of realistic physics don't even manage to ruin the effect of the game's graphics. I mean, what are game's, if not fantasy?

The environments are a little less impressive though, with grass that looks fake (something in a game is fake? Shock, right?), and slightly less than believable snow effects, but those are small things to complain about when the actual structural designs and other various surroundings are taken into consideration. The ripples that spread as the soldiers run through puddles and shallow streams, the particle effects that accompany attacks, and the blur effects of Musou Rage all succeed at impressing visually. All things considered, the occasional failed grass blade or awkwardly square hill are small potatoes by comparison to the many other things that make the rest of the graphics stand out.

Highlights:
-Everything except the grass. Can I say that?

-Smooth and realistic looking characters

-Nice effects


Sound: 5/10
Average.

In a world where console games are made on DVD's, it's often difficult to rate a game anything less than good on audio, especially when it's considered that a game's audio tracks anymore are Mp3, not MIDIs and digitized bleeps and bloops. Still, there comes along that game once in a while that has some of the most memorable tracks that you've heard in a game in ages, and makes you want to turn up the volume to max and enjoy it. This is not that game however.

Truth be told, I nearly rated this game a ten for audio, because it offers such a large variety of music to play to, and lets you hand pick the track before each battle. With over one-hundred and twenty tracks (though only around a hundred are worth having, as some are five second clips), there's a lot to be heard. Then it occured to me: quantity doesn't equal quality. Sadly most of the tunes here aren't that enjoyable in a game about fighting (light acoustic piano befitting a dramatic musical, anyone?). Nothing like slashing your enemies to pieces while jamming out with classical piano ballad instrumentals.

So yeah, spending a half hour cycling through over a hundred tunes, looking for a good one to battle to isn't that much fun. In the end, the quantity of tunes actually hurts this game's audio rating more than help it, as it includes plenty of tunes that should never have been included in the game.

The sound effects aren't bad, and really don't give any reason to complain at all, but they all kind of just end up blending in with everything so much that you don't really notice them. The quality is good, but the way they execute is more mundane than anything, since the whole game is just fighting battle after battle, making them quickly become completely overlooked. Kind of like those noises you heard at night in your room as a kid: you eventually outgrew the fear of them and they just became so ordinary to you that you didn't even notice them again. Either that, or you took a baseball bat and bashed that boogeyman's head so hard, he moved into your parent's closet instead. Either way, the effect of the noise wore off, and so do these.

Highlights:
-Plenty of tracks to listen to, even if some aren't exactly befitting a war game


Story: 5/10
Average.

This was tough now, seeing as how there are no real storylines in the game, save a couple of cutscenes, but there is an entire encyclopedia section explaining the entire story of the Chinese kingdoms through each warrior featured in the game. So as you can see, it's like the most detailed story in a game with no story to follow. Odd indeed.

However, should you choose to spend an hour or two reading through the entire encyclopedia section, you will have a good understanding of each character, the role they play, and what side they were on in each scenario. Had these stories actually been incorporated into the gameplay as they should have been, the story would have been a solid 12/10, unfortunately, KOEI missed the boat on this aspect of the game that could have easily set this game so far apart from the crowd.

Highlights:
-Detailed encyclopedias to read, if you can handle all of the text book like layout


Depth: 9/10
Excellent.

Two Modes to play here: Free and Empire. Free let's you have a battle on any territory in the game, select what officer you want to be, how many officers you want, if you want to attack or defend, if you want to have more, less, or the same amount of troops as the enemy, what equipment and tactics you wish to use (you can only use equipment and tactics that you have unlocked in Empire Mode), and more. It cannot be said that there is a lack of options here, and the large variety of areas, options, and settings, actually allows for several hours of enjoyment in Free Mode alone. This play time is only lengthened by the urge to beat your best time and KO counts for each area. Needless to say, being the perfectionist that I am, I spent several days playing Free Mode when I first got the game, and that's when playing probably four or five hours a day. This one will definitely suck the time away if you're at all a completionist or perfectionist.

Don't like the officers that are available to you? Create your own! The options here are numerous as well, with the option of using several different outfits, or mixing them together, as well as picking an appearance, looks, and fighting style and weapon(s) (go with Eastern Sword. Trust me).

Finished honing your skills and training your favorite officers stats? Head into Empire mode, and begin by quelling the Yellow Turban rebellion, then progress through several "stories". Build your empire, Hire officers, Fire officers, seek counsel of your officers, cause riots in opposing kingdoms, entice a foe's officer to turn on their master in battle and join your forces, poison the enemy troops, gain allies, choose whether you want to hire, release, or execute enemy officers that you capture in battle, rule your people with kindness or an iron fist, it's all up to you, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are more "Strategies" and Tactics than I could list here, as well as a wide range of weapons, items, and mounts that you can produce. The possibilities may not be limitless, but they are vast, and trying to exhaust all of them would be futile unless you wish to spend months working at it.

Unfortunately, the gameplay can't quite live up to the strategy portion of Empire Mode, with literally every battle being the same: capture a base, or protect your base. There's only so much depth that this kind of monotonous approach to gameplay can offer, and herein lies the downfall of Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires. The strategy phase is brilliant, allowing you to plot your next attack, work on foreign relations, balance a budget, work on your kingdom's defences, research and develop, build, work on Public Relations with your subjects, and so much more. Sadly, the battles are what it all leads up to, and they never offer much variety. Had they instituted various objectives for battles rather than Capture/Defend the base or capture the ruler, we would have had a phenominal game on our hands. Sadly, such is not the case, and we have far less enjoyable gameplay than we could have had because of that. At least what we do have is still entertaining and worth a few plays.

Highlights:
-Fully customizable gameplay in Free Mode

-More bells, whistles, and fun little twists to tinker with in Empire Mode

-Offers enough content to keep you busy for weeks, and possibly months


Addictiveness: 9/10
Excellent.

This is definitely something I'll come back to again, and probably many times, and let's not mention all of the time that I spent on this one before finally moving on to a new game. My family struggled to recognize me, and I spent the next three days tearing down "Missing" posters of myself all over town...okay, so I may have embellished that just a bit, but it gets the point across.

So while you may not be forever addicted to this game, you probably will have many long hours of fun exploring all of the possibilities that this one offers to fans of Strategy, Simulation, and Action games, especially those completionists and prefectionists among us.


Difficulty: 5/10
Average.

The challenge here is all dependant on the gamer and their choices. Want to be outnumbered? Want to take weaker officers to battle with you? You'll have a challenge on your hands. On the other hand, if you choose to have more troops and better trained officers, you'll have an exceptionally easy time. Finally, you can balance out your officers skills and and your numbers for a fair fight. There are also four difficulties to select: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Chaos. Finally, the weapons, items, strategies, and tactics that you employ will also play a large factor in the difficulty of the game. For example, if I take my created character into battle, even on Chaos, I rarely have a challenge on my hands, but if I take a character with a weak weapon, I can struggle even on lower difficulties. It's all in the option selections you make.


Overall: 7.6/10
Very Good.

If you're considering purchasing Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires I would recommend doing so, unless you already own a Dynasty Warriors game, as they're all pretty much the same, with only the smallest of variations. If you're looking for something that offers a lot of content, you'll struggle to find anything on the PS2 that offers more content and customization. However, if you're looking for something that offers variety in the actual gameplay, you may want to pass this one by, as even with all of the options and variations available, the battle system and in-battle gameplay never really changes any at all.

My personal recommendation? Buy it if it's ten bucks or less. Otherwise, you may be better off looking for a better title.


At the end of the day, Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is a good stand alone game that offers plenty of customization, but fails to match those options with varied gameplay. It's worth a few bucks, and will keep you entertained, but it isn't likely to become your favorite game. My opinion: buy it cheap, put it into your console, and enjoy it for a while.
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Eirinn


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 07-18-12
Last Post: 2031 days
Last Active: 2031 days

02-02-14 03:06 AM
OrdannonsX is Offline
| ID: 972362 | 55 Words

OrdannonsX
Level: 51


POSTS: 340/623
POST EXP: 89343
LVL EXP: 977101
CP: 7304.9
VIZ: 179687

Likes: 0  Dislikes: 0
Ah, Dynasty Warriors. Been a long time. Great review as always.

'Kind of like those noises you heard at night in your room as a kid: you eventually outgrew the fear of them and they just became so ordinary to you that you didn't even notice them again' - I love how this is written!
Ah, Dynasty Warriors. Been a long time. Great review as always.

'Kind of like those noises you heard at night in your room as a kid: you eventually outgrew the fear of them and they just became so ordinary to you that you didn't even notice them again' - I love how this is written!
Member
Devoted Amateur Reviewer


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 06-06-13
Location: the netherlands
Last Post: 3033 days
Last Active: 3032 days

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