fantasy

Dynasty Warriors 4 is probably my favourite game right now. I remember when I walked into the store and laid eyes on the second one... I remember playing the third one for the first time... I was completely hooked!! A lot of stuff has changed. I thought Koei really outdone themselves.

You first start out with the kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu. In Wei the only people you can play with are Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, and Xiahou Yuan. For Wu you start off with Sun Jian, Huang Gai, and Sun Shang Xiang. Last, the characters you start with in Shu are Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei.

You pick a character and play in musou mode. As you keep on playing and passing stages, you'll gain and unlock things. You'll have more characters, items, other kingdoms, and you might even get a Tale! But for some characters you'll have to do something other than passing a stage to get.

Kingdom mode allows you to switch characters during musou mode, but it has to be someone from your kingdom. The new edit mode allows you to make your own officer and bodyguard units! All the warriors are back with three new ones. They're Wei's Cao Ren, Wu's Zhou Tai, and Yue Ying of Shu. The weapons are a bit different. They can go up to level 10, but you have to unlock the level 10 weapon. Other new things are the siege weapons and the orbs.

I hope you guys get Dynasty Warriors 4! It's very, very addictive and fun. I can't wait for DW4: Xtreme Legends, though...

As an avid fan of the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms games, I am fairly biased towards the Dynasty Warriors series. However, where these games excel is not in the strategy department, but in the pure excitement they generate for knowledgeable fans.

Don't get me wrong, inexperienced players can easily understand the stories contained in this game, but its the wealth of detail that pulls in us old-timers. Besides the great in-game cutscenes, the countless enemies in each battle, and the ludicrous amount of discoverable items and generals, there is also the wealth of history.

The 3 Kingdoms story revolves around one of the pivitol times in Chinese history. The Han dynasty was in collapse, and numerous warlords were attempting to carve themselves an empire. Among the many, there were 3 whose skills at diplomacy, combat, and treachery allowed them to stand above the rest. Dynasty Warriors 4 places you as a general in one of these empires. Will you help your sworn leader conquer, or will you let his enemies succeed.

Choose from approximately 9 starting generals, and with each successive victory gain new choices. Unlike past games, you are free to change your chosen combatant between each battle. Unlocking items, generals, and new stances and weapons for a general you created. That's right old-timers, Dynasty Warriors 4 allows you to create your own general, just like the old Romance of the 3 Kingdoms games. The only unfortunate part is the small numbers of choices for weapons and outfits. Given the large array of uniforms and designs, I only wish they had given these parts to build with.

All in all, Dynasty Warriors 4 is more of the same, but with more options, more generals, more battles, and lots more fun.

This is by far the best addition to the Dynasty Warriors series to date. Dynasty Warriors 4 has more characters, more levels, enhanced gameplay and graphics, improved artificial intelligence, and in fact, is better than its predecessors in every single way.

Musou mode has been replaced by Kingdom mode, which is basically the same thing, except you can change characters within a kingdom at any time of your choosing. Also, you can play as part of the kingdoms of Yuan Shao, Dong Zhuo, Meng Huo, or Lu Bu.

The weapons system is much better than before. You can build up weapons, and get level five weapons, which are incredibly powerful. There are three new characters, one per each kingdom. Among them is one of my personal favorites, Zhou Tai. There are more levels then ever before, each level is revamped, and due to a new AI system, each stage is slightly different everytime you play it.

The create a warrior (CAW) still needs some work. You are very limited in what you can do, appearance, weapon and movement-wise, and at this point, the CAW really isnt worth your time. There is a nice compendium of information on all the officers, even the nonplayable ones.

Interestling, two characters are missing in Dynasty Warriors 4 from Dynasty Warriors 3. The mythological characters Nu Wa and Fu Xi. While neither, even mythologically, existed in this time period, they were still interesting additions, and we're the only characters to use a rapier and claymore, respectively.

This game is simply fantastic, and is highly addictive. If you are going to by any Dynasty Warriors game, make it this one, because it is by far the best of the series.