Most notably, the game features three new characters for Wei,returning officer from Dynasty Warriors 5character Pang De, who wields dual axes like Zhang Liao; Wang Yi, a newcharacter who uses dual blades at lightning quick speeds; and Guo Jia, astrategist who uses a staff and giant billiard balls to attack enemies. Thelatter two are quite interesting; whereas Wang Yi is a blast to play as sheplows through the field, Guo Jia’s billiard formation allow lots of fun to behad as he places them around him and even lets his musou rip enemies apart ashe can continues to attack.
On the weapon side, Omega Force has introduced four newweapons for preexisting characters Xiahou Dun, Zhao Yun, Guan Yu, and ZhangFei. Considering how iconic these characters are, it’s only right that theyreceived unique weapons this time around and it certainly aids the issue ofhaving multiple characters with eerily similar movesets in Dynasty Warriors 7. With these weapons, the four characters feelmore like their original selves from previous iterations of the game. Much likethe story of Romance of the ThreeKingdoms towards the end, the Wu kingdom is eerily silent, given noadditional rosters or weaponry, which will be disappointing to some fans.
Loyal fans of the series will be rewarded with the Remixmode, one that avid Dynasty Warriorsplayers will be familiar with, where players disc swap the original version withthe respective Xtreme Legends discfor additional content. This may have been acceptable ten years ago, but onlyproves to be an annoyance and inconvenience when DLC would have been a farbetter route. While previous versions of the Remix mode simply allow players toplay through the original’s campaign, Remix mode this time around actuallyenhances the story and conquest modes, adding multiplayer support, the newofficers from Xtreme Legends, and allowingplayers to use any officer desired.
New to this expansion is the inclusion of the Legend and Challengemodes. Legend mode offers another campaign for players as they build up a cityfrom its humble beginnings into a haven for the emperor, playing throughrecreations of stages from past Dynasty Warriorsgames and original level designs. To quench players’ thirst for item and weaponcollection, this mode offers additional item for players and weapons if theycomplete explicit conditions on the Chaos or Nightmare difficulties. This is awelcome change from the past, when players were forced to look through internetwalkthroughs instead just to seek the proper conditions for unlocking weapons. Thoughthis may sound daunting, the game’s inclusion of titles, which can have effectsfrom life absorption to increased damage against officers, makes the Chaosdifficulty more manageable, save for a couple of random hits that will quicklydrain away at a player’s life bar. Challenge mode offers players a chance to showtheir skills, either by taking down as many officers or troops as possible,knocking units off a platform while staying atop, or running through a level asquickly as possible.
Xtreme Legendsadds a healthy amount of new content for players who may have already plowedthrough Dynasty Warriors 7. However,the disc-based rather than DLC route proves to be an inconvenience that relieson decade old technology rather than embraces the new. This game definitelyimproves upon the original experience,but will be lost upon players who are playing sans Dynasty Warriors 7.
Available on: PS3; Publisher: Tecmo Koei; Developer: Omega Force; Players: 1-2; Released: November 15, 2011; ESRB: Teen; Official Site
Note: A retail copy was provided to Denkiphile for review purposes by the publisher.
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