“Dynasty Warriors 7” is a new breed in the long running series. It still functions in the same way more or less, but certain aspects have been altered thoroughly enough that I believe this to be a new cornerstone and landmark for the series. The combat, the story telling, the weapons, even the characters themselves have been altered. For good or bad I don’t yet know.Every character can now use almost every weapon type, so if you like some of the classic characters such as Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, but you think that they would look and play better with a sword rather than their regular naginata, then you are free to change their weapons at will.
Granted, all the characters have their favorite weapons that they are best with, and if you use their favorite weapon classes, you get special powerups, but this new feature certainly adds more depth and customizability to the mix.
Unlike with the older games, we no longer have different combos and moves for each character. All of the characters who use the same type of weapon have the same combo set.
For example, if you equip both Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang with a sword, they will have the same combo set with only a very subtle difference in their strong attacks, and their normal attacks will be the same.
I believe that this feature detracts from the uniqueness of the characters. I mean who would want a wizard and a warrior to wield the same weapon types in the same ways? It doesn’t make much sense, and it drags down the realism of the arts of combat and tactics.
The weapons themselves have even been altered for this new game. Not only does everybody use the same combo sets, but they all use the exact same weapons throughout the game. If anybody uses a particular sword, all will have the exact same sword. No more unique weapons for anyone. For example, Sun Jian, Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao and Huang Zhong all use the exact same sword.
On an upside, the story is certainly evolving, however. No more boring load screens from one battle to the next. The levels load as you watch the story play out, which is much more entertaining than it used to be.
The downside to the story mode is that we don’t play as any one specific character anymore. If you play the Shu story mode, for instance, you play through the entire history of the kingdom, not just one hero’s history. This helps keep you on your toes and interested because you have to play with all of the characters, never knowing whom you will use next.
All in all, this game was actually pretty good, but certainly very different from what the “Dynasty Warrior” community is used to. While this may upset some players, it is a chance to bring in newcomers and shake things up a little. The story is well written, the combat is fun as always, and the graphics and sound are on the level with its predecessors.
I give “Dynasty Warriors 7” a 3.5 out of 5.