00:00Dynasty Warrior games are some of my favorite types of games. Are they mindless? Yes. Are they
00:12basically the same game repackaged with more content every time? Yes. But are they fun?
00:18Absolutely. There's truly nothing like mowing down hordes of enemies with my favorite Chinese
00:24war criminals. It's an addictive game loop that's kept me around since Dynasty Warriors 8. However,
00:31most of my experience with Dynasty Warriors tends to be front-loaded. I haven't really bothered with
00:36very many of the older titles, so now's a good time as any. So join me, dear viewer, as we go
00:42all the way back to the year 2000 and start our Dynasty Warriors journey.
00:54Some of you are probably wondering why I'm starting with Dynasty Warriors 2 and not 1. No,
01:11it's not because I can't count, but Dynasty Warriors 1 isn't really a Warriors game. It's more like a
01:18fighting game, and it's a bare-bones one at that. This is also my retrospective, so if I feel like
01:24skipping a game in the series, I'm entitled to do so. For my retrospective, I have played through
01:29Zhao Yun and Guan Yu story modes. There's not really a huge difference between the story modes
01:36with each character. They all pretty much share the same cutscenes. Well, since there really isn't
01:42much to talk about in terms of story, I guess I better talk about the gameplay then. So, I'm a
01:48zoomer, and I'm more accustomed to the recent Dynasty Warrior titles like 8 and the anime titles.
01:54They usually offer quick-paced and satisfying gameplay, so I was not prepared by how different
02:00the older games were. The older gameplay is much slower than the newer ones, and way more challenging.
02:08This time, instead of essentially being able to crush through all the peons and beat the weight of
02:13the commander, you slowly make your way up to the boss. I guess grounded would be a good term to
02:19describe it. Or as grounded as a game franchise that features a giant red man with a green spear
02:25could be. At first, I really disliked this approach to gameplay because I was used to the more modern
02:31games, but over time, I started to like it. Either that or I have Stockholm Syndrome. It makes you feel
02:38like you're actually part of an army. Even though you might be a powerful warrior, you can die just as
02:44easily as your comrades if you aren't careful enough. Although, I think I'm a little bit better
02:49than the AI in this game because they're absolutely brain dead. Your army is pretty much just cannon
02:55fodder like always. There's another reason I only chose to play two characters in this game as opposed
03:01to the whole cast, and it's because I have many problems with the combat itself. So, this being a game
03:08that's first of its kind, it's really rough around the edges. The combat itself feels very awkward and
03:15stiff, which is made no better by the fact that you have a limited moveset. This can make stringing
03:21moves together quite difficult. Dynasty warrior games often get accused of being very repetitive,
03:27and I agree, but it's made much more tolerable by the fact that you have a bigger moveset in later
03:32games. Put that together with a combined length of the levels, thanks to how slow they are,
03:37and you have a chore to play on your hands. You can lower the difficulty levels to make the levels
03:43go by faster, but you're going to be spending at least 20 minutes doing this over and over in each
03:50level. To make matters worse, the enemies are also a bit spongy. Maybe this isn't fair because I'm used
03:57to the modern games where they go down in one hit. It'll feel like you're stuck in an area forever
04:02wailing away at enemies thanks to the low draw distance of the game. I think they pulled the old
04:08silent hill trick by covering everything in fog to hide the limitations. The bosses also can take a
04:14while to put down, not only due to them having larger health bars, but they also have the ability
04:20to heal sometimes. I don't mind the game being more difficult, but the bosses being allowed to heal
04:26after being knocked down is completely unfair. The strategy I usually did to avoid this was doing
04:33three consecutive hits instead of a full combo. Another modern convenience that is sorely missed
04:39is the ability to level up during the fights themselves. In this game, you don't really level
04:44up until after the battle is over. I do like the way that it's handled in this game though, while it
04:50is considered ranks instead. You even get a group of bodyguards that level up with you. I usually
04:56forget them though because like everybody else outside of me, they don't do anything. God, I'm so tired
05:03of doing all the hard work around here. It's like no one appreciates what I do. I mean, not even a thanks or
05:08Dynasty Warriors is a bit rough in my opinion. Although I appreciate it being the first of its kind,
05:16it's very janky and stiff in comparison to the more polished titles. Is it worth going back to though?
05:22In my opinion, not really. I feel like the series has come a long way since this game and each one adds
05:28more convenient and fun aspects to them. Dynasty Warriors 2 feels very outdated by today's standards.
05:35It's bare bones and to the point and that's what it's trying to do. I can't hate it, but I certainly
05:41don't love it. Make sure to stay tuned as we continue our retrospective with Dynasty Warriors 3. Until next time.
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