Fun But Nothing Legendary | Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition Review

Dynasty Warriors is an old series with a die-hard fanbase that cannot get enough of the romanticized war era of China. The unique aspect of the Dynasty Warriors series is the wide range of reviews each title receives. Many people claim the games are repetitive, hack-n-slash garbage that gets a face lift with each installment while never really being new. Other people state these games are timeless fun with deep political campaigns and a colorful cast of characters. So what exactly is Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition then?

Well, besides being a mouthful, this is a packaged deal of getting the original Dynasty Warriors 8 game along with the Xtreme Legends DLC. This of course means there isn’t enough of a difference to purchase this game if you already own Dynasty Warriors 8. That stands true for purchasing it for the PS4 as well, because  the developers didn’t really add anything specifically for the next-gen. Only if you have not played this game yet will it be worth picking up.

There are a total of five campaigns to experience in the story mode. You will undoubtedly find yourself attached to one faction, but it is interesting to see the same battle from another side. Each campaign is at least a few hours long. However, completing certain objectives will unlock extra missions and even hypothetical timelines to experience. This lengthens the campaign even more.

Outside of the story mode, there is a free mode where you can select any battle that you have unlocked and play with any character from the massive character list. There are just over 80 characters to unlock with just as many weapons to experience. You will find at least one character you enjoy to play as, if not a dozen or more. I spent hours with different weapons and character combinations. Each character has their favorite weapons which will unleash their own special ex attack. All the characters have their own Musou attack as well, which is another powerful attack that requires energy to unleash. On top of all that, there is also a Rage bar, that once full, you can unleash even stronger attacks, with one super strong move at the end that will cut anyone into pieces.

All these weapon combinations and special attacks will certainly make you the feel like a god of war on the battlefield fighting against all the peons. It wouldn’t feel like a Dynasty Warriors game without obliterating hundreds of easy enemies as your trek across the battlefield. This is the hack-n-slash gameplay that the series has become so well-known for, in fact, being able to send hundreds of enemies flying in all directions is always one of the main draws to this series. I had a lot of fun in jumping in a giant group of people and button mashing my way to absolute domination, but as you might expect, after hours of fighting worthless little peasants, it does grow old.

Many of the battles felt the same. I got so use to the battles that eventually I could glance at the map and predict what would happen throughout the battle. I spent a battle only on the East side of the map, so I knew eventually there would be an ambush attack on the West side that I would have to put down. It was only a matter of time until I was alerted and had to ride all the way across the map to stop it. The predictability of battle easily annoyed me the most. I was never shocked when those “surprise” attacks happened. I never felt a panic or urgency to rush to my ally’s side. I felt annoyed that I had to traverse the map not fighting anyone to make sure I get there in time. The second you aren’t fighting anyone, the game loses almost all its fun.

That isn’t to say every single battle is the same, because there were many battles with unique twists. One had me fighting in a dark cave with low visibility, so my map was zoomed in closely, and it was easy to get lost in the tunnels. However, many of the battles do feel the same. This means unless you enjoy mindlessly hacking away at enemies forever (completely okay if you do), the game does have a tendency to grow slightly repetitive in some generic battles.

The way Dynasty Warriors always battles this repetitive boredom is fighting other enemy officers. On lower levels you can smash through these opponents just as easily as any nameless soldier, but when you increase the difficulty, you are in for a surprise. These battles cannot be won by button mashing alone. This is where the game attempts to deepen the combat so entire battles can’t be won with pressing a single button over and over.

The Complete Edition incorporates a rock-paper-scissors concept to all of its fighting. There are three affinities: Man, Heaven, and Earth. Man beats Heaven, Heaven beats Earth, and Earth beats man. You can carry two weapons into battle that you can switch at a moment’s notice, and it is always wise to have two different affinities so you are never stuck with a disadvantage. Likewise, enemy officers also have two weapons and can switch on the fly as well. Not only will you do more damage if your affinity is the stronger one, but you can also trigger a Storm Rush attack, where you get to unleash a series of devastating strikes in a row. When you have the weaker affinity equipped, the enemy officer can perform a Storm Rush, but if you time a weapon switch properly, then you will counter the enemy’s attack. You can already see this game isn’t all button mashing, there is a good amount of strategy and reflexes requires. This deepens the combat and does mix the gameplay up enough, so at the very least you cannot beat the entire game mashing only one button.

After killing thousands of people in campaign or free mode, you may want to try the challenge mode. This arcade-like mode has a preset setup for the character you play as, but has specific objects to accomplish to try and achieve the highest score. One level’s goal is to knock as many people off a bridge in the given amount of time. This mode is for score chasers that want to show off their times or high scores, and it’s even more content stuffed into this already overflowing package.

This game really comes with so much content it’s bursting at the seams, because if a story mode with easily a dozen hours, a free mode to replay stages with different characters, and a challenge mode wasn’t enough. There is also the Ambition mode incorporated in this game that you could easily spend more time on than the other three modes combined. You start with a very meager camp with the intent to build it into something grand. There are four types of battles you partake in. Skirmishes gain you materials, Great battles is the best way to gain lots of allies, Rescue battles will increase your fame, and Duels will gain you strong allies. You can have allies be your bodyguard in battle, or watch over some facilities you are buildings.  There is a great sense of progression in Ambition mode. Seeing buildings and people fill your once minuscule camp is a reward in itself.

Ambition mode also makes you take gambles to receive better rewards. You can fight multiple battles in a row in gain better materials and unlock the duel battles. Naturally, if you lose one battle you lose everything. The difficulty of each battle increases and your health doesn’t recover much between battles. There is also a time factor, but you can extend the constantly decreasing time limit by doing a couple of things like defeating officers or killing a hundred enemies. There is always heavy hesitation found after linking multiple battles in a row and you aren’t sure if you should quit while you’re ahead, or go that extra mile to unlock even more goodies. Ambition mode will easily soak up hours of your time after already putting dozens of hours into the other modes.

There are a few problems with this game, besides the lack of new content from the original title. I noticed a few frame-rate dips, which I really wasn’t expecting with a game that is known for large-scale battles, and playing on a PS4. Along those lines, the graphics are not what you want to see on the PS4. After just playing Infamous: Second Son, I couldn’t help but feel let down. Even without comparing it to that game, they still aren’t anything special. Yes, the graphics are better than the original version on the PS3 but they are nothing spectacular. The individual main characters do look great at times, and the detail on their clothing is nothing short of impressive. The graphical letdown comes with everything else. The environments are bland, the enemies are bland, and I don’t think I’ve seen such bad water physics in a long time. There were multiple sections of this game that seemed like it was from the early PS3 days. Now of course I understand that people don’t care about environmental graphics when they really only desire the slaughter of thousands of soldiers, but it still needed to be stated.  

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition is a solid game that is packed with so much content it can be overwhelming. Long time fans of the series can’t go wrong with this purchase, and this is a perfect time for newcomers to jump into battle. There is a core concept from the past games, but the added additions make all the difference. The new features keep the gameplay from being all hack-n-slash, but that is still about 90% of the game. There is a good chance unless you are a die-hard hack-n-slash fan you will grow bored with the mindless fighting. Inversely, if you love the Dynasty Warriors series and hack-n-slash games, then you will undoubtedly love this game, if you haven’t played it already that is. The lack of new features in this edition compared to the original and DLC is a letdown, and it is the reason this game isn’t worth a purchase if you already own the original. Knowing all that, if you haven’t played this game before, or really enjoyed it and want it on the PS4, then don’t be afraid to pick up this title and unleash hell on the battlefield.

This review is based of a review code of the Playstation 4 version of Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition provided by Tecmo Koei.