My journey back into gaming continues, and as I make my way through the list of available PlayStation Plus games I come across a familiar title from my past. The Dynasty Warriors franchise has been a cherished favorite of mine since I first got a PlayStation 2 all those years ago. I have many fond memories playing for hours with my brother, fighting our way through hordes of enemies in some epic split-screen battles. Now, having recently come into possession of a PlayStation 4, I was eager to see if I could reignite some of this past enjoyment.
If you do not know about Dynasty Warriors, it is a series that follows the events of the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China. During this period of conflict, heroic figures made their names on the battlefield in an attempt to unite China after the turbulent fall of the Han Dynasty. From a young age, the famous warriors Cao Cao, Sun Jian, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu were familiar names to me, and I enjoyed hacking and slashing my way through countless enemies on vast and beautiful battlefield settings.
After my failed co-op experiment with Far Cry 5, I learned that the correct terminology for split screen co-op was “couch” co-op, which I was pleased to learn was still a feature of this latest Dynasty Warriors release. To my surprise, my wife was also familiar with the Three Kingdoms period setting, and was actually quite excited to try this one out with me. As Dynasty Warriors 9 was downloading, I couldn’t help but reminisce about all of the fond memories I had playing Dynasty Warriors 2, 3, 4, 5 …I don’t even remember how far I got, but I do remember getting all of the PlayStation 2 titles. With each release, the game got better and better; better graphics, more playable characters, and more unique storylines to play through. I was excited to see just how much better the franchise had become over the years.
Once the game finished downloading, I jumped right in. From the opening credits, the nostalgia started pouring in hard. The iconic W-Force Omega logo came up with the same sound effects that I had heard thousands of times all those years ago. The opening sequence had that same same but different over the top action accompanied by an 80s hair metal-style guitar solo. I was hyped. When I arrived at the main menu, I instinctively chose to play story mode, which I knew from past play was the best place for my wife to be introduced to the game, as this is the mode that contains the main campaign. As I had not played the game before, the options for choosing a character to play as were limited to just the leaders of the three major factions; Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian. It didn’t really matter to me who I picked since I knew they would all have a cool roster and story later in the game.
I ended up choosing to play as Cao Cao, and my wife chose to play as Sun Jian. Our campaign would begin as all of my past campaigns had, with the Yellow Turban Rebellion. What would happen next was honestly quite surprising, and I have a lot to say about it. As I have already been rambling on enough for one post, I will continue to discuss my first impressions of this game, and how it was received by my wife in another post.
Thank you for reading this far, I look forward to sharing more about our experience in part 2. All gameplay photos were taken by me. Have a great day! :)
