Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires Review
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires had a daunting battle ahead of it even when it was nothing more than words on a page. It’s the follow-up to 2018’s Dynasty Warriors 9 and 2015’s Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, two games mired in design issues and mixed fan reception.
DW9 tried to shake up the long-running action franchise with a vast open world and a big new take on the storyline, but it made enough changes to the core mechanics that it left some players feeling betrayed. Its ragged edges were also on constant display, and it took months before the game was in a fully-working state. It didn’t have any of the series’ trademark English voice actors either, since it was produced right in the middle of a union strike. I still ended up loving it and played many dozens of hours, but I totally get why it rubbed everyone the wrong way.
DW8: Empires is a better game, but still plagued with problems that its own predecessor DW7: Empires didn’t suffer from. It has a stripped down strategy layer compared to the gentle complexity the Empires games are known for, and the console versions are super prone to crashing in my experience.
Koei Tecmo already righted these “wrongs” in other Warriors installments over the last few years. Warriors Orochi 4, Samurai Warriors 5, and Hyrule…
