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Dynasty Warriors ( 真・三國無双:Shin Sangoku Musou in Japan and 真•三国无双: Zhen Sanguo Wu/Moshuang in China; literally meaning, 'Real Three Kingdoms Hit and Miss/Unrivalled' respectively) is a series of video games created by Koei based loosely around the Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic, and is a spinoff series of ROTK ( Sangokushi/Sanguo Yanyi ). A spin-off of Dynasty Warriors is Dynasty Tactics.
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The games in this series are as follows:
The first game was an obscure fighting game that was released in 1997 on the PlayStation. This game was not released under the 'Shin Sangoku Musou' title in Japan which is why there is a discrepancy in title numbers. From Dynasty Warriors 2 onward, a general is chosen as a playable character and they play through a number of levels representing certain conflicts in the time of the three kingdoms eventually defeating both of the other kingdoms and becoming the ruler of China. In Musou Mode (a gameplay mode in which the Three Kingdoms story is played out from one kingdom's perspective), the generals are usually chosen from one of the three kingdoms (Wu, Shu or Wei; however, from Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends onwards, independent generals can be selected as well). Dynasty Warriors 3 had two secret characters, Nu Wa and Fu Xi, that are not playable in Musou Mode.
Both Dynasty Warriors 3 and Dynasty Warriors 5 have individual Musou Modes for each character. Dynasty Warriors 4 has a single Musou Mode for an entire Kingdom. For example, all characters aligned with Wu play through Wu's Musou Mode. This allows for characters to be interchangeable during level breaks.
The levels themselves follow a third-person beat-em-up format, where the camera is behind the player and they go around killing the enemy forces, while avoiding both the player's own death and one or more other loss scenarios (usually involving the death of the player's own superior, the loss of a critical ally or fortification, or the escape of an enemy leader). Unlike the more realistic Sangokushi series, the playable characters in Dynasty Warriors have superhuman abilities and can send enemy soldiers flying through the air with a single swipe from his or her weapon, if not killing them instantly. Certain generals can fire magical projectiles from their hands or pound the ground to create massive shockwaves. Thus, it is possible for one general to kill hundreds of enemy soldiers and defeat their commander without the aid of any AI controlled allies.
The order of events in a full (Musou) game for Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4 is as follows:
Missions on smaller maps are intertwined between the levels, most often between the defeat of the second kingdom and the defeat of the third kingdom. Each of the main three kingdoms has additional levels that deal mainly with internal problems, or with small skirmish-like battles between kingdoms. Since Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Lü Bu, and Meng Huo are all defeated in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, their Musou Modes do not follow the book nor history and are pure fiction.
Dynasty Warriors 5 introduced a more realistic Musou mode. Instead of fighting in the above set of events, a general will only participate in battles they would have been alive for. Because of this, generals start off at different points in time and some generals will never encounter one another. In between stages are drama scenes in which the general will discuss the battles and their feelings on what is happening. This has given the game more of a personal view as well as kept the player up to date with what has happened in the story. Dynasty Warriors 5 also deviates from the goal of taking over China. Not all characters are interested in the conquest and a general's Musou mode may end just after their kingdom is established instead of after the last kingdom is defeated. This varies from the previous games, where it is possible to alter history through character choice. For example, some events such as saving Sun Jian's life are not possible in Dynasty Warriors 5. While you can save Sun Jian from dying in the battle, he will pass away immediately after. However, in the previous games, were Sun Jian chosen as the playable character, the gameplay would deviate from the original story and Sun Jian would live to see the rise of the Wu family.
Due to the space restraints of the Gameboy cartridge, Dynasty Warriors Advance only has 13 playable characters. The battle system has been reduced to basic moves and a power-up system added. The weapon system has also been overhauled with over 200 weapons. Each character can equip three different kinds of weapons adding for a unique experience. For instance, Zhen Ji can equip flutes, fans and swords while Sun Shang Xiang can equip a chakram, claws and maces. The maps are a tactical type system with characters moving between spots on the map in a turn-based manner while fighting real time battles on a small battle field. The plot is essentially the same however due to the limited number of maps and characters, several events have changed. For example, Sun Ce can show up at the battle of Yi Ling despite the fact he was dead before the battle was fought. Cao Cao is also present at the battle of Wu Zhang plains when again, he was long dead. Those characters who are not playable in Dynasty Warriors Advance but are in other Dynasty Warriors games are present as generic generals with their respective profile image. However, there are some generals such as Sun Quan, Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo who have unique sprites leading some fans to believe that there are more than 13 playable characters. Koei has not confirmed this.
Dynasty Warriors DS will use the same battle system and sprites from Dynasty Warriors Advance however it will have 3D backgrounds and 100 sprites will be visible at once.
The Dynasty Warriors series is known for portraying some of the characters with personalities that are far-fetched and eccentric. (However, in other cases the portrayals are accurate to how they were depicted in the novel.) Also, some generals wield weapons that are rather anachronistic, such as Ling Tong's nunchaku, Zhou Tai's katana, and Sun Ce's tonfas, or speak in an anachronistic manner. Additionally, characters that were non-combatants in the stories or in history are included in the battles. Finally, the issue of mysticism is touched upon with laser beam-like powers possessed by Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, the tornados unleashed by Pang Tong, and the mystical powers of the recently added wizard Zuo Ci.
There are 48 playable characters as of the release of Dynasty Warriors 5 (not including Nu Wa and Fu Xi), Most of the characters were real figures from the era of the Three Kingdoms, although some half-fictional characters from the novel were also included in the roster such as Xing Cai and Zuo Ci. Minor female characters from history has been placed on the battlefield by Koei, although aside from Zhu Rong they never fought in any of the historical battles.
The characters below have been sorted by the kingdom they were serving. Each character has an Ultimate Weapon, which is the best possible weapon he or she can get in the games. Additional weapons (5th or 11th depending on the game) are only avaliable in Xtreme Legends. Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends does not contain 5th weapons.
Koei released a new series called Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) that is instead based on the Sengoku Period of Japanese history. Also made by Omega Force, Samurai Warriors uses the same engine and design as Dynasty Warriors making the gameplay similar yet different at the same time. However, Samurai Warriors has a very limited cast of characters (20, including Xtreme Legends) compared to the 48 in Dynasty Warriors.
Koei released 3 spin-off games to the Dynasty Warriors series: Dynasty Tactics and a sequel, Dynasty Tactics 2. The original was released in 2002 and the sequel was released in 2003. They also released Dynasty Warriors 4 : Empires, a halfway point between the pure action of the main Dynasty Warriors series and the tactical and strategic gameplay of the Tactics spin-offs.
Dynasty Warriors DS, to be released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS, will utilize the "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection" to play around the globe for free against other Dynasty Warriors DS players.
The English voice-overs of Dynasty Warriors series wrongly uses straightforward English pronunciations for the romanized pinyin names of characters and locations. The results are rather humorous to Chinese speakers, sometimes insulting, and misleading to its Western audience. Some unfortunate examples are the pronunciations of Cao Cao ("Cow Cow" instead of "Tsao Tsao"), Cao Pi ("Cow Pee" instead of "Tsao Pee"), and the pronounciation of Guan Yu into "Goo'an Yiew", which sounds almost exactly like Singaporean politician, Lee Kuan Yew, which could be offensive.