Dynasty Warriors is the first game in the Dynasty Warriors series. However, it’s different than the other games. Unlike its successors, Dynasty warriors is a 1 verses 1 fighting game with weapons. So don’t buy this looking for more of the Dynasty Warriors we know. The Kingdoms colors are different as well. Shu is yellow, Wei is green, but Wu is still red. The instruction booklet is VERY informative, giving information on history and the novel, characters, name pronunciation, and how to perform some of the techniques in the game, of course. In this game, there are 2 characters not in any other Dynasty Warriors game. Those characters are Toukichi, a big headed guy which I am assuming is supposed to be Hideyoshi when he was a peasant, because that was his name. The other is Nobunaga, which we all know from Samurai Warriors, the 1st unifier of Japan and samurai warlord.

On to the gameplay. Like I said before, this is a one on one fighting game. I suppose I should also point out that there are no 2nd, 3rd, or 4th weapons in this game as well. Now on to the gameplay. The fight system consists of combining button-pressing and using the directional buttons to execute attacks and combos. Survival of a fight usually depends on not giving the enemy a chance to attack. If you do, you probably will be beaten to the ground, and then you have to suffer a series of jump attacks prolonging the amount of time before your character will get up, and you’ll lose a lot of health. Also, in VS mode, you can set up teams of three (not fighting at the same time, of course). All in all, its very challenging, and will frustrate you often.

Now, for graphics. The characters are pretty much just polygons beating out of each other. Stages are flat, clear platforms pretending to be dirt and grass. The backgrounds are just artwork, but good artwork. However, it has something the other games in the series don’t morning, dawn, night, and afternoon versions of most stages. Overall, the graphics aren’t too impressive at this time, but of course a Playstation game wont be up to par with games on Xbox 360 or the PS3 or whatever. Also, there are sweet endings after you beat the main game with a character, some are funny, some are just plain awesome, like Xiahou Dun ripping the arrow out of his eye, Lu Xun using Taishi Ci’s rods, and other stuff.

Dynasty warriors is a challenging game and I recommend it to fighting/historic game fans. However, don’t by this game if you want it to have decent graphics, because its dosent. It’s a medium-length game, that will keep you occupied for a week or two, if you don’t stop working on it. And you’ll find a few things not in the successors and I definitely recommend it to Fans of the series, if you don’t mind the graphics, like I said before, but please check it out, and if your not too sure from looking at the screenshots, borrow it from a friend.


Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 7/10

Overall Score: 7/10