Beasts Are In The Game?
In the Chinese mythology, there are four spiritual creatures (four celestial emblems which are not related to the 12 zodiac animals at all), each guarding a direction of the compass, the Dragon (Qing Long) for the East, the Phoenix (Zhu Que) for the South, the White Tiger (Bai Hu) for the West and the Chimera/Tortoise (Xuan Wu) for the North. But what is going to do with all of these four beasts? Well, KOEI did make some appearances for those beasts on their Romance of the Three Kingdoms Online game. Now they’re on Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter’s Battle for Nintendo DS as well but unfortunately KOEI did not bring the White Tiger (Bai Hu) to the game, so basically you can control 3 “beasts”/characters and they are the only 3 playable characters in this game.

But what’s with those beasts, because they’re so human-like for their looks? No idea, but you will realize that the Phoenix (Zhu Que) looks alike Sun Ce a lot in the game. So finally, the Dynasty Warriors DS was released and it was like ages ago since KOEI first announced their Dynasty Warriors game on Nintendo DS but it did not turn out to be very good, honestly say.

How Does The Game Look Like?
First, let us talk about the graphic of the game. Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter’s Battle is in the middle of Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 (for PSP) and Dynasty Warriors Advance (for GBA) in KOEI handheld games chart list. It does not look better than Dynasty Warriors series on PlayStation Portable, but it may be a little better than Dynasty Warriors Advance comparing the graphic and the gameplay. The graphic of the game is in 2D but you’ll see some 3D effects when you slash the enemies. There is no any opening movie or a proper ending but the “cartoonized” artworks for each character are indeed fascinating.

As mentioned, you can only use 3 characters in the game but you can equip up to 6 officers to protect your base, by using the abilities they got, also raise your attack, defense and HP points by equipping them. You can rename your army but it is somehow useless because Phoenix is still a Phoenix, Chimera is still a Chimera, it’s just your small little name which will appear in the end of the game. For the difficulty, you’re able to select and play either in Easy, Normal or Hard mode for the game.

Not So Attractive Card System
There are 3 kinds of different card you can collect, the red card (which is able to help you to raise your attack, defense and HP points by equipping it), the blue card (which is able to let you to use the abilities, such as stealing enemy’s coins, "shake earth" or making enemies not able to attack by using "cold wave") and the yellow card (which is the most powerful type, basically a combination on both red and blue cards). KOEI might be lack of time for planning and making the cards and the system because each of the character will at least have 2 cards (so it’s duplicated and it’s not attractive anymore), blue and red cards for you to collect and equip.

Stages… What To Do With “The Great Wall of China”?
There are 11 stages plus 1 secret stage for the game. Initially you started to conquer Wan Cheng (Yellow Turban in JP version) as always in the first stage. Then you can choose which location you want to conquer, they are Hu Lao, Shu, Cheng Du, Nanman, Xi Liang, Chi Bi, He Fei, Jian Ye, Xu Chang and Hua Bei. Once you finished all the stages, the secret stage in the map, which is “The Great Wall of China” will be unlocked. You may think the final map is quite complicated but if you played it for few more times, you will realize it’s not that hard actually. But also, you’ll find it pretty boring.

New Gameplay – Collect Coins, Cast Magic & Make Liu Bei Drop His Sword!
The gameplay is not just hack and slash, this time you have to be fast to take over your rival’s base and camps. So by equipping the blue card to let you able to use the skills is recommended, not just protecting yourself because your rival may cast his card abilities to attack on you. All you have to do in the game is taking the base and win, but if the map requires you to defeat 15 enemies just to let the gate open, then do it. Defeating more soldiers will not help you gain any EXP points in the game so you have to be fast! What makes the game more interesting is the cards and abilities which you’re going to use towards your opponent. Also, while you attack the officer, they may drop off their weapons (thus they become very weak) or fall off from the horse/elephant, take this advantage to kill them as soon as possible because they’re weaker without a sword on them.

In order to use the ability, you will need 5 coins/golds (or whatever) which dropped from the soldiers once you defeated them, so the skill will be randomly generated (based on what cards that you equipped). If all the cards you equipped are red cards, with no blue cards, you’ll have no ability to use. You can cumulatively collect maximum 10 coins so that means you can use three times abilities continuously including with the ability that has already been generated.

The control system is fairly good, it moves smoothly. There are four types of the main attack with the buttons, A, B -> A, B -> B -> A and B -> B -> B -> A along with the musou attack for the X button and casting ability for the Y button. L button allows you to guard/defense yourself from the attack and R is for you to track your rival’s position on the map.

Music Of Dynasty Warriors That Supposed To Be Good
The music is not very attractive as it does not give you the “feel” of the original Dynasty Warriors game series. There are all new tracks you might never listen before (but they’re not very good), except for the “Victory Fanfare” theme. Sometimes it just makes you feel like it’s better to turn off the speaker when playing the game.

Good Bye, “Game Over”…
There’s no experience or any other points in this game you can gain. You will not die in this game because once you’ve been defeated, you will be sent back to your initial location on the map and restart until you defeat or being defeated, but you won’t have to be re-taking the bases that you’ve already taken. No matter you succeed to win against your rival or not, it is hard for you to see the GAME OVER screen because this game is actually counting who taken most parts of the whole map, so if you lose, the game will still continue for the following stage (no matter you win or lose).

Problems – The Game Seemed Incomplete
Here are some problems you may have to know. You can only save the game when you finish a stage, you can never save it in the middle of the game when you’re playing it. So when you shut off your Nintendo DS and restart it next time, you will lose everything that you’ve already played in the middle! There is no free mode for you to choose the map that you want to play when you feel want to. All you have to do is go to another new game and re-play the “Battle of the Wan Cheng” at the beginning. The map is sometimes annoying and you may feel you’re lost because of the game lacks on the small map which tells you exactly where the position on the small point of the map you’re at so you’ll have to “guess” the position you’re currently at for this. Also, there is no touch screen support, so you don’t have to take out your pen and use because Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter’s Battle is not designed for the pen you have on your Nintendo DS.

There is only 3 characters for the game and KOEI should really make more playable characters for it. All 24 main characters such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Shang Xiang, Lu Bu have their own movesets, skills and musou attack but KOEI did not make them playable. Maybe they would like the game to turn out like “not so generic” for each officer but to be honest those officers’ attack and musou are very cool and they are non-playable characters.

Wireless Support For The Game
Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter’s Battle supports the battle between each DS through Wireless, as long as you connect your DS with your friend’s DS within 10 meter, you are able to play it together with your friends.

Recommendation – 5.5 out of 10
Lastly, I’ll have to ask you to think. If you’re a true Dynasty Warriors series diehard fan and you’ve already owned a Nintendo DS, you can try to buy and play it, else it really depends on you. It is not worth for you buying a brand new Nintendo DS just for this game. Also, it is quite hard to decide whether this is the kind of your game (or maybe not?) because this game is short, a bit different from the original Dynasty Warriors game style (it’s more likely to be Dynasty Warriors Advance with additional card system) and it has no replay value after all. Well, it does have a new game play, with cool 3D effects, a better control and it supports the wireless battle for this game. If you’re not sure if this is the type of your game, you may have to rent and test it first before you really decide to buy it. Finally, Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter’s Battle deserved 5.5 out of 10.

*Please note that this review is based on the experience and thoughts on "Shin Sangoku Musou DS: Fighter's Battle" (Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle in Japanese version)...