Dynasty Warriors 9 Is Going All-Out Open World With Travel, Weather, And Various New Features

Koei Tecmo revealed that PS4 is the platform for Dynasty Warriors 9 in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine, which features more info on its open-world elements and comments from key staff. [Thanks, Hachima.]

Dynasty Warriors 9 is the latest entry from the series and it will be an open-world game. It takes place in the Three Kingdoms period of China, and will be depicted on one big map.

Going open-world means a power-up in strategizing

The game boasts plenty of freedom for exploring the map, you’ll even get to go around castles and climb up to attack from behind from higher areas—there are so many new ways to attack that it’ll test the player’s creativity. Will you be able to infiltrate an enemy base and take out the target without being noticed?

Long-ranged attacks from bows are back in the game

All characters will get to attack using bows.

Time and weather changes in real-time

The enemy’s visibility worsens at night or when it rains, making it easier to sneak around without getting detected.

Game flow

There are missions that appear all across the map, but there are also main missions that makes history advance with a big leap, but they’re very difficult. You’ll get to lower its difficulty by taking on missions that are related to the main missions.

The “State Combo” system

A new system that lets you take actions according to the situation. The combo starts out with a trigger attack, followed by a combo flow that changes according to the enemy’s situation, and ends with a powerful finisher as part of the three-stage system.

“Interactive Action”

These are actions that change depending on your surrounding topography or objects. For example, you’ll get to use a grappling hook to climb high mountains and walls. You can also perform attacks using nearby objects.

Next, we have some highlights from the interview with producer Akihiro Suzuki and director Jun Miyauchi:

• Dynasty Warriors 9’s game flow will follow the history of the Records of the Three Kingdoms, as done in past entries of the series.

• Battles aren’t split up into stages, but you’ll see various battles that correspond to the period break out through the entire map, and you’ll be participating in them.

• For example, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion part you can go to where Zhang Jue is and fight against the Yellow Turbans, but if you’re in the southeast, you might hear rumors about Zhang Jue and the others instead. Defeating Zhang Jue advances the timeline to the next part in the Campaign against Dong Zhuo, where you’ll see a big change on the map to go with the change in time.

• They’re planning out stories for all the generals, but there won’t be any parts about changing history, and the big part of the flow will mostly remain the same.

• The active generals will vary for each era. For example, you can start out as Zhao Yun during the time he was active, or instead choose Wang Yuanji and play during a time that takes place after Zhao Yun’s era.

• Omega Force is currently considering the ability to switch between generals. Since switching characters will result in big era changes depending on the characters, some kind of background explanation would be needed. The developers are currently looking into possibilities.

• If you try swimming across the Yangtze River or Yellow River, it’ll take about five minutes if you cross from one of the wider parts. However, they’re also working on ports that will allow you to instantly travel.

• There are currently over ten cities. Generic cities and towns are also being prepared.

• The main method of travel is by horse. They’re also working on a fast travel feature that lets you instantly travel to places you’ve already visited.

• A Buying and selling element is being planned for urban areas.

• Costumes for the generals are also being revamped. Rather than going with something flashy, they’re going with more realistic attires that suit the time period.

• There are all kinds of different missions, including some that will allow you to hunt wild animals or fight against different races with unique visuals.

• It seems like development for Dynasty Warriors 9 will still take a while. It will likely not release until it starts getting a little colder outside.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is in development for PlayStation 4.