Koei Tecmo America recently released a press release and a new trailer for the upcoming open world Dynasty Warriors 9, showing how the combat system and gameplay flow has been revamped to fit the new nature of the world.
Open World
Players can choose to pursue the main quests using many ways in Dynasty Warriors 9, such as fulfilling Linked Quests in order to strategically reduce difficulty of Key Quests that progress the story onwards. Or they could collect materials to upgrade weaponry, or just collect ingredients to cook a stat-boosting meal back at customizable hideaways. Officers might even drop by for an informal chat on the next strategy, and hideaways also allow you to skip to different parts of the day, speeding up health recovery.
Roaming off the beaten path opens up greater experiences outside of the main story line – allowing powerful enemies to appear and challenge players with their advanced abilities and skills. These formidable opponents come in the form of humans; such as bandits, or beasts; such as wolves, which will provide additional valuable items or materials as a reward upon defeat. It may be tempting to take on these foes to gain the plethora of takings, but the situation should be carefully assessed – as fleeing from battle may be the safer option.
When exploring Dynasty Warriors 9’s world map, players are able to call on their noble steed to help them quickly traverse long distances. At the start, your horse will have relatively limited abilities, which can then be enhanced through riding experience via long distances or fighting on horseback. Starting abilities also differ according to the horse’s mane, thus two horses of the same species can grow in experience at completely different rates. New horses can also be unlocked and purchased at stables, all starting at different skill levels and ready for development.
Weapon Crafting
Another way of ensuring an edge in battle is through crafting new weaponry. These new weapons are crafted through scrolls – useful items which detail the required materials for a player to collect. To unlock the abilities to craft weapons, the required scrolls for each weapon must be collected; with some weapon’s blueprints split across multiple scrolls. Players are rewarded scrolls upon completing missions or by defeating certain enemies, which will unlock a weapon which can only be crafted at a blacksmith.
Gems and accessories can also be crafted, which provide substantial boosts to the player. Gems are also found throughout the world and are used in the weapon’s forging process to provide additional effects – including a variety of different elemental abilities.
State Combo System
Dynasty Warriors 9 has a new State Combo system, where R1+ a face button does a different type of move depending on the button pressed, with attacks such as launches, knockdowns, and Officer-specific special moves. Meanwhile, Flow Attacks are weak followup attacks that change depending on the situation. Finally, Reactive Attacks are context-based Strong Attack actions, such as Counters, Guard Breaks, and Finish Attacks.
New Characters and Designs
New characters join the roster of playable Officers, such as Cheng Pu, Cao Xiu, and Xin Xianying. Even the older playable characters have seen a character design revamp with Dynasty Warriors 9. Furthermore, each Officer will have their own endings.
Finally, Koei Tecmo America also announced further details to the bonus content available to fans who pre-order DYNASTY WARRIORS 9 through the PlayStation®Store and Xbox Store starting on January 29. Purchasing the standard version of the game gives access to 3 Avatars – Lu Bu, Zhou Tai and Wang Yuanji, a bonus weapon – the “Black Dragon Fang”, and the previously announced seven costumes for fan-favorite characters. The seven costumes are inspired by traditional Chinese undergarment styles and include an imposing Beijing Opera-style costume for Zhao Yun and six individualized costumes for Guan Yinping, Diaochan, Sun Shangxiang, Lu Lingqi, Wang Yi, and Wang Yuanji.
Those who purchase the digital deluxe version are offered all of the previously mentioned items from the standard version plus the season pass, which will grant access to all future DLC for the title, and three original Dynasty Warriors weapons: The Amethyst Iron Blade, The Crimson Ring Blade and The Jade Splendid Swords.
The full trailer is available below:
Dynasty Warriors 9 releases in Japan on February 8, 2018 for PlayStation 4, and will release in North America and Europe on February 13 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Published: Jan 16, 2018 09:30 am