Dynasty Warriors 7 (PS3) pt.2

Posted on Sun 22 May 2011 • Tagged with Video Games

Yes, another post about this game. I felt like I did not give this game enough credit by just pointing out its flaws. I acknowledge there being several things that I like. Though I can only describe a few points which I have seen during my limited time playing.

From I usability point of view I almost love the encyclopidia they stuffed into the game. It is very nicely done. Its buttons are mapped in a very nice and understandable way and they have a system which is very similar to the concept of hyperlinks on the Internet to look up things that are mentioned in a particular piece of information that you are reading. Though this system might be overlooked - as I admit, I did before shinji showed me - it is cleverly done and helps players interested in history to keep up with persons and terms they are reading but are not familiar yet. This whole point is a bit overshadowed by the fact that I found it very misleading that in one part of the encyclopedia the button mapping certainly changes in a few aspects as if that part was either legacy or tucked on later. The mapping there is not logical and not consistent with the rest of this part of the game.
A major point of complaint of mine concerning this game’s predecessor (Dynasty Warriors 6) was that you had a lot of characters to choose from but they all had fixed weapon classes which you did not know if you either just came along or didn’t pay attention to during the campaign. So DW7 changed that. You are still not able to recognise a character’s fighting style from the character menu, but all characters are able to wield all weapons (except for the whip as far as I remember - this one is gender-specific). Now you might argue that this robs the characters of their individual styles. It does not, since every character has a range of expertship with every weapon measured in stars. (worst: 0 stars, best: 3). So you might have a character that has a quick and agile style and prefers weapons that match that style. Or you might have your typical heavily armored club/greatsword guy. Yay for stereotypes. Nevermind that.

However there is one point I do not understand: How is it that the character I played has to learn his main fighting style by spending points on it to get the the highest level (mind you, to reach the highest skill level - not to learn all moves) while she has other weapon classes already maxed out? And moreover: why would I prefer another style as my main fighting style than the one I’m already as good as it gets at?

Dynasty Warriors 7 (PS3) pt.2 is part 2 of Dynasty Warriors 7 (commentary):