Dynasty Warriors 3
20 Sep 2001
All releases
26 Sep 2002 - Xbox
30 Sep 2002 - Xbox
06 Dec 2002 - Xbox
22 Mar 2002 - PlayStation 2
26 Nov 2001 - PlayStation 2
20 Sep 2001 - PlayStation 2
22 Feb 2002 - PlayStation 2
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Dynasty Warriors 3 is the third installment of the Dynasty Warriors series in North America and the second within the Shin Sangoku Musou series in Japan. It is a spin-off from the video game Romance of the Three Kingdoms and based around a series of books by the same name, written by Luo Guanzhong. The game contains a number of fictional and non-fictional elements from the same era in Chinese history that Romance of the Three Kingdoms is set. However, it follows the main events of part of the story which is to unify China under the single rule of a kingdom.
Dynasty Warriors 3 is set across Ancient China in the time of the Three Kingdoms era. The game begins at the fall of the Han Dynasty shortly after the death of the Emperor Ling when the leader of the Way of Peace, Zhang Jiao, led an uprising against the Empire. The game features a strong mix of fact and fiction from Chinese History and often exaggerates characters and their personalities, for example Lu Bu is portrayed as a virtually unbeatable, violent maniac. Most of the events and stages are reported to have occurred in the Three Kingdoms era during the struggle of power. The three kingdoms primarily involved, Shu, Wu and Wei, each sought power enough to overthrow the other two and unify China under their rule. Although the story in Dynasty Warriors is not perfect in the sense that it does not accurately follow the historical events, it has been changed to make the game more playable and less repetitive. For example, a number of the characters in the game died in the time frame that the game is set, but they still appear in later stages. The game features environments resembling that of Ancient China and various items from the era such as Fairy Wine and Dim Sums. It also touches on Mysticism as some characters (Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Pang Tong) have either magical elements in their attacks or completely magical attacks.
Enemies are now less spongy (well, just a bit), and now basic soldiers aren't as much as a threat as before if fought one by one; they, of course, start to become stronger the more they are, but that's honestly still good gameplay and narrative as it perfectly mimics what a war is and force the player to not engage in combat against enormous crowds. The main characters are strong, yes, but they are still humans, and those little things act as reminders of that.
Guards and generals are still a pain to fight tho, as they will always block your attacks and heal every time their life drop under 50%, thus making bringing them down a slow and boring process. They also have unbreakable combos which will gladly take a good 1/4 of your life and have a better AI than allies; they'll often team up to attack the player together, leaving as the only sane choice to flee from the battlefield as soon as possible.
Bodyguards are useless, and while I find that using them as bow or crossbow users allow them to not die in the first 5 minutes of every map, they still end up being nothin more than useless soldiers that'll follow the player around.
Now, I don't know who the genius at Koei tought not adding a guard button was a good idea, but I hope he had a strong diarrhea attack after launching the game like that.
Everyone in this game block like CRAZY, but the player cannot. WHY?! WHY IS THAT?!
I did find myself parrying an attack two times by pure luck, because I guess pressing L1 with perfect timing can actually block, but I've never been able to replicate it willingly, meaning that it's either difficult to do so or I am a fucking idiot. For my reputation's sake, we'll say it's the first option.
It's also strange they didn't tought about letting the player carry around some restorative items, as wandering around the map searching for pots hoping they'll have something inside to restore HPs isn't exactly the best gaming experience.
Now, I know I've been badmouthing the game for a while, but it has some pros as well that makes it a better experience than Warriors 2.
Maps are still boring and look plain, but have better layouts and some of them have some interesting gimmicks (like the fort that get flooded). Horses are also easier to find, but for some reasons not every character can ride them (I'm sorry, ladies, but those horses only need the manliest man). They are useful to move around, but still kinda useless in combat as they will stop against attacks and are hard to control when fighting, adding a bit of realism to the game.
The soundtrack still ain't anything special, it's mostly forgettable short rock pieces.
I did appreciate a lot the presence of multiplayer contents; playing the Musou mode together with a friend was pretty fun, but what really gave us a blast was the Vs Mode, even if I think it's a shame there isn't the possibility to play against a friend on a full map, instead of a little arena. Still, I pray they'll improve the multiplayer mode in the next titles as that was where the game truly did shine for me (and the only part where I did laugh when losing instead of throwing my controller against the wall).
Yeah, this game is fricking hard. Even on EASY difficulty, the difficulty spike is insane.
The voice acting is so bad it's hilarious holy shit. It's REALLY bad. Like, Dingo Pictures level of bad.
"feEl tHE PowER oF my maGIc!!!!!1111!!".
Overall I think Dynasty Warriors 3 is a good improvement over 2, but it's still a game that has a lot to learn before being truly enjoyable. There's a lot of content here, and I appreciate it, but I would've appreciate it more with some improvements I expected Koei to add after the first game already.