Hyrule Warriors

[Skyblade]

Personally, I've never played a Dynasty Warriors game, nor had an urge to. The only gameplay I've ever found of them, and indeed one of the only things I've heard discussed about them, is the single playable character slaughtering thousands of faceless mooks.

That's ok, I guess. It works short term, like the 1 vs 1000 fight in Kingdom Hearts II. But it's nothing to base a game on.

It's only since this game was shown that I've heard about things like map control, army balance, and boss fights. There are definitely some interesting mechanics there, and I can see how managing your tactics and choosing your fights with your OP playable character could be a compelling gameplay experience, as well as bringing some tactical thought to the combat itself with boss fights.

In short, I've learned more about Dynasty Warriors since E3 than I had the entire rest of my life, and what I've learned has me interested.

Plus the game just looks so pretty.

[Dat Matt]

I've never played a Dynasty Warriors game either, but I've seen a friend get addicted to it which made me want to check it out.

The main reason I'm interested in it is because of the lead up to the final boss in Skyward sword. Link is running to fight the final boss, but stopping him in his tracks is a horde of low level enemies and some high level ones. This created the same sort of environment as Dynasty Warriros, and was generally pretty mad. I loved it. I want to see more.

[Ayen]

Three new characters added

The game is coming to the states on my birthday! If only I had a Wii-U.

[Mo-Nercy]

It's only since this game was shown that I've heard about things like map control, army balance, and boss fights. There are definitely some interesting mechanics there, and I can see how managing your tactics and choosing your fights with your OP playable character could be a compelling gameplay experience, as well as bringing some tactical thought to the combat itself with boss fights.

In short, I've learned more about Dynasty Warriors since E3 than I had the entire rest of my life, and what I've learned has me interested.

Plus the game just looks so pretty.

As a Dynasty Warriors veteran, I can confidently say that Koei has really upped it's game with the latest installments of their flagship series. Warriors Orochi 3 and Dynasty Warriors 8 vastly improved upon their predecessors. In the past, repetitiveness has been a major criticism of the series but WO3 and DW8 introduced a few new gameplay elements, stages, characters and modes and it's made a huge difference.

But I wouldn't get too excited about map control, army balance, tactical gameplay. If this game turns out to be anything like Dynasty Warriors, it'll be a mindless hack and slash that requires no real effort or skill (on Normal and Hard modes at least, Chaos is another story).

But it will look pretty. And you'll get 1000s of kills and that's always hugely satisfying.

[Dat Matt]

Three new characters added

The game is coming to the states on my birthday! If only I had a Wii-U.

How much are Wii U's these days? I've seen them going on sale for as low as £175 in the UK.

PS - I'm getting so hyped for this game, it's out the week before my brithday (hint hint nudge nudge Shauna)

[Skyblade]

Ok, there was a new Nintendo Direct for Hyrule Warriors. Honestly, I left a little disappointed.

Most of the content was fine, if not great. The new Ganon looks awesome. But there was one little thing that irked the heck out of me.

Princess Zelda.

"Princess" Zelda.

Damn it, Nintendo! You already confirmed that she's "QUEEN" Zelda. Don't you DARE back down on that again. First you leave the West with her as a Princess instead of a Queen in Link Between Worlds, now you're changing it for Hyrule Warriors too?

[Noire]

OK, so I just preordered the Limited Edition from GAME...I want that scarf. I was planning on waiting for this until my birthday, but given that I doubt anyone would buy me the LE, I'll just ask for Fairy Fencer F (which, coincidentally, is released the same day) instead and wait for that. I've also preordered the guide...I collect the hardback Zelda guides. Well, the gold-leaf page ones. Not sure if this game will have one, although I can't see why it wouldn't.

I find Warriors games to be quite bland, though. I prefer the Sengoku Basara games. The characters have...character. All the characters in the Warriors games look the same to me, and they don't have ridiculously over-the-top special moves either, so it's not quite as Basara. That said, I LOVE the crossover games. The Dynasty Warriors Gundam games are amazingly fun, so I have high hopes for this...although I get the horrible feeling I'm going to be disappointed in some way by the playable characters. I really want playable Nayru, Din, Onox and Veran from the Oracles games. I mean, the bug princess is playable, so why not? I also expect Tingle to be playable.

Still, it looks like it'll be fun! If nothing else, the soundtrack is going to be amazing.

[Dat Matt]

I want the scarf too, so I'll pre-order the collectors edition too. We could be Zelda Scarf Buddies!

I've never played a Warriors game before. This looks like super nonsense and I'm excited.

[Vyk]

the soundtrack is going to be amazing.

Koei's good old DW rock/metal battle anthems. Hyrule style. It'll definitely be interesting. I'll give it that

[Aulayna]

Okay I need that scarf.

[Skyblade]

It's only since this game was shown that I've heard about things like map control, army balance, and boss fights. There are definitely some interesting mechanics there, and I can see how managing your tactics and choosing your fights with your OP playable character could be a compelling gameplay experience, as well as bringing some tactical thought to the combat itself with boss fights.

In short, I've learned more about Dynasty Warriors since E3 than I had the entire rest of my life, and what I've learned has me interested.

Plus the game just looks so pretty.

As a Dynasty Warriors veteran, I can confidently say that Koei has really upped it's game with the latest installments of their flagship series. Warriors Orochi 3 and Dynasty Warriors 8 vastly improved upon their predecessors. In the past, repetitiveness has been a major criticism of the series but WO3 and DW8 introduced a few new gameplay elements, stages, characters and modes and it's made a huge difference.

But I wouldn't get too excited about map control, army balance, tactical gameplay. If this game turns out to be anything like Dynasty Warriors, it'll be a mindless hack and slash that requires no real effort or skill (on Normal and Hard modes at least, Chaos is another story).

But it will look pretty. And you'll get 1000s of kills and that's always hugely satisfying.

I've been watching GameXplain's stream of the Japanese version of the game (no spoilers so far except for the already known basic plot info, unless you understand Japanese).

Their streamer is also a Dynasty Warriors veteran, though he apparently hasn't played the newer titles in the series. He did comment on needing greater tactical thought with regards to map control, and he did lose a battle due to the enemy capturing his main base while he was busy fighting elsewhere. So it does seem to be there to a degree, even on Normal Mode.

This also appears to be where some of the exploration comes in. The Gold Skulltulas appear to be designed a little less upon finding them (since you get a notice on the map to their general location when they appear), and a little more on forcing you to overextend or head to areas you might otherwise avoid, leaving areas that are under attack unprotected. Heart Pieces seem to be similar, as a couple were found by bypassing boss foes and capturing bases instead of proceeding with the most obvious path of action.

The game is looking to be a blast, though, and I am very much looking forward to playing it.

[Mo-Nercy]

I've been watching GameXplain's stream of the Japanese version of the game (no spoilers so far except for the already known basic plot info, unless you understand Japanese).

Their streamer is also a Dynasty Warriors veteran, though he apparently hasn't played the newer titles in the series. He did comment on needing greater tactical thought with regards to map control, and he did lose a battle due to the enemy capturing his main base while he was busy fighting elsewhere. So it does seem to be there to a degree, even on Normal Mode.

This also appears to be where some of the exploration comes in. The Gold Skulltulas appear to be designed a little less upon finding them (since you get a notice on the map to their general location when they appear), and a little more on forcing you to overextend or head to areas you might otherwise avoid, leaving areas that are under attack unprotected. Heart Pieces seem to be similar, as a couple were found by bypassing boss foes and capturing bases instead of proceeding with the most obvious path of action.

The game is looking to be a blast, though, and I am very much looking forward to playing it.

Perhaps the system will be more modeled on the Empires expansions of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, which were more tactical and put more weight into base control rather than just "kill this general, then that general, then kill the commander and win the stage". That would be awesome.

[Skyblade]

The further it's gone, the more important base control has gotten.

The way the maps play out, there are a number of fortresses spread across the maps, with control nodes between them. Each one is ruled by a captain. Killing the captain captures the node/fortress. However, fort captains don't come out until a certain number of generic enemies within the forts are killed.

So capturing is pretty simple. Rush up, kill things, kill the captain, capture (there may be extra captains lying around, but as far as I can tell one is directly tied to the node). Capturing a node or fortress then causes it to spawn reinforcements, including captains.

Your team also starts with AI companions. The further into the story you get, the more characters you can unlock. You can take certain characters on certain missions. Essentially, the AI seems to control whichever options you don't pick. However, they're not as OP as they are when you play them. They'll come under attacks from enemy captains and even enemy heroes, and call for help (and they can fall in battle if you don't aid them enough).

To top this all off, some maps have additional base control benefits. There was one shown where there are four forts spread in a line that separated your main base from the enemy main base. Each one sent massive attacks (in the form of rolling boulders or the new massive bombchus) towards the enemy base. So if the enemy held them all, you had a lot of incoming attacks that would cripple your base defenders and AI heroes (allowing for a much easier capture by the enemy). The enemy base was also blocked by a massive door, so you had to hold on to them as best you can to keep the attacks going toward the enemy base until the door was destroyed.

There really is a fun and thought provoking level of map control, from what I've seen. It doesn't seem to detract from the awesome combat, but it does add in some thought. There will also probably be more moments like the one I've seen where the streamer had to bail out of a boss fight to rush back to base to save it (after losing because he hadn't done this a few minutes earlier). Add to that having to split off to track down Gold Skulltulas, and you've got one heck of an engaging macro-game.

I am really looking forward to this, I just wish it was releasing about two weeks earlier. It's coming way too close to Smash Bros.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Anyone else picked this up yet? It's pretty fun. I haven't played Dynasty Warriors games in years, so I'm not burnt out on the style of play or anything, so that probably helps.

[Nicolas]

spent most of the day playing this. enjoying it a good bit. this seems like a fairly simple game that is easy to get into and just play away.