My current addiction: Dynasty Warriors 4
 

Holy crap, I cannot stop playing this PlayStation 2 game. There is such a ludicrous amount of replay value, that I still haven't unlocked all the extra stuff.

I had never played any of the Dynasty Warriors series before this one. If you are unfamiliar with these games, let me give you my best quick summary of what the gameplay is like --

"You saw LOtR: Fellowship of the Rings, right? You remember the flashback scene where the men and elves are fighting against Sauron in Mordor? You saw Sauron wearing the ring and weilding a mace. Whenever he hit a group of men or elves, like 10 of them would go flying 20 feet in the air. Remember that? In Dynasty Warriors, you are like freaking Sauron!"

Yesssss, it's all about killing tons of guys. It's not uncommon to wind up with 250 kills in under 10 minutes.

Not only are you slaughtering tons of little insignificant soldiers, but you also have little AI bodyguards to protect you. These guys help clean up some of the riff raff after you tear up a large group of them.

Also, there are other "officers" and "generals" in the game, and they are powerful like you. You can duel them mid-battle, or charge in with your bodyguards and have an all-out melee fiesta.

You start the game with TWELVE different playable characters, and THREE different "clans". Each character has his or her own unique weapon and attack combos. Lots of fun stuff. All characters have different RPG-ish stats too, such as life, strength, speed, etc. You can unlock up to something like 45 playable characters, and I beleive EIGHT different clans.

Clans are important. The game is based on actual Chinese history. So, you may play through the game as one of the characters from the Wu clan. Then you play again as someone from the Wei clan, and the entire game is totally different. While many of the same battlefields will be present as were in the Wu clan's campaign, you'll be starting off in a different position, be fighting different enemies, and have to use completely different strategy.

Although the game centers around fighting, strategy is another part of the game. There will be many objectives that become available to you during any given battle, and it's up to you which objectives you undertake. It's possible to actually "fail" all of your little mini-objectives, but still win the battle through brute force, but that's usually very difficult, and frankly takes to long.

I apologize for the disjointedness of the post, but as you can see I am very excited and even fanatical.

So in conclusion, if you have a PS2 and are at all interested in "hack and slash" OR strategy games, you must at least rent this game. But if you rent it you'll probably end up buying it, so you may as well just buy the damn thing.

i dont like DW4, its to japinese imo, i played DW3 for like 2 years, and stil do, so im probly just more used to that

yeah this game kicks some major ass, who's ur favorite character? i like zhao yun, even though lu bu is the strongest.
how many of the harnesses and other hidden shit have you got?

I was all about DW3, and my friend was way into DW Tactics, but DW4 looks exactly the same as 3 with updated graphics. I can only do the battle of Hu Lao Gate so many times, you know?

I've been wanting to try one of these games for awhile, I think I'll check this one out.

I used to play the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series back in the day, it was a turn based strategy game set in this era of Chinese history. That series was made by the same company, Koei, but they recently branched out in the last few years and started making games that weren't completely strategy based, such as the Dynasty Warriors series.

If you like turn based strategy games and the storyline interests you, I suggest you check out the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (they are making newer ones, but I haven't kept up with it to much these days).

DW Series are awesome. It is currently the only fighting game I have for all platforms (Xbox, PS2, PC) and it bridges the gap for me between Slow Paced RPG, and fast paced Fighting games. Definately one of my all time favorites.

Too japanise eh?

I wonder what that means? The game is geared more towards japanese players? Or it has too much japanese cultural influence?.. becasue uh.. it is set in China :D

I played this and final fantasy X for like 2 or 3 weeks of a few hours a day. By the time I was done I was tired of Japan.

Good game though, try creating a greatsword character and leveling him up, they are NASTY.

Add me to the list of ppl the love DWs, but as for as the KO count, well its really been toned down, in DW3 you could reach 500+ kills with no problem and in some boards have 1000+..

And for some of you here you might interested in the fact that an expansion is being planned for this game called DW4 XL.

I am still playing.

I may look into some of the other Koei games.

Xiahou Dun is the greatest! Can't stop playing it. I think it's my life's goal to get all the tenth weapons for all the characters.

I love DW4. I've played all of them. And I must say DW Tactics is a lot of fun too. I've gotten a bunch of stuff but I haven't gotten any harnesses. I have a couple orbs. and I have a bunch of regular powerups.

I just finished unlocking all characters. I have all regular items and orbs. Also I have 2 harnesses and 2 "precious" items.

I will get every single freaking thing. I also want every ending.

Does it still have the out of place music?