Of Course, More KOEI Things

The image above is fairly obvious enough, but it's also confirmed by a close to official source that Dynasty Warriors 8:  Xtreme Legends for PS3 and Dynasty Warriors 8:  Complete Edition for PS4 and Vita are going to see releases in North America and Europe.  The Complete Edition, obvious as it may be, will include Xtreme Legends, but the base game as well, featuring a 'complete' compilation of both titles, which is all sorts of handy and economical.  Also the only way possible for PS4 and Vita owners to play Dynasty Warriors 8 without...doing so on the PS3.  Which makes things a wee bit difficult, even if the games will support cross-save, and I believe they do.  Hilariously, for as many games as I own with Cross-save, and games that are better suited for it, I assure you, this will probably be the first time I ever use the feature.  Because I'll be damned if I'm not going to carry over my meticulously groomed Dynasty Warriors 8 save by the time I'm done with it.

Details are scarce as usual - even KOEI hasn't put up a press release or anything of that source, simply posting an image on Twitter and then leaving it to their Community Manager to pass out the little bits of details that he could infer.  Therefore, the information may or may not be absolutely reliable, but I'm erring on the side of "yes" given that KOEI has more or less thrust his statements to the forefront as their own and not bothered to correct anything he said.  Thus, I'm inclined to believe that there will be physical releases of all three products, given that there will apparently be English voices and -maybe- Japanese voices as well, instead of the other way around.  This is more than ideal for me, as I'm sure you all know.

I'm getting the Vita version.  Full stop.  However, I'm not quite sure whether or not I'll pick up the PS4 version of the Complete Edition, or just get Xtreme Legends for PS3.  I imagine I'm going to play the console and Vita versions in tandem regardless because of Cross-Save, but I don't know whether I'll want to 'complete' my library on PS3 that much more, or simply begin a new one with the PS4 beyond inFamous:  Second Son, Watch_Dogs and potentially Metal Gear Solid:  Ground Zeroes.  Aw, who am I kidding, I'm getting GZ and I'll grin like an idiot when I set K-Pop music to play in the helicopter section, flash back to Peace Walker and then be mildly disturbed that I find it fitting now.  Regardless, it is quite the quandary.

I'm wary of picking up the PS4 version because it will be KOEI's first attempt with new hardware and it will be a port - not something native.  KOEI's games aren't technical wonders to start with and while Dynasty Warriors 8 runs smooth for the most part (Chibi and a couple other stages get really chuggy at times) I'm not willing to put my faith in their ability to take full advantage of the power inside the PS4.  On the other hand, if they do manage it, I'll constantly kick myself when I'm playing the PS3 version knowing that it could be smoother and prettier on the PS4 that I will presumably have by that point.  Granted, I could find it some time down the line, but...I'm not really sure if I'm comfortable buying Dynasty Warriors 8 three times, given the issues I have with it, even if I do think it's rather fantastic.  Which is to say I will probably do it anyway because I am kind of a whore like that.

this better just be the first of a few localization announcements KOEI makes - Samurai Warriors 2 HD Complete, plz

Weapon Farming in Dynasty Warriors 8 Made Easy

I'm constantly amazed, as I'm sure you all are, at just how much I can talk about a single Dynasty Warriors game as I'm playing it and indeed for a time thereafter.  It seems like every day brings a brand new topic about the game that I can take and pull apart until I can present it in possibly the most long-winded way possible, and it's something that I've found I can't really do for many other things.  So, whatever, I can do it and I like to do it, so that's what I'm going to do.  I'm aware that most of you are probably not as interested in Dynasty Warriors or really any flavor of game KOEI releases as I am, but I hope the deluge of content over the games is not off-putting.  Because, I mean, I'm gonna keep doing it.

Going with the theme of the last Dynasty Warriors 8 post, we're going to talk about trophies.  Or rather -a- trophy.  We're going to cover the Herculean amount of effort that goes into a single trophy called Weapon Collector that, as you might have guessed, tasks you with collecting all the weapons in the game.  You see, the whole weapon system in Dynasty Warriors 8 got a bit of an overhaul that more or less makes it a very different beast from the games before it except, in a sense, Dynasty Warriors 6.  That's not as bad a thing as that comparison might lead you to believe, however, so don't get ahead of me.  The weapons all have an element attached to them that is either Heaven, Earth or Man, which recalls to DW6's Standard, Skill and Strength types of weapons, though they don't have the same sort of effects and really I guess the only similarity is that they all shared red, green and blue and I swear I was going somewhere with that, but forgot.

Anyway, that's -one- of the categories of the weapons, though.  There's actually two beyond the Elemental Shift, and its all about rarity.  Common Weapons have Orbs, but rare weapons and the Fifth Weapon for each character have Stars instead.  These merely denote uniqueness and nothing else, because as you'll learn, each character has Four Orb weapons and Three Star weapons.  (Well, Sword has like four Star weapons, but you get one from Ambition Mode and it's not important)  You need to collect one of each of these seven weapons for every single character in the game for the trophy which is just a Silver trophy even though it will be the actual second-most grindy thing you do in the game.  Yes, Ambition Mode in all its splendor and magnificence has been bumped to third, with Bond-grinding still likely holding first place.  Though, in all honesty, Weapon Farming might just usurp it, it's that bad.

How can it be so bad, you might be innocently asking?  Well, it's pretty simple.  Of the three Star weapons per character, only -one- of them is a guaranteed drop.  That is the Fifth Weapon which have unlock conditions (readily visible in the Gallery once you've beaten every single Story Mode Stage) that you have to follow on Hard Mode.  You have to do that with every single one of the 77 characters included in the game.  That's the easy part, because the thing you want to do is get Xiahou Yuan's Fifth Weapon first.  It's called the Bow of Destruction, and if there were ever a more appropriate moniker, I don't know of it.  You see, what makes the Bow of Destruction so special is that it has an element on it called Cyclone, which is at level 10.  Cyclone breaks through an enemy's guard with charge attacks.  The weapon also has multiple charge attacks that have multiple hits within it that do Wind damage which seems to take a percentage of health rather than do -damage-.  What this means is that a single charge attack from the Bow of Destruction (one that has the multi-wind shots at least, which are C2, 5 and 6) will straight-up murder any officer, even on Chaos difficulty provided the full attack hits them.  Even if it doesn't, it's not hard to do a follow-up and basically it just means that you will not have to worry about the damage -you- do.

What about the other two Star weapons for each character?  Well, first what you want to do is get your Fortune Hunter skill leveled up, which increases your Luck.  Level 10 at minimum, though you'll likely want up to about 15 unless you're crazy and want to grind it up to 20.  Why would that be crazy?  Well, because the way you level the skill up is by defeating officers on a map after you've attained 1,500 KOs.  On the same map.  There are precious few maps that will allow you to rack up that many kills while also leaving enough chattel for you to reap in an attempt to level up the skill (Because, of course, not every single one and in fact most will not do it since it's based on some weird RNG), but if you are feeling particularly interested, then the Yellow Turban Conflict stage is what you want.

This is Zhang Jiao's Story stage and it offers a -lot- of officers plus a handy little infinite spawn of mooks that you can inflate your score with in the course of a few minutes.  All you need to do is rescue Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang and wait for Huangfu Song to change the direction of their approach.  This will divert forces to the lower left portion (south of Zhang Bao) and the square at the southernmost point before you go East into a base will just, as stated, spawn infinite amounts of soldiers after you defeat both Base captains in the neighboring areas.  Get up to 1,500 KOs (or more if you feel like it, I don't know if it affects your chances) and then go around slaughtering officers until you take down He Jin.  You should hopefully get at least 2 levels if not more, and...then you just do it again until you're happy.  Better chances if you perform the stage on Chaos Difficulty, and of course you don't have to use Zhang Jiao when selecting from Free Mode.  In fact, I would recommend it.  I personally used a Level 99 Lu Bu who has max stats and his Fifth Weapon - since it's an early map it's not difficult at all, even on Chaos, so you won't have to spam Cyclone abuse.

So now that you have Fortune Hunter up at a decent level, you'll want to equip that and go to Shu's section in Free Mode and pick the very last stage - Capture of Wei - Wei Forces.  You see, it's not simple enough that you just kill a bunch of officers for a chance at Star weapons.  No, you have to kill unique characters, since generics possess only the -barest- chance of actually dropping them, where Uniques, especially with a proper Fortune Hunter score, have a chance that approaches reasonable and contrary to what I thought prior, they have a chance of dropping weapons that -aren't- theirs.  Capture of Wei on the Wei side offers you a small-ish map (or at least a map where only 30% of it is used) that has no less than 11 Unique Officers (Jiang Wei, Huang Zhong, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhang Bao, Liu Shan, Guan Xing, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Zhuge Liang and Guan Ping) in a short timeframe.  Plus it has one more benefit which I will explain to you momentarily.

I've found in my runs tonight that with Level 15 Fortune Hunter, you can expect to walk away from the map with -at least- one Star weapon, which is good.  Not great since there's, you know, 154 Star Weapons in the game not counting Fifth Weapons (Jesus Christ), but it could be worse, and it's honestly a relatively short map.  There -is- a bit of an issue with the scripting, however, in that sometimes Guan Ping and Ma Chao simply refuse to advance on you or on the Wei Main Camp, and Guan Ping is ridiculously out of the way if he doesn't meaning you lose out on a potential chance unless you charge his ass, and even if he does charge, he always charges with Liu Bei (as does Zhuge Liang) who you do not want to kill immediately because it will end the stage and if you kill Liu Bei and, say, Zhuge Liang at the same time, Liang will not drop a weapon.  Which is incredibly frustrating.

The key thing about any and all forms of grinding and farming is the amount of time invested because obviously you want to cut the amount of time spent down as much as possible.  Because grinding/farming is fucking obnoxiously boring and games that rely on it for anything in excess are made by developers who are dumb and also stupid.  And are also jerks.  The good thing with Dynasty Warriors 8 and the way weapons unlock is that there's a little bit of a trick that cuts -way- down on the amount of down-time you have in between runs of the map.  As in, cuts it down to damn-near zero.  You want to know what that funny little trick is?

Let Liu Bei kill you. 

(After killing all his officers.  It's not even difficult to let it happen, since Capture of Wei - Wei Side is an end-story mission which means it's max difficulty and then you have Chaos on top of that...yeah, characters do a lot of damage.  )

You see, when you lose a stage, a message comes up asking if you'd like to restart from the beginning, which it will do so without any load time (unless there's a cinematic at the start, I imagine) allowing you to get right into it.  And at least with Star weapons (honestly haven't tested with Orb weapons, honestly don't even care) they seem to work on an unlock system in a sense.  Because they're unique, once you have them, you -have- them unless you sell them or something else.  So say you get Guan Xing to drop the Sky Splitter which is one of Guan Ping's Star weapons and then you do as I say and allow Liu Bei to kill you.  When you restart the stage, you can check your weapons and look at that, you still have the Sky Splitter.  This way, you cut out the load into the main menu, the load into the stage selection, into the character selection and loading up the stage proper.  That is a tangible amount of minutes and given that you're damn near guaranteed one or two weapons per run (if not more, one particularly generous run netted me four) using that stage and Fortune Hunter 15, it will potentially shave -hours- off of your general farming, especially if you would use a different method.  I would advise, however, that you end a Farm sessions with a victory - I doubt if it really matters if you quit to menu after a defeat rather than replaying and winning, but it's...best not to take chances, yeah?

I'm personally up to 90% of the entire Weapons Catalog filled, so it shouldn't be too terribly long before I can get to bond-grinding and then...simply being done with Dynasty Warriors 8 until Xtreme Legends comes out in some fashion.  Since I will most likely be getting it provided it's physical -or at the very least it's localized for the Vita-.  I'm being optimistic that Xtreme Legends is going to get localized (it's barely been out in Japan yet, so I'm not too worried about lack of announcement) but I wouldn't be surprised if KOEI pulls the same bullshit as they did with 7 and cut the English VAs for a little cost and cut out the Disk production for the same reason.  (Because, once again, no dubs = no disk is bullshit)  If it's localized for the Vita, unless it's just a dreadfully shitty port, I'll at least be alright with downloading that since it will be far smaller than the ~11 gigs that standard KOEI fare seems to be on PS3.  I'd say I don't know -why- I'm bothering, but it's obvious - Zhu Ran is in Xtreme Legends.  I can't wait for an official announcement so I can do another "Let's Talk About the New Characters" and probably just devote an entire post to Zhu Ran.  Just you wait.

Update!:  I figure it's appropriate to do a tl;dr of my method here for the folks who...somehow stumble across this and want to be Weapon Collecting Masochists.

• Get the Bow of Destruction - It's Xiahou Yuan's Fifth Weapon.  The game tells you how to get it.
• Buff Up a Fighter of Your Choice (Potentially Optional) - Abuse the Academy in your Ambition Mode town and use some (most/all) of that gold you've stockpiled playing every single Story Mode mission.  Get someone to Level 99, buff their stats to 1,000, go all out.  I went with Lu Bu, obv. but you go with whoever works for you.
• Upgrade Fortune Hunter - Go to Yellow Turban Conflict (Zhang Jiao's story stage) on Chaos Difficulty in Free Mode, rescue Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang and go to the southwest corner (south of Zhang Bao) where Peons spawn infinitely.  Massacre 1,500+ and then go to town on all the officers in the stage.  Repeat as needed; Bare Minimum Level 10, Recommended 15+.
• Farm Farm Farm - Go to Shu's Missions in Free Mode and pick Capture of Wei - Wei Forces (or find it in the Xuchang maps, maybe).  Equipped with Fortune Hunter and the Bow of Destruction, you should be able to wrangle 1-4 Star Weapons from the 11 officers present per run.  Let Liu Bei kill you to immediately restart the stage.  You'll retain your Star weapons and save a lot of loading time.  Repeat until the trophy dings!

As another side update, I got my Weapon Collector trophy so yay me!  Also Bond-Grinding is definitely number one most grindy, awful thing in DW8.  No question.

okay, I do still wonder sometimes why I do this to myself

Ambition Mode? Ambition Mode.

I'd put it off long enough, going into the unproven territory that was Ambition Mode because I had a rather...sinking feeling about it, looking at the trophy descriptions that associated itself with the mode.   To be fair, most of them were founded, even if not completely or as -bad- as I mad them out to be in my head.  That isn't to say it was a walk in the park or it wasn't grindy as hell, however, because believe me, it wasn't and it was in that order.  So of course I'm going to put aside a little time to delve into to intricacies of the system for any of you reading this who decide that you want to challenge it yourself.  Or because you just enjoy me being over-analytical or what have you in regards to video game things.

First off, you're playing Ambition Mode for the trophies.  Let's not kid ourselves.  There's nothing in the confines of Ambition Mode that you cannot get easily in Story or Free Mode, aside from very, very easy experience, but even that's a bit of a moot point in the long run.  So, you're opening up Ambition Mode and playing it for the trophies.  Let's take a look at which ones, then.

• Facility Construction
• Facility Expansion
• The Birth of a Leader
• Friends to the End
• The Path of Ambition
• A Collector of Rarities
• A Majestic Manner
• The Height of Prosperity
• The Ties That Bind Us
• The Land of Plenty
• Heaven and Earth
• Unwavering Ambition

There are also a few trophies that aren't Ambition Mode's per se, but you need to play it (extensively) to get them.

• Animal Collector
• Vocal Enthusiast (Oh boy, this one)
• Movie Collector

So, yes, of the games forty trophies (not counting the Plat), fifteen of them are tied up in Ambition Mode in one form or another, so really, if you're playing Ambition Mode, it's for them.   Ambition Mode is shallow and forgettable enough in the scheme of things that you don't -need- to go into it and though you can, you'll likely be disappointed by what you discover within.  It's not that Ambition Mode is bad in so many words or ideas, but it's just that it's the same sort of set up as it was in Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends and even Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce.  It's a framing device that pretends to move and grow with your actions, but to say that it does so in a meaningful, vibrant or dynamic way is being a bit too generous.  Rather, it simply feels...mechanical.

The end-all goal of Ambition Mode is to build a Tongquetai to house the Emperor who will be attracted to your lands because the Tongquetai is going to be magnificent.  And yes, if you're googling Tongquetai, you're wondering just what in the fuck I'm talking about because the majority of the entries seem to be about a movie called "The Assassins" which is exactly not what you want the Emperor around!  Of course, it's not some sort of meta-commentary or anything, the building is just, of course, some really nice looking mansion deal.  Anyway, to get the materials to build the Tongquetai, you have to first build up facilities in a little poor start-up town, of course, and they will eventually...just sort of -have- the materials somehow.  Just go with it.

So to get a Tongquetai, you have to build Facilities.  How do you build Facilities?  Well...actually you crush your enemies and force them to fight for you recruit them to your cause.  But how do you build -up- Facilities (which is the important part)?  You gather materials.  There are two types of Materials in Ambition Mode:  Weapon and Facility and I'll give you two guesses as to which one you should be paying attention to.  This is what you are going to spend 80% of your time in Ambition Mode fretting over, is getting goddamn Materials for your facilities to level them up for their benefits and also just to get the Tongquetai so you're able to focus on the even more grindy bits of the mode.  Because yes, getting Materials and in fact just getting your Tongquetai/the City built up is the least grindy portion of the entire subset of the game.  Wrap your head around that one.

Now, this is a good time to stop for a moment and breakdown the -other- things you need to 'collect' for Ambition Mode, and the perils thereof.  On top of Materials to build up Facilities, you need Allies to necessitate their construction in the first place and Fame to allow you to recruit more Allies because apparently they're your posse and you can only have a big posse if you're famous and it's not like you get famous for -having- a big posse or that fame and followers come hand-in-hand or anything silly.  Anyway, I'm sure you can see the sort of feed-the-meter logistics at work, and it's not going to surprise you in the least when I say that the missions in Ambition Mode are geared towards getting you the specified resources in direct transfusions of 15-30 minute battles.  (That usually take anywhere from 1-20 minutes to complete)  As such, you have missions that grant you Fame moreso than the others, missions that grant you more enemies to defeat and thus more Allies to recruit, and missions where Materials drop more often.

There's a problem with all of this, however.  Honestly, there's a problem with nearly every facet of this whole set-up, unfortunately, and it's almost hilarious in its own ineptitude.  KOEI commits a cardinal sin against common sense in regards to collecting and building that's so basic it makes my head hurt.  Ambition Mode's mission rewards aren't that great on their own because the goal is for you to run through multiple in a sitting, since you can chain battles.  This is important to know.  Over the course of 3-5 battles, of course, you're going to have a -lot- of gains to your totals instead of just the piddly one battle.  However, there are several times when this is inadvisable to do.  Like, say, whenever you fill up one of the meters.  Because you have to physically go back to camp, wreck your streak, just so the game can show you a building going up and saying "Yay, now you can gain more fame arbitrarily!" before you can actually gain more fame.  So...chaining battles becomes less a necessity for actually building up your town and more solely a necessity for fucking trophies.

Let's get back to those, shall we?  Specifically the ones titled The Birth of a Leader, The Path of Ambition and Unwavering Ambition, which are gained from doing 5, 20 and 50 chain battles respectively.  Note that at any point before actually finishing the City and whatnot when you don't even have to worry about Fame and all that, doing 20 battles will push you to your meter in at least one category, meaning you're wasting a -lot- of time in all reality.  This is to say nothing of the fact that the Animal Collector trophy is -also- tangled in the Chain Battle mess since you have to do 30, 60, 90 and 100 chain battles for four unique animals that count towards the trophy you get for collecting animals.  They are Shadow Runner, Hex Mark, Red Hare and the War Elephant respectively and of those, Red Hare is the one that is worth it, meaning a lot of people who don't -know- what's up will get Red Hare and then immediately fucking quit doing chain battles because they're terrible and discover that "whoops, you were ten battles away from never having to chain battle again!"

The really funny bit about this all is that because of the silliness with Battles in general and their drops, and Chaining Battles, you could end up spending a lot of time on the Battle portion of the mode when really the most lucrative thing you could do is just focus on your town as much as possible.  The only thing you really -need- from battles is Allies and Fame which you're going to earn over the course of everything else -anyway-, so you don't really have to make special outings for them specifically.  Materials, however, are another matter entirely.  You -could- spend about a minute total with loading and actually doing a mission to end up with ~2-6 Facility Materials, or you could be smart.  Being smart requires you to have the Barracks (one of the core buildings), the Stables (optional, really, but necessary for max yield), the Farmer (again, -technically- optional, but you want it) and the Merchant which is another core building.  Once you have these, you are ready to begin farming.

One of the nice things about the Merchant, or the only nice thing about it I should say, is that it lets you exchange Materials for the other variety of it.  So Weapon Materials for Facility Materials and vice versa.  One weapon material exchanges to two facility materials, which is very good and it works the other way around for weapon materials again which is less good, but you don't -need- weapon materials.  What this ratio means is that what you -want- are Weapon Materials because they are vital for your Facility Material gathering.  Your Barracks allows you to send troops off to other areas from whence they will return with things, specifically Materials of a certain type.  That means you want to send them off to Weapon Material places.  Similarly, feeding the animals in the Stables gives you materials that are sometimes weapon and sometimes facility so either way you win, technically.  The supervisor that you assign at the Farmer also has a chance of giving you up to ten materials as well.

So the routine, essentially, is going to your Barracks, getting materials and sending them out again, going to the Stables, getting Materials, going to the Farmer to check if the Supervisor gives you materials and then going to the Merchant.  All told, you have a chance to have something like 24-30 Weapon Materials from the three places you visit around your town which translates into 48-60 Facility Materials.  Low-level buildings require 1-2 Materials to level up and higher leveled ones (40-50 generally, 50 is max Level) require 9-10.  Either way, you can make a nice dent with 48-60 Materials and the time it takes to gather them is negligible.  Especially compared to the minute or so that you'll spend just getting half a dozen from actually having to -work- for them.  Regardless, the one tip that has to be echoed for this process is for the love of God, don't fall for KOEI's Trap Card.

The Merchant, as one of the four core buildings, will need to be leveled up to max for the Tongquetai to be built.  So you, naturally, will probably just go "Well, I'll do that first" because why not?  Well, you don't want to do that because at level 50, the Merchent goes into late-game mode by assuming you don't need Facility Materials anymore and thus drops the exchange rate between Materials to 1:1.  Good for getting Weapon Materials, bad for getting Facility Materials.  It will cause you to need to go at this twice as long and that's something you want to avoid at all costs.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you that.  So yes, the moral of the story is Don't Level up the Merchant to 50 until the very end.  You'll thank me for that.

So you do Chain Battles for Animals for Animal Collector, you gather up allies and fame and materials to eventually upgrade the town to full (which gains you Facility Construction and Facility Expansion for your first of each respectively), gaining the trophies mentioned a few paragraphs ago as well as A Collector of Rarities (for completing all the Duels which show up every four missions until you've beaten them all), A Majestic Manner (Max Fame), The Height of Prosperity (All the Facilities built), The Ties that Bind Us (all 720 allies recruited) and Heaven and Earth (Finally complete the Tongquetai and welcome the Emperor to your city).  Doing that will get you the Ending Credits for Ambition Mode which counts as a movie for the Movie Collector trophy, given you've already beaten the Story Modes completely to see each Kingdom's Historical and Hypothetical Credits.

That leaves you with The Land of Plenty which you get after gaining 1,000 Materials which...you will do eventually.  It also leaves you with Vocal Enthusiast, and Friends to the End.  Friends to the End is easy enough - gain max bond with one of the 78 other characters in the game, which you will do by toting them around from battle to battle as your bodyguard.  Vocal Enthusiast is one of those tricky, roundabout trophies, however.  You see, when you get max bond with an officer, you unlock some of their voice clips in the Gallery.  Which is well and good, but you don't unlock them -all- for that character, because you see, what you have to do is max bond with that character.

Twice.

Once as a Male officer, once as a Female Officer.  Vocal Enthusiast requires you to have unlocked every voice clip in the game.  Which means gaining Max Bond with Every Officer in the game.  Twice.  Remember how I said Material Grinding was the least grindy bit of Ambition mode?  There you go.

So yes, Ambition Mode is....well, it's honestly a neat concept, but goddamn if KOEI does not how to properly introduce Sim elements to the game.  Which is hilarious when you consider that KOEI fucking specializes in Sim games.  But that's just one of the things that makes KOEI the company that it is.  The terrible, awful, no good, very bad company that it is.  That I will continuously buy products from because goddamnit, nobody else is making them.

Vocal Enthusiast is a bronze trophy, by the way, just as one last 'fuck you' from KOEI

Yes, I'm Talking About Dynasty Warriors 8 Again

Today, I have finally beaten the final Story Mode mission contained within Dynasty Warriors 8 and by my approximation, I'm roughly 35% complete with the game now.  Four full story modes and 9 or 10 unaffiliated "Other" Story Missions (basically taking the "Other" characters who are famous but not among the ranks of Wei, Wu, Shu or Later Wei/Jin and taking an a-historical account of a famous battle of their in most cases, generally one that they -lost- historically) all told.  The four story modes also had branching paths at the 2/3rds mark, meaning when you got to the branch you were...half done.  Since you had to do -both- branches eventually and combined they were usually like eight missions or so on their own.  All of that is pretty much only 35% of the game in terms of 'completeness' which I'm gauging by the Trophy List for convenience.

Basically what I'm saying is that Dynasty Warriors 8 is surprisingly packed with content.  Perhaps too much so.

With Story mode done completely, as in I've unlocked all branches, beaten every stage and gotten every star for performing special tasks (Which I don't think is actually necessary for a trophy in the case of missions where it's not necessary to do the star to unlock a branch, but, eh, completionist) I have Free mode and Ambition mode left ahead of me, neither of which I've even strayed into at all.  Free mode is unexpectedly daunting for what it honestly is:  in Free Mode, you just get to pick a battle, pick a side and play any character in it, meaning if you want to be Sun Jian fighting for Shu in the defense of Chengdu from the forces of Later Wei, then have at it, you can totes do that.  The daunting part comes into play when you realize there are a -ton- of stages that are mostly unique maps (granted, maps like Luoyang Castle and Xucheng get used for several missions, but you don't tend to notice right away) and you have to play each one at least once for one of the shiny silver trophies the game has to offer.  I'm -pretty sure- that means only once total, not only once as each possible faction, because the latter would be fucking insanity.

Ambition Mode is a complete unknown to me, however.  I can make an educated guess and say that it's likely like Legend Mode from Dynasty Warriors 7:  Xtreme Legends which I have bitched about in the past, but with less of a finite structure, given that there are trophies for winning 5, 20 and 100 battles straight within Ambition mode.  I'm...not entirely sure this is a good thing nor can I be certain it's something that will be unwelcome.  A bulk of the trophies come from Ambition mode, in all honesty which is a little strange - not only does Ambition mode seem to be something that would be in Xtreme Legends, but there's so few trophies attached to the actual Story mode (directly, the collection stuff necessitates them regardless) given the obvious effort put into it.  Honestly, it's almost a little disheartening, but on the other hand I'm hoping that much harder that Ambition mode proves to be worth it.

Now that I've played the story through, however, I've gotten a feel for the new characters and I gotta say, by and large, they're pretty good.  Jia Chong is top-tier along with Guan Xing (for his musou and rage musou) and Zhang Chunhua, though not especially for her moveset.  Li Dian and Wen Yang, however, are unfortunately bad on....well, most counts, really.  Their movesets are boring (Dian's is slow as well) and their characterizations are more or less off-putting.  Wen Yang is just bland and uninspired (mild play-ups to him being Later Wei's Zhao Yun when he has nowhere near the charisma needed) where Li Dian is just....so intentionally 'look how weird I am' that it's frustrating.  The other new additions run somewhere in the middle skewed more to the Jia Chong/Guan Xing side, thankfully, though Zuo Ci is disappointingly not as much of a beast as he was in Dynasty Warriors 5.

I'm still finding myself impressed with DW8 even if I'm not just blown away like I was with DW7.  Since 8 focused on a lot of refinement and addition, or at least tries to, it's obvious that it'd be more subtle with its great things, but they're still there and they're still great.  I almost cannot believe yet that every character is unique, something that I've literally been wanting from the series since I first started playing it, and it's finally happened.  I can only imagine that it's going to remain like this going forward - no real reason to migrate Sima Shi back to a regular rapier now that he's got a Lightning Sword and no reason to give Zhurong Throwing Knives again now that she's got her Boomerang back, after all.  Which isn't to say that I anticipate everyone keeping their -exact- weapons for Dynasty Warriors 9, just that I don't see them cloning anyone back up.  Huang Gai in particular is probably going to get his Cudgel back at -some- point since I don't believe anyone is just running around with a one-handed club.  And I can always dream about Pang De just using a goddamn coffin in battle.  Maybe one day.

it's wild that I'm already thinking about a Dynasty Warriors 9, because good lord that's a high number comparatively

Dynasty Warriors 8 is Damn Good

After my foray into Beyond: Two Souls that ended with me liking it, but not necessarily ready to jump back into it for the trophies, I turned to my backlog, specifically games from this year, and decided that I should probably play one of them.  Preferably one that I hadn't played yet.  There's an embarrassingly high amount of games that could be included in this, but in the end I decided on going to my comfort zone because I need comfort these days.  So I grabbed Dynasty Warriors 8 which I purchased way back when it came out in July, unwrapped it (yes, it was still in plastic, yes that kind of made me a little ill) and tossed it into my PS3 with the intent on cutting swaths through Feudal China.  Something I've done countless times before and will do countless times yet.

I got that with Dynasty Warriors 8.  I got that in spades.  Originally, you'll remember that I really liked Dynasty Warriors 7 because it changed up the formula immensely, bringing more and more cinematic bits into it and really incorporating them in a worthwhile way, while also completely overhauling the weapon system with weapon switching and such.  I eventually concluded, though perhaps not in a post, that Dynasty Warriors 7 is the best Dynasty Warriors since 3 which is the absolute best through nostalgia-rimmed glasses at least (since I haven't played it in a long time).  8 was shaping up to be 7, but with more stuff, which by all metrics should have put it at 'better' than 7 itself.

I'm not so sure I would put it on that level, however.  Initially, I definitely would not have, but the more I play it, the more I start appreciating it and the effort that went into it, while also slowly realizing awesome things about it.  Some things are a straight step backwards - the game is overall less cinematic and less story-focused if for the simple fact that the little text-dumps in-between missions are not narrated for the first time since...ever and the text is rather small to boot, and you can no longer equip new weapons mid-battle thanks to the Rock/Paper/Scissors mechanic they've almost arbitrarily added to weapons now - but everything else is either maintained or improved upon.  Including one thing that's like a fucking revelation after playing the games for as long as I have been.

You see, in previous iterations, there have always been some characters that simply have the same exact moveset since they share a tenuous weapon choice.  So Cao Cao would play almost exactly like Sun Jian who would play almost exactly like Liu Bei because they all wielded a Longsword and while there was some personalization, it wasn't a -lot-.  It's been in the games with varying degrees with Dynasty Warriors 6 being the worst of it where there were honestly maybe a dozen movesets spread across the 50-some characters in the roster.  In Dynasty Warriors 7, they tried to mitigate the clone issue by assigning "EX" attacks, which were attacks unique to that character with their preferred weapon.  So even though Liu Shan, Sima Shi and Yuan Shao all fought with a Rapier, they had different EX attacks assigned to a different charge, not to mention the different musou attacks.  Dynasty Warriors 8 has a more...elegant solution that is almost mind-blowing in the realization that they've finally done it.

There are no clones.  Everyone has their own weapon type which in turn has its own moveset with nary an overlap between them.  Liu Shan wields a Rapier where Sima Shi wields a "Lightning Sword" where Yuan Shao wields an "Extension Blade" which are all -basically- rapiers, but entirely different weapons in their own right with different moves and the whole spread.  Cao Cao wields a General's Swod where Sun Jian wields a Nine-Rings Blade where Sun Quan wields a Sword (seriously, just basic sword) where Sima Zhao wields a Striking Sword and they're all -wildly- different as you might expect from my previous mentions.  It's honestly a little surreal, having a scenario in which everyone has their own weapon, but it's been something that has needed to happen for a while and it's almost astounding that they finally managed it.  It's strangely liberating even.

All in all, Dynasty Warriors 8 attempts to be a complete refinement of 7 and in a lot of ways, it truly is - maps are nice, large and details, character models look nice (except in cutscenes where they're very...plastic-y), there's like seven weapons of each type and that whole non-clone thing is wonderful.  While it's a step back in a couple important areas, it's not -that- bad, even if it's enough to allow me to continue lofting Dynasty Warriors 7 up high for naught but the best of accolades.  It's enough to get me hyped up for Dynasty Warriors 8:  Xtreme Legends...which probably won't get a physical release over here.  More than a little depressing seeing as I can't reliably download a single goddamn gig these days thanks to what I'm assuming is Playstation 4 traffic.  Still...it has Zhu Ran, so I might just have to find a way.

when I realized that there were no cloned movesets, I literally had no goddamn clue what to do, it was that shocking

KOEI, Seriously, Please Start Announcing Localizations

KOEI really, really, really likes the Vita...

....in Japan.

No less than four Warriors titles are in production for the device at the moment, and it borders on absurd at just how much attention the Vita's getting from KOEI, even if it -is- half ports.  Yet, when those ports are Samurai Warriors 2 (and Xtreme Legends -and- Empires) and Warriors Orochi 3 (as an enhanced version of the game, same as PS3's enhanced version) you will be surprised at just how fucking okay I am with this.  Those two games join the line-up alongside Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends (potentially 8 somewhere along the line too?) and the newly announced Shin Dynasty Warriors Gundam which are both being developed for PS3 -and- Vita.  And that's all of just what I know about, who the hell knows if there's other stuff that I've missed completely, because it's entirely possible.

The first reaction to this is supposed to be a level of cautious optimism, of course.  They're not exclusive games to the Vita, but they're being developed for it nonetheless, and that likely fosters a sort of side-by-side mentality about them.  Consumers will only buy one or the other by-and-large of course (KOEI ain't gonna touch Cross-buy with a ten foot pole) but it broadens the pool of potential buyers at the very least if you put both out, and there's no reason -not- to.  That they're coming to the Vita at all is a good sign no matter how you look at it.  I basically mention that side-by-side mentality for the localization aspect of the games, of course.  Speaking of...

The next reaction is the slow, creeping disdain and cynicism that one has naturally fostered for KOEI by this point when it comes to actually releasing games outside of Japan.  We did get the original Warriors Orochi 3 (as digital-only for PS3 which is something that I have ranted about enough), and we did get Samurai Warriors 2, Xtreme Legends and Empires way back in the day easy enough as well.  DW8:XL seems a given to come out over here, but I'm not pinning any hopes on disc-based, and Shin Dynasty Warriors Gundam....is the sticky one of the bunch.  We don't know anything about it really - is it just another DW: G game with a new name? - so it's hard to say one way or another, especially with Namco Bandai being involved on top of KOEI.  Warriors Orochi 3 coming out over here originally might even be a strike against its chances since WO3 Ultimate is a (highly) enhanced version of it.  But we'll just have to see on that, I suppose.

Now, as mentioned, the really sticky thing to wonder about if -any- of these games come out is format.  KOEI surprised the hell out of me by announcing DW8 on disc with a proper localization and such, but I expect that to be the exception rather than the rule moving forward.  I have zero problems throwing money at people at GameStop for a copy of a KOEI game on a disc.  Zero.  While I've raised a stink about digital-only in the past (and it's still an issue, though definitely something I've chilled out on some), I only have a few issues with throwing digital money at PSN for a copy of a KOEI game in digital form.  Those issues are primarily "How big is it" and "That's going to take fucking forever to download".  Which was a legitimate concern with my current PS3 - the fans kick on to 100% or seems like it, which means it's not long for this world.  It takes the better part of six hours to download one gig of data, I'd bet, so something like WO3 which was eleven gigs?  Ridiculous.  Cannot, will not ever happen unless I cart my system to someone else and it manages to not die after I delete 22 gigs of data to accommodate the strange way PSN downloads work with full games or something.

When I get a shiny new PS3 with 500 gigs of storage space this will....be far less of an issue.  It'll obviously still take fucking forever to download, but the great thing is that I might actually be able to let it.  In the end, it's all about just being able to buy and play a game that you want to play.  So when there's an unreasonable barrier, of course it's going to be frustrating, but I guess the option then just becomes "Make it work".  So maybe I will.  I can tell you with certainty that if the games come out in the West on Vita, I don't care what format, I will buy the ever-loving shit out of them.  I will make a KOEI page and it will have all the bubbles for Dynasty Warriors Next and Toukiden and whatever of the above titles actually come out, even if I have to buy them all digitally.  I will eschew whatever I have to in an effort to have multiple KOEI Warriors games at my fingertips.  And I will seriously consider a 32 gig stick if need-be.  You just have to make it happen, KOEI.

there is honestly nothing about the prospect of any of those four Warriors games on my Vita that I don't love

Let's Talk About the New Characters in Dynasty Warriors 8 - Jin Edition

Time for the final iteration of this series of posts talking about the additions to the roster for the up-coming Dynasty Warriors 8.  Jin is perhaps one of the more tricky kingdoms to talk about because of the fact that it wasn't actually known as Jin until the war of the era was just about done.  Up until that point, it was still known as Wei (or Cao Wei, historically) so it's honestly a bit hard to say where the line is.  So hard that even KOEI had no real idea where to draw it with their initial cast for DW7 that included Xiahou Ba, someone that defected to Shu almost instantly after the Simas rose to the power that would eventually allow them to take control of the empire, reducing the Caos rule to figurehead at best.  That is, of course, generally the line as it seems to be, however - as soon as Sima Yi seized power from Cao Shuang, that's generally where it feels like Wei ends and Jin begins.  As luck would have it, the three new players for Jin do manage to reinforce that.

Jia Chong is up first, and he's definitely a Jin man through and through.  He rose to prominence after Sima Yi passed on and Sima Shi took over, continuing to serve even as Sima Shi died as well, passing on the kingdom to Sima Zhao.  Chong was also one of the two people who were crucial in stopping Cao Mao (one of the Wei Emperors) from seizing power back for the Cao family during an attempted coup.  He wasn't the one who killed Mao directly, but his subordinate and even though he wasn't executed for the 'crime', his name was always associated with the murder of Cao Mao.  (The direct line from Wiki is "From that point on, however, Jia's reputation among the people was one of regicide." which, completely out of context, is awesome.)  Chong was also instrumental in helping suppress the myriad of rebellions that plagued Cao Wei during the entire Sima clan reign prior to the actual claiming of Jin as its own Dynasty.  Though, he did serve after Jin was claimed and reluctantly lead many invasions into Wu until Wu finally surrendered, bringing the whole of China together.  So, in essence, Jia Chong -is- Jin through-and-through, and it's a good thing they went with him as a unique.  He fights with throwing axes which is just...awesome and I have absolutely no complaints at all.

Wen Yang is next, and he is a shining example of something I touched on before, in that just being a unique character in a Dynasty Warriors game was only half the point, where the other half was the actual presentation of it.  I can't say Wen Yang is a consummate Jin officer because he and his father were part of one of the rebellions -against- the Simas, but he joined them after it was quelled and was later on known for his valor and skill in battle.  See, the issue here is that there are relatively few officers of the era that were known for wielding a specific weapon since in most cases they just used a sword, a bow or a polearm.  But, of course, if everyone just had a sword, a bow or a polearm, it would be kind of a boring game as DW6 with its insane amount of polearms and cloned movesets can attest to.  So my thinking is that when you -get- someone who was known for wielding a non-traditional weapon give him that fucking weapon.  In this case, Wen Yang was famous for using a steel whip in battle which is -astounding-, but then you look on the KOEI site and his weapon is listed as....javelin.  A double-tipped javelin at that.  At this point, it almost seems like a waste and I genuinely wonder if his moveset is even going to be unique to him.  Unfortunate, since he doesn't have a -lot- attributed to him, but his reputation was there.

Last up is Zhang Chunhua, who was actually one of the few ladies of the period that actually has something credited to her name.  You see, Chunhua was Sima Yi's wife and in the times before he was employed by Cao Cao, he was, well, simply enjoying not being part of the strife of the era.  But he had talents that were known of and, according to one account, Cao Cao sent an official envoy requesting his service, but he declined citing poor health.  However, one of his maids saw him moving about in a manner that clearly suggested he wasn't ill and it worried Chunhua that the maid might send word to Cao Cao and get them all in trouble for ignoring an official request.  She was so worried, in fact, that she straight-up murdered the maid to keep her silent.  This is...roughly the only thing attributed to her in the whole of the era aside from giving birth to Sima Shi, Sima Zhao and a couple other children, but still, it's more than -some- of the others get.  As sort of a cute joke, I assume, Zheng Chunhua wields what are basically whip-gloves (pictured above) which were Sima Yi's weapons in Dynasty Warriors 6 for some ungodly reason.

Since there are no new additions to the Others category, (which is a grave oversight in my opinion) this will be the last of these posts for now.  I -would- mention something in a blurb about Zuo Ci here as he's being reintroduced to the Others portion of the cast after a two game absence, but he's a mystic, and mystics have a lot of bullshit around them, so it's hard to talk about them in a historical sense.  If you're one of the fine folks who've read each of these, I thank you because I honestly do enjoy history, so I enjoy sharing it.  I hope you found it at least mildly entertaining and/or informational if you read it at all.  In the meantime, I'll just be getting excited at the prospect of being able to play a Dynasty Warriors game again.  A game that isn't Dynasty Warriors Next.  Which I have so much grinding to do in.  So much grinding.

seriously, how do you not give the guy famous for wielding a friggin' steel whip a friggin' steel whip, I don't even

Let's Talk About the New Characters in Dynasty Warriors 8 - Wu Edition

Tonight, we round third base and discuss Wu's additions to Dynasty Warriors 8.  As with Wei, there are only two to pick and initially, I felt that perhaps one of the picks was a bit of a wasted one.  However, after a bit of further study, I do have to say that KOEI did good again with their picks this time around even if one of them wasn't -technically- a warrior of the time.  It's still a rather good showing, especially after Shu's picks and while I haven't looked too deeply into Jin's, I'm willing to say that the streak probably ends here for the most part.  Good run and all of that, but KOEI just cannot resist novelty characters and/or characters that just had absolutely no bearing on the era according to history -or- the novel on which they base the games off of for the most part.  Still, be happy for what they got right and such.

Let's speak of the pictured above first, which is a man by the name of Lu Su.  This was the guy that I thought originally didn't really need a spot since, first and foremost, he was a strategist and an advisor, but credit where it's due, the dude -did- lead troops into battle.  Not often, but enough to add General to his repertoire, eventually leading to his title of "General Across the River".  Not one of the best title names, as there are some real gems, but not bad either.  However, the reason why Lu Su is important is basically that you look at a majority of the decisions Sun Quan made, the big ones, and you have to realize that Lu Su is the reason Quan made most of them.  Su advocated resisting Cao Cao's larger forces when everyone else suggested surrender and bid that they team up with Liu Bei for a little-known conflict known as the Battle of Red Cliffs.  You know, just a tiny battle that we certainly haven't heard of and certainly wasn't turned into a John Woo movie or anything. 

He also spoke to lending Jing territory to Liu Bei when he came and asked to be named governor of the area to establish a home for himself and his followers.  He was the only one who suggested it would be a good idea, as it would strengthen their relationship as it was forged by their cooperation in the Battle of Red Cliffs.  Further, he was the only one to suggest that Liu Bei be allowed to retain part of Jing territory (which Wu had loaned to Shu) after Shu had established itself further west and doing so eventually allowed Wu to seize a big opportunity in what was Lu Meng's invasion of Jing which had occurred while Guan Yu was busy with Cao Cao's forces at Fan Castle.  This occurred two years after Lu Su's death, of course, but had he not argued to maintain things as they were, that opportunity might not have presented itself.  This is among other examples, so Lu Su was basically the guy behind the guy, if you will.  As such, I'm completely fine with him being a character since he's basically Sun Quan's Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi.  The character page says his weapon is a Rake, but looking at the above screenshot, I'm not....quite sure what to call that.  Let's just go with it, I suppose.

The other character added to the game was Han Dang and this was a very good move indeed.  Han Dang is one of those few, few officers that survived what is essentially a goodly portion of the major struggle of the era.  He joined up with Sun Jian at the start when Sun Jian and the rest of China were participating in quelling the Yellow Turbans and ended up staying with Wu until he died two years after Sun Quan, Sun Jian's second son, had declared himself Emperor of Wu.  Name an important battle that Wu was in and Han Dang was probably in it.  That alone is impressive since he was often right in the thick of things and managed to survive the battlefield which is not something that just anybody could claim.  It could be said that it was because of his need to inspire his men to fight as one no matter what, to trust in that unity, as well as the respect he showed everyone around him.  They don't always have to be the dude who turned the tide of a battle or something like that - sometimes they just have to be a cool dude which Han Dang was.  His weapon will be a Short Pike, apparently.

These two additions are, as stated, definitely indications of progress which is a very, very good thing of course.  It's not perfect just yet, but it could never be, I'm sure as it's not only the inclusion of characters, but their portrayal that is important and while KOEI may deliver on the former, they often fail at the latter.  That is my chief concern where it concerns adding Zhu Ran to the roster which is as much of an inevitability as anything, given how badass Zhu Ran was.  Other notable Wu inclusions would be Pan Zhang, He Qi and Xu Sheng which sort of shows just how much is left in the pool considering there are quite a few other notables (Including Sun Quan's sons) that could be added, especially for long-game purposes.  With Xtreme Legends favoring Wei for 7 and Empires (damnit, KOEI) favoring Shu, perhaps Xtreme Legends for 8 will put a few Wu characters into play?  We'll see!  Hopefully.  (Physical product, KOEI, seriously)

Zhu Ran, baddest dude in the land, bitches

Let's Talk About the New Characters in Dynasty Warriors 8 - Wei Edition

Tonight, we resume our history lesson/rant by speaking on the Wei side of the Dynasty Warriors 8 character additions.  Of the three main kingdoms, Shu (the kingdom that's had more officers for several iterations) was the only one to receive three new characters (of course) with Wei and Wu only seeing the addition of two new characters per faction with the remaining three showing up in Jin's roster.  Would you be surprised if I stated that Wu and Wei are the two factions of the three that actually need the characters because they actually have them in history?  No?  Yeah, I didn't figure as much.  Because you guys are smart, and I yell about it enough that it's fairly obvious.  Regardless, the two Wei picks were good ones, if nothing else.

The first character introduced was Li Dian which was a fine, fine choice, given that he was actually a character who had some bearing and impact on the era in a big way.  In fact, a -lot- of Wei officers would fall into this category, meaning there are still plenty of misrepresentation issues to be addressed, but this shows that they're at least working on it, as did two....one of the characters they added for DW7: Xtreme Legends (as well as the one they re-added).  Li Dian wasn't much of a warrior to start off with, doing more studying than anything, but that proved to be his benefit later in life when that insight gave him some particular observational skills.  Like being able to see a blatant ambush attempt by the Shu army even when his fellows couldn't and then riding in to the rescue when an ambush (surprise!) happened.  Unfortunately, KOEI seems to lose the plot in their portrayal of him, as he's being painted as an easygoing, flippant guy when he was historically known to be very duty-first and respectful as well as smart.  Their portrayal is kind of further exaggerated by his weapon, called a Wheeled Halberd which is....a thing.  Two steps forward, one step back, I suppose.

The second introduction is long, long overdue in Yue Jin who is one of the more famous generals in the whole of Wei's history.  Like Li Dian, Yue Jin is one of the people who were basically with Cao Cao from the beginning (which oddly contrasts with KOEI's vision of the long-game as mentioned, but they're overdue as stated, so eh), but unlike Li Dian, Yue Jin was one of the Five Elite Generals of Wei which is....kind of a big deal and kind of makes it all the more strange that, here we are, eight mainline titles in and he's only now being made a unique character.  What makes characters that were actually relevant interesting, however, is that you actually can figure on just what battles they'll be prominent in, especially considering their new-ness which naturally means they'll be the focus of those battles.  The historic Battle of Guandu will definitely see a heavy bit of time go to Yue Jin now that he's unique and likely some for the Hefei Campaign (which will be one or two missions simply titled "The Battle of Hefei" of course).  With the latter, considering Li Dian is a unique as well, I expect a take on Hefei that hasn't been taken yet, in what is described here:

Before Cao Cao left to attack Zhang Lu, he left his representative Xue Ti with a letter that read "Open when the enemy arrives" on the envelope. As Sun Quan's army was already advancing towards Hefei, the defending generals then opened the letter as instructed. It stated, "When Sun Quan arrives, generals Zhang (Liao) and Li (Dian) will engage him; General Yue (Jin) will remain behind to defend and not go to battle." The generals were puzzled by the instructions. It was well known that Li Dian and Zhang Liao had a personal feud, and Yue Jin lacked experience on defending a fortress, even though he was renowned to be the best vanguard in Cao Cao's forces. As the three of them did not get along well with each other, Zhang Liao feared that they might disobey orders. He said, "Our lord is away at war. By the time his reinforcements reach here, we're already done for. So he is actually instructing us to take advantage of the situation, when the enemy has just arrived and not fully gathered yet, to attack them and devastate their morale so as to calm our men and strengthen our defences. Victory or defeat, it all depends on this battle. Why are the two of you still hesitating?" Li Dian was moved and he said, "This is a national crisis. We'll see how your strategy works out. How can I allow my personal affairs take precedence over my official duties?" Zhang Liao then selected 800 "die-hard" soldiers overnight in preparation for the upcoming battle, and threw a banquet for his men.

Which was previously just handled by a beefed up Zhang Liao sort of appearing near Sun Quan's main camp and assaulting the shit out of it.  Of course, if you were a Wu officer, that meant get your ass to the main camp, but if you were a Wei officer it generally meant you had to set it up beforehand and then Zhang Liao would eventually retreat since nobody but you could usually rout the enemy commander.  He could take out anyone else who was in the main camp (and often did.  Near-automatically) but never the Commander.  This new spin on it, however, could place a more personal angle on it (as well as give Li Dian and Yue Jin legitimate characterization) and make the mission all the more badass if it's honestly just you and the two others against the entire Wu army at that point.  I will take it.

Li Dian and Yue Jin are honestly two prime picks, but they needed a third slot and it needed to be Yu Jin, the final of the Five Elite Generals of Wei.  I won't get into it anymore than that, because I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he's introduced in the eventual Xtreme Legends iteration of the game, given 7 opened the series to that possibility.  At which time I'll go into a little more description (unless Xtreme Legends is Download-only in which case KOEI can once again resume fucking off) since there's nothing worse than going "Oh hey, I can talk about this....but I already did like half a year ago".  All in all, where Shu's picks honestly seemed wasted (If you want to give actual Shu officers a slot, go for Liao Hua or Wang Ping at least) but Wei's seem so on the money that it's a shame there weren't more of them.  Of course, it's not...like there aren't superficial characters in Wei either.  Still, it's a good job by KOEI and that deserves at least a little praise!

seriously, how do you make Cai Wenji before the last two Elite Generals, I don't even

Let's Talk About the New Characters in Dynasty Warriors 8 - Shu Edition

The other night, I very nearly got side-tracked into a long-winded rant about the new characters added in the latest installment of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, but I stopped myself, rationalizing that it would simply be better to just give myself a post to let it out.  Because it's going to take quite a while to air out enough history nerdiness and frustration that I am allowed to have, even for a game that I am pointedly excited for.  And then I started thinking about it and got sort of intimidated on just going full-bore on this stuff because, again, it's just a lot of stuff.  Combine that with a mood shift last night and, well, I just didn't have it in me to actually do the write-up.  So today I thought, "Oh, I know, I'll just split it all up since I will yell a lot about Shu and Wu at least" and, well, that's honestly kind of a good idea.

KOEI's choices with the last two games seem focused on the long-game; that is, telling the end-tale of the war even though it's not quite as.....good, as the middle of it.  It's an odd choice, admittedly, but I'm just telling myself it's simply leading up to The War of the Eight Princes, where things kind of get interesting again for a little bit.  I'm not...quite sure what they'd do with the scenario (It's a little weird to include it in a Dynasty Warriors game, but not big enough for its own series) and if they were going to do anything with the surrounding time periods, they'd be much more inclined to take on the Warring States period ending with the establishment of the Qin Dynasty or perhaps even going beyond the fall of the Qin Dynasty and into the establishing of the Han Dynasty seeing as the Han plays a central plot point to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms towards the start of the whole thing.  Regardless, the end-game is the focus for now and Shu's three new characters emphasize that rather effectively.

It should, of course be noted once more that Dynasty Warriors has always, always erred more on the side of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novelization than history itself, so it's honestly no surprise that two of the new characters are children of Guan Yu with that as their sole claim to fame in the historical side of things.  Guan Yu was kind of a big deal in history, but not nearly as much as he was made in the novelization and, indeed, culture afterwards even going so far as being deified by Taoism and Buddhism.  Arguably enough, even the third new character is merely an extension of Guan Yu's family in a sense.  This is why we don't play Dynasty Warriors for historical accuracy.

Guan Xing, arguably Guan Yu's least important son (his only competition is a son that probably didn't exist in history) was more of an official than an officer or general in the historical texts, only seeing a couple years of prominence before his death to little or no fanfare.  So, of course in the Novelization, he was a capable warrior who challenged another officer for the honor of leading the vanguard during an attack on Wu territory for vengeance shortly after the fall of Fan Castle, which resulted in Guan Yu's capture and death.  Eventually he succeeded in killing the man who lead the unit that captured Guan Yu (Kind of - for one, two officers were given credit and for two, the novel states that Guan Yu's ghost stopped the man in his tracks to allow Xing to score the killing blow which is kind of lame), earning back his father's weapon which he presumably used for the rest of his military career.  However, in Dynasty Warriors 8, he'll wield something called "Wingblades" which I hope are not Lu Xun's twin swords because that would just be lazy.  Even as somebody who got the novel treatment, he didn't see -that- much importance levied onto him.

Guan Yinping was apparently the daughter of Guan Yu and by that virtue it simply meant she didn't do a thing historically.  (If the lack of Wikipedia link wasn't enough of a hint)  The female characters in Dynasty Warriors by and large rarely had any sort of presence in the era, if they existed at all, and more often than not were just people to be married off to solidify an alliance for however long it lasted.  Sun Shangxiang is one of the more notable instances of this, being married off to Liu Bei by Sun Quan (her brother) in an effort to stabilize tensions between their organizations (neither had claimed King or Emperor of their domain by this point, so Kingdom is the wrong word to use).  Similarly, Sun Quan suggested a marriage between one of his sons and Guan Yinping, though Guan Yu rejected it.  That is, uh...pretty much all there is to tell about her really.  She's going to be wielding a Dual-Headed Mace (which you can kind of see in the screenshot above, but can see it better here) which is neat if not hilariously inappropriate.

Finally, Zhang Bao kind of continues in Guan Xing's footsteps in being absolutely useless in history, but made huge in the novelization because of who he was.  Zhang Bao was the oldest son of Zhang Fei who was one of Shu's fiercest warriors and oath brother to Guan Yu and Liu Bei himself.  In history, he apparently died young, but of course in the novelization he didn't and went on to be that officer that feuded with Guan Xing in an attempt to lead the vanguard on a campaign against Wu.  (See?  Mentioned it earlier and everything.)  The reason I state that his inclusion is likely due in part to Guan Xing is because their story will likely revolve around being forced to become oath brothers (like Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were) which made them sort of a team in the novelization from that point on.  I'm curious as to whether or not they'll keep the novelization's take on his death (Falling into a valley, basically) or if they'll do something else with it.  His weapon is called a Flail Sword despite obviously looking more like an oversized Katar at best.

I am going to take this moment to go on a little rant about Xu Shu who is completely and totally in the wrong faction.  Since I didn't get to see him in Dynasty Warriors 7:  Empires (Fucking KOEI) when he was added, I didn't pay a lot of attention.  However, turns out he's listed in Shu when...he just wasn't, really.  Much like Xiahou Ba being in Jin (Xiahou Ba fled Wei before it even became Jin), but I attributed Xiahou Ba's presence as a need for officers in Jin rather than Shu.  Xu Shu being in Shu makes no sense since he basically only served in Wei.  The story basically goes that Xu Shu met up with Liu Bei as Bei led thousands from their homes, fleeing Cao Cao's territory that eventually culminated in the Battle of Changban where Cao Cao's forces caught up with Liu Bei's own.  At most, Xu Shu advised Liu Bei in this battle before hearing that his mother was in Cao Cao's possession, leading him to state "Hey, I wish I coulda joined you, but I need my mom", essentially, and join up with Cao Cao where he stayed until he died decades later.  Instead of trying to take his mother to Liu Bei's territories to join up with him or something.  His return in Dynasty Warriors 8 still in Shu's over-inflated roster only adds to the silliness and bore mentioning.

This....is pretty much exactly why I decided to do separate posts for the new characters.  I am hopefully going to do other posts for Wei, Wu and Jin (no new Other characters this go around, unfortunately), but those will be another night.  Shu was just the one that nearly set me off on a rant (which, you see how long this went) so I figured it was better to do that one first.  Expect something similarly verbose when it comes to Wu not only because of who -was- added, but who -wasn't- added as well, for better or worse.  That's....something I'll explain when I get to it.  In the meantime, time to just be all excited that I'm going to get to buy and play a new Dynasty Warriors game!  It's a surprising amount of giddiness that I feel at the prospect.

I am just such a nerd

Upcoming Purchases: July and August 2013

If you have ever seen me type the phrase "Too many games" on this blog before and would not like to see it again (beyond that inclusion) then, by all means, skip this post.  Because in this post I'm going to complain loudly that there are in fact so many games that it borders on too many, even if there technically cannot be too much of a good thing.  Tonight I went to the effort of putting together a list of games that I know for a fact I have pre-ordered or that I have a very real intent of pre-ordering and the fact that it is 13 items long over the course of the year without including PS4 purchases or digital games is nothing short of being outright terrifying.  This is, of course, compounded by all the games I already have and haven't touched, and while it's a simple matter of just saying to myself, "It's really really hard for games to become rare anymore so I don't -have- to get things on the first day or second day" to which I then say "Shut up".  It is...not very productive.

Still, I would like to allow you a slight peak into the insanity that is simply the next two months.

Metal Gear Solid:  The Legacy Collection

July 9th, 2013

The next "Definitive" Collection of Metal Gear Solid games (likely to be preceded by the next next "Definitive" Collection if Kojima actually does find a studio to re-remake Metal Gear Solid 1) is a very, very impressive and alluring box collection if there ever was one to be had.  Every game in the proper Metal Gear Solid series up to 4 and Peace Walker (excluding Portable Ops because I guess nobody liked Portable Ops) is included in some way, shape or form.  Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 are featured yet again on Metal Gear Solid 3 HD (I imagine), Metal Gear Solid 1 and the VR Missions may or may not come in disk(s?) form (I've seen it stated as such, but I'm wary of believing it), Metal Gear 2, 3 and Peace Walker are all their respective HD versions from the collection that is friggin' impossible to find in the wild and Metal Gear Solid 4 is the Trophy version of the game, meaning the trophy patch that was released for all prior copies is printed right on the disk requiring no update.  This is, of course, leaving out the fact that the two Digital Graphic Novels (?) created by Ashley Wood will appear in this as well, which I don't believe they -were- available in America before.  If so, then it was...very, very limited.

The eternal torment I'm faced with in regards to Metal Gear Solid is that all I want, all I have wanted since the Vita was released, was a version of Peace Walker for the handheld in which Peace Walker dreamed the PSP would be.  (Well, that and a new Ac!d game, but we're talking realistic possibilities here)  The HD Collection for PS3, I had heard, contained a digital code for the PSP version of Peace Walker so that you could do the whole Transfarring thing between the HD and Portable versions, given that it was built entirely around that, yet I over-estimated just how available the HD Collection would be.  By the time I had a space in my calendar for it and began looking, it was nowhere to be found and I've never been able to confirm whether or not I could -get- a digital code from the game.  It is all, of course, just an effort to avoid spending money on buying a game again since I bought Peace Walker on UMD and played the absolute shit out of it to degrees that I never would've envisioned.  And I want to do that again, but I don't $30 (or has it price-dropped yet?) want to do it again.  I very much doubt the Legacy Collection will help me with this venture either, unfortunately.

Regardless, it is a package that is enticing to me as I do not currently have in my possession blu-rays that contain Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 or Peace Walker on them due to my lack of ability in finding the HD Collection without online ordering, which is basically me stating that I'm lazy and I wouldn't play any of them right away anyway.  (As a point of fact, I've had the Vita Collection for....weeks and I haven't put it in aside from checking for an update during the time in which I had barely-there internet)  In a lot of ways, that's solely why I would want to pick up the Legacy Collection, though I do worry because I have not, in fact, remembered to pre-order it which makes me kind of a dumb.  I have a week and I simply don't know if I'll manage it within that timeframe (If I can still pre-order it at all), but I can give it a shot, or take a chance on it just...being in stock.  We'll see.

Shin Megami Tensei IV (Limited Edition Box Set)

July 17, 2013

The PowerUp Rewards site assures me that my copy of Shin Megami Tensei IV for the 3DS is among those that were elevated to the Limited Edition Box Set for the first shipment of the title.  I'm not sure I'm willing to allow myself to believe that I was, in fact, so lucky, but I suppose that's something I'll find out in a couple weeks.  I'm not too fussed about it, personally in the sense that I'm not really buying SMT IV out of the pure excitement for the title, but rather a bit of curiosity and the knowledge that, being an Atlus title, it will quickly become fucking impossible to find at a reasonable price, barring the times when you simply get lucky and the copy of Devil Summoner 2:  Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon that you bought for $20 was in fact one that somebody pre-ordered and never picked up and comes with the neat little plastic enclosure and the awesome little Raiho plushie.  For $20.

I've never played a proper SMT title, which is something I'd always hoped to rectify and SMT IV is simply a means to that end.  I've not paid attention to any of the hype, any of the people who played the Japanese version or anything.  I have nothing in my head about what an SMT title is, much less SMT IV specifically, and when I purchase it, I hope I'm still of similar ignorance.  I don't know really what I expect from the game, but I know that I expect something and I don't want that to be colored by anything else.  I want it to be the easiest litmus test as possible about whether or not it's a series that I can enjoy, since I wouldn't be surprised if its continued existence is exclusive to handhelds and I do so enjoy handhelds.  Regardless, it will be a neat experiment, that's for sure.

Dynasty Warriors 8

July 16, 2013

Releasing on the same day as SMT IV and being the game that I am genuinely excited about purchasing on that day is Dynasty Warriors 8, KOEI's latest and greatest iteration of the series where Chinese Warlords, Generals, Officers and Fictional Characters murder beat up people by the thousands at a clip and I am going to love the shit out of it.  Though I do believe I have expressed as much already (after I once again whinged for paragraphs about KOEI's dickery) and largely enough, that all remains the same.  If you'll allow me a sidenote for a moment.

Sidenote:  I still find KOEI's reason of not releasing WO3 on a disk because they were simply staunchly adhering to a Sony guideline stating that no dub = no physical media is absolute horseshit.  Since I definitely just purchased Muramasa Rebirth a few days ago, it is definitely on physical media, and it definitely does not have a fucking dub.  Now, we resume.

In the days since I posted that original article, I have found more reasons to be excited about DW8 - 11 of them to be exact - and they are all new (and in on case, returning) characters.  Caring not for our silly notions of roster balance, they've added three new characters to Shu (plus one from DW7 Empires which was Digital-Only in North America, fucking KOEI), two new characters to Wei (plus the three from Xtreme Legends which had a retail release meaning I fucking bought it), two new characters to Wu, three new characters to Jin and none to the Others with the exception of bringing back Zuo Ci for the first time since DW5.  That brings the total roster up to 77 characters, 21 of them being Shu, 18 being Wei, 18 being Wu, 12 being Jin and 8 being Other.  Lop-sided much?  While there is quite some grumblings I can make about KOEI's choices of new characters this go around, that probably deserves its own post considering how verbose I can be about history.  Just know that More Characters = More Gooder and that makes me more excited to own the game.  (Yes, I know gooder isn't a word, it's a joke)

Dragon's Crown (Vita Version)

August 6th, 2013

Yes, yes, we know.  I have always been firmly in the camp of "Does the game look neat?  Yes?  Okay, Cool" without a single trudging away from that opinion even when that whole thing happened that I'm not even going to link because it doesn't deserve anymore damn coverage.  Dragon's Crown is just a sidescrolling Beat-em-Up with fantasy characters and that's all I want it to be.  That's why I put money down on it, and that's why I'm going to buy it.  It is going to be a neat game, and I don't think I have to quantify it any further than that.  As it gets closer and closer towards release, perhaps I'll have more to say about it (and hopefully neat pictures like this one to link) but for now, that's really all I feel I need to put down as my justification.  It looks neat, it's likely going to be fun considering who's behind it, and I want in on some of that action.

Rune Factory 4

August 13, 2013 (Placeholder Date)

I have been excited for Rune Factory 4 for a very, very long time.  It was one of the three titles that finally made me admit that a 3DS purchase was inevitable for me and is, quite honestly, the one title of the three that did it for me.  The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.  Few other games could have done it - not even something the likes of Pokemon X&Y - and it's for that reason that I made sure a copy of it was reserved for me weeks before I even had a 3DS XL in my possession.  Absolutely nothing I've seen in the weeks since it was announced as a thing that was being localized has done anything to damper my excitement for the game and, in fact, has only made me that much more giddy as time went on.

It certainly helps that a Production Assistant for XSEED Games who was spear-heading the text localization talked about the game a lot on her Twitter, mentioning exactly how fun it was (note:  it was megatons of fun) and generally being a wonderful person to follow for someone who is very interested in RF4 as a whole.  (It also helps that she is a wonderful person of wonderful taste which I'm not solely stating because of her apparent excitement for Drakengard 3, but it helps) Being that the text turn-in date was fairly recent, I'm hoping that means a release date will actually be announced soon because it will technically mean that I am that much closer to owning the game.  Which I sometimes worry that I appear as if I am simply chomping a little over-eagerly at the bit for, which is subsequently ignored because I just want to play Rune Factory 4.  If the date is not August 13th, I certainly hope it's not too far removed from that.

Killer is Dead

August 27, 2013

It's a little odd to follow up Rune Factory 4 with this one as I am fanatically devoted to Rune Factory 4's release, whereas my primary reason for pre-ordering Killer is Dead is mostly like SMT IV's reason:  I want it because of who is making it and putting time into it.  Killer is Dead was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture which, as you know, have No More Heroes and the fantastic Lollipop Chainsaw under their belt already.  It's honestly that simple as well - they made Lollipop Chainsaw, so I want to throw money at them for making another good-looking action game.  I haven't looked into it too deeply because I don't need to.  I am going to get to cut things up and if Lollipop Chainsaw is any indication, I will have a lot of goddamn fun while doing so.  So there, it is that simple.  Pre-order down.

It should once again be stated that these are only the physical releases since digital-only titles tend to....not have their release date known for some reason.  We know of the big list of indie games planned for PS3/Vita that is only getting longer and longer as the days go on and we know that some of them have a tentative "Summer" release window.  Then we have this tweet from Shahid Ahmad who is at least partly (probably mostly) responsible for courting a good bit of the indies over stating "Lorenzo looked at our Vita line up for July tonight and said “we have too many games coming out”" and you cannot help but cover your wallet's ears.  My personal hope is, of course, Terraria is among those titles given that it has a Summer release date and damnit I just want to play Terraria on my Vita, but there are a lot of tantalizing options that could very well be coming in the month of July alone and they add up rather quick.  So yes, the next two months are going to be rather brutal.

I swear I will never stop harping about that goddamn Warriors Orochi 3 bullshit