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

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

My Games of 2011, Part 2

Tonight's post of picks 8-6 for my GotY list is going to require a little more care than it might otherwise for the simple fact that one the two games that I didn't play, but felt as if I could place, are within these three slots.  Obviously, without actually playing the games myself that means I did happen to miss out on some of the actual experience of it for better or worse, but, and while this is a dangerous thing to state it's normally true, you can sort of get a feel of a game to be able to tell how your overall opinion of it might go.  We are often wrong in those times, and it's quite possible that I will be proven wrong when I do eventually get to play these two games, but, for my part, I could only suggest that I'd expect these two games to actually exceed what I thought for and of them, knowing what I know about them.  Which is enough to have spoiled me on some of each game but certainly not all of it, so unless the parts I missed are akin to the optional content in Chrono Trigger DS, it's not going to negatively skew anything.

Much like yesterday, however, I make this big opening paragraph about the 'big issue' of this crop of games and then the first game I bring up isn't affected by that at all.  Where I haven't played a couple of the games on my list, the first game up here is the game I've played the -most- by far this year with, in all actuality, something like 140+ hours invested in it between its two parts.  Astute readers of the blog will be able to figure out the game by that, but if it wasn't obvious by that, then I'll just go ahead and say it.

8. Dynasty Warriors 7 (And Xtreme Legends)

Know that the above figure is no exaggeration - I know for a fact that my playtime of the original game broke 100 hours.  I know this because when I was copying my save from the HDD to my Memory stick directly after Platinuming it (I believe this was when, at least) I noticed for the first time, that a Play time was displayed and that playtime had 100 or 101 in the hours spot which seems absolutely ridiculous to me and is in fact the only reason why I remember it.  While I have spent a -lot- of time with Xtreme Legends, I'm not prepared to say it's as much time as the original yet, and a conservative estimate puts it around 30-40 hours overall, given the amount of grinding I've done on that game.  Getting the weapons, beating every mission at least once and then several, several times more to unlock titles for over half the characters in the game...it all adds up, clearly.  And it clearly speaks to just how much I am able to enjoy these games.

They are not the best games by any means, but they are games that scratch a very specific itch, fulfill a very specific craving and are generally simply a means to an end.  I'm sure we all have games like these, games that we acknowledge aren't the best, sometimes even aren't that good, but we love them because of what they have to offer.  And the Dynasty Warriors games offer me to build up a bodycount in the thousands per level by simply cutting swaths through anything that isn't allied with me.  Where some action games and FPS can try and guarantee you carnage on a grand scale, none of them can boast quite like KOEI can, if only in that very specific department.  And it's for that that I have bought, played and enjoyed about every Warriors game I can get my hands on and will continue to do so.

Dynasty Warriors 7 placed like it did for generally impressing me more than a Warriors game has done in a while.  While it's easy to get lost in the grumblings I have at the grinding and the pure stupid it propagates through poor interpretation of history, Dynasty Warriors 7 is actually really quality in terms of the games that came before it.  The way it handles the story modes is slick and innovative for the series and the game just looks generally a -lot- better than iterations before it, which while being coupled with the 'winning formula' from previous games that aren't 6 (more varied weapons and movesets, having different levels of every weapon, etc.) it's just a recipe for success.  It's not perfect, and it still lacks a little bit in my opinion (Free Mode battles, a few different generic enemy models would've been nice especially for the Nanman battles and a return of personal items would've been nice) but it's probably the best Dynasty Warriors game since 3 or, depending on your perspective, 5 (Since both of those are generally touted as 'the best') and that really means something.

7. Ghost Trick:  Phantom Detective

Some of you might remember that I have some very, very strong opinions about Ghost Trick that sort of hover around it being "my favorite, if not the best, DS game of the year" which is reflected by it being one of two DS games to be featured in my list and the highest ranking of the two.  It's also reflected by Ghost Trick being the first game I reviewed because I felt as strongly as I did.  I understood just how I could like a game so much, yet be as objective as one could expect about pointing out its flaws, of which Ghost Trick certainly had a few.  Yet I was more able to celebrate all of Ghost Trick's successes with gusto that was deserved, not given, than I was able to criticize its short-comings given that I had to actually think about just what I didn't like about the game.  It was only after playing through it twice entirely that I had managed to compile a short list of deficiencies that I very nearly discarded from my mind directly thereafter.

Basically, the defining downside of Ghost Trick is the one shared by all, or at least most, of puzzle games out there:  they're lightning in a bottle.  Brilliant, beautiful, intense and wonderful, but only for that one first moment that you can never catch once more.  You open that bottle when you finish it and you're left with only the memories since you can always put electricity back in the bottle, but it's never going to be as vivid as it was that first time.  I'm not going to argue if this method is more effective than other games that manage a little more staying power at the cost of not having a few of the types of moments Ghost Trick offers, but it certainly worked for this game and I can say with certainty that I'm quite glad I actually grabbed the game when I did and played it.  With it giving something of a turning point to me and this blog, who knows what would've happened had I not!

6. Dead Space 2

I recall quite easily stating something to the effect of "I hope Dead Space 2 doesn't end up on my 'Games that weren't my games of 2011' list" last year because Dead Space 2 promised to be more of the same of the original in terms of quality.  The original Dead Space is something that I sometimes am amazed that I played all the way through, seeing as I am very, very susceptible to being scared far too much by things that aren't real - things like particularly scary movies and shows, frightening imagery and the like, but I managed through it because for as scary and unsettling as the original game was, it was also very, very good.  Most took to calling it RE4 in space, but it was quite a bit more than that, if only for the fact that (yes, I said it before and will continue to say it) it didn't control poorly.  The aiming was nice and smooth and responsive, you could actually move while aiming to assist in that, and the melee options of "Pistol Whip" and "STOMPYSTOMPSTOMP" were visceral and actually quite useful.  I recall quite fondly a moment in Dead Space the original where I ran out of ammo completely, but managed to stasis an incoming Necro to pistol whip/stomp him to (re-)death before resuming my frantic search for plasma energy.

It's for those reasons that I am genuinely disappointed in myself that I didn't pick up Dead Space 2 this last year and that I had to resort to a (very good) LP to finally introduce and carry my way through the game.  It is most certainly not the same thing, especially with a horror game that is actually scary like Dead Space 2, but it was a good window into the story and the mechanics and offered me the opportunity to see what was polished and what wasn't.  Perhaps it was because I wasn't immersed in it, but I found it quite hard to call the story of the overall game, or more specifically the flow of it, 'great' but merely 'good' at best.  This was balanced out, however, by the inclusion of the Javelin Gun which looks to be the single-best weapon of any game from 2011, or at least high up in the running for it.  Really, the whole inclusion of actual impalement physics was enough to make me feel literal pain and shame for not buying the game.

Much like the two games from last year's list that I included prior to playing, I only included Dead Space because I can very easily imagine just what my experience with the game will be like, more or less, so I can take that and put it where I feel it'll rank. While I feel it's entirely possible that the game will be very different from my expectations, I imagine the difference will be in the game's favor rather than against it.  After all, that Javelin Gun.  It's a wonderfully compelling argument, I'd say.

While I hate to seem like I'm breaking up these posts even more than normal by offering only three today, there's a good reason for it, which will get explained in due time.  Most of it is that I'm finding it hard to really parse out my reasons for number five being where it is, as some of it is....well, personal reasons.  Which is an odd thing to say, of course, but it's something I've been thinking of since being exposed to the game and I have to, very carefully, figure out just what I want to confess (not only here, but to myself) regarding it.  I only hope that I can better formulate my feelings tomorrow than I was able to tonight, but I figure I'll manage.  Somehow.

It's History Nerd Rage Time

Pictured:  Exactly why History Nerdage must be checked at the door.

Now, I know you guys are probably sick of me bringing up DW7:  Xtreme Legends, but, well, I'm gonna so if you're interested, feel free to keep reading.  There's a history lesson creeping about in the paragraphs to follow after all, so it's not completely rehashing earlier posts about the game (again).  Now, Dynasty Warriors has never claimed to be completely historical or even mostly so, indeed it's based more on the Novel written in the 14th Century which....to say it takes liberties is being quite generous, we'll say.  So taking liberties on something that also takes plentiful amounts of liberties itself leaves very tenuous ties to the reality of it all, and this is just something that's understood.  Which is why it's sort of a fool's errand to take up the history nerd torch against a game that features various female warriors using weapons that didn't exist yet, someone walking around with a giant fucking ARM CANNON and phantom soldiers and such, but there are some kinds of errors that are needlessly glaring because not only do they conflict with history, but with the novel itself, and they need to be called on it.

Now, my issue deals with KOEI's stable of Jin characters which is precarious to begin with because of the simple fact that each and every member of the "Jin" stable (minus Wang Yuanji, hilariously) was dead before the actual Jin dynasty was formed by Sima Zhao's son, Sima Yan in the year 265 AD (which is also the year Sima Zhao died, leaving him as the closest person to make it, but not quite).  This is fairly easily hand-waved away by acknowledging that the majority of them at least laid the foundations on which Jin was built, minus Xiahou Ba who actually defected to Shu pretty much right after Sima Yi took power from Cao Shuang which is, essentially, where you'd place the 'start' of the start of Jin.  So in all honesty, there's no real reason for him to be in Jin besides the fact that they didn't want six characters in Jin, wanted Xiahou Ba, and didn't want Shu to have -even more- dudes than Wei/Wu to at least keep a semblance of balance.  (Nevermind that they're only equal in numbers because XL added three Wei officers.)

However, my issue goes a little beyond mere stable choices and into the mechanics of the game itself; namely the Title System that was implemented in this game.  Again, this is a fairly silly thing to think about because right off, you can get Zhang Jiao, leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion which challenged the authority of the Han and the Emperor directly, to rise through the titled ranks (all of them being directly Empirical titles) to obtain his last three titles from the Emperor himself.  I realize this and realized it when I did it, but even after all this, I cannot forgive what I'm really seeing as an oversight here with the titles.  I believe I've mentioned it before, but there's one title that everyone* seems to get (I believe it's alled Strike General, but do not quote me on this It's called Campaign General) that reads, basically, 'Absorb health from attacks made with Speed Weapons' which is essential for Nightmare level completions. 

*You'll see why the asterisk is there in a bit.

Having to throw on the Sword for a mission or two is fine because even if dudes don't use Speed weapons primarily, everyone can use the Sword moveset, and the Ultimate Tier sword has 77 Base Attack, five seal slots and a level 6 Death Element which causes more damage on charge strikes (and possibly instant death on fodder and the like) I think.  Comboed properly, the Ultimate Sword is completely well enough as a death-dealer, as the moveset for it is pretty prime if nothing special.  With the Conqueror's Halberd (100 Base Attack, Level 6 Death Element, Five Seal Slots filled with Walking Speed Up (optional, switch out at your leisure), Synergy (Two Death Element Weapons = Happy times), Combat Resistance, Projectile Resistance and Officer Assassin (Fairly optional, but handy)) equipped in your secondary slot, a similar seal distribution to the Halberd on the Sword means you are kind of a wrecking machine built for murder on a grand scale.  Again, the moves themselves aren't necessarily special, but they're fairly primed towards charge attacks, which means the Death Element (as well as...well, most elements) is a good fit for it.

I'm getting a bit off-base here, though.  The reason I brought up the Campaign General title is because I had fallen into a pretty nice run-about things knowing that everyone got it as their fourth or fifth title (out of eight) since that meant people wielding speed weapons naturally would get easier to use and people not wielding speed weapons would have to switch to Sword at some point, if not right then, but definitely before that nightmare mission for their last title.  It was a pretty easy existence, and then the game threw a big ol' monkey wrench into everything when I tried this with the Jin cast.  I quickly learned that they do not gain Campaign General as a title which, on first read would suggest something awful.  But what they get in place of Campaign General is where my ire lies in all of this, and where all this build has gone to.

The title every Jin officer gets, rather than Campaign General, is "General Who Conquers Shu", a title that acts as the Campaign General title, yet only with that characters' default weapon.  Now -here- is where the real history lesson comes in, as I sort of set the scene here.  I know I've said several times that I want to go over the entire era with you guys and I will sometime, but I'm sure you can understand how it's a little daunting to figure out how to explain a 70 year war in separate posts in just the right, most entertaining and informative way.  But we're going to skip straight to the end of the scenario when the northern half of China is owned by Cao Wei (commonly known as just Wei), the bottom west portion by Shu Han (commonly known as just Shu) and the bottom east portion by Eastern Wu (commonly known as just Wu, also known as Sun Wu).  This is the literal three kingdoms of the era, even if all three of them were more or less falling into political messes and a time where war was just a part of the day instead of a tool or something of the sort.

In 263, Wei led the final strike against the floundering Shu which would prove to be the last straw.  Zhong Hui and Deng Ai played very large parts in the battle that basically could be said to be the lynchpins of the victory, especially Deng Ai, as it was his tactics that more or less lead to an easy victory via Shu's complete surrender.  There is, of course, plenty more detail that I can and will get into at a later date, but for the purposes of this discussion, it's only relevant to mention the fact that Zhong Hui and Deng Ai were specifically in the battle that 'conquered' Shu.  Because if you remember the start of the last paragraph, I specifically said that -every- officer in the Jin cast (all nine of them) get "General Who Conquers Shu", when I named the battle and only two of them were, er, directly involved.  Sima Zhao could be argued to have it as well since he was the ruler at the time, as could Wang Yuanji because she was married to Zhao.  So what about the other five people?

Sima Yi died in 251 after, again, stealing power over Wei from the Cao family which is more or less his only connection to Jin, since family ties, while extremely important, do not allegiance make.  Sima Shi took over for Sima Yi and later died in 255 of illness exaggerated by his reluctance to stay out of battles.  A month following putting down a Cao Wei rebellion, his illness took final hold and killed him, leaving the role of ruler in Zhao's hands.  So there's two people who had absolutely nothing to do with conquering Shu.  Zhuge Dan rose up in rebellion against Wei and received reinforcements from Wu at Shouchun where Sima Zhao led troops against him, eventually broke the siege that Zhuge Dan and his forces forced and Zhuge Dan was killed while fleeing.  Xiahou Ba defected right after Sima Yi staged a coup against Cao Shuang (as stated above) and died at some point between 255-259; it's not documented how or when.  So two more people who were not present in the battle and in fact would not have helped with the battle had they been there.  And as for Guo Huai, I'm fairly certain he died in battle against Shu or of illness sometime before Xiahou Ba's death, which means, again, no reason for him to have said title.

I understand that this is pedantic at best, but of nine people in a stable, a clear-cut majority of them have no business having a title that they get by any stretch of the imagination.  Like, there's really no room for argument here aside from saying, "At some point they all fought against Shu", but that distinction dies out quickly when you point out that so did everyone else not in Shu and yet they don't get that title.  It's just a mind-bendingly dumb prospect; having four entire casts of characters that gain one single title without fail (from what I can tell) and then one single cast of nine people getting an entirely different title that a simple majority of them don't have any claim to.  It's also frustrating from a gameplay standpoint as some of these characters have weapons that are entirely unsuited for the heavy combat that Nightmare levels require; Sima Shi specifically, who wields a little pissant Rapier.  It's almost insulting that I couldn't earn Lu Bu's final title with his Halberd (Because I would've gotten chewed up for not gaining health back with every attack) but I have to chip away at everybody with a little fucking toothpick as Shi to accomplish the same goal.

And before you say, "Maybe it's a balance reason", let me assure you quite pointedly that it is not.  Pictured above is Deng Ai who is one of the rightful owners of the title "General Who Conquers Shu".  Not pictured is his giant fuck-off Drill weapon that, in its Ultimate form, has a quite high base attack (I -think- 90something where the max is 100), five seal slots (put together as explained earlier for maximum efficiency) and the Wind Element (at level 6 I think) which ensures that charge attacks will break a foe's guard.  Coupled with the fact that he drains health on every strike of that gigantic drill, he is quite literally an engine of destruction on those grounds alone, not even bringing up his disgustingly powerful second musou in which all he does is grab his foe in a dropping armbar which ends with him snapping their arm.  I am not lying when I say Deng Ai is literally overpowered and broken as shit.  Not that that's a bad thing, but it serves as the perfect example for what I was getting at re: balance.

Again, I realize the hilarious futility in getting angry at historical fallacies in the Dynasty Warriors games based on what I've told you they're cribbing from and stretching out, but there is absolutely no reason for this.  Seeing as it's something that I actually got really worked up about, I figured it would be a good thing to write about, since it meant that I could inject at least a little bit of history into the blog which you all know I love doing.  So I hope it was informative and entertaining, even though this is more or less a glorified rant about a single thing wrong with Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends which I am still playing and still enjoying.  If nothing else, I feel better.

Progress is a Pile of Untouched Weapons

I'm sure it will surprise no one that I'm still stuck on Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends in terms of 'completing' the game (I.E. getting the Platinum for it because it's not -hard to do- just tedious as hell), but I am getting quite close to it.  Of the top of my head, I can't think of only five more trophies to go before I have Platinum number Eighteen, but much like Dynasty Warriors 7 vanilla, it's making me really -earn- that trophy.  Not that I mind it so much, of course, except I do a little bit, when the task at hand involving a trophy is entirely too long, convoluted and tedious to go over.  And while I've already stated my thoughts on the game once, I think a reiteration/clarification is in order since I'm so much further in it now.  I guess I should go over that one first, since it's good to get my whinging out of the way first.

Xtreme Legends claim to annoyance fame is the inclusion of the Hub City system which introduces city atmosphere, which isn't directly the cause for annoyance, but is sort of a major part of it.  You see in Legend mode (basically all XL has to offer without a Remixing of it and DW7 vanilla), your 'task' is to rebuild a city that is in poor condition and bring it to such prominence that the Emperor seeks shelter within the walls of your castle.  This occurs by, basically, beating the different tiers of the levels to unlock them to the final difficulty level (Levels are rated in stars from one to ten, one being easy, ten being hard) and then beating that.  It's.....incredibly short.  Like, you'll see the 'credits' in one sitting, basically, and the rest is more or less for your 'amusement' in general terms.  Of course, you -should- be wanting to beat every stage at least once to see just what all they have to offer.

However, this is kind of where the issue is, in that your city is treated as more important than it is.  It is, for all intents and purposes, a menu that you can walk around in, rather than just dumping you into a menu between every level that you play.  You can walk around to the different service people (when they're unlocked) and buy stat-boosting items, weapons, unlock seals on them if you haven't already, tell a merchant where to buy and sell, talk to the City Guard to pick your next level, or talk to someone to change your Adjutant.  In Legends eyes, whatever your character is is the "Ruler" of the city, and your Adjutant rules in your stead as you go out and gather glory for your banner.  This is where City atmosphere comes into play, as it kind of relies on your Adjutant but...not really.  It's a bit hard to explain.

The starting atmosphere, which you never see again after you upgrade it is "Desolate", where nobody is present but your Adjutant, the person who can change your Adjutant and the City guard more or less.  Again, you win a couple levels and bam, you have a city and it'll be either Carefree or Orderly.  If the city is Carefree, everything purchasable is half-price for....some reason, and if it's Orderly your attack and defense will be higher in the next stage you enter.  After so many stages, provided you don't switch your Adjutant, said Adjutant will switch the City Atmosphere to "Friendly" which basically means your Adjutant gives you a gift and says their 'devotion line'.  There is, to my knowledge, absolutely no way to guarantee a Friendly Atmosphere or at least no guaranteed way to a speedy one.  It seems purely random, and of course, the devotion line is the thing you need.

For every character.

There's a separate trophy for hearing all the Female Devotion Lines, one for hearing all the Male Devotion Lines and one for hearing -all- of them (which means you'll get it at the same time as the second Gender-specific trophy you get) which, if you didn't get it before, is a terrible process since it can take forever for completely arbitrary reasons.  I'm cooking up a theory about how it seems like your Adjutant (man, I'm getting tired of typing that word) raises their own stats while they're in the position, so I'm just wondering if there's a certain threshold where they have to get to before they're happy.  But I haven't done any math to go with that at all to support it.  Maybe I'll try with the next couple of people I throw up there.  Regardless, this is the -thing-, much like Bond-grinding in DW7 that will pad out the game for entirely more hours than necessary.

The only other thing I could hold against the game is that I'm a little fussed at the amount of stages included in Legend mode.  When you start, you see a lot of the lower star ranked levels, not to mention the inclusion of some 'classic' maps from older DWs (3, 5 and 6 specifically) from several perspectives (basically, multiple sides.  You can play the Shu version, Wei version, -and- the Wu version of Fan Castle for instance) and you're like "Wow, this is a lot of content, awesome", and then, around the six star levels it just...drops.  There's only three seven star levels which you will have to play over and over again God, to grind for titles for everyone since everyone inevitably requires you to beat a seven star ranked level apparently and only two each of Nine and Ten star levels.  I imagine you can remedy this by remixing with DW7 to access the different levels of stages in Conquest but I can't be assed to try.  Disk-swapping?  Psh.

Regardless, every one of those stages has something to offer, namely the new tiers of weapons that you earn under certain circumstances that I'm calling 'Chaos' and 'Nightmare' weapons in a bout of sheer uncreativity.  That's a word now.  As implied with the title, if you want these tantalizing new and special weapons, you have to beat the stage on the required difficulty level (Chaos is harder than Hard, Nightmare is harder than Chaos) while completing a certain amount of objectives like "Defeat # of enemies in # minutes" or "Defeat # enemy generals in # minutes", or sometimes more specifically "Prevent Wei from establishing catapults and defeat every Wei officer while ensuring Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wei and Yue Ying are safe.".  They're so-so difficult at best as even the dramatically specific ones like the latter example can be gamed fairly easily.  (In this instance, by playing -as- Zhuge Liang, since the stage in question is Wu Zhang Plains which is, according to the novel, Zhuge Liang's last battle in which he actually dies during it.  And he actually dies during the stage, which throws Jiang Wei into commander's position.  Obviously, Zhuge Liang can't die if you're playing as him since that'd be bullshit.)

The Chaos weapons are nice, but the fact that I could basically accumulate every Nightmare weapon -after- getting all the Chaos weapons (by pretty much using the Chaos Sword and Chaos Halberd exclusively until I got the Nightmare version of each) makes them obsolete before they even hit the ground.  While talking with Saki-Chan about it, I basically instanced it as my character getting this weapon, showing a mild amusement for it and then tossing it into a building that housed all the other weapons that went similarly unused.  It's a delightful mental image but a terribly lacking gameplay mechanic, really.  I -could- limit myself to using a specific character for a specific weapon and then using their Chaos weapon to get their Nightmare, but, look, I have a lot to look forward to already, I don't need to make more work for myself alright?

Still, I like having all these weapons.  I like having all the characters DW7 Xtreme Legends has to offer, and I like all the stages it introduces (especially the old ones), but I can't help but just want more as I've expressed already.  More substance, at least, not particularly more to do.  Still, I've pretty much got Dynasty Warriors NEXT on my plate as well as the eventual DW7 Empires (hopefully), so it's not like my excursions with DW7 (or DW7-esque gameplay) are over with by a long shot.  I'll get my -more- eventually for sure, so the only issue is biding my time until then.  While racking up 1000 kills with siege weapons and getting those Adjutant (had to say it one more time) Devotion Lines accumulated, I'll sigh dreamily at the thought of making my own character to take with my on the go in my Vita, and wonder just what direction they'll take with this version of Empires.  I have big hopes for it, but I dare not speak them since I had big hopes for Samurai Warriors 3 and, well, we all saw how that worked out.

Legend Mode and Other Xtreme Legends Issues

I should preface this post with the fact that I really like Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends as it is, essentially, more Dynasty Warriors 7 which is as much of a good thing as it can be.  I realize upon thinking it out that I'm more or less going to tear into everything that is 7XL and throw down all the tatters here as examples of my problems with the game, which will leave a negative opinion hanging over it all.  So I really want it known that, despite the bitching I'm about to do, I enjoy the game and don't regret my purchase of it.  This is really vital to spend a little bit of time talking on, as you might guess from the amount of time I spent talking on it.

With that out of the way, I have to start with Legend Mode which is basically the entire draw of the game.  The new characters are good, the new weapons are fantastic, the remix option assuredly breathes a whole new realm of life into the base game and Challenge mode....exists, but Legend Mode is where the bulk of the effort went and it shows.  Basically, in Legend Mode, you pick your Ruler and your Adjutant (both of which don't matter much at all, except you play as the ruler which can be changed freely to no negative impact) and are given a 'desolate' city to reinvigorate by going out and killing men by the thousands in the missions tailor-made (or not, I'll explain in a bit) for the mode.  I'm not even going to pretend that this is deep in any fashion and it's clearly another attempt at a hub city ala Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce, yet somehow more shallow.

Once you unlock a utility (blacksmith, weapon dealer, strategist, etc.) they remain forever and you can use their services to your hearts content.  The Weapon Dealer will, unsurprisingly, sell you weapons (of which there are six new categories I believe), the Blacksmith functions exactly like it does in the base game; you give it a weapon and money and he'll slowly unlock the seal on your weapon.  I have no use for this as I loaded my Dynasty Warriors 7 save into the game which has the added benefit of carrying over everything I unlocked like seals, which was, of course, everything since I platinum'd the game.  The Merchant will scour one of the handful of provinces of the land and come back with treasure and/or weapons according to some random formula that only it knows and the Strategist will sell you manuals to increase your stats.  Which is very, very useful for obvious reasons.

There is, by that merit, absolutely nothing to do in the city as it serves as only a hub from which you upgrade your character, get more money/weapons and go into missions.  There's a token effort of development, in that the city can have a 'mood' (which is either Desolate, Orderly, Carefree or Friendly) which has some sort of effect on the city (carefree being the most useful as all prices are halved because nobody cares, get it) and it changes between missions.  Well, mostly between Orderly and Carefree, with Friendly only coming up after your Adjutant has been your Adjutant for some length of time that I couldn't discern.  When it reaches friendly, you talk to them, get an item (manual of some stat booster) and then go about your way.  Or, if you're me, you immediately replace them, as getting them to friendly gives you their 'devotion line' which gives you access to their Legend Mode voice gallery.  There's a trophy for hearing everyone's devotion lines, of course.  Well, a few.  One for women, one for men, and then one for everyone, if I'm not mistaken.

Legend Mode is a disappointment in a very minor way as I was having flashbacks to Dynasty Warriors 4's take on roughly the same concept, in that every character had one battle tailor-made for them and their exploits, whereas that was sort of the case here, but not for every character and some of the missions were just....ridiculous.  The manual claims that if you play the stage as the Recommended Warrior, you'll get more scenes and such, but from my experience, you get the same amount of scenes no matter who you are, unfortunately.  I might be wrong, or it might be a consequence of seeing the 'ending' of the game (brought about when the Emperor comes to stay in your town for being so awesome or something) which is just the credits.  Or it might be a clever ruse to get you to play as characters you might not have played in the base game, or rather just developing some of the underdeveloped characters (ones that didn't feature heavily into their respective story) which is rather welcome.

Unfortunately, I kind of just roll my eyes when one stage is playing as Xiao Qiao (wife of Zhou Yu, historically wasn't a warrior at all, of course) during Chi Bi (or Red Cliffs as you might know it by) escorting Zhuge Liang to the altar where he shifts the direction of the winds and then protecting him as he's doing it.  That sort of level is a step above inane which is beyond frustrating, but there are levels that really make up for it.  Whether it's because it's more 'accurate' than the norm or what, the Battle of Jieting with Yue Ying as a recommended character is rather nice as it details the infamous battle where Zhuge Liang's student, Ma Su made such a big blunder that he was executed in shame for it.

Not to get off on a history tangent, but, basically during the Northern Campaigns of Zhuge Liang towards the latter half of the war, Shu was in a constant state of trying to take the northwest area of China from Wei and failing miserably at it.  They managed to get the really important location of Jieting which Zhuge Liang entrusted the defense of to his student, Ma Su.  Ma Su had the bright idea to make camp atop the mountain (likely for the best vantage point possible) despite being told it was an incredibly bad idea by his underlings, as it left them unable to properly defend their water sources.  This is, of course, always reason enough to not do something, but Ma Su didn't listen and, sure enough, Wei cut off their water supply to force them off.  It was a decisive victory for Wei and Shu lost many, many troops in it, which was the direct reason for Ma Su's execution.  Of course, there are conflicting reports saying that he might've been killed while imprisoned awaiting execution, he might've simply escaped, or perhaps was just held indefinitely, but whatever the case, it was the last thing of note that Ma Su did.

Right, anyway, a really positive addition to the Legend Mode roster of stages (which play out from left to right in rising Star Rankings, starting at one, ending in 10) is the inclusion of some Classic Dynasty Warriors stages recreated with DW7 assets.  These stages all have whatever modes they offered in the game they came from (Meaning some battles like The Battle/Siege of Fan Castle have three different versions) and are enough of a blend of past and present to offer nostalgia with out sacrificing much, if anything, in enjoyment.  There's not quite enough of them, but there's more as DLC for DW7 (specifically, they won't work with basic DW7XL as they require Conquest mode to be played) that it was surely done that way on purpose; if you want that nostalgia you gotta pay for it.

Also of interest is the addition of personal Titles that every character earns (up to 10, I believe) by performing certain tasks under certain difficulty restrictions.  These range from "Simple" to "Goddamn Nigh-Impossible" depending on whether or not other Titles offer bonuses appropriate to assist with getting the higher titles.  For instance, Lu Bu's top title is earned by defeating 1000 foes on a Ten Star ranked level on Nightmare difficulty (which is new to XL, is higher than Chaos which is higher than Hard) without using a musou attack and while keeping his health above 70% full.  On its own, this is patently impossible, let's not mince words on that.  Everything in Nightmare, even with the max defense possible, hits like a goddamn truck and there's not one damn thing you can do about it.  However, the bonus of one of Lu Bu's other Titles is that attacks made with a speed weapon transfer health from the target to the player.  This, coupled with the strongest Speed weapon I have (Base attack of 56 whereas the best Halberd I have so far has a base attack of 83) and good seal distribution makes it possible, though difficult.  Especially with the no musou restriction as musou attacks are really your lifeblood in Nightmare mode.

Once you really see all that Legend Mode has to offer you do, unfortunately, get a sense of "That's it?", which is disappointing, however there is still every single level of Conquest mode available to you in a technical sense as well.  But the good missions make up for it, and it's a fun little toy to play around with on the set that is Dynasty Warriors 7, but that's all it really is is a new toy; an addition.  Collecting all the new weapons put in the game (Some by beating stages on Chaos and under certain circumstances like "Swiftly complete the objective" or "Beat X, Y, and Z Officers personally", some by, likely doing the same or similar on Nightmare mode.) is a fun distraction and basically the only one you have full control over.  I'm sure I could play a game of "This is how I would make it better", but I won't bother.  Xtreme Legends is almost always the one I find little reason to play (excluding Samurai Warriors 2 Xtreme Legends as basically everything Samurai Warriors 2 was fantastic), whereas Empires is always the game that gets you to play more and more.  And there likely will be a Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires and, provided I have the opportunity, I will buy the hell out of that, too.

Upcoming Purchases: Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends

So, I'm not really planning on getting a whole lot for myself, game-wise, until the end of the year, which means the games I am getting are things that I obviously care for quite a bit, games that are important enough to me that I have to spend the money I barely have to obtain them.  Which means, if I care enough, if I want it enough to buy it, it's enough that I can also concisely explain my want as well, right?  So, hopefully here will be where I can mete out my reasons for my purchases when they're getting...well, slightly closer to release.  Also, just as a note, I apologize here because I am going to go History Nerd on this post.

November 15th is fairly close which is DW7:XL's announced release date, so, barring any issues around that day will be when I get my hands upon the latest installment of historical chinese genocide.  Although, as in the past, Xtreme Legends isn't a new installment so much as it's the equivalent to an expansion pack for PC games (or, as we know them now "DLC" apparently) since it's not a whole new game, but rather a bunch of additions added on to the main game.  For those out of the loop, there's been an Xtreme Legends version for every Main-Series Dynasty Warriors game since 3 (though they skipped 6, presumably because they'd just already started working on 7) and they've all been much the same as what we can expect from 7:XL, but with something semi-surprising:  New characters.

While hearing "New characters" and "Xtreme Legends" in the same sentence isn't in itself something out of the ordinary, hearing it for Dynasty Warriors is a bit different, since no Xtreme Legends has -added- new characters to the main game before.  Dynasty Warriors 3:  Xtreme Legends allowed you access to the stories of the seven "Other" characters, but they were included in the main game already.  The Empires series of games is normally where you can look for the new characters or real big changes (see:  Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires with new movesets for a gripload of characters), and hopefully this isn't telling of a doing-away with Empires, since that was really just hitting its stride.

There's quite a few oddities with the new characters being implemented with DW7:XL as well, which makes it, to me, that much more interesting.  When it was announced that three characters would be added, I instinctively turned to the Three Kingdoms aspect and anticipated one from each kingdom with Jin and the "Others" being unfortunately left to the wayside once more.  Guo Jia, announced at the same time, would have been the Wei installment, I dared hope of Zhu Ran being added in for Wu and I didn't even -know- who could be added for Shu, but I was assured that whoever it was would have been completely overblown and overplayed since that is how KOEI rolls with Shu.  (And, well, a lot of other sources, in all honesty.)  However, word later released that the other two characters were, drumroll please....also in Wei.

I was completely floored with this, as I assumed three characters being added to one faction would end up leaving it towering in the roster, but then I checked it out and, in all honesty, Wei -needed- the characters.  Numbering at 14 without Jin (What would eventually become Jin was, in essence started by Wei's top strategist, Sima Yi who was relegated to the Jin forces for roster purposes) and 13 with their existence, Wei became the kingdom to have the least officers out of the main three.  Wu numbered in at 16, and Shu at 17, so having it 16, 16, and 17 is much more even now.  Ironically, if you look at the historics of it all, Wei still has the largest pool of notable people they could 'General-ize' (DW Fan-Term, basically means make into a unique character) out of the others, so for them to have gone as the least-numbered in the roster?  That's....a little funny to me.

Anyways, the oddities with the roster don't end at that, as one of the characters in particular is fairly unique in that she is a woman who might have actually existed as a warrior in the time.  Wang Yi, wife of Zhao Ang, wasn't what you could call a prominent figure in the history of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the era it was based off of, but to be credited by name as a woman who may have fought in an actual battle, considering the time they were in, is actually kind of a big deal.  If we are to believe what we're told, during a conflict (and a prolonged one at that) with Ma Chao, Wang Yi took up a bow and arrow and actually fought alongside her husbands men as they attempted to repel Ma Chao's forces, raising their morale in doing so as a shining example of loyalty.  The long and short of it, unfortunately, looks like they didn't succeed in holding Ji Castle, but throughout the whole conflict (several different engagements, of course, since that's how battles used to be) Wang Yi fought and advised her husband on the best ways to succeed.  That they didn't, well....seems a bit unimportant in the face of the history here.

Of course, in DW:XL7, she'll fight with Sai, which completely negates just about everything.  That she's even a character kind of does that as well, since as I said, it appears that she only fought in one battle and then disappeared in the eyes of historians, but, well, details.  Joining her and Guo Jia (who will fight with an orb and scepter and, presumably by extension of that, magic which actually isn't a first) will be Pang De, who I believe I have complained about re: his Dynasty Warriors interpretation before and will have to do so again.  Introduced in Dynasty Warriors 5, Pang De was one of the several characters cut in the transition from 5 to 6, though personally that exclusion didn't really mean much.  In 5, his weapons were a pair of Halberds that he wielded rather slowly (I would call it "Matter-of-Factly", considering they were slow, but fairly precise) and said weapons were handed off to Zhang Liao (who previously used a, er...long Halberd) in the move to 6 who showed us all how a man wields twin halberds.

Unsurprisingly, his re-addition to the cast brings a particular stench of laziness as he will once again wield a pair of halberds (likely with the majority of Zhang Liao's moveset) rather than a new and, frankly more interesting weapon.  This is the part that I'm sure I've brought up before, but I'll re-tread it anyway, by the way.  Pang De was fairly known (in the novel, at least) for his several bouts with Guan Yu which resulted in a rather heated rivalry where De was concerned at least.  It was said that at one point (and this is where I'm finding discrepancies which unfortunately sullies my perfect vision) that he commissioned a coffin made to Guan Yu's specifications (as Guan Yu was a rather large man) and started to drag it into battle to show his determination of felling Yunchang (Guan Yu's style name).  The alternate account states that he simply had the coffin made to show that he would either win the next battle he met Guan Yu at or die.

This is my build-up, of course, into suggesting that his weapon should have been a coffin rather than anything else.  It's no more ridiculous than Twin Iron Fans or a fire-spewing magic staff, despite the visage of a giant man smacking other men with a large wooden box, so it's not that it would be too crazy or anything like that.  It would likely rely a lot on capture-combat, much like Ding Feng, a character added for 7 who fights with gauntlets, so it's not like it's that foreign a concept either.  Unfortunately, it seems that I'm really the only person who sees it this way, but oh well.  At least I can come on here and talk about how awesome my idea would be and never get proven wrong!

Character nerding out aside, Xtreme Legends 7 also looks to add the usual fare for Xtreme Legends games:  A Mode that sounds an awful lot like a blend of the Xtreme Mode from previous Xtreme Legends games and something out of Empires called the "Legend Scenario" where a player controls a character through more difficult versions of battles used throughout the campaign, can bring along another character of their choosing and furnish a castle as the progression goes.  I'm more than a little confused and intrigued by this mode based on the sole description I have to explain it, so I'll have to report back on how it is once I have the game.  Aside from that, there's also a "Hero Scenario" mode which sounds like a retread of something similar from DW4:XL which seems to be showing off specific battles (with specific characters) that a character may be known from.  Something like Gan Ning's flawless night raid, Zhang Fei's defense of Chang Ban bridge or, for something a bit larger scale, Lu Meng's participation at the battle of Fan Castle.

There's a score of other new things being added in, such as new weapons and the return of the disk-swapping to have the 'full' DW7+XL experience, but what I've touched on, I feel, is the important bits.  They're why I'm buying the game, in the end, really.  Well, them and the barebones destruction at a large scale that the game, as a base, provides constantly.