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
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