Romance of the 3 Kingdoms ? √
Button mash? √
Same voice action in every not playable officer ? √
Kawaii ? √
Better than Twilight love story ? √
Expensive DLC ? √
Lu Bu (OP character) ? √
Bo-obs? √
(⌐●_●) deal with it

Update : After several hours on this genocide simulator i realize this is the best genocide simulator since 1997

A "Complete Edition" Shouldn't have 200 dollars of DLC. I call ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Where do I begin? I played some Dynasty Warriors game as a child on my playstation that I have pretty much no recollection of other then being confused. I see all the hype about hyrule warriors and get an itch, I see this game on steam and it has pretty good reviews, so I buy it, then suddenly almost 100 hours later into the game and I'm not done with it, what the heck it's fantastic. It's pure and simple dynasty warriors with an outrageous amount of content. If you have no love at all for the series or this type of game you won't have much fun, but for anyone looking and unsure of curious I implore you to get this game you will not be disapointed by the amount of content at the very least.

There’s something sadistically enjoyable about killing thousands of warriors on the battlefield. And considering this is the first time I have ever played a full Dynasty Warriors game, I found it to be quite an enjoyable romp through the historical fiction Romance of the Three Kingdoms book.

I don’t think I could coherently put into words how much fun each of the missions are in this game. The missions take place within some very famous battles that really did happen a long time ago, as well as multiple hypothetical scenarios. Each mission starts off in a small closed off area. The calm before the storm. The character can use this time to talk to NPCs, or buy weapons at the shop. Then as your character walks into the battlefield, all hell breaks lose. Story mode is where Xtreme Legends shines, as it makes the player feels as if they are experiencing the battles as if they occurred in real life. Sure one hero is killing thousands of enemies with an oversized paintbrush, but the flow of battles are modelled after a real historical event.

Some may attack the series for predominately being a button masher. At first, I would have agreed with them. I was having quite an enjoyable time on Normal difficulty doing just that; button mashing. Then I decided to try out one of the harder difficulty levels. I sucked. It takes quite a lot of skill to conquer Dynasty Warriors on Hard or the more difficult settings, as it becomes less about plowing your way through enemies and more about balancing the multiple factions of your army, and responding to a range of urgent matters that need to be handled around the battlefields. It turns into a strategic battle. Spend too long in one spot and the battle will be lost, as the war still plays on around the player.

One of the best things about the gameplay is also one of the game's major flaws. These battlefields are enormous, and the number of characters that can inhabit the screen at any one time shows the scale of these environments. There were multiple times where all I could see was an ocean of infantry waiting to attack my lone soldier. Yet on some maps, it can easily take a few minutes to walk from one end to another, and when missions change on the fly that ask the player to travel to the other side of the map, it becomes a very dull trudge indeed.

A big downside to the PC port is the unfriendliness of the control schemes. There are no button prompts for both keyboard and gamepad, and it makes the learning process a pain. Additionally, whilst playing co-op, two players have to share a keyboard. I don’t think I can remember the last game that delegated the arrow buttons and the number pad to player two. Needless to say, that isn't a whole load of fun.

For fans of the series (and the historical events the series is based upon) I have no doubt in my mind they would be happy with the included Encyclopedia alone. It is staggering how much content Tecmo Koei have been able to insert into this game. If I spent time to read all of the history and character descriptions, it would easily take a few hours. Dynasty Warriors 8 feels like a fan service, almost to the point of frightening off new players. In my experiences with games that feature a huge character roster, you’re slowly introduced to the cast, allowing you to experiment and decide which character plays best for you. With 82 characters to select from, the inexperienced player will be overwhelmed by the choice.

In addition to the wonderful story mode, Xtreme Legends offers a Challenge mode and Ambition mode. Challenge mode is pretty self explanatory - you'll be tasked with showing your skills through a range of scenarios, while Ambition encourages players to, as well as the on-field action, build a camp by using the resources they obtain from battles. They’re both not that fun to be honest, and I found myself quickly returning to the story modes.

The PC version of this game allows for players to tackle missions in split screen co-op. Sadly, all this does is cause the framerate to significantly drop. It also lessens the atmosphere that Dynasty Warriors tries so hard to create. I never felt like I was fighting an army in co-op when I was forced to squint at half my screen. Sadly, there is no form of online co-op, unlike in the console version, so if you want to play with friends you’ll have to battle on the same screen.

All said though, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I got from Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends. There is so much content that you could spend hours just trying to skim the surface. Although as I'm not familiar with the history I never fully understood what I was doing, it didn’t hinder my enjoyment. Both fans and newcomers to the series will have immense joy in fighting on this battlefield.


Be sure to check out Nerd House Gaming for more reviews!

Do you hate how all modern games are so short? Like 8 hour campaign is now considered a full game? Dynasty Warriors 8XLCE gets the total playtime required easily to three digits, if you want to complete it. The big question is: will you get bored?

You will absolutely hate or love Dynasty Warriors. It all depends on if you like the combat or not. You can always play the story (which is pretty darn long too), but the gameplay will easily get repetitive, if you don't like it.

However, if you do enjoy it (like I do) picking this game up is pretty good bang for your buck. I picked it up for 30ish euros and have already played over 60 hours. And I'm probably halfway through it. I say that's pretty good "hours of entertainment for price" ratio compared to some recent AAA titles.

Features:
- More playable characters than you can be ♥♥♥♥♥ to remember by name (+80).
- More weapons to collect than I can count without an abacus (over 70 types and each type has like multiple levels and geez).
- More content than you will play before you die of oldness (story, hypothetical battles, some ambition mode, grinding, blacksmithing, village improving, more grinding, even more asian level grinding...)
- Japanese voice acting as free DLC.

Just buy it when it's on sale. Like it is when I'm writing this. 25 euros. Just do it.

This is the best Dynasty Warriors game since Dynasty Warriors 5 (Shin Sangokumusou 4). The series is turning more and more casual, but I like it. I love mowing down hundreds of enemies at a time. I love the shiny special effects. I love the cheesy cut scenes. I love the iconic battle music. It’s hard to put all of it into words. Whenever I get bored of all the “deep” games, this is what I come back to. You should give a try too, of course with a controller. (Fix for rumble here.)

If you like this game, you might want to check out the DLCs. Most of the them are cosmetic, with a few exceptions:

• Japanese Voice Option (free): this one is required since the English dub aren’t excellent.
  
  
• New Stage & Camp Symbol Pack: This is the compilation of all 30 DLC stages released for Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends expansion on consoles in one DLC. If you’ve cleared all stages in DW8 Xtreme Legends Complete Edition, considering buying this if you want more. Some of these scenarios are very challenging, especially Battle Royale.
  
  
• New Stage & Animal Pack: This is the compilation of 8 DLC packs for vanilla Dynasty Warriors 8 on consoles. Each pack is a remake of one classic Dynasty Warriors battlefield into 3 variant scenarios, one of witch will give a special animal in game upon completing a certain objective. So all in all 24 stages, Shu side Qi Shan is the most difficult of all.
  
  
• Weapon System & Upgrade Pack and Weapon System Pack: unlike “Unique/Powerful Weapon Packs” these are not weapon reskinned with slightly different attack value. These two DLCs gives you 9 new weapon system with completely different move sets. 9 actual new weapons. Keeps in mind, however, these 9 weapons will be incorporated in-game in the standalone Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires that is to be released on January 2015.

Feel free to add me if want to talk about this game, it’s unfortunate that the PC version doesn't have online co-op though.

I pursued Lu Bu and did not die.

I want my reward.

Since I've just known that there is going to be another DW8 game (Empire) coming to steam next year Janurary, I think some of you may want to know this: some ex-weapons used by certain characters - most pretty bad**s - are going to be replaced by DLC weapons. You might want to take this into consideration when choosing between the two games.

DW is a game I highly recommend as a "casual" game. The good thing is its easy learning curve. Unlike other action games like DMC, you can learn the control and tactics rather quickly. On the other hand, "musou" series are often accused of being lawn mowing and key-bashing games that will make you bored. It's a personal matter depending on what kind of ACT fan you are. KOEI is trying to increase difficulty by adding challenges and annoying archers/wierd high-tech weapon into the game, but the point still stands. I personally am completely comfortable with the difficulty setting now, since KOEI has a challenge mode in the game that takes time to master (with rare drop reward). If you think this is too easy, either buy a mission DLC or switch to some other games -- almost every musou game might be relatively easy in the perspective of hardcore ACT players.

What's new? I think this game is better optimized than its DW7 counterparts, so it has better performance on PC (unlike the previous game, DW8 does not have that "invisible soldier" glitch that makes your life miserable). It adds new characters and assign each of them an UNIQUE weapon, which is also better than DW6 and DW7. Most characters get less weird costumes. The weapon looting system is less time consuming compared with its previous counterparts and other looting games, since you can always utilize the blacksmith. It adds a rage gauge and a Rock-Paper-Scissor attribute system. The most important plot breakthrough is the introduction of a hypothetical mode, which generally integrates DW5, DW6 and DW7 stories into one game. Also, in story mode, you can now choose from several characters for each battle instead of the mandatory one.

That said, the story telling of DW8 is not as good as its previous games. I know KOEI hired a professional director last time, but the problem mainly comes from the hype route system. (I'll save spoilers here) Generally you have the option to save certain important generals in some historical event, where they are supposed to die. However, even if you fail, they die only after battle, so there are less heroic, tragic and epic death moments in the game. Still, the Wei and Lu Bu campaigns are well-organized and have some of the best developed characters.

PS1: If you are new to the game and now facing the massive population of ancient Chinese generals/beauties, don't expect them to be that balanced. It's now a co-op and do have some dudes that are hard to master. Some of them are clearly OP, and the most OP one is a little pretty lady instead of the mighty Lu Bu or Guan Yu. This game is good for giving you a variety of options.

PS2: Some people might find the game a little insulting due to how easily a large number of soldiers get killed, and some might be insulted by certain actions of some characters. I'm personally fine, but anyway.

PS3: It's highly recommended to wait for a discount. KOEI is not known for lowering price easily and it charges every DLC for a considerable amount of bucks. I only recommend the mission DLCs since they add lots of challenge to the original game. Other additional contents are likely to appear in the DW9 anyway.

This game does not get enough credit.

Pros
- Great music (Just that alone is worth it)
- Fun button masher
- Tons to do
- Best Dynasty Warriors since 3 (Mhm)
- Strange sense of nostalgia for long term fans

Cons
- Overpriced DLC
- Can get quite boring and repetitive
- Stories end way before I would have liked them to
- Controls alright, but clearly made for a controller
- Any weapons but EX weapons are pretty useless (unless I'm just bad.)

Overall 7/10. I would recommend this game for long term fans or people who are curious and willing to get into the series, or just want to try an overall badass game.

Look upon my hours spent on this game, ye mighty, and despair.

I'm not saying you too will be spending over 280 hours killing hordes of Chinese peons upon buying the latest version of Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends, but there is something innately satisfying to the series. If all you have is a PC and you haven't played any games from the franchise since Warriors Orochi, then you owe it to yourself to shell out for this version. Especially if there's a steam sale or some such.

Dynasty Warriors 8 is uncomplicated yet deep, with a huge cast of characters just waiting to be experimented upon, each character with their own unique gimmick/playstyle. This really needs to be stressed: Omega Force, the developer of the series, has done a bang-up job establishing exclusive weapon mechanics for each of its 82 characters that will keep you engrossed in finding out how to best maximize your slaying prowess. They're introduced 3 at a time at the beginning of each stage in Story Mode and even their higher functions are unlocked through leveling, so you're never intimidated by having everything thrown to you at once.

At least, not in Story Mode. Outside of Story Mode are scores of extraneous game mechanics which ultimately add nothing to the game, forcing new enthusiasts to run to any of the (honestly quite excellent) player submitted FAQS for help. The weapon system in particular needs to go, where a character's fighting style will be based on the weapon rather than the character. So if Lu Bu is equipped with Guan Yu's crescent spear, he'll start fighting like Guan Yu. Meaning you can have Lu Bu jump around like a little girl by equipping him with, say, Daqiao's magical sticks. My point is that giving every character the choice of every weapon allows cheesing and actually takes away from the uniqueness of the characters. The focus of the game shouldn't be on inanimate objects anyways.

Then there are game modes which will confuse potential players with poorly thought out goals, such as Ambition Mode. The levels are grindy, repetitive and mostly there for the gems and materials needed for upgrading your weapons or artificially leveling your characters. All the money you'll gain playing Story Mode will be spent on the faculties you've built in Ambition Mode, but you have to play Ambition Mode to get the materials that upgrade these faculties into something useful.

Tied to that is my huge disappointment stemming from my experiences playing ye olde Dynasty Warriors 3 on the PS2 in that for a game mode based upon the stated goal of reunifying China, there is little to no strategy involved at all! Ambition Mode introduces Bodyguards, friendly generals whom you can order around the map and change the course of a battle with their special abilities. In practice however, their influence on the battlefield remains minimal. So Ambition Mode becomes randomly generated stages where you unify China under a single Emperor by killing every Chinese general personally and thus bringing them forth to your cause. Bodyguards are a great idea on paper but suffers from no one on the development team having any faith behind it, leading to another extraneous and useless game mechanic.

Free Mode is Story Mode but with added goals. Optional goals. And you can play with the Bodyguards unlike in Story Mode. But it's the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing. Offers literally nothing that couldn't be added to Story Mode. Like I said: lots of useless clutter in this game.

I (most probably) won't be buying a Wii U but it'll be interesting to see just how Hyrule Warriors compares to the Dynasty Warriors franchise. I remain optimistic in promoting DW8XL, though: as useless as the new options are, Hyrule Warriors doesn't seem to offer any new options themselves. And for all the mistakes that Omega Force have made, they have managed to create 82 characters each with their own engaging fighting style. And that is an achievement in itself.

It's Dynasty Warriors. It's got all kinds of modes that are all Dynasty Warriors. It's got more playable characters than I've ever heard of in a game, all with unique move sets and nearly all with unique weapons.

If you've never played Dynasty Warriors, here's how it works: You are a massive badass, and you run around the battlefields of Three Kingdoms era China obliterating everything. Depending on your character and weapon you have different abilities, move reach, and combos, but basically you run around decimating entire armies of enemies. This is all reasonably easy unless you've cranked up the difficulty, but really it isn't about skill; it's about efficiency and killcount. KIllcount is astronomically high, often passing 2000 in one level.

Basically don't get this game if you want something technical or cereberal. Get this game if your life feels difficult and you want to do something easy but satisfying.

[As an aside, this claims to be the complete edition, but there is a lot of DLC available that isn't included. Those of us who played this on console expected that DLC to be included with the Complete Addition, but it isn't. That said, if you can get the DLC on sale some of it adds levels and weapons/movesets, which can extend replay value]

I absolutely, 100% recommend this game. Be warned, however, this game is NOT for everyone.

A lot of people call this "mindless hack and slash gameplay". They're really not correct in this judgement, and are, in fact, being pretty ignorant towards the series.

First and foremost, let's address the combat. I believe there are 83 characters in this game. Each character can carry two weapons. For the first weapon, you ALWAYS want to have their 'Ex' weapon equipped. This is the weapon they perform the best with, and gives you access to special attacks, called 'musous'. With these weapons, you will have better attack power, better combos, better everything. So with one of these weapons per character, it in turn translates to 83 UNIQUE MOVESETS IN HE GAME. Of course, you can equip any weapon you'd like as your second weapon, so go crazy!

Weapons also come in many different forms. I believe there are 6 different ranks of weapon, measured in stars or dots. This determines both the rarity of the weapon and how powerful they are. 6th tier weapons were added in Xtreme Legends; before this edition you could only go up to 5th level weapons. There are a ton of weapons in this game, so if you like weapons, this game's got it. Additionally, each weapon has 1 of 3 'affinities'; heaven, earth, or man. This is basically a rock, paper, scissors type deal. You want to have a weapon equipped that is strong or equal against the opposing officer's. That's why you have two different weapons; both having a different affinity so you'll NEVER be at a disadvantage.

Like I said before, there are a lot of unique movesets and warriors in the game. This keeps the combat fresh, with all the combos you'll be able to pull of and special attacks to try out. On the harder difficulties, you CANNOT just mash buttons and hope to survive. This is why I absolutely hate when people call this game a "button masher". There is legitimate strategy and skill to this game once you put enough time to access the hgher difficulty tiers.

The actual gameplay revolves around a battlefield each time. Think of it sort of as a third-person real-time combat strategy game. There are different strongholds or forts scattered across the map. If you defeat the officer inside of that fort, you'll capture it, and your soldiers will spawn there. This is how you gain more troops to overcome the opposing army you're fighting. Then, you have more powerful officers of the opposing army you have to take down, and various other objectives to complete. These all happen in real-time, so pay attention to your map in order to know what your current objective is.

There's also a ton of content in this game. There's your basic story mode which has SIX different storylines to play. Each storyline additionally has extra, "What-if" scenario stages that really add to the replayability of the game. That's not all, though! There's free mode, which let's you play as any character in any story. Mostly used for levelling up, still nice.

Then there's ambition mode. This is completely new to Dynasty Warriors and is really quite huge. You're goal is to rebuild this little town. You fight consecutive battles without dying, and the further you get, the more rewards you're given. You colelct materials to level up the town and the various buildings in it, and weapons to level up your warrior and suit him up for battle. It's really unique and I highly recommend giving it a try.

After that, there's challenge mode. You use stock characters to complete various arcade-style challenges. A fun way to test your skill.

So, given all this content, it will honestly last you a couple hundred hours if you plan to 100% it. And no, none of what I said included ANY DLC. That is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL and not needed. I know the base game is still expensive, so I wanted to make sure I addressed this. I still do not have any of the DLC and this game is still wonderful and amazing. I really hope more people give this game a shot and enter the wonderful world of Dynasty Warriors.

the complete version without all the DLC

I cannot recommend Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition. Despite being a fan of the series and the game itself, this version of the game is ported with no polish and several critical bugs. Should you ever minimize the game for any reason, it will pause the game and pull up a menu. However, if you're already in a different menu, it was jumble the two menues together and you will be unable to control your game, forcing a restart. The controls are not adjusted for keyboard and mouse, and require you to use a controller or very awkward keyboard settings. There is no local multiplayer, unfortunately, and the graphics of this game are worse than many games in 2000. All in all, many things could have been done better.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to playing now, after I restart my crashed game.

I've been playing Koei games since Nobunaga's Ambition on the NES. It's safe to say I'm a biased fan. Since I've long given up console play and use mostly Steam, I haven't played a Dynasty Warriors since PS2. It was great to see DW8XLC come to Steam.

Pretty much by now we know what to expect out of Dynasty Warriors... button mashing, stupid enemies, melodrama, and over-the-top action. You either like it or you don't. And I do.

The frantic action, the larger than life heros, the Three Kingdoms lore... it's great.

Packed with content, this is a good first Steam release for KOEI. I would love to see something from the Empires series next.

Love the series, so obviously I'm recommending this game.

Lots of ridiculously awesome over-the-top-action in this game. 2 swings with a blade could kill a whole division. It's just crazy.
The officers are always overpowered like this.

Apart from being some superhuman that swats armies like flies, you also have to manage the battlefield, fighting certain enemies, keeping your own people alive or capturing certain areas. And the outcome can change a bit of the story.

There's also an ambition mode, where you can take over the realm for yourself, and an arena mode to test out your skills against officers.

Unfortunately, there's not multiplayer.
Price is a bit steep, even if I'm all fanboi to buy it at full price, you might want to wait until it's 50% off.

"complete Edition" lol, theres nothing 'COMPLETE', bunch of dlcs, bunch of stuff exclusive to consoles, whats so 'complete' about it?

If you are a fan of the Dynasty Warroirs series or like hack and slash games, this is a game for you. The soundtrack is also quite enjoyable. 10/10

100 hours of content if you want to do every stage. More if you want to upgrade weapons and play on harder difficulties. I consider it gamings ultimate stress reliever and headache cure, a game that is quite enjoyable and will never frustrate you. I will be playing this for years in between intense games to simply relax.

Loads of eye candy for both men and women as well.

Koei, I love you guys... But, I bought this game when it was clearly labeled to have "online multiplayer" and it does not. That's cute and all, that you guys fixed this mistake. But, may I have my money back for this unoptimized piece of garbage?

Edit* It's not really garbage, but you guys can probably taste my salt here. It's just a disappointment. Hopefully we can get some updates in the future. But sitting as it is... I really can't recommend a game as familar as this for the price they are asking.