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IGN Review of Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
As the "Default Dynasty Warriors Reviewer" here at IGN, I've been spending time with a good number of KOEI's well-known button-mashers, including the recently released Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2. Although minor details change from one iteration of the franchise to the next, most of my qualms with the series remain the same: the games have overly-simple combat, bland environments and feel unrewarding.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I got my hands on Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, the latest Dynasty Warriors title developed exclusively for Sony's portable. I've played several KOEI games on the PSP before, but Strikeforce isn't just a watered-down port -- this is a multiplayer-focused affair that actually fixes several issues I have with the franchise as a whole. Although a few smaller problems spring up thanks to the new design, I'm still confident in stating that Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is one of the best KOEI games I've ever played and goes far beyond developer Omega Force's previous efforts.
This portable action game is all about mission-based multiplayer, though there are obviously single-player options to enjoy if your friends are PSP-less. After selecting one of the three factions and picking a character from that faction, you're dropped into a small hub town that serves as your headquarters for selecting missions, buying equipment, learning skills and more. Each kingdom has about five chapters of "story missions" to play through, which are complemented by "at-your-leisure" side missions for the necessary soiree into level-grinding and loot-gathering.
When you actually enter battle, your character can move around, jump and attack like any other Dynasty Warriors game, but there are a few important differences. You can switch between a main weapon and a sub weapon with a quick push of the Circle button. The sub weapons don't have to be specific to a character -- virtually anyone can equip anything, making this a much more customizable experience. Furthermore, the age-old Dynasty Warriors combo system (where you end any string of normal attacks with a charge attack) has been replaced with a slightly different mechanic. Now, the charge attacks -- executed with the Triangle button -- are much more independent from normal attacks and are handy for breaking enemy guards.
Most surprising, though, is the absence of the traditional Musou system. Instead of building up your Musou gauge and unleashing one massive attack all at once, Strikeforce players will be filling up a Fury gauge, which sits directly under the health bar. When the Fury gauge is filled, your character can transform into his or her Fury Mode, which involves a completely new character model. Most Fury transformations include lots of glowing armor, intense hair styles and the occasional pair of wings. The transformations are pretty neat and make you a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Once in Fury Mode, your character can then perform a Musou attack which is specific to the weapon type they have equipped. This attack will drain whatever remains out of the Fury gauge and revert your character back into his or her normal mode.
Equally refreshing are the environments, which are no longer boring, flat plains. There are plenty of vertical elements to the maps now, way more than the meager castles and ladders in Dynasty Warriors 6. In fact, using Chi augmentations -- which I'll explain shortly -- your characters can jump insanely high, which adds to the sense of freedom and movement that has previously never existed in the recent Dynasty Warriors games.
In regards to character customization, there's plenty to do. Not only are there the aforementioned main weapons and sub weapons to sort through, but players can also add power-up Orbs to weapons, which gives you such buffs as increased attack power or boosted defense. Chi skills also add another layer onto the gameplay experience, as four skills can be equipped at one time -- one for each hand and foot. These skills can give you extremely helpful abilities, like enabling double/triple jumps and giving you extra dashes.
Of course, there are also plenty of items to buy at the Market, which helps when you need to restore some health mid-battle or cure nasty status ailments.
These many items and accessories don't come freely. Not only do you have to save up gold from completing quests, but you also need to collect raw materials which are then forged into your item of choice. Finding these materials generally boils down to "luck of the draw," but fortunately there's an Exchange service at the hub town which lets you trade certain raw materials for others. But even potential trades are seemingly decided at random.
As I said at the beginning of this article, Strikeforce is all about the multiplayer. This game is extremely tough to play by yourself, as there doesn't appear to be a sliding difficulty mechanic implemented for players that want to go in alone. I can assure you that taking on four enemy officers by yourself is not a walk in the park, especially when turrets are enjoying free potshots at you and normal soldiers constantly interrupt your combos.
The multiplayer implementation in Strikeforce is surprisingly great. Although three-player and four-player sessions tend to slow down a bit, it's quite tolerable and seems stable enough. It amazes me how effective this multiplayer mode is when other Dynasty Warriors games often suffer the most during multiplayer sessions. Regardless, my time with the Strikeforce multiplayer was highly enjoyable and every time I was playing on my own, I thought of how much nicer (and easier) it would be to have a friend tagging along. Although the core mechanics don't really change when you add extra players, helping each other fight is as rewarding as it gets.
If you have 300 MB to spare on your memory stick, you can actually do an install for Strikeforce (Really!) which pretty much eliminates load times. I strongly recommend this option, as the load times otherwise are awful. But when you're running off the memory stick, the experience is extremely slick and you'll never be waiting for more than two or three seconds at a time.
But Strikeforce isn't devoid of problems. The visuals still pale in comparison to other PSP games and the environments (while psychically varied) repeat constantly across the game's numerous missions. In fact, some of the exact same maps were recycled throughout my play time with Strikeforce, which gets old fast.
The lock-on mechanic is also far from perfect. Holding the L Trigger to lock-on to an enemy is fine, but you can't cycle between targets once you do so. You can only hit up on the D-pad, which selects the most "threatening" target in your vicinity, but it's not always what you want. These issues are exacerbated by the game's stubborn camera, which occasionally gets stuck in/on walls. When you're trying to fight an enemy officer that's flying all over the level, these various problems can compound together and become intensely frustrating.
©2009-05-05, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Imagine my surprise, then, when I got my hands on Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, the latest Dynasty Warriors title developed exclusively for Sony's portable. I've played several KOEI games on the PSP before, but Strikeforce isn't just a watered-down port -- this is a multiplayer-focused affair that actually fixes several issues I have with the franchise as a whole. Although a few smaller problems spring up thanks to the new design, I'm still confident in stating that Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce is one of the best KOEI games I've ever played and goes far beyond developer Omega Force's previous efforts.
This portable action game is all about mission-based multiplayer, though there are obviously single-player options to enjoy if your friends are PSP-less. After selecting one of the three factions and picking a character from that faction, you're dropped into a small hub town that serves as your headquarters for selecting missions, buying equipment, learning skills and more. Each kingdom has about five chapters of "story missions" to play through, which are complemented by "at-your-leisure" side missions for the necessary soiree into level-grinding and loot-gathering.
When you actually enter battle, your character can move around, jump and attack like any other Dynasty Warriors game, but there are a few important differences. You can switch between a main weapon and a sub weapon with a quick push of the Circle button. The sub weapons don't have to be specific to a character -- virtually anyone can equip anything, making this a much more customizable experience. Furthermore, the age-old Dynasty Warriors combo system (where you end any string of normal attacks with a charge attack) has been replaced with a slightly different mechanic. Now, the charge attacks -- executed with the Triangle button -- are much more independent from normal attacks and are handy for breaking enemy guards.
Most surprising, though, is the absence of the traditional Musou system. Instead of building up your Musou gauge and unleashing one massive attack all at once, Strikeforce players will be filling up a Fury gauge, which sits directly under the health bar. When the Fury gauge is filled, your character can transform into his or her Fury Mode, which involves a completely new character model. Most Fury transformations include lots of glowing armor, intense hair styles and the occasional pair of wings. The transformations are pretty neat and make you a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Once in Fury Mode, your character can then perform a Musou attack which is specific to the weapon type they have equipped. This attack will drain whatever remains out of the Fury gauge and revert your character back into his or her normal mode.
Equally refreshing are the environments, which are no longer boring, flat plains. There are plenty of vertical elements to the maps now, way more than the meager castles and ladders in Dynasty Warriors 6. In fact, using Chi augmentations -- which I'll explain shortly -- your characters can jump insanely high, which adds to the sense of freedom and movement that has previously never existed in the recent Dynasty Warriors games.
In regards to character customization, there's plenty to do. Not only are there the aforementioned main weapons and sub weapons to sort through, but players can also add power-up Orbs to weapons, which gives you such buffs as increased attack power or boosted defense. Chi skills also add another layer onto the gameplay experience, as four skills can be equipped at one time -- one for each hand and foot. These skills can give you extremely helpful abilities, like enabling double/triple jumps and giving you extra dashes.
Of course, there are also plenty of items to buy at the Market, which helps when you need to restore some health mid-battle or cure nasty status ailments.
These many items and accessories don't come freely. Not only do you have to save up gold from completing quests, but you also need to collect raw materials which are then forged into your item of choice. Finding these materials generally boils down to "luck of the draw," but fortunately there's an Exchange service at the hub town which lets you trade certain raw materials for others. But even potential trades are seemingly decided at random.
As I said at the beginning of this article, Strikeforce is all about the multiplayer. This game is extremely tough to play by yourself, as there doesn't appear to be a sliding difficulty mechanic implemented for players that want to go in alone. I can assure you that taking on four enemy officers by yourself is not a walk in the park, especially when turrets are enjoying free potshots at you and normal soldiers constantly interrupt your combos.
The multiplayer implementation in Strikeforce is surprisingly great. Although three-player and four-player sessions tend to slow down a bit, it's quite tolerable and seems stable enough. It amazes me how effective this multiplayer mode is when other Dynasty Warriors games often suffer the most during multiplayer sessions. Regardless, my time with the Strikeforce multiplayer was highly enjoyable and every time I was playing on my own, I thought of how much nicer (and easier) it would be to have a friend tagging along. Although the core mechanics don't really change when you add extra players, helping each other fight is as rewarding as it gets.
If you have 300 MB to spare on your memory stick, you can actually do an install for Strikeforce (Really!) which pretty much eliminates load times. I strongly recommend this option, as the load times otherwise are awful. But when you're running off the memory stick, the experience is extremely slick and you'll never be waiting for more than two or three seconds at a time.
But Strikeforce isn't devoid of problems. The visuals still pale in comparison to other PSP games and the environments (while psychically varied) repeat constantly across the game's numerous missions. In fact, some of the exact same maps were recycled throughout my play time with Strikeforce, which gets old fast.
The lock-on mechanic is also far from perfect. Holding the L Trigger to lock-on to an enemy is fine, but you can't cycle between targets once you do so. You can only hit up on the D-pad, which selects the most "threatening" target in your vicinity, but it's not always what you want. These issues are exacerbated by the game's stubborn camera, which occasionally gets stuck in/on walls. When you're trying to fight an enemy officer that's flying all over the level, these various problems can compound together and become intensely frustrating.
©2009-05-05, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved