![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwenSo for Christmas my sister got me Dynasty Warriors 4 Xtreme Legends, the expansion with new stages, new items, new weapons, and, supposedly, better AI. The ads in PSM always said "Get remixed." and indeed, the opening FMV is just like the original editable non-FMV opening but with different camera angles and cooler effects.
The new stages are really neat. They're short "Legends" of each of the characters, which try to incorporate more background from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and actually explain why each officer was so famous. Of course, some of them still have to stretch, considering people like Zhen Ji and the Two Qiaos never figured that prominently in the novel, and never fought at all.
The stages are much more one-player than some of the originals: they're shorter and smaller, and your character is an important player, often the commander. It's not like some of the big epic battles where trying to do everything alone is near to impossible. So it'll be easier to do a stage or two in my tiny spans of free time once I get back to Tech, much as I did with DW4 third term last year.
The thing that unnerves me is that there seems to be a very steep difficulty curve. Normal is quite easy. Hard can get a bit hairy. I dread what Expert mode will bring. I mean, from Normal to Hard, the officers gain so much defense and HP, going from killable in one combo to hard to kill in five. And they guard so well, and the moment you have an opening, they break out and juggle you for a while. For Expert, throw in their L10 weapons, and they're probably all flaming like Lu Bu at Hu Lao Gate. *shudder* But the L11 weapons are so pretty, and they brought back the attached stat bonuses like in DW3. So I'll have to brave it eventually.
I guess I'll never touch my DW4 save again. You can load the game into XL -- even if it takes two disc switches, bah -- and play everything under XL, with the new stuff, including Expert mode. And there are new ways to unlock all the stuff that was in DW4, for which I am very happy, since for the life of me I couldn't unlock Xiao Qiao's L10 weapon, but now I have it.
The improved AI is . . . interesting, and annoying. Supposedly the soldiers crowd you more, which is in fact true. I guess it makes it harder, because they all keep interrupting your attack sequences and multi-hit charge attacks. But when you get into a groove, like Xiao Qiao's SSST, especially with Lightning, it becomes a bloodbath. I guess that's why my kill counts in some of the stages have been so high. And yet I still can't get an S grade in anything. I wonder if they give you more points for doing less in higher difficulties.
In any case, the game will keep my interest for another while now.
The new stages are really neat. They're short "Legends" of each of the characters, which try to incorporate more background from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and actually explain why each officer was so famous. Of course, some of them still have to stretch, considering people like Zhen Ji and the Two Qiaos never figured that prominently in the novel, and never fought at all.
The stages are much more one-player than some of the originals: they're shorter and smaller, and your character is an important player, often the commander. It's not like some of the big epic battles where trying to do everything alone is near to impossible. So it'll be easier to do a stage or two in my tiny spans of free time once I get back to Tech, much as I did with DW4 third term last year.
The thing that unnerves me is that there seems to be a very steep difficulty curve. Normal is quite easy. Hard can get a bit hairy. I dread what Expert mode will bring. I mean, from Normal to Hard, the officers gain so much defense and HP, going from killable in one combo to hard to kill in five. And they guard so well, and the moment you have an opening, they break out and juggle you for a while. For Expert, throw in their L10 weapons, and they're probably all flaming like Lu Bu at Hu Lao Gate. *shudder* But the L11 weapons are so pretty, and they brought back the attached stat bonuses like in DW3. So I'll have to brave it eventually.
I guess I'll never touch my DW4 save again. You can load the game into XL -- even if it takes two disc switches, bah -- and play everything under XL, with the new stuff, including Expert mode. And there are new ways to unlock all the stuff that was in DW4, for which I am very happy, since for the life of me I couldn't unlock Xiao Qiao's L10 weapon, but now I have it.
The improved AI is . . . interesting, and annoying. Supposedly the soldiers crowd you more, which is in fact true. I guess it makes it harder, because they all keep interrupting your attack sequences and multi-hit charge attacks. But when you get into a groove, like Xiao Qiao's SSST, especially with Lightning, it becomes a bloodbath. I guess that's why my kill counts in some of the stages have been so high. And yet I still can't get an S grade in anything. I wonder if they give you more points for doing less in higher difficulties.
In any case, the game will keep my interest for another while now.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-25 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-26 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 02:40 pm (UTC)Actually, it's kind of like the new Castlevania. (Or to me, the new Castlevania is kind of like Dynasty Warriors, since I played DW first.)