Dynasty Warriors NEXT Review for PS Vita

[Kioll]

The latest game in the Koei Warriors franchise, Dynasty Warriors NEXT is the first member of the franchise to be released on the brand new Playstation Vita, released by Koei Tecmo on the same day as the official release of the Vita, February 22nd.  For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Dynasty Warriors is set in the feudal era of China, based upon the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  Focused around intense fighting action and seat-of-your-pants strategic thinking, Dynasty Warriors produces a rather unique gaming experience.

Making full use of the features provided by this new handheld, Dynasty Warriors NEXT takes that unique experience to the next level.  Gameplay features make use of both the touch screen and the rear touchpad, motion sensors, and even online play.  For many parts of the game, you can control your character or pan left and right to explore your 3D world by moving your Vita around.  Even the cameras get a part in the game, as you can take pictures, doctor them up a bit, and send them to others.

The point of the game is to take out your opponents by capturing their bases, dropping their defenses so that you can take over the territory.  For those who are familiar with the series, I would like to point out the new features.

Before I even opened the box, I read the back, and noticed the added Edit Mode, which allows you to create your own characters.  The character creator may be limited, but the possibilities are endless.  With 20 hairstyles for each gender, and almost as many hair colors, you will find it easy to find something you like.  There are 3 different face shapes, 1 for young, 1 for adult, and 1 for old.  Each shape has 6 different eyes, 6 different noses, and 6 different mouths.  And with 10 skin tones, you're sure to create the perfect face.  You can change the height of your character, and decide if they're thin, or if you want them to be built like stone.  Clothing items are interchangeable, and can be unlocked throughout the game.  And if that's not enough, you get to customize your stats, choose your weapon, decide if your character is better at fighting enemy hordes, enemy officers, or taking control of enemy bases.  You even get to decide the strategy that your character is known for.

And as if the character creator wasn't enough, they went ahead and gave every character 2 Musou attacks.  The standard one, performed by pressing O, is decent enough.  But they included Speed Musou, a separate attack activated by pressing on both sides of the touch screen at the same time.  But wait, there's more.  The addition of a Break Gauge allows you to simply tap the screen once, and instantly you can take out a number of enemy soldiers, and it will automatically capture the base you're in!  Not to mention, bases captured by a Direct Break cannot be recaptured by the enemy.

All of these new features would have been enough, in my humble opinion.  But that still isn't all.  When facing high ranking enemy officers, sometimes you will leave the map for a moment, engaging against that officer in a one-on-one Duel.  When you've won the duel, you can return to kicking your enemies around the battlefield.  There are also new types of stages, used for intermediary mini-games between scenes.  In several cases, you must defend yourself by shooting/cutting down approaching enemies, chase after a fleeing enemy officer, and there is even one mini-game in which you must write a kanji by revealing it and then touching the appropriate lines on your screen.  These new features help to increase the realism of the game, while keeping gameplay fresh and exciting.

Now, I know that I've been completely positive about this, and with everything they have, including a storyline that spans several of the old console games, it's hard not to be.  But we come to the point where people will start to wonder what the problems with the game are.  So far, I have yet to experience a valid negative aspect of the game itself.  I have been having a couple of problems, but I am pretty sure that those problems were with my system being left on for too long than having anything to do with the game.  In other words, if you experience problems you can't explain, try shutting the system off and letting it cool down for a bit.  Yes, this means I have yet to find a con in this game, unless you consider yelling at the game about why they had to kill off some of your favorite characters a con.  Have fun hunting after Lu Bu!!!   

Hope you enjoyed.