---

It was 2000 by the time that Koei Tecmo decided to take their grand strategy series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms (itself already six games strong), and bring it into the world of 3D hack-and-slash action that would become Dynasty Warriors. Sure, that title appears as a one-on-one fighting game for the Playstation, but Dynasty Warriors as we know it really began with its second iteration.

That being said, while that was a technical spectacle of its own, it lacked a lot of the typical features that its own sequel—Dynasty Warriors 3—would introduce, many of which became mainstays in the series going forward. All that to say that, if you were looking to get into the series from the ground level, DW3 is the most likely starting point. As the third (but really second) entry to the series that literally defined the musou, it's a respectable enough foray into the genre, albeit prone to frustrating design choices and a notable lack of mechanical depth.

The inherent concept of being a single combatant who battles through hordes of soldiers is naturally appealing. Most games based around combat could, in theory, be described in the same way, but Dynasty Warriors 3 deserves credit for just how aware it makes you of your strength. It's hard not to feel powerful when your lance sweeps aside a dozen foes with all the grace of a ballroom dance, and if there's one thing this title does provide, it's that feeling by the ton. It also added a healthy amount of characters and new weapons to the mix here from DW2's roster, and while they are all sort of equipped with the same set of moves, there's enough variety in weapons or engagement style to make players develop an affinity for at least a few of them.

The battlefields as well are, for an early-era PS2 title, pretty impressive on the visual end, and it's impressive how often the frame rate is able to maintain its stability. There will be inevitable slowdowns, of course, but more frustrating is when the game doesn't load certain assets; as a result, you may find yourself fighting against enemies who are temporarily invisible or, worse, taking a fatal blow from an archer who is past the camera's draw distance.

While archers (visible or otherwise) will indeed give you a fair amount of grief in this title, most of your proper fights are with enemy officers, which represent other playable characters you could have chosen. It's pretty neat that they fight basically the same as you would (granted, with a much larger health bar), and it always feels like a pretty satisfying confrontation. Defeating them is key to raising your morale and decreasing your enemies, as well as gaining stat increases that will be vital in later battles.

DW3 is consistently regarded as one of the harder games in the series, and that's mostly due to how so many of its enemy officers will put up a proper fight. Where this becomes frustrating is the length; the first mob you wipe out will hardly differ from the fiftieth, but when you battle for almost 90 minutes only to be defeated by an officer's mega combo, annoying is a bit of an understatement.

It's not really a game where checkpoints would make sense, either, so the solution is a bit difficult to find. If there's one thing that could have made Dynasty Warriors 3 feel a bit more fulfilling overall, it would be to make the mobs a bit more engaging to fight while also making sure that the officers weren't hoarding all the interesting mechanics.

That's just because as fun as it is to mow down large groups of enemies, it can only stay fun for so long, and even one of DW3's relatively short character campaigns is likely enough time for you to have gotten just about everything you can out of it. This isn't really helped by the game's lack of objective variety; practically every battle will end with the defeat of the enemy army's commander, and while there are some optional objectives in certain scenarios that will boost your army's morale, they are never necessary for your success and don't force you to play any differently than you normally would. Its design is called even more into question by the fact that almost every fight allows you to just bypass the hordes of enemies in your path and go on your way to defeat the enemy general, making sub-50 KO maps a very realistic possibility.

DW3 gives you very little reason to engage with it on its own terms, and you are rarely rewarded for keeping up with its monotony. That can be aided by the game's multiplayer mode, its best addition, as it's always more enjoyable to fight off foes with a friend—or to test their skills in the vs. mode. It should also be said that, for a game series that is known to be based on the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, DW3 does a poor job of conveying any of that history to the player. Dynasty Warriors 3, in spite of the number that adorns it, strikes more as a valiant first effort, setting the groundwork for generations to come, all while making some stumbles along the way.

---

Click Here To Go Back!