Dynasty Warriors 5: Information

Release Information from Koei

General Game Information

• General Information
• Difficulties
• Graphics
• Sound
• Removed
• Bugs/Glitches
• Codes

Gameplay Information

• Battles
• Bodyguards
• Characters
• Musou Attacks
• Soldiers
• Units

Powerups, Development, and Items

• Powerups
• Items
• Weapons
• Mounts
• Elemental Orbs
• Health Recovery

General Information

• No game data import function.
• DualShock 2™ Controller is still required.

Difficulties

• Easy, Normal, Hard, and Chaos
• Easy is ridiculously easy, and hardly worth having.
• Normal isn’t much more a challenge.
• Hard can provide a fair to great challenge.
• Chaos is what it claims to be, very difficult indeed.

Graphics

• Colors are now much more vivid.
• Graphics have improved considerably.
• Stages are more unique now than they have ever been in the past.
• Stages have more terrain variations than Dynasty Warriors 4, but still don’t have the same degree of hill variation that was found in some stages of Dynasty Warriors 2 and 3 (something I’ve missed for quite a while).
• Can display numerous soldiers on screen at the same time better than previous incarnations. Slowdowns still exist, but when they do happen they are less chaotic. Also, vanishing soldiers and officers are much less common.

Sound

• All verbal lines are now given voice acting.
• The soundtrack is reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors 3.

Removed

• Officer edit no longer exists.
• Bodyguard edit no longer exists (replaced with a new system).
• Duels have been removed. Weapon deadlocks remain.
• Campaign Mode: Officers now only have their own unique musou modes. It begins with them telling a short tale of themselves, followed by the story, and ending with their unique ending. Stages are different for each officer, but you may no longer change officers after each stage.
• “Tales” Stages: No secret stages (yeah, this one sucks).
• Storyline branches: With the removal of Campaign mode, each character story follows a set path. You may miss the variations, but this is reasonable considering the number of stories Koei had to create for each character. Maybe we’ll see something fun in the Xtreme Legends they are sure to release.

Bugs/Glitches

• The game can, on rare occasions, lock up. This is unfortunate considering the fact it is a console game, an environment that doesn’t allow for patching.

Codes

• There are no Dynasty Warriors 5 codes.

Battles

• Battles begin with a briefing, in which the commander explains the campaign.
• Gate Captains now guard gates, but do not provide an entry point for soldiers. Guard Captains now guard entry points, and provide entry for new soldiers. An entry point may only have a certain amount of soldiers on the map at a given time, and starts sending more out when that number is below limit.
• Not all checkpoints have life-up containers.
• After a force takes an entry point, their site may set one up in its place.
• Weapon Deadlocks: No changes apparent.
• In-battle Saves: You are allowed infinite saves in Easy, three in Medium, one on Hard, and no in-battle saves on the Chaos difficulty.
• If a tower is destroyed near you, and it falls on you, you will be injured..

Bodyguards

• There is no bodyguard edit mode.
• You now have only one solider bodyguard.
• A bodyguard may offer to join you after a battle is completed.
• You may have a total of eight separate bodyguards.
• Bodyguards joining have several identifying traits.
• - Appearance: There are enough different face types, hair, armor, and accessories that different bodyguards have a fair chance of unique appearances.
• - Weapons: Bodyguards have a pre-determined weapon type. Male guards will join with a spear, crossbow, or staff, and female guards will join with a sword, bow, or fan. The rarest type is the fan, which is only used by females. It allows them to heal you.
• - Skill: A rating from Veteran (weakest) to Superior (Best) determines how many of their four stat attributes they have an expertise in (all four at Brilliant, which is the fourth rating). Skill strengths for non-Brilliant officers are selected randomly.
• - Growth Ability: Rated from C to S, determines how quickly certain stats raise with levels (with only one raising quickly at C, and all four raising quickly at S, along the same vein as Skill above).
• There is approximately a .51 percent chance of a Brilliant/S officer joining you, so don’t miss out on the chance to hire one when they come along.
• As bodyguards level up, they gain skills, and can eventually learn four. How many skills they learn is determined by the number of stats they have maxed out. If they haven’t maxed out any, they will only have two skills. If they have maxed out between one and three, they will get three skills. If they have maxed out four, they will get four skills.
• Officers may also gain an elemental attack with their levels.
• In one player mode, you may perform a team musou with you guard.
• It is possible to get a tiger bodyguard (see units) with a special item.

Characters

• Dynasty Warriors 5 features lll new characters: Cao Pi (Cao Cao’s son and heir), Guan Ping (Guan Yu’s son), Ling Tong (Wu), Pang De (Wei), Xing Cai (Shu; Zhang Fei’s daughter; Fictional), Zuo Ci (Unaligned; Odd sage from Three Kingdoms history). Zuo Ci is unlocked by unlocking every other character.
• Characters available from the start of the game include, in Wei: Cao Pi, Dian Wei, Xiahou Dun, Xu Zhu, Zhang Liao, Zhen Ji; Shu: Guan Yu, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao, Xing Cai, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun; Wu: Ling Tong, Lu Xun, Sun Quan, Sun Shang Xiang, Taishi Ci, Zhou Yu; Unaligned: None.
• Dynasty Warriors 5 features 48 different playable characters.
• Character Models: Each character starts with one model, and can unlock three more (the second early in development, the others together later).
• Character Models: The second is a significant color variation of the first. The third is their original appearance from Dynasty Warriors 4 and the fourth is their third appearance from Dynasty Warriors 4.
• Character Models: New characters have slight figure and major color variations for their third and fourth character appearances.

Musou Attacks

• Musou attacks are still a key element of battle. As before, they are a good way to break out of trouble or turn a beating into a deadlock. They are fairly balanced now, with the more generically efficient ones being easy to use, while the slightly harder to use ones (e.g. Zhuge Liang) being very effective in battle.
• When an enemy general performs a musou attack they will hold relatively still and glow with flames for a short while before attacking, giving you a moment to prepare defense or gamble some quick hits.
• Enemy generals do not perform musou attacks as often as they used to.
• Enemy solider groups, when complete, may perform group musou attacks.

Soldiers

• Soldiers, if you have a good defense, are little more than an irritation or pastime, unlike past incarnations like Dynasty Warriors 3 where they were an ever-present threat. However, if your defense is a little below par, soldiers can quickly cut you down. This effectively creates a cut-off point at which you should/shouldn’t be playing a certain stage at a certain difficulty.
• Archers are little more than an irritation unless they are firing fire arrows. This is a little bit of a letdown from Dynasty Warriors 3, and to a lesser extent, Dynasty Warriors 4, where dealing with archers was a key part of strategy.
• Teams of soldiers can now perform their own group musou attacks.

Units

• The Nanman now have a tiger unit. The tigers are fairly aggressive and cannot be killed, but don’t have much trouble knocking you around or causing damage when there are other units around.
• It is possible to get a tiger bodyguard through an item.
• It is still possible to get an elephant through an item.
• Yue Ying’s Tiger Tanks are still in the game.
• So are Zhuge Liang’s wooden oxen.
• Siege weapons are a little more interactive, and play some key roles.

Powerups

• Gate Guards: Standard Powerup, Various Recovery, or Att/Def +1
• Gate Guards: Supply Depot Captains always drop a full recovery.
• Gate Guards: Not all gate captains will drop items.
• Generals: Still give powerups (e.g. Defense +2)
• Powerups: You can once again double a powerup through combos.
• Powerups: There are three grades for battles (as before): +1/2, +2/4, +4/8.
• Powerups: Unlike before, the highest grade only appears in musou mode.
• Musou Rage: A new element of Dynasty Warriors 5, you can get a musou rage by picking up what looks like a coin of sorts in select crates. You may only have one at a time, and it provides you with a spinning golden medallion with a red gem on one side in your character status screen. You may press R3 to use the musou rage, giving you extra power, speed, and swing recovery for a set period of time.

Items

• Still found in crates, and frequently located by a weapon.
• Officers drop items less frequently than they used to.
• Items are not difficult to find on stages.
• Items are earned on any difficulty.

Weapons

• Still Found in Crates, Usually by an Item
• Officers drop weapons less frequently than they used to.
• Weapons are not difficult to find on stages.
• Now have a weight attribute. Weight affects weapon speed. Certain weapons may be prone to a certain weight more than others, and the higher the difficulty, the more likely your chance to get a lighter weight.
• Range of a weapon varies from weapon level to level.
• It is easier to get numerous weapon attributes on lower level weapons than it is on higher level weapons, but between weapon weight and attributes, you may find yourself using a weaker weapon for its abilities.
• Fourth weapons return as the highest level weapons.
• Fourth weapons are earned on the Hard or Chaos difficulties.

Mounts

• You may ride horses, including Red Hare, without experience.
• Horse attack strength remains high, and they remain viable to use.
• Horse speed seems to have improved.
• It is easier to open boxes and pots, from horseback, when using a character that has a short-range weapon. This is due to slightly greater base range.
• The horse you started with is marked on the map with an orange dot.
• Elephants are still in the game, and seem to have improved in speed.
• Mount Items: There are still around four mounts in the game, and you can retrieve them by meeting special conditions on certain game stages (on any difficulty).
• Mount Items: You can still earn the Elephant Saddle.
• Mount Items: Each character may equip one mount.

Elemental Orbs

• Elemental Orbs are still in the game, but they are no longer picked up randomly as items after battle. Instead, there are four of them, and you must earn them like most any other Forth Weapon. Each has their own requirement, and you must be playing on at least hard difficulty to get them.
• Each character has an orb item slot to pick an orb you have found.
• Orbs are fairly powerful, but seem to be a little weaker than before.

Health Recovery

• Health recovers are shared with your bodyguard.
• It is now a little more difficult to get health recovery, but this is mostly due to the fact that they are at less predictable locations. Soldiers rarely drop more than a single meat bun, and only Elite Guards will always carry food.