2015 in Review: The Year I Came Around on Dynasty Warriors

Dynasty Warriors has a longstanding reputation as a repetitive, shallow experience. While some of that criticism isn’t entirely undeserved, there’s a casual dismissal of the series’ place in history that belies the the particular slow burning pleasures of what is essentially now its own genre.
 
I didn’t quite come around on the genre until this year. When it came down to it, I never felt invested in the Three Kingdoms historical period that the series played off of. It took last year’s Samurai Warriors 4-II to finally convince me. Omega Force’s more playful approach to creating Japanese alternative history provided a more colorful narrative I could at least casually invest myself into. Particularly fun was the play between Oda Nobunaga and Hisahide Matsunaga, with Matsunaga presented as a scheming subordinate constantly attempting to overthrow Nobunaga with Starscream style farce. The repeated failure and Nobunaga’s continued forgiveness provided a nice running gag.

What I enjoyed even more than that was Capcom’s own take on Koei’s genre, Sengoku Basara. By pushing the absurdity of the situations father over the top and combining that with Devil May Cry style brawls Capcom has definitely forged something with its own identity. My highlight was playing as their version of Saika Magoichi, a gender swapped character who not only brings a pistol to a swordfight, but machine guns, shotguns and missile launchers. It was intensely satisfying, and apparently Capcom thought so as well, as they lifted her moveset to retrofit into the Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition.

I think people are starting to come around on the genre again. There was a lot of excitement around Hyrule Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes, which shows how much familiarity with those worlds can carry an entry. This year we’ll also be getting Arslan Senki, based on the anime of the same name, which itself an adaptation of a Persian legend. Hopefully Capcom will also see fit to release Sengoku Basara 4 here. Until then I’ll be spending my time “knocking out” thousands of soldiers on these feudal Japanese battlefields.