Recent reviews by gsdudeus

It's a very good rhythm game, basically an adjacent DJMAX but with a different focus on song genre and imo a better UI. However it shares the same issue with DJMAX, in that it is very expensive to actually own the full package. On top of paying for the game, there is 200 dollars worth of dlc, that will probably keep going up over time. Just like with DJMAX, if you are a fan of this type of rhythm game and tire of the free options like quaver that feel rigid and behind the times, get this on sale.

It's fun, it really is. BUT the costumes and the dlcs are just so bad. All characters really only have 2 costumes, 3 if they happen to be a popular character. It's always their default, a joke costume from some other game, or a recolor. There is such poor costume variety its mind boggling how even with such an expensive dlc list such as this, with so MANY as well, that there are basically no extra costumes in the game. It's not even a varied selection either, for most of the characters the only secondary costume is just a yukata/kimono. MAYBE a irl costume from Dynasty Warriors but that's it. Poor pang tong, that surgeon outfit is the absolute worst costume I have seen in gaming for a character, and that's the only extra he has.

Get on sale, otherwise older games (as always for warriors games) are much better in comparison.

Mania, like all rhythm games, is hard to get into if you've never played one before. However this game in particular is one of the easier ones. The judgement window is less punishing compared to other games in the genre like Quaver or Osu. However, there is absolutely zero user created content, and the dlc price is extremely expensive. If you plan to buy this, then you must wait for a sale, otherwise there is no reason to get this at all over free options. If you are new to rhythm games, the mania type in particular, DO NOT BUY. Go get Quaver instead, and see if this type of rhythm game is even for you.

If you have all the dlc, I would give this a solid 7.5/10. If not, then don't even bother purchasing, since there is a severe lack of content to play.

It feels great to play. It has much better feeling, tightness and a better foundation than something like osu! which is amazing. However, the unranked maps are absolutely awful to play. Blatant errors and bad unsatisfactory mapping that only a primarily user supported game can contain. The ranked maps themselves are plentiful and great to play, but if there is a song that you want to play and it's not ranked, just hope that the unranked map that some random moron made is a 1 in a 1,000,000 and not like all the rest and nigh unplayable.

It's a turn based muoso version of risk where historical figures are anime women and has 18+ content via a patch on the developer website. It's more linear than I expected (less strategy in what to take over and when) so I was a bit disappointed. If it had Dynasty Warriors Empires's systems of doing alliances, appeasing your population, training soldiers and conquesting in battle I would have enjoyed it more. I guess that's more work obviously but Its really close to greatness and its disappointing. Still fun and unique art and presentation.

Aside from setting up emulators, DW7 is the closest to old-school dynasty warriors on pc to experience. It has fantastic story presentation, focusing more on the emotional side of it instead of DW8's more energetic portrayal. The amount of content is actually rather extreme as well, which I will list off:

Story: multiple "campaigns" each focusing on specific faction perspectives.

Conquest Mode: Technically the free play part of the game. Go through a large map and clear the hexes to earn rewards. Basically a big checklist mode, with one of the easiest red hare mount unlocks in the series.

Legend Mode: DW8's ambition mode but quite a bit smaller. Build up your town and earn titles for your specific chosen player character that enhance your abilities. Once you clear it, you earn a cape for your characters.

Challenged Mode: technically 4 modes in one. Just quick bite sized gimmicks like knocking off peons from a bridge to k.o. them and simply taking out as many people as you can in a small arena within 10 minutes.

For the asking price, you get a LOT of things to do. It's going to be kinda jank, but it's a true classic Dynasty Warriors experience. It doesn't have cloud save however, so if you do end up playing please backup your save file, and be sure that your documents folder is in it's default place (you won't be able to save otherwise, it'll freeze.) The save file location is: Documents\KoeiTecmo\Dynasty Warriors 7 DX

The edit mode is worse than 8, probably runs worse, less CAW customization as a whole, costumes from DW9 are not here for some reason, but it's a much improved version of DW9 that you could just use this empires entry as the real DW9, for better or for worse.

The gameplay has been improved, its a bit harder and smoother to play, and the open world sorta no longer exists. Empires has always been a very replayable series as well, so on sale this is guaranteed to be a at most decent purchase to fool around with. However, you will be knowingly buying into a worse version of DW8 Empires with no scenario, soldier unit, banner, or warhorse editing with less overall outfits for your custom character. It also looks like officers from the story don't have any costumes other than 2 from base game DW9, which is odd and I hope someone corrects me since I love the plate armor dlc pack from DW9.

It's a fine fun game, just not exactly fully a dynasty warriors game. It plays more like a spinoff of the empires spinoffs with a much different combat system and a pointless open world. Strangely, the empires game is probably the better version of 9, since it cuts out the open world approach but for some reason doesn't use the costumes from this game but whatever. It's not terrible, its just really different and really shouldn't have been a mainline game. Play the trial for free, if you like it then fine, get it on sale. The trial includes the whole story but only like 3 characters.

What feels the worst is that there is no secondary grind mode. Think of 8's Ambition mode, WO 3 and 4's gauntlet and infinite mode and even 7's conquest/legend mode. 9 only features the story, and upon completion the ability to play free mode (play any chapter from any side with any character). The hunt for the best weapons and maxxing characters is obviously still here, but the lifespan of the game when you beat the story mode is drastically reduced. It's why I think that the empires version might just be the best version, since the more random nature and player-driven choices with different scenarios offered more replayability than even some mainline DW games. Even then DW8 empires is much better, and in some cases DW7 empires is better, but that is just player preference.

Not as bad as it was on launch, but this really should've been a spin-off or an experimental empires project.

You can LITERALLY just go to google and type myabandonware, go to the first result, and once there type "rally". Boom, dozens upon dozens of free old school rally games, all of which that play much better than whatever the hell this attempts to recreate. Colin Mcrae Rally 2004 and 2005 are the best of the bunch, and EXTREMELY EASY to setup. There is no reason to buy this game with overall worse feeling driving, even less content and clueless developers.

It is genuinely astonishing how this game plays. They had a free comparison to test with for what makes a simcade driving game fun, and they just didn't care to compare their concepts. Nothing about this game is enjoyable, and at worst it prays upon people who don't know what abandonware is or want to experience old school rally games. THIS IS NOT IT, TURN BACK, AND DOWNLOAD RALLY GAMES OFF OF MYABANDONWARE .COM!!!

Absolutely fantastic. It's as though Ninja Gaiden Black got an actual sequel and throws in godlike gameplay. Deathblows as a concept is amazing as well. After trying a boss over and over, when finally breaking their posture, you do this super cool animation of killing them. It brings a sense of finality and catharsis to a fight, even against regular enemies. Please pick this up, and try your best to learn it to the best of your ability. It's extremely cathartic to play.

In terms of replayability, there are some unlockable costumes, New Game +, 4 endings, boss rushes that unlock after finding and killing all the bosses associated with the boss rush, maxing the skill tree, and ultimately mastering the game's combat, which, again, is extremely cathartic. Plus there are quite an amount of mods for the game, which have various ui changes, entire character replacements, sword customization and some more.

This game actually ruined all souls games and most other souls-likes with how fantastic the gameplay is. I play DS1 and see the attack timings of an enemy and my brain defaults to trying to deflect it.