shin Sangokumusō 5 has been available in Japan and South Korea since early November. American gamers have to wait until this February for the translated version called Dynasty Warriors 6. However, being the resourceful, Renaissance man I am, I’ve gotten my hands on this game while we’re in the limbo stage between Japanese and English. There have been six official releases and countless satellite titles that have all been the exact same game with more characters and slightly better graphics. That’s why I didn’t figure it would hurt at all that my Japanese is remedial at best.

Speaking very basically, this one plays identically to the rest. It’s the usual hack and slash through a field of warriors who fall to your mighty spear like paper-dolls. Run into a base and massacre everyone in it to get a strategic land advantage. The more you kill the stronger you get. Collect new weapons with special abilities and any general will be easy pickings for you. Pretty basic stuff.

There are, however, a few things that make this title stand out from the rest of the series. First is the obvious jump to the next generation of gaming. Let’s face it, Samurai Warriors 2 and Warriors Orochi for the Xbox 360 don’t count as next gen titles. Now it seems like one thousand kills is the minimum for a battle that lasts more than ten minutes. Remember back in the Warriors’ day when too many people on a field would cause the frame rate to drop and your game to lag? Don’t get too excited, it’s still that way. It’s less frequent, but it’s still there. To make it worse the bodies stick around for a little while after you kill them. Still, I do enjoy going into a base with Guan Yu and killing soldiers fast enough to have a pile of corpses at my feet.

Fans of KOEI that have been getting to know the usual characters for years will be slightly confused. There are only a handful of characters that look the same anymore and some of the weapons have changed. This seems to be in an effort to make some of the characters more historically accurate. I was depressed that Sun Ce no longer lays waste to the enemy with obscenely oversized tonfa. In light of the design changes, I should have done some more studying before playing because I initiated a battle with an officer who looked like he’d be more of a challenge. It wasn’t until I was impaled on a halberd that I realized it was Lu Bu.

Character design and better graphics aren’t the only differences this time around. Additions to the game are the ability to climb ladders to get those pesky archers, destroying doors instead of killing defense captains to get into a base, and a river isn’t a big problem anymore because you can swim and even get on boats to ride them into an ambush in real time instead of cut-scene time. I giggle like a schoolgirl when I get on a powerful horse and start stabbing people in the back while they try to swim away from me.

Another point that has improved from the previous installations is the A.I. Now being a one-trick Lu Bu isn’t good enough. Wait, let me take that back. Now being a one-trick Guan Yu isn’t good enough. It pays to learn how to use each character because the enemies adapt to your attacks. I learned this the hard way when foot soldiers started to occupy me while archers took pot shots at me. I hate archers so much. I especially hate smart archers.

Another level of sophistication and difficulty added to the game is the return of duels. In Dynasty Warriors 4 an officer would yell something at you and you’d be given the option to accept his challenge, if accepted you were magically transported to a cage fight where you’d unleash one musou attack and it’d be over. Now when you lead your army onto a battlefield of enemies the leading officer will yell at you and everyone forms a circle around you right then and there. From that point it’s a lumberjack match that isn’t over until you’re dead or the officer and all of his bodyguards are. This is amazingly fun, but more difficult than would be expected from a Dynasty Warriors game.

I love the KOEI Warriors series. The simplicity of game play, the fields of enemies to cut down are positively therapeutic and it’s a game that anyone can jump into and play. KOEI’s shin Sangokumusō 5 earns more respect than previous titles because it manages to make some much needed additions while retaining the fun of the earlier games. I can’t wait until Dynasty Warriors 6 is released on February 11 so I can understand exactly what Lu Bu said to me right before sending me to my maker.

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