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Dynasty Warriors (or 真・三國無双:Shin Sangoku Musou in Japan) is a series of video games created by Koei based loosely around the Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic, and is a spinoff series of ROTK ( Sangokushi )
The games in this series are as follows:
- Dynasty Warriors
- Dynasty Warriors 2 (Shin Sangoku Musou)
- Dynasty Warriors 3 (Shin Sangoku Musou 2)
- Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends (Shin Sangoku Musou 2 Moushouden)
- Dynasty Warriors 4 (Shin Sangoku Musou 3)
- Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends (Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Moushouden)
- Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires (Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Empires)
- To be released: Dynasty Warriors 5 (Shin Sangoku Musou 4)
- To be released: Dynasty Warriors Advance
The first game was a very obscure fighting game that was released on the PlayStation. This was not released under the Shin Sangoku title which explains the difference in title numbers. The other games all follow the same basic format - a general is chosen as a playable character, and they play through a number of levels representing certain conflicts in the time of the three kingdoms, eventually defeating both of the other kingdoms and making their own the rulers of China. In Musou Mode, the generals are usually chosen from one of the three kingdoms (Wu, Shu or Wei; however, from Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends onwards, independent generals can be selected as well. Dynasty Warriors 3 had two secret characters, Nu Wa and Fu Xi, that are not playable in Musou Mode.
Both Dynasty Warriors 3 and Dynasty Warriors 5 have individual Musou Modes for each character, Dynasty Warriors 4 has a single Musou Mode for an entire Kingdom. For example, all characters aligned with Wu play through Wu's Musou Mode. This allows for characters to be interchangeable during level breaks. Second player can always choose from all playable characters, however.
The levels themselves follow a third-person beat-em-up format, where the camera is behind the player and they go around killing the enemy forces, while avoiding both the player's own death and one or more other loss scenarios (usually involving the death of the player's own superior, the loss of a critical ally or fortification, or the escape of an enemy leader).
The order of events in one of the above full (Musou) games, is this:
- Put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
- Defeat Dong Zhuo.
- Defeat the 'other' member of the alliance against Dong Zhuo (i.e. not Wu, Shu or Wei).
- Defeat one of the other three kingdoms.
- Defeat the last remaining other kingdom.
Each of the main three kingdoms has additional levels that deal mainly with internal problems. Since Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, and Meng Huo are all defeated in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, their Musou Modes do not follow the book nor history and are pure fiction.
Koei released a new series called Samurai Warriors(Shin Sengoku Musou) that is instead based on the Warring States era of japanese history. Also made by Omega Force, Samurai Warriors uses the same engine and design as Dynasty Warriors making the gameplay simliar yet different at the same time.
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