For a lot of Dynasty Warriors players, both DW9 and DW9 Empires was a let down. I disagree. I absolutely love both, but Empires 9 even more because you can create your own character, and they can fall in love and marry any officer. I have to warn you however, any images I use, is either Li Dian or Sima Zhao because they are my absolute favorites- I love them to bits. Also, you’ll be able to tell the difference of quality as some pictures are from PS4 and others from the Switch.

Why do I disagree with the people that hate it? Because one, I like how Empires 9 has a totally open world and you can gather your rations and gold that way. A lot of people don’t like to farm it in games, and that’s fine. But I find it helpful, especially with gold. You can easily build up your gold when your cutting it close to the next War Council. I also like the fact that you can go around and get all the “Fast Travel” locations such as bonfires, watchtowers, and way marks. There were a few flaws, I admit it, but overall it’s a very good game.

When you play in one of the scenarios, you have the option to play any officer. Say you want to play Guo Jia… you can play Guo Jia in one of the scenarios after he died even year 228. Which is a nice option. The only sad thing about it is that, anyone that he knew officer wise apart from Man Hong and Cao Xiu, have long passed on. So that’s the downside to it. You can choose the year 218 scenario, and Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Ren, etc are still around, and so are all the Simas. But anyone else, like Xun You, Xun Yu, Li Dian, and Yue Jin- they have passed on.

But another positive is if you play an officer in unaffiliated mode, you can befriend ANY of the officers. Even if they had died before the one officer was around. Whenever I play Li Dian, I play in unaffiliated mode, and try to get Sima Zhao as an officer because he is such an amusing character/officer, thanks to Daisuke Kishio. Another officer I would pick is Guo Jia, although he was around in Li Dian’s timeline for a while.

To me, it seems like a lot of players wanted it to be a simple game. But when I look at the older games, like Dynasty Warriors 3, the graphics are horrible, and it’s a plain hack and slash game. I even get a bit bored with Dynasty Warriors 8/ Empires 8. It’s too easy to get gold and rations. But I played World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy IV, so I enjoy putting the hard work/effort in gathering materials myself. I also like how smooth and more realistic the men and ladies look in 9. I would like to see Samurai Warriors go that route at some point. There should be a balance for those that enjoyed 9/9 empires and those that enjoyed older DW games.

Another thing I like about Empires 9, is the interactions the officers will have with one another, especially during a battle. The interaction between Cao Cao and Guo Jia is quite bittersweet. In the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it even tells of Cao Cao’s fondness for his tactician. So witnessing that same fondness in the game was nice to see. Even Xun You and Xun You will compliment Guo Jia, so it’s obvious Guo Jia was very likable and very intelligent. Li Dian and Yue Jin will compliment each other, and Li Dian will also reprimand Yue Jin for his low self-esteem. Cao Pi will get snippy with Cao Cao if Cao Cao battles him for a castle. Sima Yi is a riot because he throws out insults left and right, even to his own sons! And Sima Yi’s laughter is extremely contagious.

I like the fact you can capture officers when you go into battle. You can tell which officer will be easier to catch because they are determined to catch you instead.

The graphics are very nice, and the details of weather, sweat, rain and dirt is incredible. But that’s the PS4 for you. The Switch is not as detailed, but then again, the Switch is not like the PS4, which is very similar to a computer in a sense. Even if the graphics aren’t as detailed on the Switch, it’s just as enjoyable.

I also love the fact that the game is in Japanese with subtitles. I tried playing DW 9 with English voice actors and it was just downright laughable. They picked some horrible voice actors for the dubbed version.

What I really enjoy too, is the fact that once you unify China with the officer of your choice, they will have a child with their spouse. I have played my customized characters with Li Dian, Sima Zhao, Yue Jin and Guo Jia and I had chosen daughters for them all. And the likeness to their fathers are actually very good. Yue Jin’s daughter looks scarily like him- even the pout- which is strange because the game has his son Yue Chen in it, and he looks nothing like Yue Jin!

A Little Bit about Li Dian and Sima Zhao- and why they are so likable.

Li Dian
Kosuke Toriumi voices Li Dian, and he is perfect for that character. Even though he voices villains/crazy guys in quite a few anime, he also voices very sweet and personable characters too. Such as Hideyoshi Toyotomi in Ikemen Sengoku. Li Dian comes across as a very personable, charming and very friendly officer- and like Cao Ren, he is actually pretty easy to befriend if you play in unaffiliated mode. If you are playing a female character and befriend him, he will for the most part grow very fond of the female character and woo her.

When I started playing Dynasty Warriors, I actually started with Warriors Orochi Ultimate, and that’s when I discovered Li Dian. The voice sounded familiar, and it ended up being Kosuke Toriumi. Afterward, I got DW 9 and Li Dian ended up becoming my absolute favorite. Not only is he a handsome officer, but his whole personality, as mentioned before, is extremely likable. And you get to see more of that personality in DW9 Empires. He’s very awkward (adorably so) when he realizes what he says comes out wrong, and even when he confesses his feelings to the female character/officer. His favorite weapon is a pole arm, but I tend to use a sword with him. I rarely ever get a refusal from him when my female character invites him to be her first officer. When I first played, I wasn’t sure how the friendship level worked, and I think that was the only time I got a refusal, but he didn’t come across as a rude jerk…unlike Cao Cao- good lord, he’s rude. So my suggestion with inviting Cao cao- build up that friendship to mid-to high C. There are other few rude refusals but Li Dian is definitely not one of them. If Li Dian refuses, he usually comes around the next stroll- he may even ask to join! That’s how nice he actually is.

Sima Zhao

Sima Zhao is voiced by Daisuke Kishio, who is well known for voicing the character Kaname in the anime series Vampire Knight. He also voiced Azusa in Diabolik Lovers. Like Kosuke Toriumi, he has a broad range of characters, and extremely talented.

Sima Zhao became a favorite of mine in Dynasty Warriors 9, when I completed the whole game under Wei, which then slowly changed to Jin. He is charming, but hilariously lazy and complains about everything being a pain, as though he would rather take naps than fight to unify China. He does however take responsibility once his brother dies.

He also gets awkward when confessing his feelings to a female character/officer, and he DOES say the wrong thing. Zhao realizes it, and then the second part of his confession he explains if the person was really annoying, he wouldn’t be so chatty. Once married, Zhao does get very flirty, and teases about going to the bedroom at night after giving his spouse a gift (gem, or special tactic). He also does that when taking spouse on a scenic trip.

Zhao is a little bit more tricky to invite as a vagrant officer. Getting the friendship level up isn’t the difficult part, but rather keeping the level up and also trying to figure out when is a good time to invite him. He can be lazy and tell the officer that it’s too much work for him, and that’s pretty much his refusal. Other times, it seems other officers will offer others money to try to lure them to their side. Sometimes this is the case with Zhao. You’ll get him to a low C and then the next stroll he’ll be back to D.

But his personality isn’t that bad. He doesn’t have a bad temper- but tries to keep a cool head about everything, and that’s what I like about him. And unlike Yue Jin, he’s a good sport when he loses to a game of Go.

If you play as his daughter/son, and you have to go to battle against him, he will be vocal about it (Li Dian is the same, but would rather challenge his child to fight rather than wishing to avoid it.)

The comments he gets from his mother, father and brother are always funny to see, because they make it apparent that he’s the laziest. His mother, when she’s getting low in health in battle will even tell him to get over and help her “this instant”. Which always makes me smile.

To wrap things up, I think these two are one of the more likable officers for me. I’ve tried other officers, and apart from Yue Jin and Guo Jia,and even Zhu Ran, the others are not as interesting. I still need to play more officers at some point and “get to know them better”, so I can write my thoughts on them and their traits. I will write about Yue Jin and Guo Jia next!