Archview #44: Dynasty Warriors 6

 Not as bad as they make it out to be, for real!

 Dynasty Warriors 6 is often times considered the black sheep of the series. For this entry Koei decided to change a lot of stuff, and while not all of it was for the best, some ideas were actually kinda good, yet never to be seen again. As per usual, before DW 7, you are to take control of one general and follow their story throught the "Three Kingdoms" era of ancient China, albeit all stories end with a "What if" ending.
 For starters, there are three different modes: Musou Mode(The story mode, only 17 out of the 41 characters get one), Free Mode(Replay any stage with any character) and Challenge mode. Challenge mode is more of a novelty, in which you can take one out of six challenges(Beat enemies without getting hit, collect items while avoiding horses, break stuff, etc) and compare your scores online. Truth be told, this mode is pretty sucky and no wonder it was never revisited again.

 As with every entry in the franchise, each stage is a battle of two armies(Rarely three), and you are a general on one of these armies. Your goal is, usually, to wipe out the main general of the other army before they kill yours, these usually means mowing down hundreds of units. Gone are the charge moves of previous games, here the Renbu system is introduced. You have two independant attack strings, a Square combo string and a more powerful, and shorter, Triangle string. Hitting enemies rises a gauge on the bottom left corner of the screen, and every time it gets full, you go up a level, which makes both strings longer. If you take damage, or don't hit anything for a while, the Renbu level drops. A lot of people made a big deal out the Renbu system, and while I'd take a traditional Warriors game any day, the Renbu sytem is not as bad as they make it out to be. Interestingly, generals now have "Grapple attacks", and by grabbing Tomes(Random enemy drops) you can use special attacks, these two features were, sadly, dropped in later installments. Finally, characters can also evade, Samurai Warriors style, but once again, this was dropped by DW 7.
 As for the stages themselves, now there is an emphasis on Sieging! Basically it boils down to defeating certain enemies, so that engineers can begin building ramming weapons, to bring down heavy gates, and ladders, so that you may climb up the wals and take down ballistas and archers. It's a lot more fun than it sounds, really, although it may wear out it's welcome after a while. Spread throughout the stages there are enemy bases, which spawn lesser enemies, that you can conquer, by bringing down their doors(You can break these by simply attacking them) and then defeating a ser amount of enemies. It's usually a good idea to do so, since inside these healing items spawn regularily and you just might need them.

 Graphically, the game is a bit of a let down. It might've seemed prettier at launch, but DW 7 completely blew it out of the water, regardless, most characters look alright, heck, these might be some of my favorite redesigns, and the models do them justice. Stages on the other hand look kinda cool, until you look closely at some of the textures... also, some of the special effects, like water, are just laughable. On the flip side, I'm pretty sure there are more units on screen than even DW7, but there tends to be heavy slowdown when it gets hectic. Music is, as per usual, fantastic and voice acting, as per usual, is spotty. There are some decent voice acting, but some of it is just awful(In a so bad it's good kind of way).
 There are plenty of characters to unlock, albeit most of them are clones and some of the unlock conditions can be a bit obscure, most of the time it consists on succeeding on some of the targets each stage has(3 targets per stage), but the game won't aid you. While some characters may be clones, their skill trees are unique, thankfully, but raising them to level 50 will take some time, though there are no real rewards for doing so, besides an alternate color pallette awarded at level 25.

 To be completely honest, Dynasty Warriors 6 is not a bad game, and while I can see why people consider it the black sheep of the series, I also believe that it did a lot of awesome things that were never revisited again, like sieging. Worth mentioning, this is the fastest I've been done with a Warriors game, there's not a whole lot to do. Casual Dynasty Warriors fans and haters will want to stay away, but fans should at least give it a try, the Renbu system is not as bad as people make it out to be. The game is not as bad as people make it out to be.
 6 out of 10.