I'd played the demo of DW3 alot but DW4 was the first Warriors game I actually owned, which turned out to be a unique impression on the series as it's a bit of a renegade compared to the other entries on the ps2.
Firstly it's the only one to not kill off characters as the story progresses, all the original leaders like Cao Cao and Sun Jian will be there in the final battle 40 years later, it didn't seem like anything odd when I was young. It is jarring however when you go back to DW3 or ahead to DW5 and suddenly Sun Jian dies pretty much straight away and by the final battles there's barely anyone left!
Secondly the story mode is done by kingdom instead of individual character. There are many smaller battles leading towards the main event at the end of each chapter which are optional but doing them gives you a slight edge in the long run. Not doing them can unlock extra battles however which I took a while to find out.
I can't emphasise enough how "slight" the edge you get is though as this Dynasty Warriors is easily the one most heavily geared against you in battles. In other entries if you fulfill objectives eventually your army will blitz through everyone however here in 4 there are constant curveballs and obstacles thrown at you and your officers constantly feel in trouble with low morale and outnumbered troops. For example in Wu Zhang Plains you can do everything right with the fake death ploy but then out of nowhere Cao Cao appears with a huge sea of red on the map that wipes everyone out!
The benefit of this is you really do feel like you're in a fight all the time, soldiers are slightly nerfed from how they were in DW3 as they now can't do charge attack combos or musous but they're still aggressive and will always try to flank you.
The down side is that the big scale battles are a slog to get through and you may not want to play them again after succeeding, the smaller battles are much more fun as they are more progressive in nature and you can fight your way through without worrying about your army getting destroyed on the other side of the map.
Voice acting is HUGELY improved from 3 and this voice cast will stick around for a long time, they are sorely missed in DW9. The soundtrack is also stellar and more intense than the previous game with a harder sound.
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The introduction of the duel made situations more sense, forcing players to gamble everything for optimal results, but at the same time, they highlighted how shallow the combat really is. Accepting this meant you were treated to the best Dynasty Warriors yet, with several story modes with split paths based on your actions and aptitude at the game, with consequences that reach far enough to justify it all. A decent first shot at create-a-character rounds everything out.
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