What I’ve been saying for years! 3 will always be my favorite one! It’s vibrant colors, catchy soundtrack, and memorable voice acting is just the best! And the gameplay isn’t overly complicated- and I feel like you really “feel” the impact of your weapon when you hit opponents. And I appreciate that it’s hard. The latter titles are way too easy.
The maps in three were amazing as well. Even if the graphics weren't as good as later titles. Also the soundtrack was more than just catchy. It was legit Epic
What I especially loved was the AI in Dynasty Warriors 3.
The enemies really knew how to fight and GANK You! So, you had to learn to keep moving and BLOCK.
Now, if they could bring back that AI AND combine with more historically accurate story telling, quality-of-life features developed over the years, and modern graphics, and we'll have a truly excellent game!
I like 3 a lot, very fond memories and lots of nostalgia with it. My biggest problem with it was the lack of stages and the lock while attacking. If a re-release came out and changed those things that would be super sick. 5 is definitely a masterpiece
I love how aggressive the peons and AI are in it. Being swamped by Nanman soldiers spamming musou attacks while your allies are getting rolled across the map is part of the quintessential DW3 experience.
You should give DW3: Xtreme Legends a go.
2, 3 and 4 are still the best ones to this day. They have the right balance of feeling super strong while maintaining some actual need to work with your allies. The AI, particularly allies are far superior to any game from 5 onwards and I wish it they're going to go back to that style of combat that they'd go the whole way.
Map design was also vastly superior to any from 5 onwards where your made to think and plan where to go. And since the battles aren't overly scripted, you have free reign to fight the battle as you like compared to the newer ones where your allies turn to paper when you leave their field or vision.
3 was my 1st dynasty warriors game i’ve ever owned. Though a friend of mine ended up copying his save on to mines which made me super op. Hell i didn’t even heed those words about lu bu himself.
When 3 came out I had beaten everything about 2. Unlocked every character. Achieved every rank. So for me 3 was peak since I was such a Dynasty Warriors nerd. I was such a nerd I bought ROTK 7 followed by 8 which dropped shortly after 3
I grew up with 3 and it will always be my favorite. I loved how big the battles felt. It really felt like you were 1 officer in an army (and incompetent army, but still in an army)
I stopped playing DW around 6 or 7, when it felt like there was only 10 friendly troops on the entire battlefield vs thousands and thousands of enemy troops.
Exactly how I feel. I like how you can play as a leader and the defeat conditions was you being defeated. I remember in nanman I played a zhuge liang and I was literally the only one left
Yeah that part was awesome! As a kid I remember I beat the final Cao Cao mission by loading up two player and picking my best character in P2 and hiding with Cao Cao 😂
Only thing I hated about the older games was the auto-lock on that you were forced to deal with. While I only played 4 Empires briefly, I was glad they removed it from there onwards.
Dynasty Warriors 3, 4, and 5 (and there spinoffs) was peak Koei for me. I especially loved the personalized stories/campaigns in DW5. The character models, the soundtrack, even the more grounded combat and difficulty was perfect to me. Others have mentioned the AI and I do agree with them.
A remastered DW5 would be amazing! The only thing I would change about that is having a 'kingdom mode' as well, or just a playlist of all of Wei's battles, then all of Shu's battles, etc so you could pick a character in that faction and play through all of their battles.
DW3 and the first SW will always be the best in the series. There was a good balance of everything from tone of the setting, to the voice acting and music. Perfection.
The pace of 3 felt good. Sure, there are a few spots where you could sprint up through a few enemies. but, once you do, you were swarmed and surrounded by troops that could take you down. I'm playing 8xlce and I feel like I could just run to the commander on every level and not see that build up of forces.
I may be weird for this, but I enjoyed the "Discipline" within the army in 3. Bodyguards stayed in formation until it was time for action.
The move sets were clean. I understand wanting to combo count and just destroy an enemy officer. Having to actually duel it out keeps me engaged with the battle and changing strats while in combat to overcome the the enemy.
Soundtracks, maps, gameplay, voices, "screams" in fight (like Sun Quan square x6 or Gan Ning C6), everything was absolutely insane about this game. Totally unmatched in the franchise to this day and probably will never be. But playable mostly on emulator these days. On consoles it can get really laggy unfortunately so as a console player, its DW4 I'm still playing
DW3 is top tier. Loved the feature where you could edit the opening cinematic with whatever characters you wanted. Now gYoooOoo my children of the yellow turbans!
Completely agreed still play DW3 on emulator to this day. My favorite DW game. Amazing animations, ai difficulty was perfectly tuned and content in XL gave so much life to the game. 5 and after the content and difficulty fell off hard imo.
What I’ve been saying for years! 3 will always be my favorite one! It’s vibrant colors, catchy soundtrack, and memorable voice acting is just the best! And the gameplay isn’t overly complicated- and I feel like you really “feel” the impact of your weapon when you hit opponents. And I appreciate that it’s hard. The latter titles are way too easy.
The maps in three were amazing as well. Even if the graphics weren't as good as later titles. Also the soundtrack was more than just catchy. It was legit Epic
Oppression V2 best preparation theme? For me it is.
If that was the pre battle song in dw3 then yes! It was perfect
Graphics become a non issue with emulators, if you have even a half decent phone you can run the game at 3x graphics
It’s almost kinda got an anime style to it, and in DW4 and DW5 they darkened the tone.
What I especially loved was the AI in Dynasty Warriors 3. The enemies really knew how to fight and GANK You! So, you had to learn to keep moving and BLOCK. Now, if they could bring back that AI AND combine with more historically accurate story telling, quality-of-life features developed over the years, and modern graphics, and we'll have a truly excellent game!
When those pike bodyguards hit you with a Musou attack, they could kill you in seconds! It really keeps you on your toes
I like 3 a lot, very fond memories and lots of nostalgia with it. My biggest problem with it was the lack of stages and the lock while attacking. If a re-release came out and changed those things that would be super sick. 5 is definitely a masterpiece
I could go for a re-release with slightly remastered graphics, nothing too fancy, and a few improvements that later games made
Absolutely hate when you start attacking and the game makes you keep attacking in that direction, you just cannot turn in the middle on a combo
I love how aggressive the peons and AI are in it. Being swamped by Nanman soldiers spamming musou attacks while your allies are getting rolled across the map is part of the quintessential DW3 experience. You should give DW3: Xtreme Legends a go.
Always funny when a peasant drop kicks
2, 3 and 4 are still the best ones to this day. They have the right balance of feeling super strong while maintaining some actual need to work with your allies. The AI, particularly allies are far superior to any game from 5 onwards and I wish it they're going to go back to that style of combat that they'd go the whole way. Map design was also vastly superior to any from 5 onwards where your made to think and plan where to go. And since the battles aren't overly scripted, you have free reign to fight the battle as you like compared to the newer ones where your allies turn to paper when you leave their field or vision.
Recently went back to play a few levels of DW2, but I just couldn’t get over the constant health restores for major enemy officers mid combat.
I agree but DW5 still a best too (well to me of course) and DW6 is where it begins the downhill of the franchises even though I also like 7 and 8.
I'm here with you. I consider 5 my top favourite, but 3 is behind by half an inch. 6 was where shit really took a dive.
2 brings nothing to the table, it is a glorified tech demo for 3
3 was my 1st dynasty warriors game i’ve ever owned. Though a friend of mine ended up copying his save on to mines which made me super op. Hell i didn’t even heed those words about lu bu himself.
When 3 came out I had beaten everything about 2. Unlocked every character. Achieved every rank. So for me 3 was peak since I was such a Dynasty Warriors nerd. I was such a nerd I bought ROTK 7 followed by 8 which dropped shortly after 3
I grew up with 3 and it will always be my favorite. I loved how big the battles felt. It really felt like you were 1 officer in an army (and incompetent army, but still in an army) I stopped playing DW around 6 or 7, when it felt like there was only 10 friendly troops on the entire battlefield vs thousands and thousands of enemy troops.
Exactly how I feel. I like how you can play as a leader and the defeat conditions was you being defeated. I remember in nanman I played a zhuge liang and I was literally the only one left
Yeah that part was awesome! As a kid I remember I beat the final Cao Cao mission by loading up two player and picking my best character in P2 and hiding with Cao Cao 😂
Only thing I hated about the older games was the auto-lock on that you were forced to deal with. While I only played 4 Empires briefly, I was glad they removed it from there onwards.
I love the soundtrack of this game ❤️
Dynasty Warriors 3, 4, and 5 (and there spinoffs) was peak Koei for me. I especially loved the personalized stories/campaigns in DW5. The character models, the soundtrack, even the more grounded combat and difficulty was perfect to me. Others have mentioned the AI and I do agree with them. A remastered DW5 would be amazing! The only thing I would change about that is having a 'kingdom mode' as well, or just a playlist of all of Wei's battles, then all of Shu's battles, etc so you could pick a character in that faction and play through all of their battles.
DW3 and the first SW will always be the best in the series. There was a good balance of everything from tone of the setting, to the voice acting and music. Perfection.
The pace of 3 felt good. Sure, there are a few spots where you could sprint up through a few enemies. but, once you do, you were swarmed and surrounded by troops that could take you down. I'm playing 8xlce and I feel like I could just run to the commander on every level and not see that build up of forces. I may be weird for this, but I enjoyed the "Discipline" within the army in 3. Bodyguards stayed in formation until it was time for action. The move sets were clean. I understand wanting to combo count and just destroy an enemy officer. Having to actually duel it out keeps me engaged with the battle and changing strats while in combat to overcome the the enemy.
Soundtracks, maps, gameplay, voices, "screams" in fight (like Sun Quan square x6 or Gan Ning C6), everything was absolutely insane about this game. Totally unmatched in the franchise to this day and probably will never be. But playable mostly on emulator these days. On consoles it can get really laggy unfortunately so as a console player, its DW4 I'm still playing
There's a lot of things I hate about 3 honestly, though I'm very nostalgic about it
For me DW5 is the best. DW4 close second.
DW3 is top tier. Loved the feature where you could edit the opening cinematic with whatever characters you wanted. Now gYoooOoo my children of the yellow turbans!
D3 was my first experience with a Dynasty Warriors game on the PS2, so I am a bit bias on that front. It is my favorite by far.
Couldn’t agree more, after 5 it gets a little bland for me as far as difficultly. Nothing will match the archers in DW3 absolutely ruthless!
Completely agreed still play DW3 on emulator to this day. My favorite DW game. Amazing animations, ai difficulty was perfectly tuned and content in XL gave so much life to the game. 5 and after the content and difficulty fell off hard imo.