In an unforeseeable twist, Dynasty Warriors 7 actually make[sic] some big changes from it's[sic] predecessors. And they're all for the worse. WTF Koei?

That’s what I tweeted on August 17, 2011. Cut to today, the ninth of September of the same year, whereupon I’ve logged over 30 hours into Dynasty Warriors 7.

Why? Call it a palette-cleanser. After embarking on a Summer-long JRPG bender in an effort to make something resembling a dent in my gaming backlog (almost all of which are RPGs of some ethnicity), I’d about had my fill of spending anywhere from 30-60 hours slowly powering up my heroes in order to achieve the strength necessary to save the world from a retro-tech cyborg Nazi and his land-battleship that shoots lasers out of a giant lance that used to be a castle, or a time-travelling military intelligence officer/monster made from the ruins of M.C. Escher-like architecture....

JRPGs are weird.

After all of... that... there’s just something refreshing about being able to rush into a feudal Chinese war zone and come out the other side unscathed, with 1,000 notches on my cartoonishly over-sized sword. But playing Dynasty Warriors 7 made me realize something: as good-enough as this game is for what it is, it has room to do so much more. I’m not talking about any drastic changes to the basic mash-X-and-stuff-dies grinding formula -- just a few simple suggestions to add some weight to the game’s tertiary strategy elements.

Make Trash Mobs Dangerous, Not Just Annoying

There’s nothing in Dynasty Warriors more frustrating than having a super-powered combo interrupted by some anonymous trash-mob soldier. Here you are, unleashing an endless chain of fuck-you-up from your surfboard-sized sword, only to be stopped dead with a flinch because some overly-ambitious dickweed with a spear hit you with what he’s delusional enough to refer to as a “strong” attack.

Now his boss, a fellow super-powered officer who can unleash his own lengthy combos, is juggling you in the air while you curse that little pissant who worked up the nerve to actually attack you. The gall of him....

But this is the problem: that attack, though it interrupted your combo and totally ruined your day, didn’t scratch you. The regular troops aren’t there to harm you -- they’re there to annoy, pure and simple. Except archers. Fuck archers.\

The solution: When I, as a low-level officer, attack a much stronger officer, my attacks don’t make him flinch or interrupt his combos in any way. I still do damage (sometimes a pretty decent amount) and can chip away at his bulwark-like defense. If I’m persistent and crafty enough, I can even defeat him (suck it, Lu Bu), but he just absorbs the actual physical force of my attacks.

Do this with trash mobs.

Faced.

1,000 anonymous soldiers should pose at least some threat other than the fear of annoyance. What if they actually attacked more often instead of just crowding around you and nervously shuffling around? Make them actually do some damage, if only a trivial amount, but (and this is the key “but”) make the force of their strikes pass through me so they aren’t constantly interrupting combos at the worst possible moments. That way, striding alone into an army is kind-of a big deal, but I won’t be throwing my controller in frustration because of that one random guy who chose to wear his big-boy pants that day. Also, the idea makes fighting alongside your own anonymous flunkies a viable and useful tactic and makes the reinforcements that spawn from control points matter.

Loot and Experience

Rewards in Dynasty Warriors kind of suck. You defeat an enemy officer and pick up a shield icon that adds +2 to your defense. What does that mean, really? There’s precious little context to the statistic and whether you’re rewarded with a gain to your attack, defense or health seems largely random. Sometimes you get a new weapon and that’s where I get giddy.

I don’t know about you, but loot makes my face light up. Progressively better-and-better stuff is a carrot on a stick that never gets old. I’ll wear my knees to the bone chasing after that new staff that has a blooming flower on it. Or, you know, something less girly too. I have varied interests because I’m a sensitive, complicated person!

The problem: weapons are the only items in the game and progression is completely linear. When I pick up a new weapon it’s either going to be better or worse than what I have currently, assuming it’s even fit for my character. There are Guardian Animals, such as mounts, that can be purchased from a Guardian Animal store, but again, their progression in terms of speed and power is linear.

The solution: The last Dynasty Warriors title I played before DW 7 was DW 4, which (if my memory serves) introduced an inventory system featuring armor, accessories and (I think) consumable items that has since (mostly) been stripped away. Bring this back and randomize the loot.

Grinding to incrementally increase a character’s power is one thing, but grinding to acquire tangible rewards is a whole other level.

Give us an instantly-familiar loot system with items defined by rarity and a certain amount of randomization. Give me a reason in the form of randomized stats and abilities for why I might choose one weapon over another instead of simply upgrading to the next-most powerful on the list. Give me an inventory -- nothing crazy, not even at the level of Diablo or WoW -- just give me the standard weapon slots, a guardian animal to take into battle and X number of slots for miscellaneous items, whatever those may be (armor, accessories, consumable items, etc.). Give me something to chase after that I can recognize, not just abstract stats.

And make experience more... let’s say... noticeable. Give me levels. When I defeat an officer and pick up an item that gives me +2 attack... I don’t really know what that means. Seeing that I’ve gained a level is so much more gratifying. And make experience and level-gains instant -- not something that’s tallied at the end of each battle. Make fodder soldiers worth X XP, captains worth Y XP, etc. and keep giving us skill points from defeated officers -- more of that is what I’m looking for (just give us more abilities to spend them on).