DYNASTY WARRIORS 9

Fantastic cleaning game. (Power washer fans will love this as it's a similar game disguised as a war game.)
When you compare this to masterpieces like Warriors Orochi 3 or Fate/Samurai Remnant, it lacks polish and content for the mechanics that make it unique, but when looking at it as an action cleaning game of today, it's incredible.
Large simulated battles, VA story that has comical cutscenes, freedom to approach objectives, lots of characters and items to grind. Local and online co-op for the open world. I hope more games take the unique aspects of this and continue to improve it for the musou genre.
It's insane that this game has local co-op on PC. If you have someone to play it with, it's a lot of fun to just roam around and fight stuff. This game doesn't force you into battles; instead, it treats fights like a cleaning game. You know that you will be able to clean up all of the red dots on the map, and it's satisfying when you do.

Its def the worst dynasty warriors game i have played but its still fun bc its dynasty warriors

game has come a long way with the full version of the game it is very fun

DYNASTY WARRIORS 9 — 114.3 h played
Score: 6 / 10 (Worth a look on sale)
Omega Force’s bold attempt to weld Musou combat onto an open-world map succeeds just enough to be interesting—but stumbles on technical polish, repetitive side content, and a loss of the series’ tight mission pacing.
HIGHLIGHTS
• **Musou core intact** — Chain 1,000-KO combos with familiar charge attacks and new Flow-attack strings; signature “one warrior vs. an army” spectacle survives the open-world jump.
• **All 90+ characters at launch** — Every kingdom hero gets unique weapons, EX attacks, and a personal story chapter, letting Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms fans bounce between Zhang Liao sieges and Zhao Yun duels at will.
• **Weapon graft freedom** — Interchangeable movesets plus gem crafting mean you can run Cao Cao with a halberd or Sun Shangxiang with twin swords without waiting for Empires-style edit modes.
• **Siege tools** — Grappling hooks, siege towers, and ballistae add variety to castle assaults, giving veterans a new wrinkle beyond “rush the gate.”
WHERE IT STUMBLES
• **Sparse open world** — Vast China map is beautiful but thin; most side objectives boil down to copy-pasted forts, animal hunts, or ore nodes.
• **Mission pacing lost** — Replacing bite-sized stages with long rides between battles dilutes the trademark Musou adrenaline loop.
• **Technical woes** — Pop-in, frame drops, and stiff NPC animation persist even after patches (tested on Core i7-11700K / RTX 3090 at 1440p).
• **Uneven difficulty** — Early levels melt; late-game officers suddenly sponge damage unless you over-level or abuse weapon gems.
• **Minimal voice direction** — English dub lines often sound first-take; dramatic moments lack punch.
FINAL VERDICT
If you’re curious about seeing every “iconic battle” stitched into one map and don’t mind performance hiccups or a diluted mission loop, Dynasty Warriors 9 offers a unique—if flawed—Musou experiment. Series newcomers should start with DW8 XL or Samurai Warriors 5; long-time fans may find just enough novelty here to justify a discounted dive.

It is not traditional Dynasty Warriors that you know.
The game is much less colorful and less pompous than classic DW and most characters will look the same to you.
All the story missions happens on a one big map, they are separated by cutscenes. The combat system is good, even option for new combos. You can climb walls with hook, jump over the roofs.
Many side quests, which you can complete to level up and have a advantage.
The whole map looks like generated, everywhere it looks almost the same, that is pretty sad, because in DW 3 every map was designed for the scenario (but they were much smaller).
Lu Bu did not even touch me on normal difficulty. (Forgot to switch to chaos)
Lu Bu almost destroyed you even on normal in classic DW.
The game lacks a lot of things to do, since there is a big open map, with a little more effort, it could be greater.
But there is a coop, with online play, which is great and you can play with your friends.
It is not a bad game if you like Dynasty Warriors, but it could be better.
7,5/10

It's a fine fun game, just not exactly fully a dynasty warriors game. It plays more like a spinoff of the empires spinoffs with a much different combat system and a pointless open world. Strangely, the empires game is probably the better version of 9, since it cuts out the open world approach but for some reason doesn't use the costumes from this game but whatever. It's not terrible, its just really different and really shouldn't have been a mainline game. Play the trial for free, if you like it then fine, get it on sale. The trial includes the whole story but only like 3 characters.
What feels the worst is that there is no secondary grind mode. Think of 8's Ambition mode, WO 3 and 4's gauntlet and infinite mode and even 7's conquest/legend mode. 9 only features the story, and upon completion the ability to play free mode (play any chapter from any side with any character). The hunt for the best weapons and maxxing characters is obviously still here, but the lifespan of the game when you beat the story mode is drastically reduced. It's why I think that the empires version might just be the best version, since the more random nature and player-driven choices with different scenarios offered more replayability than even some mainline DW games. Even then DW8 empires is much better, and in some cases DW7 empires is better, but that is just player preference.
Not as bad as it was on launch, but this really should've been a spin-off or an experimental empires project.

hack and slash with rpg elements pretty fun and endless hours of gameplay