If you build it, a Dynasty Warriors spin-off will come. This has been true of any game system released in the past few years, and Tecmo Koei has no intention of breaking tradition with the PlayStation Vita. Dynasty Warriors NEXT can't wait to get out of the door, releasing as a launch title for Sony's handheld system.

Like most Vita launch titles, NEXT aims to show off what the Vita can do. Also like most Vita launch titles, it would have been better off sticking to what it knows.

Dynasty Warriors NEXT (PlayStation Vita)
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
Released: February 22, 2012 
MSRP: $39.99

As with any Dynasty Warriors title, the premise revolves around the "Three Kingdoms" era of medieval China, as a trio of warlords fight to rule the land. A huge amount of playable generals duke it out on battlefields populated by hundreds of opponents, asserting their dominance with simple, instantly gratifying, button mashing combat. 

NEXT takes a lot of cues from the series' Empires spin-offs. Rather than individual story modes for each character or faction, the game is split into various scenarios where stages are selected on a map of China. Players can invade territories in order to expand their influence on the realm, earning gold for each own region. Gold can be spent on stratagems, special boosts granted by the warriors currently employed by a player faction. These stratagems might increase the attack and defense of a player, boost the aggression of the allied army, or render certain bases easier to capture in battle. 

Bases return to the series and are more important than ever. During combat, the map is split between various allied and enemy bases which grant the respective armies extra advantages. A supply base will increase the strength of all allied bases, while an armory can periodically double the attack of all friendly soldiers. There are lairs which spawn tigers, wolves and bears, as well as magical bases that link themselves to other bases and render them invincible. The more bases owned by a player, the easier it is to capture the main camp and secure victory. 

Capturing a base is simple. One just needs to slaughter everything inside it until a troop counter drains to zero. Maintain enough of a rampage before the enemy can replenish, and it's yours. New to the series is a "break" meter that slowly fills during battle and, when full, can instantly take over a base with a tap of the touchscreen. If only the touchscreen input had stopped there, this could have been a fine new addition to the series. 

Unfortunately, NEXT goes absolutely insane with the touch interface, to the point of turning it into a forced gimmick. At first, it's not so bad -- players can use the touchscreen to make their special attacks more powerful, by swiping across it to direct slashes, tracing circles to create whirlwinds, or hammering the back touchpad to cause tremors in the ground. The way the Vita has been used to make musou attacks even more damaging is quite pleasant, and actually enhances the game a little. That's all fine, but Omega Force went too far. 

The game is frequently interrupted with minigames. In between stages, players may be forced to partake in awful horse racing sections with unresponsive gyroscope controls, or swipe at incoming enemies in a repetitive game of whack-a-mole. The worst minigame is calligraphy, where a Chinese symbol is hidden on a blank sheet and players need to trace on the touchpad at a pace one can only describe as excruciating. These awful minigames are available in their own menu to be laughably played at will, but they've also been crammed into the various story scenarios, as if the game had been forced to fill some arbitrary gimmick checklist.

Players aren't safe from this garbage during combat, either. Every now and then, one may be ambushed by opponents that need taking out in various ways. For instance, if a group of soldiers leap at you from the air, you'll have to look around with the gyroscope and touch each one. Sometimes, arrows may fly at you and will need to rapidly swiped out of commission. These little ambush sections are cute at first, but quickly break the flow of the combat and serve only to take one out of the experience. 

The most despicable example of forced touch control, however, comes in the form of duels. Roughly once per battle, an opposing warrior will take the player on in one-on-one combat, where battles are fought entirely via touch commands. It's quite clear that Omega Force was attempting to copy Infinity Blade with these duels, but didn't know how to do it properly. Rather than responsive, quick-paced, exciting touchscreen duels, the fights in NEXT are sluggish, insipid, dreary little affairs in which players spend most of their time watching the enemy have some sort of seizure as it tries to decide whether to block or attack. Players cannot dodge or block themselves, instead having to wait around until either an on-screen prompt tells them to attack, or the opponent is seen charging and provides an opportunity to interrupt. Every now and then, there will be weapon deadlock, where a rapid-fire series of circles must be touched on-screen, but otherwise these duels are about as exciting as a wet brick. 

Dueling could have been an excellent extension of the game and even provided the PS Vita's answer to Infinity Blade, but instead it exists as little more than an example of the gross incompetence that's all too common with glorified tech demos. The fact that these duels cannot even be skipped, and appear so frequently, makes them all the more grotesque. 

It's sad that the touch interface so frequently drags the game down, because the core gameplay is still there and it works very well on the Vita. The button mashing combat is as amusing as ever, and the new focus on base capturing adds a much needed sense of strategy and thought for each battle. There's also a returning edit mode, where original, player-created warriors can be created using items won during the course of play. These original characters may be used in Conquest mode, a set of non-story scenarios where territory is taken from any force the player chooses to tackle. 

The most interesting part of Conquest is the online feature. Although there's no head-to-head multiplayer, Dynasty Warriors NEXT collects data from other players and uses it to populate your game world. Characters created by other PS Vita owners can randomly challenge the player to duels, and they'll show up as enemy generals in battle. Be warned, however, that many high level players are already filling the servers, so online mode will provide a very stiff challenge depending on who chooses to invade your game. This lottery, however, is what makes the mode so compelling, and lucky players can even capture and use other players' user-created characters in their own game. 

Though the Dynasty Warriors series has never been graphically impressive, NEXT manages to be one of the better looking Vita launch titles, especially with other, lazier games relying on PS2-era visuals. NEXT takes most of its assets from Dynasty Warriors 7, and boasts the full range of animations, as well as some decent reflection effects on the shiny armor. Every battle is also fully voiced, and brings with it that sweet hair metal soundtrack that fans have come to know and love. 

When Dynasty Warriors NEXT sticks to being an actual Dynasty Warriors game, there's plenty to like about this PS Vita game. The battles are more strategic, the online features are intriguing, and it's just great to have a good looking hack n' slash title in your pocket. However, the game desperately wants to be counted among those early titles that show off the Vita's extra features, but Omega Force simply isn't good enough at exploiting them. Mandatory touchscreen duels and vapid tracing minigames aren't what people play Dynasty Warriors for, and their presence in NEXT will only exasperate. 

Awful obligatory minigames aside, there's a solid game to enjoy at the core. You'll just have to be a really big fan to suffer through the dire moments.

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Namodacranks

its not 10

doomed

Graduated Plum

ALREADY SHIPPED FROM AMAZON FUCK YEAH.

SirNinjaFace

Should've had Jeff Colby as an unlockable character.

MrCalypso

@Jimsterling

So I'm thinking about trying to get into the Dynasty Warriors series but you kinda make it sound like Next would be better for someone who's already experienced the series. Do you think Next would be a good place to start or should I try my hand at another game?

BalloonFighter

I would expect forced touchscreen mini games shoe horned into Vita games for at least the first year. Mandatory.

Evk

Needs more lady centaurs.

Jay Me

Next...

Hkun

I guess I'll just wait for the NEXT Dynasty Warriors.

ruiner9

@MrCalypso

I'd actually recommend Dynasty Warriors 6 first, if you want to play NEXT with any sort of competence. DW7 doesn't have emphasis on the base-capturing aspect, which leaves a lot lacking in the strategy department... most levels you can run right through and clear regardless of who you've defeated previously. Just be aware that in DW6, all the characters use different weapons than they usually do.

kapshhh

arkane9

MrCalypso

@ruiner9

Ah okay thanks, I'll have to look around for a copy of that one then. I'm guessing the particular weapons characters use are a big part of the game to then....

ruiner9

@MrCalypso

Weapons determine their reach, speed, and combo ability. I haven't found that there's an extreme learning curve for each character, though your favorite DW6 warrior may not be the same in DW7 or NEXT because their weapon has changed...

Omegas Squared

@MrCalypso
It's like a fighting game giving its characters new styles, it does more to upset the fans than to directly hurt the game, but if we fans don't like the new styles then the game has been indirectly hurt. That said Dynasty Warriors 6 has some fantastic weapon changes, and some terrible ones.
Actually, the best game to start with is probably one of the PS2 games, specifically DW4 or DW5, since DW6 is generally considered the odd one out in the series for attempting to drastically alter the way combat works, for having a unique art style that's especially different from the other games, and for generally just screwing around with the DW formula. Personally I love DW6 the best, but I'm the minority, and I realize now that part of the reason I love DW6 best is because it more closely resembles Capcom's hack-and-slash series, Sengoku Basara, in its combat, and because it has a greater focus on strategy through base capture, and thus through both that and its "special objectives" on stages it also has a greater emphasis on co-op play, which is the way I generally play Dynasty Warriors. As ruiner9 said, DW7 lacks any semblance of the strategy that most Dynasty Warriors games at least try to employ, but it does have a very strong focus on its story, so if story modes are your thing go for that one. DW3 is actually considered the best game by fans, but that game is so hilariously hammy, and fairly dated, that you kind of have to be a fan first to truly appreciate it.
I really hope that wasn't an incoherent mess :/

MrCalypso

@ruiner9
@Omegas Squared

Thanks guys, you've actually given me a lot to think about with the series. I'm not sure which one I'll start with but I'll definitely be picking up a copy of either 6 or 7 soon. And Omegas that was not incoherent at all.

Meryc

Preordered, and on my way to go pick up DWN, NG, and Rayman. I bought it for a fairly dumb reason, in that for the last 20 years my immediate family has owned every important gaming thing.

Gorescream

Must hurt as a Dynasty Warrior fan to give a lowscore to one of your favorite game series, doesn't it Jim? :(

Jawmuncher

I'm not a huge DW fan but I don't mind them.
The trailer sold me on this though.

VitaminShoe

This is another reason why I'm not an early adopter (not dynasty warriors per say) Launch games tend to try and shoe horn in all the new gimmicks and features of the platform in haphazard ways. And I understand the desire to include all the new bells and whistles but it rarely works out. I prefer to sit back let them get the kinks out let the winners win and the failures quietly disapear and hop on board when everyone has their priorities back in order.

Andre Barjesteh

@MrCalypso

At least play DW5. DW6 Was a load of garbage with the Renbu system.

BrainWasherAttendent

Dynasty Warriors seems like a series I would like if I was there at the beginning for it. Too bad this is a 6, would have been nice to have another Vita game to be interested in.

handhelds4ever

I have never played a DW game before - atleast, not from start to end.

I will probably pick this up when it drops in price. I am really glad to hear the reviewer was entertained by the game! :)

BoomingEchoes

"If you build it, a Dynasty Warriors spin-off will come."

Never have truer words been spoken (well.. written..)

Might get this someday, but I get the feeling this is one of the games I'm going to forget to get in the long run. I've been lukewarm to the series in the past, even its Gundam iterations that are pretty neat and rather different. Maybe I'd remember if it were a Gundam one, but idk.. really tired of Feudal Japan/China/Asia as a setting for these. Just bores me quickly.

mugenakuma

I really want to get this game but was wondering if there were in game and/or CG cut scenes throughout the campaign mode, e.g. before, after or during?

I really like how Samurai Warriors Chronicles for the 3DS has these since it seriously enhances the whole experience for me. If anyone knows if Dynasty Warriors Next has these then please let me know so I can go buy it ASAP!

Davebill

Did that guy seriously recommend DW6?

Smo5000

"shake ps vita system in time with attack"

lol, ridiculous.

Brian Green

fucking damnit if it wasnt for the touchscreen bullshit this would have been the game that got me out to buy a vita
guess ill still be waiting for a game(s) i REALLY want to play on this poor lil handheld

SlappyBag9

I don't think Jim likes the PS Vita.

I have a feeling he would feel different if it was the "XBOX Handheld"

HikariOblivion

The horse bits aren't so bad when you disable tilt sensitivity in the options, and then just control them with the analog stick and R button.

Jim Sterling

"I don't think Jim likes the PS Vita. "

I love it.

Just because I drew the short straw with the software reviews, doesn't mean I hate the system. Please do not be such an absolutist.

Lintire

@Jim

It seems like this is the polar opposite to the N64, which I know is a weird comparison - but that was a shitty and confusing console with completely fantastic games, and this is a great platform with poor support.

So I laughed.

Maurice Tan

In case you weren't sure if you should get this, you get to fight wolves, tigers, and PANDAS.

Kakulukia

What a stupid title.
That is all I have to say about this.

Zack Zachbuza Fowlkes

Does anyone know if the combos are character specific or are they weapon based again like in DW7???