Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends

THE BAD:
Way too much damage taken in Very Hard mode
Few new items that weren't in DW3:XL
No campaign mode

SUMMARY:
In my opinion DW4:XL improved upon DW4 and made the whole thing more worthwhile. In general there are more enemies on the map in this game and that re-injected some of the fun that was lost in DW4. Being an expansion pack it didn't sell as well as DW4 plus you needed DW4 to get the full experience of this game, so probably only the more die-hard fans bought this.

Every character has one specific map in this game in Legend mode that was important in their history. It was either a key battle where that warrior shined, or where they did some remarkable act of bravery to save someone. These are reinacted in this game. This was a nice touch for the series and highlighted one key moment in each character's history. Characters 11th weapons are obtained in this mode by doing certain things in a correct order.

The other mode in this game is Xtreme Mode. Here you pick a character and battle endlessly through as many stages as you can. Characters and items in this mode are independant of the other modes, so you have to start from scratch. During this mode you can recruit other officers to aid you bodyguard styke. Unlike in other modes and previous games, here your bodyguards actually do something and work well. For some reason Ma Chao was virtually unstoppable in this mode as your ally. There is no end to this mode, so there isn't a whole lot to work towards, but it is pretty fun for quite a while.

The 11th weapons are the final weapons in this game. Unlike DW4, but like DW3, they actually boost certain stats now. I prefer this and missed the fact they didn't include this in DW4. On this basis alone, and the fact every 11th weapon has a base attack of 60 which is the maximum, the 11th weapons are pretty much all better than the 10th weapons.

But one of the downsides to this game is there is no Musou (campaign) mode. To do this you have to swap discs and put in DW4 and then DW4:XL back in to play the DW4 maps with the new items. This inconveniance is pretty annoying, and made me not want to play DW4 at all with the items because you had to swap discs every time you switched the PS2 on.

And my biggest gripe with this game is the fact that you take stupid amounts of damage in Very Hard mode. In DW3:XL if you had maximum defense then you still took a fair amount of damage, but here even with maxed out defense you can get killed in no time. I really hate this fact and would prefer to have a higher defense and have it take longer to kill the enemy rather than lowering everyone's defense (which is what has seemed to happen) and make battles shorter.

That being said, this did improve on DW4 and made me feel like I hadn't wasted my money on DW4. So if you were slightly disappointed with DW4 and can find this game fairly cheaply, it is probably worth buying.

THE BAD:
There reall isn't all that much bad in this game. I think that this game could possibly be the PS2 game of the year (in my mind), so how could there really be any bad? Well...no, there isn't.

SUMMARY:
When i first played the Dynasty Warriors sereies, it hooked me like a Panda on drugs. Or...a fish to bait. Whichever floats your bamboo....

Anyways, like i was saying, this series is awsome in almost every aspect. With this last game they produced, it has outdone all its previous siblings. It's truly the best of the bunch.

This is all mainly because of the super improved graphics, computer AI, weapons system...all the improvements just kick some serious panda.

I strongly recommend this game to anyone out there who is interested in asian culture, or just wants a kick [panda] game that'll keep them hoked on it for hours on end. Catch my drift?

THE BAD:
The computer players are quite boring Becouse Computer dosen't give any time to do your cool moves.

SUMMARY:
To improve the game, the game developers and designers should think about making the maps bigger, better 3D graphics, better soundtracks and more weapons variety. Need's to be improved on animation and graphics. Otherwards, it's the best game ever! This is one of the hottest games I have played this whole year - superb graphics and this a great action romp. Some other users have diss'd the game cuz they say it's too short, or it doesn't have enough weapons.

THE BAD:
The only bad thing is the no change in the create a warrior, it sucks just the same stuff. There is also the problem with leveling the edit characters up and the fact that you can`t change their clothes or weapon after you make them, so you have to redo everything you did for your first person.

SUMMARY:
This is the greatest game you have to get it. It is the best game in the WORLD.9until Dw5 comes out)

THE BAD:
If there's one thing I think that's missing from this game, it's the story. The story that inspired this game an those before it is what really got me going when I first tried out Dynasty warriors 3. Sadly Koei neglected to provide much focuse on the story here, but that's something DW5 will be sure to take up.

SUMMARY:
Overall this is another beautiful and masterful game. Anyone that likes the genre, the series, or just games that are fun, should try this one.