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Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires (真・三國無双3 Empires, Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Empires) is a spinoff of Dynasty Warriors 4 and the first Empires title for the Dynasty Warriors series. Unlike other Warriors related titles, the players can see a simplified map of the Three Kingdoms area and are not asked to regularly perform a string of conflicts. Instead, the player chooses a character to act as the land's unifier and has the freedom to expand their territory at their own pace.

Generally, the Empires installments combines gameplay elements found in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series with the Warriors titles.

Gameplay[]

The main scheme of the game is split into two different stages: the Political screen and the Battle screen.

Political Stage[]

  • The stage offers an overworld map of China, divided into 14 regions, with each army's territories marked by color. Time progresses when the player ends the turn.
  • Each region has a given Revenue which is necessary to acclimate gold for policies.
  • Policies dictate the player's government in their territory, with unlimited use provided they have gold. Choices can be seen as tyrant or hero, with tyrants potentially leading to independence. Land order is determined by color, with black policies offering more resources.
Four officers may present two different policies to perform. The player is given the choice to use or not use any of their suggestions. Policies range from the following categories:
Officer Affairs - Option where officers can be improved or promoted. Officers can also be recruited by searching the province or by enticing an enemy general to defect.
Product Development - Oversees the development of products for ally regions. Each region has their own manufactured item.
Diplomacy - Decides momentary alliances with other armies. May also improve the local region's commerce.
Battle Tactics - Any policy that affects the battle. A couple examples include stalling enemy reinforcements and inviting ally assistance. Only effective for one turn.
Rest - Since officers and troops do not immediately restore after a battle, these policies restore their health.
Military - Seeks to improve the strength of the ally army. This grants the permission to use warfare inventions such as Juggernauts or Fire Arrows on the field.
Government - Policies that flex the sovereign's powers. People may be asked to know their desires and have them fulfilled or may be forced to experience tax hikes or drafts.
  • Officers with specific achievements are appointed to specific ranks within the player's empire, often favoring them. Accepting their policies can advance them to strategist positions.
  • Players can also form their armies during this phase. A player's army can have up to ten generals and ten lieutenants serving them, but only three generals and three lieutenants can be present on the player's side in battle everytime.
  • The player's army's strength is revealed through weapon proficiency, including swords, spears, and clubs. A blacksmith in ally lands can enhance attack strength.
  • When the player is choosing the officer they wish to control during the battle, in addition to being able to choose created officers and normal playable officers (i.e.: Xiahou Dun, Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao, etc.), but the player can choose Generic NPCs (i.e.: Guo Jia, Mi Fang, Zang Ba, Zhou Cang, etc.).

Battle Stage[]

The controls for battles remain the same as Dynasty Warriors 4 but the conditions differ in this installment.

  • Players defend land, claim territory, or help allies perform tasks. Offensive battles involve taking enemy camp or routing leader, while defensive fights involve defeating Grand General or enduring attack.
  • Offensive battles normally last 30 minutes, while defensive battles last 15 minutes. If the player chose a time-extending policy before the battle, the battle will be 15 minutes longer.
  • Each side of the field is separated into colored zones on the battle's mini map. The blue zone indicates ally space while the red zone is where the enemy is stationed. Essentially, the goal of the battles is to increase or defend the ally zones. The victor of the battle either successfully defends their land or gets to have possession of it.
  • Zones can be conquered if the surrounding officers and bases in the area have fallen.
  • Enemy officers are much more resilient than before. Unique officers will retreat after their first defeat but will return to the field two additional times. On the third encounter, they will challenge the player to a duel. The player is free to accept or decline the offer.
  • The player can capture defeated officers within an ally zone, serve them or dismiss them after victory, and recruit their subordinates if the territory's leader is defeated.

The main goal of the game is to unify the land under the player's rule. If the players lose all of their lands or cannot conquer all regions within 100 turns, the game will end in defeat.

Other changes however, exist:

  • The automatic-lock-on is now more lax and/or non-existent, which carries over to later titles in the series.
  • Towers can no longer be damaged.
  • Acquiring stronger weapons often involves leveling up one's stats through special requirements unique to each officer, or leveling up a weaponsmith, spearsmith, swordsmith or macesmith within a region that's under the player's control through a proposal. From there, it's also possible to equip officers with the Level 11 weapons from the prior Xtreme Legends expansion.
    • However, one major change is that all weapons unlike from the prior 2 Dynasty Warriors 4 games, have decreased base attack stats from their original versions; two major examples include Level 10 weapons no longer having their attack power range within the 50s, and Level 11 weapons no longer having max attack at 60 (but still have the same exact item attributes attached to them from Xtreme Legends).

Modes[]

Empire Mode[]

The game focuses on a one-player mode where players can start with rulers in historical or fictional locations. They can choose a unifier based on their region, such as Yellow Turbans forces or edit characters, and start with one ruler in an empty region.

Versus Mode[]

Multiplayer mode that pits to two players' skills against one another. There are four different modes of competition.

  • Vanquish - Try to be the one who has the most KOs. Players who have enough summon points through collecting pickups can use the "Announce" ability to surround their rival with powerful enemies (i.e.: Juggernauts) or officers (Zhang Jiao or Lu Bu).
  • Pilfer - Find as many treasures as possible and sell them to the merchant. The more treasure you pick up, the slower you move, and if you fall, you will drop your treasure. Playable officers (mostly Lu Bu) will act as guards and attack you and the merchant.
  • Melee - Players stand on a platform with an opening, knocking enemies away for points. Health affects enemy flight, and projections for character blowing away increase. Players' health affects enemy flight, requiring more damage.
  • Endurance - See who can survive the enemy onslaught the longest. Enemy officers will appear and attack you, and if they are killed or retreat after a certain amount of time, they become stronger when they reappear.

New power-up items have been added in this mode to help or hinder players along the way.

Edit Mode[]

Similar to Dynasty Warriors 4 with more additions. If there is a save file for Dynasty Warriors 4 containing any Edit Characters, they will also appear with a few adjustments. Players can additionally customize the color of their character's costume, skills, tone of voice, battle motions (copies the unique characters as well as Fu Xi and Nu Wa), and stat growth. Body shape and the preset models can also be adjusted from three different sets.

Archives[]

Explore officer biographies, weapons, troop types, items, gallery section with artwork from Dynasty Warriors 4, and model viewer with weapon model toggling.

Image Song[]

Performed by 2HEARTS

Trivia[]

  • Mysteriously in the English versions, even if the voice options are set to Japanese, all playable generals in-field controlled by the computer (allied and/or enemy) save for the player's own character still have their in-game battle voices set to English.
    • However, the battle message dialogue and all other instances during Empire Mode (as well as the any of the selected characters in VS Mode) will still be voiced in Japanese.

Gallery[]

External Links[]

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