Dynasty Warriors 6 (真・三國無双5, Shin Sangoku Musou 5) is the sixth title in the Dynasty Warriors series. Koei's revamped game resembles an old kung-fu action movie, with real-life martial artist-captured attacks.
Though the game was designed to be released exclusively for next-gen consoles, the company decided to release a PlayStation 2 version of the title.
Tomohiko Sho is director and Kenji Tanigaki is the opening movie director.
Gameplay
Battle System
Koei's game rebuild introduces new features and removes some. The Renbu system replaces previous attack chains, allowing more powerful attacks with a meter called the Renbu Gauge. The gauge starts at Level 1 and increases to Level 2, Level 3, and finally Infinite Renbu. Higher Renbu levels allow longer attack strings and more powerful attacks. The old combo counter is replaced with a general chain counter comprised of every attack landed on any enemy over a sustained period.
- The branching attack system is removed. For example, attack strings were previously
; , ; , , ; etc. This has been replaced by one-button strings, such as , , , , or , , , . attack strings can be looped almost seamlessly.
, - A brief wind effect during running indicates the possibility of a running attack, similar to how long-lasting horseback movement indicates a running horse jump.
- For the first and only time in the series, characters can perform a running attack.
- For the first and only time in the series, characters can perform a running
- Unique jumping attacks are reverted into their Dynasty Warriors 4 state of being variations of downward slams.
- Like in Samurai Warriors, characters can dodge-roll and perform unique attack animations when they win deadlocks.
- Dodge-rolling is mapped to R1, replacing the bow feature from previous entries.
- All characters can perform an unblockable grab/grapple akin to Samurai Warriors 2 (refined from the grab-physics in Dynasty Warriors 4), done by pressing or while the character is blocking.
- Special Attacks, executed from the Tome item drop, allows characters to use a devastating skill to defeat enemies and help out the player. The drop can usually be found from defeated Guard Captains of bases. There are five attack types - Swift Attack, Volley, Fire, True Speed, and Rockfall.
- Swift Attack: immediately boosts the user's Renbu gauge up to the Infinite Renbu, and grants higher attack and defense power. When the player is at low/red health, the effects increase.
- Volley: releases waves of arrows surrounding the player to annihilate enemies. Elements may be added.
- Fire: unleashes multiple eruptions surrounding the character and can set fire to bases, causing damage to all opposing base forces within it.
- True Speed: greatly boosts the character's speed and grants a unique standard attack whilst running, as well as an augmented strong dash attack. Also increases a horse's traveling speed.
- Rockfall: lets loose giant boulders around the player. When used near a cliff or an area with elevation differences, the rocks slide down and crush enemies.
- Dueling returns from Dynasty Warriors 4, with an opposing officer challenging players. Duels are usually executed with equal forces between both sides, and other officers can join the fray. Officers and foot soldiers form a circle around the duelists, with foot soldiers attacking opposing sides that touch the boundary. Duels can be prematurely ended as well. Horses may be summoned by the player, but will wait outside.
- A new difficulty, Master, is added as an intermediary between Hard and Chaos.
Character Growth
- Characters can level up to 50. Each character has a skill tree, and one skill point is obtained upon leveling up. Skills range from stat boosts to passive effects, replacing equippable items from previous entries.
- Levels are accrued by gaining experience via picking up EXP pouches from enemies and completing battle targets, which also provide weapon rewards. Experience is also gained for every 100 KOs attained, up to a maximum of 1000. Additional or higher-grade EXP pouches can be obtained by defeating officers in duels, with grapple attacks, when using special attacks, or during surprise attacks. Experience earned is increased by 25% on Hard difficulty and 50% on Master.
- Characters have one unlockable costume. When controlling a character that appears on the opposing force, the opposite outfit will be displayed on them.
- Weapons no longer have quality-based ranks, and have built-in elements and passive effects. A weapon's capabilities and attack strengths are randomly chosen. Characters with Musou Modes have three different-looking weapons while characters without stories all retain one design. Each weapon is divided into three categories:
- Strength - usually have a higher attack power. Though it is harder to increase the Renbu Gauge, higher Renbu levels allow standard attacks to break enemy guards. These weapons have a red background.
- Standard - the default weapon type. Attack range increases as the Renbu Gauge increases. These weapons have a green background.
- Skill - usually have a lower attack power. Grants greater attack speeds when powered up by the Renbu Gauge, which is also easier to raise. These weapons have a blue background.
- Saddles are now found randomly. They can be found after breaking a crate or jar or as a random drop from an officer. At the end of a stage, like weapons, found horses can be kept or rejected as a player can only have a maximum of eight horses.
- Horses can be leveled up to level five, and a horse also has four attributes that can go up to five hundred. The attributes are Speed, Jump, Destruction, and Attack. Like weapons, saddles can also have special abilities attached to them, such as Water Spirit (exclusive to Hex King), Renbu Gait, Find Weapon, Find Saddle, etc. They can also be called to the players' side by pressing the down button on the direction pad. Pressing R1 (PS3) / RB (360) on a horse also causes the horse to jump.
- There are six unique horses, three of which are historical. The historical steeds are Shadow Runner, Hex King (Hex Mark), Red Hare King (Red Hare).
- Bodyguards are removed.
Battlefield
- Players can now swim, climb ladders, and perform surprise attacks on enemy units by jumping off elevated areas and landing near them.
- Bases are revamped, requiring players to attack gates to open them. To capture a base, they must K.O enough enemies within. Idle bases can restore their troop capacity over time. Allied bases passively generate healing items for the player to use.
- Units now consist of around twenty foot soldiers and a bannerman, who raises the army's banner to boost morale and temporarily boost an ally's stats.
- Engineers play a crucial role in the battlefield, building catapults, ladders, and rams to attack gates, while Captains of gates defend and attack anyone nearby.
- Gate Captains, who previously guarded exits to the battlefield, are removed.
- Some battles feature wild animals that can attack the player.
- Battles are designed around the player, with a couple exceptions, not being able to play as the commander of a force, instead assigning a different officer to the role.
- Subgeneral locations are not viewable in the officer menu, and players no longer have their own subgenerals. Morale is also represented with arrows instead of stars.
- Incremental KO battle messages for allied and enemy officers are no longer displayed, and the player's KOs are announced in increments of 100 instead of 50.
- The option to hide troop and officer health bars is removed.
Modes
Musou Mode
Like the previous title, individual characters have their own Musou Modes. Out of all the playable characters, only seventeen are given unique stories. No extra story stages or alternative paths are available.
Free Mode
Players can select Free Mode with any unlocked character; nine are available by default. Additional characters unlock through Musou Modes and specific objectives.
Challenge Mode
Set challenges that use characters' base stats and automatically assigned weapons. The five modes are:
- Rampage - Defeat as many enemies as possible in the allotted time
- Sudden Death - Defeat as many enemies as possible without taking damage
- Speed Run - Reach all fortresses as quickly as possible
- Havoc - Destroy as many items as possible
- Gauntlet - Gather EXP to get the highest score
Encyclopedia
Known as "Data Base" in the Japanese version, this section summarizes the entire Three Kingdoms era, includes terminology from the time period, a consolidated timeline, and brief bios of all the characters in the game (playable and NPCs). The data combines history and information found in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. Similar historical entries can also been found in Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.
Camp
Essentially the gallery mode in the game. Allows players to view and rotate character models, scan through skill trees, and watch movies found in characters' Musou Modes. Horses and weapons can also be viewed. If a character reaches level 50, a voice gallery will also be unlocked.
Characters
- See also Dynasty Warriors 6/Weapon Movesets
Forty-one playable characters are featured with no new characters introduced.
The selection is based on the Dynasty Warriors 5 character list with the omissions of Pang De, Xing Cai, Jiang Wei, Da Qiao, Zhu Rong, Meng Huo, and Zuo Ci. Removed characters are excluded throughout the majority of the game, though "the daughter of Zhang Fei" is mentioned in Lu Bu's Musou mode. The Encyclopedia mentions Da Qiao in Xiao Qiao's biography and Meng Huo is mentioned in any Nanman-related entries.
Bold characters are playable by default. Characters without Musou modes are clones in terms of movesets, save for Xiao Qiao who retains twin fans as her weapon.
Achievements
| Icon | Name | Unlock Method | Xbox Points |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
First in Rampage | Rank 1st (Personal Best) in Rampage. | 10 |
 |
First in Sudden Death | Rank 1st (Personal Best) in Sudden Death. | 10 |
 |
First in Speed Run | Rank 1st (Personal Best) in Speed Run. | 10 |
 |
First in Havoc | Rank 1st (Personal Best) in Havoc. | 10 |
 |
First in Gauntlet | Rank 1st (Personal Best) in Gauntlet. | 10 |
 |
The Splendid One | Ma Chao has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Tiger General | Huang Zhong has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Barbarian Lord | Wei Yan has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Fledgling Phoenix | Pang Tong has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Wise Lady | Yue Ying has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Son of Guan Yu | Guan Ping has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Raging Tiger | Xu Zhu has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Courageous Lord | Xu Huang has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Arm of Cao Cao | Xiahou Yuan has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Lord of Beauty | Zhang He has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Lady of Wei | Zhen Ji has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Stalwart Defender | Cao Ren has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Emperor to Be | Cao Pi has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Ferocious Warrior | Taishi Ci has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Lord of Wu | Sun Quan has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Veteran General | Huang Gai has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Master General | Lu Meng has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Little Conqueror | Sun Ce has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Great Beauty | Xiao Qiao has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Loyal Warrior | Zhou Tai has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Spirited General | Ling Tong has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The General of Heaven | Zhang Jiao has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Usurper | Dong Zhuo has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Patriarch Of Yuan | Yuan Shao has been unlocked. | 10 |
 |
The Sleeping Dragon | Zhuge Liang has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The King of Shu | Liu Bei has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The Forthright Lord | Zhang Liao has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The King of Wei | Cao Cao has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The Reckless Pirate | Gan Ning has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The Tiger of Jiang Dong | Sun Jian has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The Beautiful Dancer | Diao Chan has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
The God of War | Lu Bu has been unlocked. | 30 |
 |
Target Private | 50 or more targets achieved. | 30 |
 |
Target Corporal | 75 or more targets achieved. | 40 |
 |
Target Captain | 100 or more targets achieved. | 50 |
 |
Target General | All targets achieved. | 60 |
 |
Scenario Private | 10 or more scenarios cleared. | 20 |
 |
Scenario Corporal | 20 or more scenarios cleared. | 30 |
 |
Scenario Captain | 30 or more scenarios cleared. | 40 |
 |
Scenario General | All scenarios cleared. | 50 |
 |
Musou Mode Master | All Musou Modes cleared. | 50 |
 |
Master of Chaos | All scenarios cleared at chaos difficulty. | 50 |
 |
Completist | All officers advanced to level 50. | 50 |
Expansions
- Dynasty Warriors 6: Special is an update of the game exclusive to the PS2 and PSP. It downscales the graphics and removes features such as swimming and dueling, but gains new stages, Musou Modes, cutscenes, and individualizes six other characters' weapons and movesets.
- Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires continues the line of Empires Expansions, where the player can play generic and unique characters to conquer all of China. A Create-a-Warrior system has also been added. It features Special's roster but without the cut features and downscaled graphics. Meng Huo also returns with a new weapon and design, as well as new maps and features.
- Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, avilable on the PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360. It introduces "Fury" forms, mythical transformations of the characters with exaggerated features and new abilities.
Related Media
Meister Japan created figurines and replicas of the game's characters and weapons.
Aside from the guide books and character illustrations book, Koei officially funded the following publications for this game:
- Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 5 ~ Rumble Mission Vol. 1 - collection of four panel parody comics created and illustrated by fans. ISBN: 978-4-7758-0642-5
- Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 5 ~ Rumble Mission Vol. 2 - ISBN: 978-4-7758-0643-2
- Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 5 ~ Rumble Mission Vol. 3 - ISBN: 978-4-7758-0644-9
Free samples of these books -as well as the previously mentioned fan comic books for this series- can be seen here.
Trivia
- This is the first Dynasty Warriors title to have characters correctly pronounce Cao Cao's name ("tsao tsao" rather than "cow cow"), among other updated pronunciations. The first English dub from a Koei title to do the same -other than Romance of the Three Kingdoms- was the Warriors Orochi series.
- The character designs in this game later appear as alternate costumes in Warriors Orochi Z. However, some of them are slightly altered.
- Some of the battlefield items introduced in this game are later integrated in the series' online game.
- Zhao Yun, Diao Chan, and Sun Shang Xiang's costumes from this game appear as extra content in Ninja Gaiden Sigma II.
- One of the game's music tracks "Spring Of The East" was played during the swimming competition of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
- This is the first and only Dynasty Warriors entry to not have new characters introduced into the series. Barring bonus characters, it is also the only entry to remove playable characters.
- The theme for the Battle of He Fei, TROPICAL WARS, resembles the Nanman themes of previous entries, highlighting the lack of a Nanman stage in Dynasty Warriors 6. The Empires expansion, however, features the track The Calm Tropics, to go along with Meng Huo's return as a playable character.
- TROPICAL WARS would later appear in Dynasty Warriors 8 during the Pacification of Nanzhong battle.
External Links
- Official European site
- Official American site
- Official Japanese site
- Official Chinese site
- Official Taiwanese site
- Official Korean site
- Official Japanese PlayStation site
