https://www.destructoid.com/dynasty-warriors-9-is-coming-and-it-sounds-epic-405530.phtml

According to the article, the entirety of China is going to be recreated in an open world format and you can visit towns and cities. Also each character's moveset will be overhauled. Interesting. I wonder if this will bring newcomers to the series or bring in people who usually hate these games.

What are your thoughts? Does this interest you in the game more?

There's some open worldy Used Map Settings maps of RoTK made for Starcraft that were pretty good, if there are persistent perpetual wars going on that proceed without input from the player and have unpredictable results then that's fantastic; if its very static and samey each time then not so much. RoTK itself varies; sometimes Cao Cao/Wei always wins and sometimes if you dick with it enough its a tossup. My most recent RoTK IX run I just drove a giant wedge through the map with Ma Teng and a bunch of Injustice Super Hero created officers (with many others given to other characters on the map) and aside from the constant coalition against me it was interesting just to see which faction arose victorious.

Bladestorm has the same concepts but with only two factions its not particularly interesting (even with 3 it's not so hot, but Time of Lords around 194 AD is like 12-14 different factions historically).

Kingdom Under Fire 2 was originally pitched with similar concepts though they wound up making it a weird MMO thing and it has yet to release outside of Korea I think.

I always have a soft spot for Dynasty Warriors games. While I try the newest one every time, it doesn't quite recapture the love I had for 2 and 3, but I enjoy some time with it.

It would be cool to see them try something like this. I can see them doing it decently, the town/city/camp building parts of the most recent ones have been kinda neat, and if they expand on that it could be kinda cool.

Nothing like being Lu Bu, murdering thousands of foot soldiers, then hiking to the next town over for some tea and Dim Sum

I'm very interested to what this adds to the core gameplay.

Make mine Musou.

Ok, but will they be making new ground textures?

Does this mean if I see a mountain I can pursue Lu Bu there?

Here's my two cents:

I'm not a fan of the open world decision. Part of why I play these games is that I can press the start button and immediately start button mashing on some peons if I wanted. I don't want to have to look for the action. I wouldn't mind Dynasty Warriors creating more natural battlefields and increasing the scale a bit and I'm certainly not against reworking character's moveset and controls. I'm just against the open world. It's just a symptom of homogeneous design, really. I don't want to be forced to do side quests for villagers, I just want to beat people up and earn some cool loot. Open world games need a lot more dynamic events and varied and interesting scenarios than I think a Dynasty Warriors game could handle.

@shivermetimbers: That's about how I feel about it. My first thought on seeing this news was that they're just going to take those Empires mode missions (collect X resource, save the maidens, slay these tigers) and Ubisoft those into question mark icons all over the map. What I'm most excited about honestly is to see any changes to the engine because it's been in need of an overhaul for a while now.

Its good they are finally trying something new, but honestly i am at the point where i wouldnt mind seeing the open world genre die down a bit.

@oursin_360: I agree that the open world stuff needs to lay off for a bit but I don't mind this one because it's the perfect setting.

See that Lu Bu? You can go there.

hyrule warriors was ok, dont think i would have tried it if it werent zelda related though. i also have dragon quest heroes but havent played much. that is all.

I am of the opinion that for an open world game to be successful, it has to be fun to traverse. The world can't just be an excuse to make A and B far apart, there has to be something on the way that validates the existence of the terrain. I don't know what that could be in Dynasty Warriors game. Maybe Koei will come up with something.

Honestly, the entirety of China sounds like a fun video game world to explore. Pity it's shackled with the whole "Dynasty Warriors" conceit. Not that I dislike those games, it's just that they're so, so inaccessible to me.

I played a lot of 2 and 3 and 4 so am somewhat amiable towards the series through familiarity with the insane roster of characters. I am the kind of lapsed fan that is probably being targeting with talk like this!

I'll keep an eye on this for sure.

We will see. The formula has needed shaking up for a bit here so that's welcome at least.

For all we know "open world" could be something akin to Mount & Blade or the overworld exploration of FF games, where it is abstractly represented and from that style of game you go into a battle proper in a similar way to old DW games. We will have to see what it actually is.

If some fortifications need my help on the other side of the map, they better increase that timer.

It'd be cool if it was a bit more open/different like the other Koei games, but I imagine it being like a regular open-world and just section the world off for the actual missions. Like a regular open-world game, and honestly I'd be fine with that. Would love to be proven wrong though.

I reeeeeeeeeeally don't know how to feel about this. Then again, I don't know how this affects overall gameplay, scenarios and setups, character advancement, etc. When someone says "open-world," I immediately imagine that they are trying to be Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto, as those are the two primary examples of "open-world." However, if we're talking in a more limited open-world capacity like Dragon Age: Inquisition, I could get behind that idea. However, I don't know how the Warriors setups of objectives and stuff translates over to it.

We'll see. I'll keep an open mind.

Whether it's good or bad, it's nice to see them trying new things for this series.

China's really big.