If you couldn't stand the camera in Dynasty Warriors 4, you'll hate this game.
It's that simple. Omega Force/Koei still haven't fixed the flaws that plagued the Dynasty Warriors series: the terrible camera system. In ordinary battles, it's no problem. You still have enough time to swing the camera around manually before taking out the peons. But when you get to the higher level battles, surrounded by seemingly hundreds of enemies, you're going to hate the fact that some guy's horse is blocking your view.
The AI is also fairly annoying. Numerous times I've had to run all over the map trying to respond to every struggling commander or task that needs to be accomplished, only to find that everyone else is doing their own thing... or nothing at all. Many times you'll find your so-called allies standing in one spot, staring off into space. This is fine, except when your head commander is under attack, which means that you - and you alone - need to drop what you're doing and help out. And when you do manage to defeat all but the enemy head commander, suddenly your comrades are completely ready to go. And nothing is more helpful than a crowd of your own peons and fellow commanders on horses keeping you from completing your mission.
Add to that a lot of missions where no one has any idea where you're supposed to be going. Leading people to a location when they don't seem to be heading in any particular direction, for example. It's very frustrating.
The graphics seem a bit better than Dynasty Warriors 4. I think the textures of the characters have improved, but the backgrounds/environments are kind of bland. The effects for the musou special attacks are usually entertaining, though, and the cg cutscenes are fun to watch.
The sound is fairly good; though the music is completely forgettable. To be honest, I never bothered with the English-dubbed character voiceovers, I switched to the Japanese almost immediately after starting the game.
The new attribute/skill scheme is what makes the game interesting, though. Before this, the Dynasty Warriors series was pretty much the same thing - beat people up, level up, repeat. Now, by earning more experience, you can unlock new skills and attacks, sort of like an RPG. This opens up the game a lot more, and gives you a chance to mold your character into something that fits your fighting style a little better.
Overall, the game gets a solid 7/10. But Omega Force really needs to fix that camera before they churn out yet another title in the series.
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