Dynasty Warriors 7 - Jin To The End.

Jin, pronounced jean. They’re new. Normally Dynasty Warriors stops before it reaches this kingdom. In an attempt to add something new to the series Tecmo-Koei (or is it Koei-Tecmo?) introduced the fourth kingdom of the land of Jin. The story of Jin is really the story of the Sima clan and their rise to power.

Personally I would have preferred if this kingdom was cut and we got personalized weapons and stories for all the remaining characters. Odds are Jin is here to stay, so I’ll deal. But introducing Jin creates another problem for me. All of the original three kingdoms tell the same story they’ve always told. Why not stretch their stories to deal with Jin? Why stop Shu at Wu Zhang Plains? Shu is a major opponent of Jin so tell the story from the Shu side as well. But that’s not the case. We don’t get to know how pathetic Liu Shan really is. Or how much Wu has crumbled since we don’t get their side of the story. It’s just sad. This also leaves a large amount of characters untouched story wise. You never really Xing Cai or any of the other “next generation” characters.

So Wei is growing weak and the people are calling for change. Sima Yi, the great Wei strategist, eventually rises up and takes control. It’s interesting that he’s in charge but his never deposes the Wei emperor. Heck, the Wei emperor isn’t deposed until the story is over.  So Jin doesn’t really exist until the end credits.

Most of the story is about Wei’s inner turmoil during this time. Occasionally Shu makes an attack on Wei (you’ll be sick of the work benevolence by the end of the game) and then Wu will randomly show up. Wu’s attacks always seem forced. It has this “we can’t forget about Wu” feeling going for it. Doesn’t help that Wu only seems to have one unique general left, Ding Feng.

It isn’t until Sima Yi’s youngest son, Sima Zhao, takes power that the story finally moves forward. And boy is it a long story. The whole time I was wondering when Jin would conquer somebody and take control. The story takes forever to reach that point and when it does, it goes by very quickly.

Aside from the inner turmoil of Wei, Jin mainly deals with Shu. In fact that’s where the story ends. Jin conquers Shu in a very boring battle. At least they got Liu Shan’s surrender right. The guy pretty much gave up once his castle was surrounded even though he could have turned the tide of battle if he really put some effort into it. Once that battle is over the game ends. Wu crumples during the end cinematic. I guess they just weren’t worth the time to deal with.

Jin introduces a 8 new characters, even though Xiahou Ba IS NOT A JIN OFFICER! The guy defects to Shu early on in the Jin story and he stays there the entire time. That makes him as much a Jin officer as much as Guan Yu is a Wei officer for the time he spent serving Cao Cao. The rest of the officers are pretty neat. I really liked Deng Ai and the chick, Wang Yuanji. Guo Huai is a very bad running joke and Zhuge Dan you have to kill. The kingdom left an impression on me. Can’t say whether it was good or bad, it was a bit of both really. Hopefully they’ll be more interesting in the next game.

Conquest is up next