Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires

Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (真･三國無双5 Empires, Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Empires) is an expansion of Dynasty Warriors 6. It was originally scheduled for release in March but was delayed due to Koei wanting to improve the game as much as possible. Like Strikeforce, it was officially promoted in Gaia Online for a free item.

Gameplay
Edit characters return and customization is greatly expanded.

A level-up system for weapons has been implemented and requires players to have their weapons adjusted at a blacksmith. Besides adding more attack, players can adjust what skills and abilities a weapon can have based on what items the player has collected from battle. The Renbu gauge no longer requires the player to build up with combos and is now determined by the rank of a character's weapon.

Strategies are implemented in battle by holding L2 and pressing, undefined, , or (on the PS3 controller). Skills from the original title return but appear with many new additions.

The goal of unifying China under a single faction remains intact. Players are given alternatives to meet this goal by: serving as a vassal to another lord, or play as a solo unaffiliated officer, or be a ruler. The goal of a solo-officer is find a worthy lord to serve. While serving under a lord, the player is given orders to participate in battles, serve as messengers and can disagree with their leader's decisions and offer alternatives instead. All officers can accept freelance missions from independent parties, during which they can form alliances.

During battle, players have the option of betraying their liege and fighting against their former sovereign to gain control of the land, or defecting to another force. Similar to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, players can swear brotherhood or marry other characters in the game.

Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires introduces strategy cards to the series. After each turn, a new card is drawn, each with its own action. Everything from recruiting new officers, to restoring troops, to using fire attacks can be acquired via the cards. Leaders can additionally use special cards to set goals every certain amount of months during scenes known as councils.

Downloadable content includes new costumes for edit characters to use and music.

Characters
All of the characters from Dynasty Warriors 6 return. Zhang He, Ma Chao, Yue Ying, Taishi Ci, Ling Tong and Cao Pi keep their movesets from Dynasty Warriors 6: Special.

Meng Huo returns with a different weapon than the one he wielded in Dynasty Warriors 5.

Stages
All stages from Dynasty Warriors 6 and Dynasty Warriors 6: Special return to the game with seven new stages.
 * Battle of Lingling
 * Battle of Western Liang
 * Battle of Jiaozhi
 * Battle of Jinyang
 * Battle of Bohai Sea
 * Battle of Yong An
 * Battle in Middle Heaven

Related Media
Downloadable costumes for the Three Kingdoms animated TV series, Sōten Kōro, is available. Edit characters can assume the attire of the Sōten Kōro Cao Cao and Liu Bei.

Allusions

 * Sun Ce and Sun Shang Xiang's old hairstyles as well as Motochika and Nu Wa's new hairstyles appear as selectable hair types for the Edit characters.
 * Keiji's Samurai Warriors 2 appearance and Himiko and Sun Wukong's Warriors Orochi 2 appearances are downloadable parts for edit characters.