Dynasty Warriors 6

Dynasty Warriors 6 (Shin Sangokumusou 5 in Japan) is the sixth title in Koei's Dynasty Warriors game series. It is a total revamp from previous games and has been rebuilt from the ground up. 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 known as Dynasty Warriors 6: Special. Koei planned to make this game feel like an old kung-fu action movie, with graceful attack chains made possible by the new Renbu system. Attacks have been motion-captured by real martial artists.

Two expansions have been planned and one has been released.


 * Dynasty Warriors 6: Special is an update of the game exclusive to the PS2. It removes the swimming feature but gains new stages, Musou Modes, cutscenes, and individualizes six characters.
 * Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires has also been planned, but given no release date. In 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. Meng Huo also appears in the game and has been given a new look and weapon, which is a pillar.

Dynasty Warriors 6 also has a spin-off called Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, which is so far exclusive to the PSP. It introduces "Fury" forms, where a character is turned into a mythical form with exaggerated features that bring out notable features.

Gameplay Elements
As the game has been built from the bottom up by KOEI, many new features are introduced in the game, while some have been removed. A new system takes place of the old attack chains, called Renbu. In previous ports, the number of attacks available to use were affected by the level and quality of the wielded weapon. The more powerful weapons would allow more attacks. However, in this game, a meter called the Renbu Gauge fills, as the player's character builds up more combos. The higher-leveled gauge you have, which ranges from One, to Two, to Three, to Infinite, the more attacks you can use. In addition, the higher the gauge, the longer range the character's weapon has, as well as power. If the player does not attack for a period, or takes heavy damage, the Renbu Gauge will decrease. The new Renbu system allows character, even at Gauge level 1 to execute infinite attack strings. Without unlocking Renbu Level 3 and Infinite, however, character can only access up to Level 2, except when he/she receives a Renbu Earring, which provides thirty seconds of Infinite Renbu.
 * Dynasty Warriors 6 also sports a Skill Tree, unique to all characters. Each branch is attained by gaining a level, and, by level 50, the skill tree should be complete. In it, players can unlock many items, ranging from stat-boosting, or added-on skills. Also available is a special ability which allows wild animals to refrain from attacking, and movement-quickening skills, such as swimming and running.


 * Dueling returns from Dynasty Warriors 4, though it differs from the previous system. There is a chance where an opposing officer will challenge the player into a duel, then surrounding officers and foot soldiers will form a circle around the two duelists. When the player gets too close to the enemy's side, a foot soldier will attack the player to get them back inside the duel, as the same goes for the dueling enemy. Officers from either side can join the fray, and the duel can be ended by either duelist exiting the circle formation. Any officer defeated during the duel will immediately drop 200 EXP points. Duels are usually executed when there is an equal amount of forces in one area.


 * Tome Attacks, received 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 off of 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. Volley releases waves of arrows surrounding the player to annihilate enemies. Fire sets off multiple eruptions of fire in random areas surrounding the character. When used on a base, the base is lit on fire and all opposing forces inside of it are damaged. True Speed boosts the character's speed to a great height, being able to attack enemies during it's duration. When used on a horse, the Tome Attack also boosts the horse's traveling speed. Rockfall lets loose giant boulders o land on the enemy, and when used near a cliff or an area with elevation differences, the rocks fall down and slide on the ground.


 * Unlike previous games, players could only travel on land. In Dynasty Warriors 6, they can now swim and climb ladders. Ladders are usually attached to towers or gates, while the swimming feature takes place in only a few stages. In Dynasty Warriors 6: Special, however, swimming was remove due to memory.


 * Bases have also been revamped. In previous games, a character would defeat a Defense Captain to open a base's gates. In this installment, however, a force attacks a gate to get it open. Once inside an enemy base, to capture it, the player needs to K.O a certain number of enemies in the base to lower it's health. Corporal units count as twenty health points, and, when the remaining number of points is one hundred or lower, a Guard Captain comes out. The defeat of a Guard Captain is an immediate surrender of the base. During a base's inactive time, it's health can restore.


 * Units now consist of twenty or so foot soldiers and a bannerman, where a unit in previous games would only consist of a head soldier, and lower-ranked soldiers. A bannerman wields an army's banner, and frequently raises it to raise morale. During a banner's raising, any ally standing next to the bannerman gains a temporary power-up, such as Speed Up, Attack Up, or Defense Up.


 * Weapons, instead of the previous quality-based ranks, now are divided into three categories - Strength, Standard, and Skill. The Strength category of weapons usually have a higher attack power, at the cost of Renbu Chains being kept for a smaller amount of time. They also increase the likelihood of breaking enemies' guards as the Renbu Gauge increases. The noting color background is red. The green Standard category is the default weapon type, increases range as the Renbu Gauge increases, and keeps Renbu Chains at a medium amount of time. The blue Skill weapons grants greater attack speeds when powered up by the Renbu Gauge. The unique Fourth Weapons, unfortunately, have been removed completely from the game. Characters with Musou Modes have three different-looking weapons, while characters without Musou modes all retain one weapon's design.


 * Saddles, instead of having requirements to be found, now are found randomly. They can be found after breaking a crate or jar, or be dropped by an officer. At the end of a stage, like weapons, found horses can be acquired or rejected, as a player can only have a maximum eight horses. There are six unique horses, two historical, which are the best in the game. The two historical horses are the Hex King, or Hex Mark, and Red Hare King, or Red Hare. 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.


 * Engineers have been provided a greater role on the battlefield. When attacking a gate, Engineer units build catapults, put up ladders, and build rams. Ballistas have also been placed on the tops of gates, and frequently launch attacks on catapults and rams. They can be destroyed. Captains of Gates defend gates, and can attack anyone around.


 * Base Captains, which guarded exits to the battlefield, have been removed. Also removed is the branching attack system. For example, attack strings were previously undefined;, undefined; , , undefined; etc. This has been replaced by one-button strings, such as , , , , or undefined, undefined, undefined, undefined.

Characters
All characters from the previous port, Dynasty Warriors 5 appear, save for Pang De, Xing Cai Jiang Wei, ,Da Qiao, Zhu Rong, Meng Huo, Zuo Ci, who were cut for an unknown reason. These characters have no mention in the entire game, though Xing Cai is referred to "the daughter of Zhang Fei" in Lu Bu's Musou mode, and Da Qiao in Xiao Qiao's biography.

This makes it so a total of forty-one characters appear in the game. Only seventeen characters are actually given Musou modes. Characters without Musou modes are clones in terms of movesets, save for Xiao Qiao, who retains her fan moveset. However, Sun Shang Xiang and Diao Chan share movesets with Yue Ying, and Zhen Ji, respectively.

It is worth noting, that although characters share attack animations, the effects from those attacks differ. Huang Gai and Wei Yan share the same fighting style, the weapon model is slightly different but when executing a charge combo Wei Yan will "thump" people on the floor while Huang Hai cannot. There are more examples of this throughout the character list.

Characters have been given thorough makeovers to their models and weapons, for some. For example, Liu Bei has been given two longswords in contrast to his old, single broadsword, Wei Yan and Xiahou Dun both have been given clubs, in contrast to their double voulge and scimitar. Unique skill trees have been given to all characters, compromising their stats, special attacks, in-battle interaction, and movement.

Dynasty Warriors 6 Special includes Musou Modes and movesets for Yue Ying, Ma Chao, Ling Tong, Taishi Ci, Cao Pi, and Zhang He. Five new stages are added with ten new scenarios.

Characters given Musou modes are:
 * Wu: Sun Jian, Sun Shang Xiang, Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, Lu Xun
 * Shu: Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun,
 * Wei: Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Zhang Liao, Dian Wei, Sima Yi
 * Other: Lu Bu, Diao Chan