Dynasty Warriors 4

From Koei Tecmo Wiki

Dynasty Warriors 4 (真・三國無双3, Shin Sangoku Musou 3) is the fourth entry in the Dynasty Warriors series and the fifth title made.

Gameplay

  • Jumping charge attacks are available, where the user performs a stationary/vertical falling dive attack that often emits an area-of-effect attack (such as a quake or a gust of wind) that launches a small bit on hit (the camera angle is also altered and turns towards the back of the character when performed).
  • C1s (Triangle) are now unique to each character and C3s (Square, Square, Triangle) are now multi-hitting attack strings known as charge rushes that can be followed by several taps from the Triangle button; some of them can either stun or stagger enemies on hit.
    • However, most other non-physical attacks (mainly from charge attacks as well as all jumping charge attacks) no longer fill up the musou gauge on hit, on top of the Musou Charge stats being nerfed overall.
    • Several other shared attack graphics also have updated tweaks which make them more practical to use, along with tweaked hit effects.
  • Power guards (press Square while blocking) are replaced by parries (press Triangle while blocking). Performing this action can allow a character to perform a parry animation, which will make them dodge an enemy's attack and immediately trigger a counter attack based on one of their normal moves or charge attacks. There is limited invincibility during the start of the animation which can allow characters to evade attacks (even ones that cannot trigger a counter), and the counter attack has its hitbox last throughout the whole attack's animation.
  • As of this game, guarding in general now causes units to continuously face their current direction under blockstun as opposed to orienting towards their most recent attacker automatically; this makes guarding more effective vs. crowds, but easily exploitable in 1 v 1's.
  • Units with higher attack stats are unable to guard-break lower defense units that are blocking via normal hit strings or C1 attacks, even with generic soldiers and/or generals making use of tweaked C1 animations from the prior installment.
    • Likewise, attack stats vs. defense stats calculations for guarding now dictates if a higher-damage-enforced attack will simply become completely unblockable instead, but now with more items and/or elements adding to the damage calculations.
  • Characters can announce themselves by pressing R3. It emits an aura akin to a shockwave that staggers nearby opponents with an unblockable stagger, functioning as a guard break and can also dismount rider units. The move deals minor damage and cannot KO.
  • All officers are given a particular strategy to indicate their effectiveness against other units when controlled by the AI.
  • When meeting an enemy officer, there may be a chance that they will be additionally challenged to a duel or "Single Combat" (一騎打ち; Ikki'uchi) during the officer's introduction sequence (thus, encounter intros from the last installment are now solely reserved for duel requests). In the upper right hand corner, there will be a small gray gauge that allots a certain amount of time for the player's response. Choosing to accept transports both generals into a private arena that is separated from the main events on the field. Duels become more likely against a particular general if their rivalry with the player intensifies further.
    • If the player has an amount of rank points below a certain threshold, then fighting a duel to a draw (where neither one wins regardless of HP amount) will cause morale to increase on the player's forces. However, if one is at a high enough rank, a draw (along with refusing one) will instead cause morale to decrease unless fighting to a draw at max rank (which instead causes nothing to happen to the morale).
  • Enemy officers during some battles may have a chance to be powered up with Hyper Mode, a state where they have a fuzzy-aura of orange lightning surrounding them akin to having a full Musou gauge. The officer's stats are heavily powered up in this mode, regardless of morale drops or not.
  • Mounts no longer require ranks to ride them and allows players to pick up items while they're on the saddle. It's now possible to dismount while the steed is running due to the general leaping off instead of merely climbing off (as well as perform jump attacks and jump charges during said dismounts) and they no longer run over allies.
    • By proxy, whenever a player heads into a section or terrain impassable by mounts (e.g. stairs), an opposing mounted-general will actively dismount to chase the player on foot. All generals, both NPC and playable, now all have their personal choice in horse color.
    • Color of officer mounts no longer determines its capabilities vs. peon mounts, as horse now vary in dark brown, light brown and white. All standard officer mounts are the same speed and tier unlike in the prior installment, with the exception of the special harness mounts.
  • When entering bow mode with R1, the user can now fully turn in any direction 360 degrees as opposed to being limited to a certain funneled-range of turning relative to their initial direction. Further away targets will now also be automatically zoomed in on. The AI will also attempt to diagonally shift-move/strafe towards the bow-mode-player should they fire an arrow in order to close in and dodge their shot all at once.
    • The player's own hurtbox will have a bit more intangibility than before if units try to run into them while in bow mode, but attacks can still damage them and force them to exit the mode via taking hitstun.
    • The AI no longer also guard-strafes towards their target to reach them pass obstacles or when deciding to attack them, and instead just run up normally, making them attack sooner as a result and a bit harder to outrun.
    • Furthermore, all AI generals, NPC or playable, no longer get juggled endlessly by C2 or C5 loops. Upon getting launched from an airborne hit state save for very few exceptions, they will somersault out of the launch state ASAP.
  • Weapons can now be leveled up though its own leveling system. As the player defeats enemy generals or connects charge attacks onto them, they will gradually gain more Weapon Points (read as "weapon EXP/experience"). Similar to the stat boosts dropped by officers, players will additionally gain more points for their weapons if they defeat enemies with longer combos and/or more charge attacks in succession. It lets their weapons evolve over time to gain better stats along with it being unique to the character wielding it, as well as dictating the ability to extend one's charge rush C3 with extra inputs. The more difficult the stage and the setting is, the more weapon points are gained per action done.
    • Playable officers if present in a stage, will give double the weapon experience points upon either connecting with charge attacks and/or upon defeat compared to an NPC officer.
    • The maximum standard weapon level is 9, while Level 10 weapons can be unlocked via specific objectives fulfilled on certain stages on Hard Mode. Unlike the prior installment however, some Level 10 weapons can only be obtained on the Musou Mode versions of some stages.
      • Like before, once a weapon is successfully obtained via the requirements/message being shown, it is possible to intermission save to exit the game to briefly change the difficulty back without any mishaps (if needed to clear the stage to fully save acquisition progress).
  • Orbs can now be equipped individually onto characters, and elements all now require a full Musou gauge to activate for most if not all charge attacks. All Level 10 weapons can automatically cause most charge attacks to activate elements, regardless of the Musou Gauge amount.
    • True Musou Attacks however, if they involve any disjointed shockwaves, quake stomps or beams, no longer proc the fire element automatically like with physical hitboxes from True Musou Attacks.
  • The character stats reset mechanic from the options menu has been removed.
  • All characters now have an equip-able item limit, being around 4-to-6 depending on the character. However, saddles and the aforementioned orbs are now to be equipped in their own separate slots. Rank/class now dictates item limit as opposed to the ability to ride on mounts, as well as unlockable costumes and palettes.
  • Items all have a leveling system akin to the aforementioned weapons, and their maximum level is 1-to-20 for all generic items while orbs are all from level 1-to-4. This makes it so items have a more visual indication of being maxed out, as opposed to specific set-numbers from the previous installment with each stat having their own set cap apart from one another. This also applies to the aforementioned orbs.
  • Bodyguard orders can be changed in-battle without needing to pause through use of the Select/Back button.
  • Sub-officers under main generals can now have their locations viewed by selecting the general they are under. Likewise, standard enemy officers are now move visible on the in-game minimap as blinking dots (no longer exclusive to only the enemy commander).
    • By proxy however, the battle messages no longer display the retreating of any sub-officers if they are left alive when their main officer is slain.
  • The Reach stat is no longer a variable item stat like in the previous installment.
  • One new battlefield item has been added: the Wei Tou Sky Boots, which acts as a 30 seconds grounded-movement speed increase.
  • Siege weapons are introduced as units that have their own HP bars (but use the portraits of enemy peons) and can thus be destroyed. Specific events within battles can cause them to be deployed.
    • Brand new off-hand cutscenes on the lower right of the screen can now occur without delaying in-game battle pacing, which mainly occurs when certain siege weapons are successfully deployed (allied or enemy), or when specific gates open.
  • Dialogue messages are now rendered as text bubbles, but most importantly, battle messages as a whole are sped up considerably from the previous installment and a bit faster than the second installment, preventing delays in both battle time and allows certain events via specific battle messages to possibly occur on time.
    • The HUD also disappears during victory/defeat states whenever the stage is cleared by completing the victory objective (such as slaying the enemy commander) or meeting the defeat condition. This also applies to having an allied commander slain, especially if the player is playing as one.
  • Archer towers can now be destroyed, though the higher the difficulty level is, the more hits the towers will take to be destroyed. The only exceptions tend to be archer towers integrated into gates which cannot be damaged or hit whatsoever.
  • As of this game, Gate Captains no longer drop defensive stat boosts. They only drop meat buns instead.
  • K.O.s whenever they are knocked off-screen/off-camera, no longer need to hit the ground in order to drop items; they may instantly drop items right at where they faded away allowing for more instantaneous collection.
  • Item crates and jars are now scaled up in size from the previous installment, making them much easier to hit.
  • Whenever the player jumps from castle walls, the camera angle now shifts to below them-in-front as they leap off.
  • The player character's hands no longer glows when the Musou Gauge is full. Full Musou is instead indicated by a faint smokey aura emanating from the character.
  • Unlike the previous installment, enemy stats and/or damage output now scales far less with Player 1's stats/defense, on top of each difficulty having their own specific ratios for damage calculation.

Modes

Musou Mode

In this game, the Musou Modes are made for each kingdom and not for individual characters. Each version has its own various stages or "Acts". Also during each stage preparation, the player(s) can switch characters based on kingdom back at the character selection screen.

Free Mode

Same as most of the other titles. This time however, all stages are now marked with their own difficulty ranking, with 8 marks/stars being the highest difficulty ranking.

Versus Mode

Same as most of the other titles. However, in this installment, two players can no longer select the same character.

Showdown, AKA Kettō (決闘; lit. Duel)- duke it out 1 on 1 inside one of the Stone Sentinel Maze's sections at Yi Ling.
Encounter (遭遇; Sōgō) - within the barely-lit darkness in Nan Yang Castle's scholar's room with the side map completely disabled, find the opposition via a 1 on 1 and defeat them.
Influence, AKA Sōdatsu (争奪; lit. Scramble/Struggle)- find the Imperial Seal to call on and/or influence summoned generals in an allied 5 on 5 at Luo Yang's shopping district.
Escort, AKA Bō'ei (護衛; lit. Defense) - in Ru Nan's central castle area, protect your own carriages from respective opposing peons while taking out each other, general and/or carriage alike.

Challenge Mode

Same as before, with one challenge from Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends also being kept. However, there is now an option to instantly retry current challenge runs from scratch from the pause menu, which will always change up the enemy generals selected for each variable playthrough:

Endurance, AKA Kiri'ai (斬合; lit. Crossing Slashes)- In the main southern fortress of the Nanman Territory via the outer rim village, defeat as many enemies while you can last and/or before time runs out.
Time Attack, AKA Shinsoku (神速; lit. Godspeed) - Defeat all 100 enemies as fast as you can inside Xia Pi Castle.
Bridge Melee, AKA Ryūsei (流星; lit. Meteor) - A top a huge lone walkway stationed in front of Bai Di Castle's camp at Yi Ling, knock off as many enemy troops as you can before getting knocked off yourself and/or being defeated.
Demolition, AKA Hakai (破壊; lit. Destruction) - Via a portion of Guan Du's map from Wu Chao through Yan Jin all the way to Guan Du Castle, rush through the stage to demolish all the objects you can, on-field item container and siege weapon alike.

Edit Characters

Allows players to make their custom officers or bodyguard unit.

Data Base

Same as the previous title but includes a short summary of the Three Kingdoms timeline.

Characters

The game retains all characters from its previous installment, save for Fu Xi and Nu Wa. Characters with bolded names are new in this title.

Shu Wei Wu Other
Zhao Yun
Guan Yu
Zhang Fei
Zhuge Liang
Liu Bei
Ma Chao
Huang Zhong
Jiang Wei
Wei Yan
Pang Tong
Yue Ying
Xiahou Dun
Dian Wei
Xu Zhu
Cao Cao
Xiahou Yuan
Zhang Liao
Sima Yi
Xu Huang
Zhang He
Zhen Ji
Cao Ren
Zhou Yu
Lu Xun
Taishi Ci
Sun Shang Xiang
Sun Jian
Sun Quan
Lu Meng
Gan Ning
Huang Gai
Sun Ce
Da Qiao
Xiao Qiao
Zhou Tai
Diao Chan
Lu Bu
Dong Zhuo
Yuan Shao
Zhang Jiao
Meng Huo
Zhu Rong

Expansions

  • Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends
  • Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires
  • Dynasty Warriors 4: Hyper - PC conversion for Windows that uses higher resolution graphics. Includes the Japanese and English voice options. Number of enemies appearing on screen can be adjusted in the settings, and enemy A.I. is more enhanced than its PlayStation 2 counterpart, as it is based on the Xbox version (which has higher resolution and dynamic shadows by default in comparison).

Spin-Offs

Bugs and Glitches

Buggy grab attacks

All grabs will cause the victim to enter a "being lifted up" state, but if they happen to be left alone without the attacker following up on time (mainly due to a possible gimmick such as a bug or another unit interfering by pushing the attacker out of range) due to the state being solely stationary and not being fully captured onto the attacker's grasp, they will eventually drop down via knockdown with no damage. Some grabs can be bugged if they hit a midair/juggled opponent in that after the grab animation hits someone but does not change and knocks the target back while doing so, the attacker may go on with the throw attack animation anyway without anyone in their grasp (but only if they are hit by any other enemy units during their super armored-state).

Stage boundary exit

To do this, one must move themselves towards an entry point/gate via guard-moving sideways on a horse, then inching their way through to the gate with the horse being able to somehow nudge further than the sideways movement into the gate. Upon reaching the edge of the gate, then continuously running into the corner and forward into the said gate (with the "no entry" sign not showing), save your game with an intermission save then exit out of the stage. If done right, the mounted character will then appear on the other side of the entry point, and can also bypass certain mountains when out of bounds. However, this doesn't work on all entry points with some being easier than others. This works on all versions and ports of Dynasty Warriors 4, including both Xtreme Legends and Hyper.

Stage boundary leap-through

A similar glitch though it is done through the use of the new function of the character dismounting from their horse via a leap off. Upon positioning their horse's left-side correctly against a boundary (that's not a peon entry point) and then dismounting the horse via the leap-off, the character if correctly done will leap onto the boundary, thus either landing on the water or mountain depending on the stage and location this glitch is performed on; this may take quite a few tries however. This works on all versions and ports of Dynasty Warriors 4, including both Xtreme Legends and Hyper.

A variation of this glitch also involves moving deeply into specific mountain edges in a similar way as with the peon entry point trick while on a horse, saving the game to exit the stage and reloading the interm save. This now can also result in being able to ride a horse out of bounds as well to save time with exploring outside of the stage bounds.

Flashing red moon at Chi Bi

When playing with two players at Chi Bi on either forces, have one player enter bow mode and aim at the red moon, while the other player performs a Musou Attack. The moon will oddly flash brightly for the few frames the Musou Attack is activated.

Opening palace gates at Xu Chang

Normally when Cao Cao's section of Xu Chang castle is reached, he will close off the gates making it impossible through normal means to enter into Xu Chang castle's palace. However, through the use of any kind of possible exploit, be it mods, hacks or the use of the boundary exit-glitches, it is possible to slip through into the most northeastern peon entry point to enter the palace, causing the southern gate (save for the western one as it is locked since the beginning of the stage) to open up despite Cao Cao closing it off.

Related Media

K'md released eight figurines of the cast. Koei released two drama CDs, Fuuen Ranbu and Gunsei Shoubu, based on events from this title. A light novel based on the drama CD's events and characters was also published. A sample can be read online here.

The twelve volume fanbook serialization, Shin Sangoku Musou Tsushin, also used this particular Dynasty Warriors entry as its base. It included commentary from developers, an exclusive illustration made by Hiroyuki Suwahara, stage walkthroughs, "what if?" designs for considered playable generals, and a showcase of letters and fanart from fans. The magazine also featured two characters from the game in each issue, several editorial comics, dream match novelizations between two characters, and mentions of other Three Kingdoms merchandise in Japan.

Aside from the official guide books, character illustration book, and scenario book, Koei officially funded the following publications for this game:

  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 1 - collection of four panel parody comics created and illustrated by fans. ISBN: 4-7758-0075-2
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 2 - ISBN: 4-7758-0076-0
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 3 - ISBN: 4-7758-0110-4
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 4 - ISBN: 4-7758-0135-X
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 5 - ISBN: 4-7758-0136-8
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 6 - ISBN: 4-7758-0193-7
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 7 - ISBN: 4-7758-0207-0
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 ~ Battle Illusion Vol. 8 - ISBN: 4-7758-0208-9
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Anthology ~Ten no Maki~ - collection of four panel parody comics and/or lengthier stories created by fans. Includes themes from the Xtreme Legends expansion as well. ISBN: 4-7758-0137-6
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Anthology ~Chi no Maki~ - ISBN: 4-7758-0138-4
  • Comic Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Anthology ~Jin no Maki~ - ISBN: 4-7758-0139-2

Image Song

Performed by Yuki Koyanagi

Trivia

  • In the opening GCI cutscene for Shu's Musou Mode for Act 1, Liu Bei is erroneously rendered wielding Cao Cao's Level 7-to-9/3rd weapon (the Sword of Heaven) as opposed to any of his own, as well as wielding a different sword in his artworks.
    • Likewise, in the officer-edit-opening, despite having new models for their respective Level 7-to-9/3rd weapons in this installment, both Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao use their prior red-colored iron fan models from the previous installment.
  • The opening GCI cutscene for Act 2 of Shu, Wei and Wu's Musou Modes for both Si Shui Gate and Hu Lao Gate, Yuan Shu's NPC model is rendered with a mustache (unique to this cutscene).
    • Likewise, several NPC peon models and weapon designs are still reused from Dynasty Warriors 3 in many of the said CGI cutscenes.
    • Prior English ad flyers for this game also make use of prior DW3 character models before the final release of the game and their covers.
  • A number of peon entry points are instead rendered as alcoves/valleys as opposed to empty pathways leading into an endless boundary, likely to account for players accidentally slipping out of bounds.
  • The opening intros for stages no longer are a singular camera pan across portions of the stages from the prior 2 installments, and instead from this installment onwards, are different camera pans of various areas.
  • The PC Hyper port was the first Dynasty Warriors game to be released on PC.
  • The default names for the bodyguard units refer to several Koei titles such as Gitaroo-Man, Kessen II, and Nobunaga's Ambition. Sanzo, Shiga, and Ieyasu are also referenced. A group using the first names of the English voice actors was also created.
  • Guan Yu, Zhou Yu and Gan Ning reuse design aspects for their default costumes in this installment from older installments, Guan Yu and Gan Ning especially via design aspects from their Dynasty Warriors 2 appearances.
  • The battle messages for receiving Level 10 weapons are different between both the localized and the East Asian/Japanese versions:
    • In the localized versions, it claims that the player's character has "gained the ultimate weapon [insert weapon name]!" akin to an item.
    • However, in the original East Asian versions, the player character is instead claimed to have "grasped/perceived the extremity of martial arts, [insert weapon name]!" as opposed to the text stating they have received a weapon. Stylized in Japanese as "[Player character], 武芸の極み[insert weapon name]会得!" ([Player character], bugei no kiwami [insert weapon name] etoku!)
  • Even after the final release different from the beta, later releases of this installment (including the expansions) would change the names of certain BGMs in the in-game sound test:
    • AVENGING BATTLE -> VENGEANCE
    • EVIL FESTIVAL -> FESTIVAL OF DOOM
    • THE SEVENTH HARDSHIP -> THE SEVENTH CAPTURE
    • BLOODSHED TO REPEAT -> ENDLESS MELEE
    • A RUNNING FIGHT -> PURSUIT
    • LIMIT OF ABILITY -> TO THE LIMIT
    • MY BAD FELLOW -> RIVALS
    • STABBED VICIOUS LUMP -> ELIMINATION
    • THE HISTORY WILL TELL -> HISTORY WILL TELL
    • OPENING OF FIERCE BATTLE -> THE FIERCE BATTLE BEGINS (for XL)
    • LOOK BACK ON YOUR WAY -> LOOK BACK
    • HERO PAEAN -> HERO'S ANTHEM (for XL)
    • A KINDLING COAL -> A KINDLING FIRE
    • AND AGAIN TO THE BATTLEFIELD -> TO THE BATTLEFIELD AGAIN (for XL)

Gallery

External Links

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Dynasty Warriors
Main Titles Dynasty WarriorsDynasty Warriors 2Dynasty Warriors 3Dynasty Warriors 4Dynasty Warriors 5Dynasty Warriors 6Dynasty Warriors 7Dynasty Warriors 8Dynasty Warriors 9
Expansions Empires (4)Empires (5)Empires (6)Empires (7)Empires (8)Empires (9)Special (6)Special (7)Xtreme Legends (3)Xtreme Legends (4)Xtreme Legends (5)Xtreme Legends (7)Xtreme Legends (8)
Spin-Offs 100man-ninAdvanceApuriBlastBlazing BattlesDS: Fighter's BattleGodseekersMahjongNextOnlineOverlordsPSP PortPSP Port Vol. 2SLASHStrikeforceStrikeforce 2UnleashedVersus
Wei Characters
Cai WenjiCao CaoCao PiCao RenCao XiuDian WeiGuo JiaJia XuLi DianMan ChongPang DeWang YiXiahou DunXiahou YuanXu HuangXu ZhuXun YouXun YuYu JinYue JinZhang HeZhang LiaoZhenji
Wu Characters
Cheng PuDaqiaoDing FengGan NingHan DangHuang GaiLianshiLing TongLu MengLu SuLu XunSun CeSun JianSun QuanSun ShangxiangTaishi CiXiaoqiaoXu ShengZhou TaiZhou YuZhu Ran
Shu Characters
Bao SanniangFa ZhengGuan PingGuan SuoGuan XingGuan YinpingGuan YuHuang ZhongJiang WeiLiu BeiLiu ShanMa ChaoMa DaiPang TongWei YanXiahoujiXingcaiXu ShuYueyingZhang BaoZhang FeiZhao YunZhou CangZhuge Liang
Jin Characters
Deng AiGuo HuaiJia ChongSima ShiSima YiSima ZhaoWang YuanjiWen YangXiahou BaXin XianyingZhang ChunhuaZhong HuiZhuge Dan
Other Characters
Chen GongDiaochanDong BaiDong ZhuoHua XiongLu BuLu LingqiMeng HuoYuan ShaoYuan ShuZhang JiaoZhurongZuo Ci
Miscellaneous Characters
NPC Shu NPCsWei NPCsWu NPCsJin NPCsOther NPCsBodyguardsUnit TypesLixia
Playable Edit CharactersPhoenix, Dragon, ChimeraShin Sangoku Musou Blast OfficersBeauty YuFu XiKing MuLei BinNuwaSanzangSun WukongXi WangmuXiang Yu
Various Factions
Allied ForcesDong Zhuo's ForcesFive Bushel SectForces in XiliangGongsun Zan's ForcesHan DynastyHeishan BanditsLiu Biao's ForcesLiu Yao's ForcesLiu Zhang's ForcesLu Bu's ForcesNanmanTen EunuchsWuwanYellow TurbansYuan Shao's ForcesYuan Shu's Forces