We’re on Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition now. Considering these games have all covered the same period of time and the same base characters, you have to wonder how much longer they can keep adding new stuff. It feels a bit like they’re running out of ideas now but not completely, yet.

Over the years, I have watched the Dynasty Warriors series go from choppy and a bit generic graphics to very detailed and complex ones. Their outfits and overall appearance look very similar to the previous games as they are based on as much historical information as they can find, but now they are very smooth and at times, very realistic. I am impressed with the difference on the PS4 as compared to the previous game on the PS3. As for the PSVita side, the graphics look very much like they did from one year ago in Dynasty Warriors Next. On the much smaller screen everything is compressed, but they still look like they do on the bigger games. You just can’t see some of the minute details.

The more stages you clear, the more music you will unlock from which to choose. There is a whole lot of different music available for the choosing. Each story pretty much has a different track for each board. Really though, after I started playing, I didn’t notice the music. I was listening more for the battles sound queues as to what was happening in the game. If you listen well, you can keep up with what the enemies are going to do pretty easily. You can also choose what music you want in the background in certain areas, like Ambition Mode.

Over the years, Dynasty Warriors hasn’t changed much about the overall way the game plays, but they have added and removed things from time to time. Dynasty Warriors 8 provides Story Mode, Free Mode, Ambition Mode, Challenge Mode, Gallery, Encyclopedia, and Options.

Story Mode has been around for as long as the games have been. You will choose a faction and then go through their story from the beginning to end. The new addition this time is the Lu Bu story. Lu Bu has always been a favorite to play as for a lot of people, so it’s nice to get to see his tale of aggression. You’ve still got Wei, Wu, Shu, and Jin to choose from as well as Other, which lets you play scenarios that you have unlocked, that may or may not be historically accurate. The rest of the story modes are somewhat accurate. For a true accurate timeline and history, you can go to the Encyclopedia, which I found to be an interesting new addition. Free Mode will let you play any of the levels that you have already unlocked in Story Mode.

Challenge Mode provides 5 different modes for you to test the limits of the officers. You do not have to have already unlocked these officers in Story Mode; you can choose anyone. You can also compare your times to players online. It will show you what officer they used to get those times, so if you’re wondering who to use, you can see who’s done well already.

Ambition Mode is a bit like the main area in Warriors Orochi 3. You start with a camp, which is really bare at first, and you build it up. You can only have one Ambition game at a time, so unless you want to start over, choose your officer wisely. You will unlock more officers in the camp, but it takes quite a few battles, which means that you will most likely be playing with that first choice a lot. You can also choose animals to accompany you into battle here, as well as build bonds between officers.

You might remember being able to forge weapons before. You will also note that there are achievements for forging weapons, so it’s got to be in the game somewhere. To create your own weapons, you will need to get your blacksmith up to level 30 in Ambition Mode. Honestly, this is a true pain. While the Ambition Mode battles don’t take that long, it takes hours and hours and hours to get your camp large enough so that you can finally raise your blacksmith that high. I wish they had set that level lower because I really miss being able to combine weapons from the beginning.

Weapons also now have an affinity: Man, Heaven, or Earth. Each of these is stronger and weaker against a different type, so they are all equally good. You are going to want to take different types into battle as the enemy weapons also have an affinity. If their affinity is strong against yours, a ! will be above their head so you know that you will want to switch weapons. A blue symbol above their head means that your weapon affinity is stronger. This is the situation that you want as you can get some really powerful bonus effects. If there is no symbol above their head, then you are both using weapons with the same affinity, so no one has an advantage.

Sometimes you’ll notice that you have been stuck in a hopeless position surrounded by enemy officers. Fortunately, if you have built up your Rage, you can activate it for a massive attack. Rage is very much like the rage in Warriors: Legends of Troy. You get tunnel vision and attack really powerfully. I think it’s a lot of fun and really gets rid of pent up anger! I really like Rage Mode.

If you’ve ever played any of the series before, then you know most of the controls. On the PS4, you will use the touch pad to start and to bring up the Pause Menu. On the PSVita, you will use (Start). To trigger your Rage attack on the PS4, press (R3). On the PSVita, you tap on the Rage bar on the bottom left. As a bonus, on the PSVita, you can hold down (Select) until you hop on the horse. Otherwise the controls are all the same. The tutorial will walk you through them all if you’ve forgotten or never played a previous one.

The controls on both systems handled pretty well. I was pleased to see that they no longer use the back touch pad on the PSVita as they did in Dynasty Warriors Next. Trying to use it could be really clumsy. I like the controls better now. I love the fact that you can share a game save between the PSVita and the PS4. You do have to remember to upload your game before you quit and then download it before you start back up, but the upload and download are relatively quick. This means that you can take your game on the go any time and not worry about starting over or playing two different game saves.

While I love having another Dynasty Warriors game to play, I do wish that I could do weapons from the beginning. The whole Ambition Mode seems a bit clumsy to me. I didn’t find that I wanted to play it much, but I had to so that I could get my blacksmith. Otherwise, I loved the game. I appreciate the attempt to make things different, but that wasn’t one I would have chosen to change. Adding the Lu Bu story was a really nice addition. If you’re a fan of the series or you just really want to run around and kill a lot of people quickly, check out Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition.