Top 10 Dynasty Warriors
Jul 16, 2015 21:22:49 GMT -5
Post by Izzy on Jul 16, 2015 21:22:49 GMT -5
So this morning I watched this video and felt inspired to make my own Dynasty Warriors top 10 list! The rules are easy: everything has to be based off of the games alone. That means no pulling obscure facts from the novel or history. I realize this rule is mostly for me (and Wenqian, if he sees this )
Things that factor into my top ten list: the character's moveset, personality and story importance. Appearance also factors into it a bit, and may give some characters an edge over others. I'm also mostly ignoring DW6.
Without further ado, here's my list! Warning, lots of text, because as much as I rag on it... I love this game xD
We'll start with Honorable Mentions. I have three of them, because are specifics that I want to point out about them. First, the posterboy of the series, Zhao Yun. Honestly, his moveset, story and character are incredibly boring. But Koei always makes intro scenes featuring their one and only... and they're pretty cool and I want to acknowledge that. Next is Jia Xu. I like his moveset and character. Even though Sima Yi and Jia Chong do the 'evil strategist' trope better, there's something about how calmly unethical Jia Xu is that makes me like him. Finally, I wanna mention Sima Zhao. He's the most important late-game character and his moveset includes officer surfing. As in, in DW7, you can surf on the emperor. That's awesome.
Onto the main list, we'll start off with one of my favorites. At #10, we have the ultimately under-used Cao Pi. Cao Pi has an epic ice motif going for him in his moveset. And it fits his character perfectly: someone who's cool and calculating. He's just different enough from Cao Cao to avoid the pitfall that hurts almost every other child: being created just to be a child of a famous character (only two more children of other characters appear on this list). Though he's honestly a discount combination of Cao Cao and Sima Yi (spoiler alert, they're both on this list), he takes enough good traits from both to be effective. Finally, I like how Koei started touching on a possible rivalry between he and Sun Quan. They never develop it fully because they hate Wu, but Cao Pi's speech at the end of Wu's storyline in DW7 made me feel uncomfortable that Wu's story just ended, because it sounded like Cao Pi was still winning. It takes a boss to win in someone else's storyline, especially after losing a battle.
Coming in at #9, we have the warrior to beat all warriors. Lu Bu is a staple of the series. Like the video says, he's iconic, and the fact that he gets a theme song is epic. It's also refreshing that he's so arrogant, and almost everything about him shows it. From grabbing people by the neck to swinging his halberd like a sword to smugly assuming Cao Cao would want to hire him at the end of Xia Pi, everything about Lu Bu screams that he knows he's the strongest. And we all love him for it.
Every story needs a beginning. For Dynasty Warriors, it's always the YTR. And Zhang Jiao is the heart and soul of it. At #8, I'll acknowledge that Zhang Jiao doesn't have much staying power. After the YTR, no one cares about him anymore. But you can't really forget about him. His stages are always laughably gimmicky, his lines are hammy, his staff breathes fire... what's not to love?
I've already mentioned #7. The next 'evil strategist' I'll bring up is Jia Chong. I'll go ahead and say he's the newest character that's on the list. But he made a strong entrance. In DW7, Sima Zhao was an awkward evil/care-free character that seemed almost bipolar. They fixed that in DW8 by giving him Jia Chong, his right-hand man who would do all the dirty work for him and essentially push Sima Zhao's ruthless side to the surface. And his weapon is almost perfect. Dual axes symbolize what he is in the storyline: an executioner. The only thing I hate about him is his vampire look. But it's fitting, so I won't say much more about it.
I wanted to include a female on the list, but needed one I could justify. Most of them were, honestly, inconsequential or boring. There were only two that I could think of that would fit the top 10. And Wang Yi was too one-dimensional, so I went with Sun Shang Xiang. At #6, personality-wise, there's almost nothing special about her. Most of the other 'warrior chicks' in this game are now tomboys, so much so that the whole characterization of it is kinda ruined. And her weapon is unique and iconic, but not necessarily the most outstanding. But Shang Xiang has storyline depth: she's almost always one of the first Wu characters introduced, but halfway through the story, she's sent off to Shu in a political marriage. And then the Wu/Shu conflict goes down and she's caught between love and family. And that's where she shines: because she's so normal, you can't help but feel bad for her. It's one of the few moments that you can sit there and go "wait, that's right, war sucks." Well, one that doesn't involve some dude on steroids and a hammy death scene, anyway.
The next character I would put at the top if only his voice didn't bother the crap out of me. At #5, Sun Quan is the last child of a character on the list. But man, it's fitting. If you didn't watch the video, it basically explained my entire reasoning behind this. He has the world thrust on his shoulders prematurely. In DW7, he's honestly the most sympathetic character. He loses his father, then his brother, then his brother's warrior buddy, then his trusted adviser. Like, one after the other. Everyone dies in Wu, and Sun Quan has to keep moving through all of it. But he always has some hammy speech to bring the fire back. Oh, and his moveset involves setting his sword on fire.
I already said he was on the list, so #4 shouldn't be a surprise. Sima Yi wins the 'strategist' category. His laugh, his calm arrogance that he can actually back up, his rivalry with the 'greatest mind under heaven', his schemes to keep the strong in power and the weak in line... he's a deep character with deep roots in the entire storyline. I could rant about how awesome Sima Yi is all day, but I'm starting to realize how long this post is >.<
At #3, we have the last liege on my list. Cao Cao was already mentioned, but let me explain why I picked him. Actually, let me not. He's the most important character in Dynasty Warriors. And there's not much room to argue around that...
Now we get into the 'Izzy derivatives' where I try to argue for certain people that not everyone agrees with. At #2, we have my second favorite character, Ma Chao. Pre-DW5, Ma Chao wouldn't be up here. He was a generic Shu general who screamed 'justice' every sentence. Something changed in DW5 though, when suddenly Koei decided they were going to play up the vengeance stuff. It was subtle at first, but by DW7, Ma Chao was a walking contradiction. He fought for 'justice' and 'benevolence', but was completely motivated by revenge. Enter Wang Yi, and suddenly not only is he contradicting all of Shu's ideals, but he's also responsible for the same kind of action that Cao Cao did against him. It's great. But mostly, I like Ma Chao for his spear acrobatics, and his generally cool armor (post DW3/4's deer antlers, anyway)
So, who's #1? Only the coolest looking character in the game. And the one who's been promoted recently to second poster boy. And my favorite character. Xiahou Dun is Cao Cao's right-hand man, but that's about where the generic stuff ends. He's there through the entire Wei storyline, which I have constantly lauded as the best one. He's there to see Cao Cao rise to power, and he's there to see Cao Cao die. He's the constant throughout it. And he *hates* Guan Yu. DW7 deviated a little with their final battle by having you play as Xiahou Dun. And it was the most fitting ending ever, with fitting music (with a fitting name). In fact, there's nothing more satisfying in the game, from a pure character standpoint, than beating Guan Yu down using Xiahou Dun. And Dun's weapon is epic too. And his eyepatch. And he's the entire reason I made this list, because the dude bro in the video didn't mention him once >.<
Things that factor into my top ten list: the character's moveset, personality and story importance. Appearance also factors into it a bit, and may give some characters an edge over others. I'm also mostly ignoring DW6.
Without further ado, here's my list! Warning, lots of text, because as much as I rag on it... I love this game xD
We'll start with Honorable Mentions. I have three of them, because are specifics that I want to point out about them. First, the posterboy of the series, Zhao Yun. Honestly, his moveset, story and character are incredibly boring. But Koei always makes intro scenes featuring their one and only... and they're pretty cool and I want to acknowledge that. Next is Jia Xu. I like his moveset and character. Even though Sima Yi and Jia Chong do the 'evil strategist' trope better, there's something about how calmly unethical Jia Xu is that makes me like him. Finally, I wanna mention Sima Zhao. He's the most important late-game character and his moveset includes officer surfing. As in, in DW7, you can surf on the emperor. That's awesome.
Onto the main list, we'll start off with one of my favorites. At #10, we have the ultimately under-used Cao Pi. Cao Pi has an epic ice motif going for him in his moveset. And it fits his character perfectly: someone who's cool and calculating. He's just different enough from Cao Cao to avoid the pitfall that hurts almost every other child: being created just to be a child of a famous character (only two more children of other characters appear on this list). Though he's honestly a discount combination of Cao Cao and Sima Yi (spoiler alert, they're both on this list), he takes enough good traits from both to be effective. Finally, I like how Koei started touching on a possible rivalry between he and Sun Quan. They never develop it fully because they hate Wu, but Cao Pi's speech at the end of Wu's storyline in DW7 made me feel uncomfortable that Wu's story just ended, because it sounded like Cao Pi was still winning. It takes a boss to win in someone else's storyline, especially after losing a battle.
Coming in at #9, we have the warrior to beat all warriors. Lu Bu is a staple of the series. Like the video says, he's iconic, and the fact that he gets a theme song is epic. It's also refreshing that he's so arrogant, and almost everything about him shows it. From grabbing people by the neck to swinging his halberd like a sword to smugly assuming Cao Cao would want to hire him at the end of Xia Pi, everything about Lu Bu screams that he knows he's the strongest. And we all love him for it.
Every story needs a beginning. For Dynasty Warriors, it's always the YTR. And Zhang Jiao is the heart and soul of it. At #8, I'll acknowledge that Zhang Jiao doesn't have much staying power. After the YTR, no one cares about him anymore. But you can't really forget about him. His stages are always laughably gimmicky, his lines are hammy, his staff breathes fire... what's not to love?
I've already mentioned #7. The next 'evil strategist' I'll bring up is Jia Chong. I'll go ahead and say he's the newest character that's on the list. But he made a strong entrance. In DW7, Sima Zhao was an awkward evil/care-free character that seemed almost bipolar. They fixed that in DW8 by giving him Jia Chong, his right-hand man who would do all the dirty work for him and essentially push Sima Zhao's ruthless side to the surface. And his weapon is almost perfect. Dual axes symbolize what he is in the storyline: an executioner. The only thing I hate about him is his vampire look. But it's fitting, so I won't say much more about it.
I wanted to include a female on the list, but needed one I could justify. Most of them were, honestly, inconsequential or boring. There were only two that I could think of that would fit the top 10. And Wang Yi was too one-dimensional, so I went with Sun Shang Xiang. At #6, personality-wise, there's almost nothing special about her. Most of the other 'warrior chicks' in this game are now tomboys, so much so that the whole characterization of it is kinda ruined. And her weapon is unique and iconic, but not necessarily the most outstanding. But Shang Xiang has storyline depth: she's almost always one of the first Wu characters introduced, but halfway through the story, she's sent off to Shu in a political marriage. And then the Wu/Shu conflict goes down and she's caught between love and family. And that's where she shines: because she's so normal, you can't help but feel bad for her. It's one of the few moments that you can sit there and go "wait, that's right, war sucks." Well, one that doesn't involve some dude on steroids and a hammy death scene, anyway.
The next character I would put at the top if only his voice didn't bother the crap out of me. At #5, Sun Quan is the last child of a character on the list. But man, it's fitting. If you didn't watch the video, it basically explained my entire reasoning behind this. He has the world thrust on his shoulders prematurely. In DW7, he's honestly the most sympathetic character. He loses his father, then his brother, then his brother's warrior buddy, then his trusted adviser. Like, one after the other. Everyone dies in Wu, and Sun Quan has to keep moving through all of it. But he always has some hammy speech to bring the fire back. Oh, and his moveset involves setting his sword on fire.
I already said he was on the list, so #4 shouldn't be a surprise. Sima Yi wins the 'strategist' category. His laugh, his calm arrogance that he can actually back up, his rivalry with the 'greatest mind under heaven', his schemes to keep the strong in power and the weak in line... he's a deep character with deep roots in the entire storyline. I could rant about how awesome Sima Yi is all day, but I'm starting to realize how long this post is >.<
At #3, we have the last liege on my list. Cao Cao was already mentioned, but let me explain why I picked him. Actually, let me not. He's the most important character in Dynasty Warriors. And there's not much room to argue around that...
Now we get into the 'Izzy derivatives' where I try to argue for certain people that not everyone agrees with. At #2, we have my second favorite character, Ma Chao. Pre-DW5, Ma Chao wouldn't be up here. He was a generic Shu general who screamed 'justice' every sentence. Something changed in DW5 though, when suddenly Koei decided they were going to play up the vengeance stuff. It was subtle at first, but by DW7, Ma Chao was a walking contradiction. He fought for 'justice' and 'benevolence', but was completely motivated by revenge. Enter Wang Yi, and suddenly not only is he contradicting all of Shu's ideals, but he's also responsible for the same kind of action that Cao Cao did against him. It's great. But mostly, I like Ma Chao for his spear acrobatics, and his generally cool armor (post DW3/4's deer antlers, anyway)
So, who's #1? Only the coolest looking character in the game. And the one who's been promoted recently to second poster boy. And my favorite character. Xiahou Dun is Cao Cao's right-hand man, but that's about where the generic stuff ends. He's there through the entire Wei storyline, which I have constantly lauded as the best one. He's there to see Cao Cao rise to power, and he's there to see Cao Cao die. He's the constant throughout it. And he *hates* Guan Yu. DW7 deviated a little with their final battle by having you play as Xiahou Dun. And it was the most fitting ending ever, with fitting music (with a fitting name). In fact, there's nothing more satisfying in the game, from a pure character standpoint, than beating Guan Yu down using Xiahou Dun. And Dun's weapon is epic too. And his eyepatch. And he's the entire reason I made this list, because the dude bro in the video didn't mention him once >.<