Okay, I'm ready for my degree in Chinese History now...
Seriously. We've relived the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era of China seven times!!! As interesting as I find the early Han dynasty and it's battles and warlords, I'm ready to move on. Okay, so despite the tired story line, DW7 isn't actually that bad. In it's defense, it does cover later battles never before seen in the series, and subsequently, a new kingdom. (The fact that this kingdom begins with one of my personal favorite characters (Sima Yi) does not make me biased at all...) Also, the game had redone the storyline so that it's more plot driven as opposed to character driven. Now, this isn't to say that the characters aren't important. Rather, you are given their stories in a far more accurate manner than before. Their lives are played out as they happened historically, giving the game a much more authentic (if slightly more tragic) feel. Now, seeing as the characters are my favorite part of any DW game, in this post I'll be focusing a lot more on the changes made in that respect.
New Characters
Now, I'm always a fan of new and interesting characters in a game series. I am also a huge fan of strong female characters. Luckily for me, DW7 delivered on both accounts. There is a multitude of new characters to unlock, a good number of them girls, and all of them intriguing. The addition of these new points of view keep the game from feeling like another review of a boring history lesson and put a fresh twist on the game play.
While new characters are great, theres nothing like the familiarity and nostalgia felt when one takes up an old favorite. All of the iconic characters remain, including all of my preferences (Zhou Yu, Lu Xun, and yes, Zhang He. Deal with it. He's a pretty and fabulous butterfly.) There have been some minor changes made to the characters, such as Zhou Yu using a staff rather than a sword and Zhang He wearing needle like hairpins rather than his butterfly tiara, but all changes feel surprisingly natural. If anything, the characters are improved by these tweaks. I mean, really, as much as I like him, it was getting weird watching Zhang He prance around the battlefield in high heels.
Reinvention of Old Characters
Now, as I've said, many characters have gotten new designs. This includes a lot of characters I found exceedingly dull in the last few games. Xiahou Dun comes to mind, along with Cao Pi and Sun Shang Xiang. Where as before, I'd only play with these characters if I absolutely had to, I looked forward to playing them in DW7. The new, plot driven gameplay also encouraged me to feel for these characters a lot more than I did in past installments of the series. When Sun Ce and Sun Jian died, I felt for Sun Shang Xiang and Sun Quan. When Xiahou Dun lost his eye, I felt more inspired by his BAMFy reaction. Koei did a great job of reinventing their characters in a way that made me appreciate all of them.
What do you guys think? Does Zhang He creep you out? Let me know!
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