Dynasty Warriors 7
Dynasty Warriors started life as a pretty nuanced fighting game, but when it later found success as a Mosou-style hack-and-slash adventure game, subsequent sequels never strayed far from that blueprint. The franchise quickly descended into a rinse and repeat of the same monotonous formula used over and over again. That isn’t to say the franchise didn’t find success in this vein, but it took a succession of poor games before Koei Tecmo steadied the ship, and Dynasty Warriors 7 is often remembered as the final straw. It reviewed poorly and its lack of inventiveness over previous entries didn’t win it much adoration from most critics. Save for its flashier visuals, Dynasty Warriors 7 just didn’t offer anything we hadn’t played before, and yet, it was impossible to put down.
There’s just something about obliterating waves of enemies that Dynasty Warriors makes so satisfying. It might all just boil down to somewhat mindless button mashing, but with the objective so obvious and the gameplay almost effortless, beating down a path towards your objective is almost therapeutic. And while you could make that case for just about any entry in the series, Dynasty Warriors 7 does actually tell a reasonably interesting story. Like all of the Dynasty Warriors games, it revolves around the famous Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century. So there’s at least something to keep you motivated through endless hours of monotony.
