Dynasty Warriors/YMMV

"Ma Chao: My family...my friends...my homeland...All has been stolen from me. And now I lose again. Am I so weak?...Is there nothing I can protect?!"
 * Alternate Character Interpretation - Nearly everyone in Shu, along the same lines as their novel counterparts:
 * Is Liu Bei a benevolent ruler like he claims himself to be? Or is he an ambitious, naive warlord deluded by his ideals and self-importance?
 * Is Zhuge Liang a brilliant, honorable strategist who wished to see justice brought back to the world? Or is he only in it for the prestige and fame?
 * Shu in general - Does everyone really wish for a land of virtue and benevolence? Or are they only interested in glory and conquest, hiding their real intent behind a veneer of righteousness?
 * Or at minimum, is Shu (And more specifically Liu Bei) really motivated by the needs of the people, or are they glorified Knight Templars who believe anyone who goes against them is evil?
 * Is the Jin dynasty a worthy successor to the Wei dynasty, or did the Sima clan just hijack the Wei legacy for their own purposes?
 * American Reviewers Hate...:
 * This and Samurai Warriors are well-received franchises in Japan. Americans hate them to death and wish it would just vanish already. New DW game? Ten bucks to say that American reviews will say IT'S REPETITIVE!. Though, of course, your mileage may vary.
 * The cultural resonance of the source material probably has something to do with the popularity. Imagine if you will a similar game based on the American Civil War, where you get to play as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Sherman as gun-toting badasses, and Abe Lincoln gets re-imagined as leading from the battlefront wielding twin laser-sighted M1s. Then imagine the game based not on the actual history, but on a unashamed rule of cool romanticized novelization of the history, written in 2850 A.D. (i.e. a thousand years after the historical events have passed into oral legend). Then, imagine that instead of two sides, there are three (North, South, and WEST!) and instead of 5 years or so, it lasts 100. . ..
 * Most installments so far got good reviews and ratings from actual gamers. It is professional reviewers who hate them to death.
 * To elaborate on that, most professional reviewers take the stance of an average gamer who just came to the franchise by random, not interested in any historical aspects, and generally don't care about any of the story-lines. Better example is the vocal protests people get when Samurai Warriors 3 was released, they removed story-modes for a few characters. To say the least, most professional reviewers couldn't care less for that, as for them most characters play the same anyways.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced:
 * DW7, in spades. Most of all bringing back the traditional combat system as opposed to DW6's controversial Renbu system, but furthermore many of the character redesigns, particularly those that were less well received, were reverted.
 * With the recent announcement of DW7:Xtreme Legends, some of the problems fans complained about in DW7 have been fixed (decloning weapon sets, freely choosing characters to play as in Story Mode). And Pang De's back.
 * Base Breaker:
 * Bao Sanniang. It seems you ever really love or hate her. A Genki Girl who parades around in a Stripperiffic outfit while killing thousands of soldiers. Her haters claim she is just pure Fan Service and tries too hard, while her fans find her refreshing and cute. Seeing her go Catgirl in her musou only gave her fans more to love and her detractors more to hate.
 * Liu Shan in DW7. Though given that he is one in real life this comes to no surprise. Fan either love his Historical Hero Upgrade or hate that he isn't portrayed as the Suck Sessor that he is.
 * Some people did not like the Wide Open Sandbox Genre Shift of DW9.
 * Complete Monster: Dong Zhuo. Full. Effing. Stop.
 * Contested Sequel:
 * The 6th game is seen as this by many people.
 * The most controversial change is the Renbu system, actually requiring incredibly long chains of Button Mashing in order to build up to your very best attacks. Or as one fan mentioned on a YouTube video: "Are you ready to press square three times and roll?"
 * It didn't help that this actually increased the physical toll on the controller's Normal Attack button (X on Xbox 360, Square on PlayStation 2 or 3) even more than previous games did, while the first Charge Attack would have a charge-up time even if comboing into it, making Charge Attack chains an unviable alternative. Probably because of the negative fan reactions, the seventh main game returned to the traditional four-attacks-long Normal attack chains, with fifth and sixth Normal attacks being unlocked by skill points. You're still button mashing, but at least it's different buttons.
 * Many characters were given radical Unnecessary Makeovers and weapon changes. Liu Bei and Sun Quan both lost their facial hair and look much younger. Lu Bu lost his trademark halberd and gained a strange-looking cross weapon. Most of these redesigns, particularly the more criticized ones, were reverted in DW7.
 * DW9 changed up a lot of the voice actors used in the earlier games in the English dub, many of which were well liked, and the above noted Genre Shift put off a lot of fans of the classic hack and slash games.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Despite being outnumbered by the male cast, the female characters are incredibly popular and have many fans. Sun Shang Xiang, Da and Xiao Qiao, Diao Chan, and Zhenji being the most noted. DW7 introduced Wang Yuanji of Jin who became popular both in Japan and the West for her looks and character. The Jin Kingdom itself became very popular with fans due to its newness and having a Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
 * If there was any doubt of the females' (Especially Yuanji's) Darkhorse status, these results from a recent Japanese poll has 2/3 of the female cast ranking in the top half.
 * Despite the fact that she only serves to be a computer player when there isn't a fourth player on 1 side, Ling Ling is pretty popular among the English speaking community.
 * Fan Dumb:
 * So you made 1500 kills in one round on Dynasty Warriors Online? Well, that's great. Wait, it was in something other than capture? Well, then it never happened, loser. Be a man and do it in capture mode.
 * This has actually been changed for some time. If you play anything except confront, then expect to not find a match for the entire waiting time of 30 MINUTES!
 * Fan-Preferred Couple:
 * Before DW6, Sun Shang Xiang was usually paired with any of the "hot" Wu guys like Gan Ning, Lu Xun, Ling Tong, or Zhou Yu as opposed to her canon Love Interest Liu Bei. Koei seemed to counter this by making Liu Bei much younger and attractive looking in DW6. Before he looked a good 15-20 years older than her. After doing this there was a noted rise of Liu Bei x Sun Shang Xiang fanart and fanfics. Mission Accomplished.
 * Guan Ping and Xing Cai. Despite her being based on the historical wives of Liu Shan, Koei has teased that they might have feelings for each other.
 * On the yaoi side of fandom, Ma Chao & Zhao Yun have had a strong fan following for many years (arguably an example of a Token Minority Couple, given they were both young, handsome, almost exclusively pre-occupied with things like honor and justice, and up until DW6, spear-wielders) before Koei decided to make it official and actually give them an in-game friendship. With proper cutscenes! And special dialogue!!!! Whether it was Koei taking notes or just pairing up the spares is anyone's guess.
 * For a Squick-tastic one, there was a time where fans liked pairing Lu Xun with Da Qiao or Xiao Qiao... never mind that Lu Xun would go on to marry Da Qiao's DAUGHTER historically, thus making it look like Lu Xun has an Oedipus Complex on either his mother in-law or aunt in-law! Given they look like the youngest bunch in the Wu group at that time...
 * Sima Shi and Wang Yuanji is slowly becoming one, despite the latter being paired with the former's brother, Sima Zhao. It doesn't help that Yuanji seems to be more affectionate towards Shi than Zhao.
 * Fanon: Despite technically not being owned by anyone, some fans have taken the initiative to pair DLC weapons with the "cloned" characters in DW7 due to their appearance in stages where you fight for the rare versions of the weapons. Some of these pairings do make sense, however as prior to DW6 Yue Ying, Xu Huang and Huang Gai used the Dagger Axe, Great Axe, and Bombs (Somewhat) respectively while Xiahou Dun used the Mace in DW6. However, as of DW7:XL, this has been Jossed as Dun's sword has ascended into its own weapon category.
 * Now thanks to Dynasty Warriors Next and Warriors Orochi 3, Pang De has gotten the mace, and Dong Zhuo gets the bombs.
 * And DW8 has gone far enough to ensure that all the weapons are paired with someone, thus eliminating character cloning.
 * Game Breaker:
 * In the earlier games, combine the Shadow Harness with Ma Chao or Zhou Tai for instant win. Even on the hardest difficulty, as long as you don't get one shotted, all generals and masses of enemies can be easily defeat by spamming the attack button and moving around a little. Considerably nerfed in the latter games but still powerful.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 3, when you encounter a commander face-to-face and their battle taunt cutscene triggers, their "Commander Stamina" activates and, even on Novice, you can barely chip off a few centimeters of their health with every hit. How do you get around this ridiculous defense boost?  Watch their health plummet faster than your army's morale on Very Hard. It should be noted that this does not work on Lu Bu as he always has Commander Stamina. Have fun with that.
 * The "Steel" element in DW3 killed any non-officer automatically and could do heavy damage to officer characters (a percentage of their current health, regardless of your strength and their defense). Cao Cao, in particular, became nearly unstoppable with this; you pretty much had to set the difficulty to Hard to be challenged at all with him.
 * Dynasty Warriors 5. Ling Tong. Square square square triangle. You win.
 * The bow moveset for Sun Shang Xiang and Yue Ying in Dynasty Warriors 6. Once the character is fully leveled up, it is ridiculously easy to mow down enormous crowds and strike repeatedly at enemy officers before they even get within range of you.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends, acquiring a title for officers that allows them to absorb a portion of the damage they deal to enemies as health when they wield Speed-type weapons. If your officers have high enough attack and strong enough weapons, they can keep their health at maximum forever. You can practically steamroll even the most difficult (5 stars and above) Chaos difficulty stages with relative ease, and health recovery items are completely unnecessary. The only way to be challenged with this setup is to play the even more difficult Nightmare difficulty stages, where enemy officers gain free attack and defense boosts, along with Combat Resistance (normal attacks do not make them flinch). In hindsight, it appears this ability was made for the Nightmare difficulty in mind...
 * Goddamned Bats:
 * Flame Tiger/Golden Fang/Snow Tiger/Red Fang has appeared!
 * And in Strikeforce, it's those Goddamn Tigers/Hawks/Butterflies
 * Depending on what stage and difficulty you're playing on, Archer units may switch between this and Demonic Spiders. Provided you can obtain it, equipping the Musou Armor (arrows don't make you flinch) makes them way less of a hassle.
 * Good Bad Bugs: In DW7, it's possible to make an enemy tumble endlessly by throwing them between two objects or even inside a doorstep.
 * Hate Dumb: Oh dear god, when they hate on this series, they hate on this series. Deriding it as only needing one button to beat the game, despite the fact that anyone who has actually played the games (or at least above the easy setting) would tell you differently. It doesn't help that certain reviewers seem to support this mindset.
 * Hotter and Sexier:
 * Sun Quan. Some found him very handsome in DW5, and his clean face along with his much longer hair has made him a less attractive to some.
 * The same also applies to Yue Ying's makeover - who for some made her hotter, while for others, is noted below - arguments for the latter support that the makeover goes against the established notion that Yue Ying wasn't supposed to be gorgeous, just pretty in that normal sense.
 * The in-game encyclopedias note that she was ugly, but Zhuge Liang loved her brilliant mind.
 * Memetic Badass:
 * Lu Bu. Yuan Shao: "Don't pursue Lu Bu." When you see him on the battlefield, you'll know why.
 * This gets even crazier in Dynasty Warriors 6, where in his version of his "defining" battle at Hu Lao Gate, he ... and wins (if you as the player complete the stage, of course). Heck,, just to fight him! Trust me, you pull this off and you truly are The Guy.
 * Zhang Bao due to all of us feeling the power of his MAAGGGEEECC!
 * Narm Charm: Almost as entertaining as the game itself is the unintentional hilarity accompanying almost every line of dialogue and dramatic moment.
 * There isn't a game in the series where Zhang Jiao doesn't have some amusingly cheesetastic dialogue.
 * Surprise Difficulty: Anyone overly accustomed to plowing through hordes of cannon fodder may be unpleasantly surprised by the giant enemies (see David Versus Goliath, above) in Strikeforce.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * The DW series never really did have much of an effect when it comes to the story but Koei really seems to have greatly focused on story in DW7 and you actually feel a bit teary eyed when
 * It was pretty heartwrenching in some Legend Stages though, in particular Ding Feng's...
 * Even earlier than that, there is a very sad scene in DW5XL, when defeating Ma Chao at Jia Meng Gate. Even though the games certainly don't shy away from his history, it's then that it becomes very clear, after all the crap he's gone through (even if some of it was his own fault), how badly it's hitting the poor guy.


 * That One Level: Definitely the Nanman Campaign from DW4 mostly because the odds keep getting stacked against you to ridiculous levels. After time passes, the climate starts affecting your team's morale. Furthermore, every time Meng Huo is defeated and comes back for more, ends up giving his entire army a morale boost to the point where it's really difficult to get anything done without your leader dying in the process. In harder difficulties, it's not uncommon to beat this level by one of two means: playing as the leader of the army or by earning 1000 KOs to prevent morale loss among your team.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
 * Believe it or not, it occurs with almost every entry in the series!
 * DW3XL: For focusing on officers not in the Three Kingdoms, often breaking ROTK canon.
 * DW4: For replacing officer-specific story modes with collective kingdom story modes.
 * DW4XL: For making the stages shorter and how extreme Xtreme mode took Numerical Hard.
 * DW4E: For the lack of choices and restrictive nature of Empire mode.
 * DW5: For derailing and flanderizing characters, adding Zuo Ci.
 * DW5XL: For both of its modes.
 * DW5E: Mostly averted. A Fan Favorite, it holds the distinction of even receiving half-way favourable reviews from some American reviewers.
 * DW6: For epic amounts of Progressively Prettier, dropping characters from the roster, and the controversial Renbu system.
 * DW6E: For not having anything carry over.
 * DW7: For making Kingdom mode locked to certain characters only.
 * DW7XL: Mostly averted, though some people lament the lack of a create-a-warrior feature that was present in the other XL's.
 * DW8: For adding certain characters not overly appreciated by some of the fanbase (Bao Sanniang, Liu Shan, Guan Suo.....the hate for these character depends on which fans you talk to)
 * DW8XL: For introducing Lu Lingqi (Lu Bu's daughter), but doing so little with her as a character.
 * DW9: Changing from Hack and Slash to Wide Open Sandbox Action RPG gameplay.
 * Unfortunate Implications: Very, very much noticed by fans about Wu's ending cutscene where an elated Sun Quan carries his surprised wife Lian Shi towards his gathered officers and declares, "Let's enjoy this!"
 * Unnecessary Makeover:
 * Yue Ying's DW6 makeover.
 * Pretty much most, if not all, DW6 character redesigns got heavily criticized for being drastic, including changing some characters' weapons, such as Sun Shang Xiang's familiar wind and fire wheels to a bow and even Lu Bu's halberd to some wheel weapon.
 * Most unnecessary is by far Dong Zhuo's; we already knew he was a Complete Monster, you didn't need to make him look it!
 * This one has gotten somewhat more accepted over time, especially since his lastest depictions are merely much more historically accurate.
 * What Measure Is a Mook?:
 * Goes without saying for the infantry you kill en masse, but there are a couple instances where the story downplays the death of an important-but-generic officer. The most noticable example is in DW7 when the Wei army keeps referring back to Dian Wei's Heroic Sacrifice, yet hardly anyone bats an eye over the death of Cao Ang (Cao Cao's first born and likely successor), who died in the very same trap.
 * Justified as the death of a great general would harm Wei more than a successor. Besides, Cao Cao had many children, losing one was nothing.
 * This happens in the Novel too. Cao Cao mourns over the loss of Dian Wei a lot more than some of his sons.
 * Possibly a case of (Deliberate?) Values Dissonance since, back in those days, a man's wife and children were considered less valuable than their friends.