Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires vs Dynasty Warriors 9 - Worth Playing in 2025?

To start, let me first acknowledge that these are not new titles by any means, as Dynasty Warriors 9’s initial release was 2018, and Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires was in 2014. The only reason they are on my mind at all is because I recently got back into gaming with a PlayStation 4 my friend loaned to me when he got his PS5. One of the first things I got was a PlayStation Plus account to test out some of the games I had missed over roughly 8 years away from console gaming.

Having fond memories of past gaming experiences playing splitscreen on other consoles, I was excited by the idea of maybe re-igniting some of that magic playing splitscreen with my wife. Searching through the library of PlayStation Plus games for download, I came across a familiar title from my past, Dynasty Warriors. This is a hack-and-slash, action franchise set in the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China, which has always had great splitscreen gameplay in previous iterations of the game.

I saw that they had two different options to play, Dynasty Warriors 9 and Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires. Considering I had not played any of this series since I was using a PlayStation 2, I had no clue about how these games might be different, but I was curious to see how this beloved franchise had evolved over the years.

The first game we tried was Dynasty Warriors 9, which utilizes a very expansive open world map, with many different side missions spread throughout. This is kind of a huge departure from the games I remembered, which had you follow the story of a given character through the different battles they took part in. Each battle had clear objectives, unique terrain, and cool cinematics that often accompanied some other conditional surprises. The visuals were engaging, and you wanted to push your way through the map to help your army succeed.

I felt DW9 was too scattered, with large distances between missions. You often find yourself completing missions and then just fast-traveling to the next, which I think kind of takes you out of the story a bit. To make matters worse, each area of the map feels exactly the same, with little variation to really make you feel like you were in a different place at all. DW8E had a similar blandness to the maps, which made every engagement feel the same.

The cinematics in both games felt very cookie-cutter and boring. Just endless streams of random characters, many of whom are ridiculously dressed to make them look like anime characters, having pointless, long-winded conversations. At least DW8E keeps things brief, but that is only because there really is no attempt to make it feel like a story at all. DW8E has a new strategic interface, which requires some resource planning and empire management between battles. This is kind of cool, but mostly just feels repetitive, with little attachment to the story, but totally customizable, so you can play with many unique characters.

Dynasty Warriors 8 was better about the map, in that each battle was very focused, with clear changes in battle momentum when certain areas were taken. I liked this more than the chaos of the open world, where it also seemed that more enemies would just appear once you entered an area. In the original games, I remember feeling like one piece of a larger battle, and if I didn’t do my part, things would fall apart around me. In DW9, the entire story seems completely focused on the player, where it seems that the battle will not progress at all unless you specifically complete certain tasks. I don’t like this, as it feels too arcadey and less story-driven than the previous titles were.

One positive of both games was that the splitscreen worked pretty well, just as it had in previous games. It is cool to coordinate with the other player you are with in-person, and it adds a cool level of intensity when you are both present and engaged in the excitement of the battles. Another thing I did not like though, was how in DW9, after all of the big missions or cutscenes, they will move player 1, but leave player 2 on the other side of the map. This isn’t a huge deal as you can just fast travel back, but still annoying nonetheless. I also found DW9 to be a bit glitchy when the other player was executing their special moves. It wasn’t that disruptive, but it will clearly lag when there is too much action on the screen, although perhaps this might be partly due to internet connectivity.

I realize I am getting into rant territory with this post, so I will wrap it up. Overall, these games are okay hack-and-slash titles, fun to go through a campaign or two, but will soon grow repetitive, leaving you to button-smash the “skip cutscene” button between action. Next time I am over at my family's house, I intend to dust off the old PlayStation 2 and see how some of the really old titles stack up to these newer disappointments.

I hope you enjoyed reading. All gameplay photos taken by me. Have a great day!