Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered
Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered rebuilds the 2001 musou game and its Xtreme Legends expansion in Unreal Engine 5. You control a single officer from the Three Kingdoms era and fight across large battlefields toward the enemy commander, dealing with regular soldiers and named rival generals on the way.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- Xtreme Legends brought Musou campaigns for seven officers, including Lu Bu, Meng Huo and Yuan Shao, and they're part of this release. The remaster also has scenarios of its own, unlocked by meeting specific conditions in battle. Each one puts a large number of officers on the field at high difficulty.
- Combat can be tuned to taste. A Normal preset turns on the new features, a Classic preset stays closer to the original Dynasty Warriors 3, and every feature can be switched on or off by hand.
- Musou, Free and VS modes run in offline split-screen, with two players either teaming up or fighting each other.
Story and Lore
The story starts in 184, near the end of the Han dynasty. Zhang Jiao, leader of the Way of Peace, rises against the empire shortly before Emperor Ling dies, and the years that follow divide China among Shu, Wei and Wu, each seeking to overthrow the other two.
Every officer of the three kingdoms has a linear Musou campaign built on events from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the campaigns of Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Jian and their officers stay closest to the novel. In the original game the stages run from 184 to 234 and include Hulao Gate (191), Guandu (200), Chibi (208), Yiling (222) and Wuzhang Plains (234).
History gets rearranged where variety calls for it. A number of officers who had already died by the historical timeline still show up in later stages.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Each stage asks you to cut through enemy soldiers and officers to reach the opposing commander, in what the game bills as 1 vs. 1,000 combat. Evasion is the main new movement option: it dodges attacks or pulls an officer back from the front line, and a dodge timed against a strong enemy becomes a Just Evasion that can be followed by a counter. Perfect Power Guard rewards a well-timed block by deflecting the attack and stunning the enemy. True Musou Attacks, which debuted in the original game, are retained.
Officer and bodyguard setup happens in Camp, where Weapon Fusion also sits. Extra weapons are consumed there to transfer their elemental properties and skills to another weapon. Growth items, equipment and weapons gathered in Free Mode also apply in the other modes.
Musou Mode holds the individual officer stories, with further officers unlocking once special conditions are met in battle. Free Mode lets you pick any officer and scenario, including fighting for a side that officer would normally oppose. Two more modes are built around scores and rules:
- Challenge Mode ranks results across Endurance (how many enemies fall before your health runs out), Time Attack (the time needed to defeat 100 enemies) and Assault (the highest combo in three minutes).
- VS Mode has eight stages with their own rules, such as the 3v3 Three Duels at Hulao Pass, where the first player to fall loses, and the 1v1 Naval Annihilation at Chibi, won by the first player to defeat 20 enemy soldiers.
Characters and Factions
The roster tops 40 officers, and every one from the original game returns. Shu, Wei and Wu each have their own group, and a fourth set covers independent figures:
- Shu: Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Jiang Wei, Wei Yan, Pang Tong
- Wei: Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Dian Wei, Xu Zhu, Zhang Liao, Sima Yi, Xu Huang, Zhang He, Zhen Ji
- Wu: Sun Jian, Sun Ce, Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, Lu Xun, Lu Meng, Gan Ning, Taishi Ci, Huang Gai, Sun Shangxiang, Da Qiao, Xiao Qiao
- Other: Lu Bu, Diao Chan, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Zhang Jiao, Meng Huo, Zhu Rong, Fu Xi, Nu Wa
Personalities are exaggerated in the original game. Lu Bu is written as a near-unbeatable, violent maniac, and Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Pang Tong and Zhang Jiao use magical or partly magical attacks. Fu Xi and Nu Wa come from myth rather than history.
Ziluan, the protagonist of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, appears as the remaster's newcomer. He's a traveling swordsman with no memory of his past.
Editions
The Standard Edition contains the base game. The Digital Deluxe Edition includes the game plus these extras:
- 42 retro costumes based on the original Dynasty Warriors 3, selectable from the character select screen
- 42 weapons that double as Weapon Fusion materials, with weapons for every officer
- One Wind Scroll and one Tiger Amulet, which raise attack range by 10 and attack stat by 10
- One Six Secret Teachings, an item that increases officer Merit gain
- The Officer Concept Art Collection: original officer artwork with producer comments, viewable in the in-game database (the comments are in Japanese only)