Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends (Sony PlayStation 2, 2005)

DW5XL, or Dynasty Warriors 5 - Xtreme Legends, is basically the same game as DW4XL, with minor upgrades to several characters. The game is fun to play like most Dynasty Warriors games made by Koei, but, like any of the games in the DW5 series, it lacks creativity and could tire fairly quickly.

The xtreme mode, which was first seen in DW4XL, is kept. For those who haven't played this mode before, the xtreme mode allows you to choose one of the 48 playable characters, and play in as many battle scenes as you possibly can before you die, without the luxury of the character automatically restoring his/her health at the conclusion of each battle (you can "buy" health from the merchant after each round, but the meat buns become increasingly expensive and beyond affordable in later rounds). It is always a challenge to see how far you can go, and with each character... but who are we kidding here? Lu Bu will probably take you through a few more rounds (or many more rounds) than Zhang Jiao (pardon me here, yellow turban fans).

Dynasty Mode allows you to create your own character and follow one of the 48 characters as their side-kick. You can be loyal to your general throughout, or you can choose to betray him/her for your own gain. As you progress through the stages, you gain experience and can purchase abilities. What I really don't like about the Dynasty Mode is that it is way too short - 7 rounds and you are done. The strategies you can put into this mode is also very limited - it is not even a "chess match" like Xtreme Mode where you must calculate whether you should spend that 10000GP to buy one meat bun.

It is important to point out that the saved data from DW5 can be loaded up to DW5XL, so you need not try to unlock Zhang Jiao or Zuo Ci again. Your created characters from Dynasty Mode can also be transferred to DW5 Empires, which actually is VERY helpful when you play Empire Mode in DW5 Empires.

What's new in this series is that you can insert a Dw5 disc to play on Musou mode. Some new game modes include Challenge Mode, Xtreme Mode, and Destiny Mode. Xtreme mode is pretty fun, you control a character and survive as long as possible while collecting gold dropped by enemies to regain health and increase stats temporarily. For Destiny mode, you get to create your own personal character. You pick a class to join ( Wei,Shu or Wu ). It's like playing as a troop but your getting your character higher and higher rank. Excellent game, 5 out of 5 stars.

I bought this game because of having the rest of the set and it was a very great series. The things I would say I loved or liked about it is 1) You get to fight countless enemies at once.2) You get to upgrade your weapon by finding the upgrades to it in weapon boxs.3) You have countless difficulties ranging from novice to chaos. 4)You can get your 4th weapon on hard but if you train your person completly it is not very hard. The only thing I do not like about it is that sometimes you get overwhelmed by generals and you'll be dead before you can get away.Also some of the levels have no type of objective to them just defend and thats hard enough.There are some bugs and it screws up everything you worked for but it can be to your advantage or to your disadvantage.

The new modes in this game are a great addition to the series! It's always nice to get modes where you get to know your characters.

A game based off of the dynasty warriors series with new features and modes such as destiny mode, xtreme mode and make your own charecter mode. this game has the same 50 charecters as the recent dw games that have different fighting styles to make this game worth playing.
4.3/5