My steam id: http://steamcommunity.com/id/fantasyheaven/

The game that I am requesting: http://store.steampowered.com/app/278080/

Dynasty Warriors 8 is a hack-and-slash action game based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The historical novel was written in the 14th century and is regarded as one of the top four of China's classical literature. It is an epic that covers the century-long conflict during the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdom period following it in China.

The overview of the plot is that due to the nefarious machinations of the eunuchs in the imperial court, corruption became widespread in the government at all levels of office. This eventually led to the Yellow Turban rebellion, led by Zhang Jiao (a playable character). In the novel, he was portrayed as a mystical Taoist - this is reflected in the game by him being a sorcerer with a staff. While the uprising was popular amongst the people, its lack of talented generals became evident after the empire's vassals were called upon to assist in dealing with the rebellion and the threat posed by the Yellow Turbans was contained with Zhang Jiao's death in 184 AD. Still, the Yellow Turbans had dealt a crippling blow to both the imperial army and the emperor's authority. With the emperor's death soon after in 189 AD, the empire quickly fell apart with the vassals acting autonomously - becoming warlords.

The game has a cast of 82 playable characters, with the male characters being the warlords and generals that were given focus in the novel. While all the female characters are fictional (either the characters themselves or their names are fabricated), the majority of the male characters are historical - they actually did exist during said time period.

The core gameplay is simple: choose a character, and then and go through levels that represent the battles that the chosen character had participated in (according to the novel). In addition to the aforementioned "historical" missions, the game also have "hypothetical" scenarios where the factions that were defeated historically ends up winning instead.

As a hack-and-slash game, the playable characters are portrayed as superhuman - the higher you are on the chain of military command the more capable you are at fighting. The playable characters can cut through waves of enemy soldiers and their actions alone can turn the tide of battle.

I have never played a Dynasty Warriors game before, but from what I can tell from gameplay videos, the formula hasn't really changed much throughout the franchise and its spin-offs. I did enjoy playing games from the spin-off franchises (Warriors Orochi and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam) though.

The main reason that I want to play this game is because I am a fan of the historical novel. I am interested in both reenacting the notable battles in the novel and seeing the hypothetical scenarios.

The battle that I wish to re-enact the most is the battle of Hefei. Historically, Zhang Liao's feats in said battle was something that wouldn't be out of place in a hack-and-slash game - it cemented his position as Cao Cao's best general. When Sun Quan's army of 100 000 surrounded Hefei, Zhang Liao and his army of 7000 was given the order to attack. Leaving the rest behind as garrison, he led a cavalry of 800 and charged towards Sun Quan's banner. Sun Quan was shocked by this bold move, so he ordered his men in a defensive formation and retreated to higher ground. Once Zhang Liao's numbers were whittled down to around 100 riders, Sun Quan was emboldened and order his army to surround Zhang Liao in many layers. However, Zhang Liao was able to break through the encirclement with a few scores of soldiers. The men still trapped in the encirclement despaired: "Our general abandoned us!". Hearing this, Zhang Liao charged back into the encirclement and was able to safely lead the rest of his cavalry out. Sun Quan's army was stunned by Zhang Liao's valor and did not act to impede him when he retreated back into Hefei in order to fortify defenses in preparation for the inevitable siege. This act by Zhang Liao greatly bolstered the morale of his men and deflated that of Sun Quan's army. The siege lasted for ten days, but an outbreak of plague for Sun Quan to call for a retreat. As Sun Quan (and about 1000 soldiers) was acting as the rearguard, Zhang Liao saw this as an opportunity to pursue, and led all his cavalry in an all-out charge. And he would have been able to capture Sun Quan too if it weren't for Ling Tong's men of 300 sacrificing themselves in order to buy time for Sun Quan to flee.

As for the hypothetical scenarios, I want to see how much liberties the developers will take in order to give "good" endings to the historically defeated factions. Given that both the Shu and Wu factions were destined to fall (a simple matter of geography and population size that their land can sustain), I am curious to see if Koei is able to create a chain of believable scenarios where they don't get wiped out. I am under the impression that the hypothetical scenarios exist to let certain playable characters outlive their historical selves. The most obvious case of this would be Guo Jia, whose cause of death in the novel was illness - how is completing certain battle objectives going to change that? That said, in the novel Cao Cao did lament after his loss at the battle of Red Cliffs that it would not have happened if Guo Jia was still with him - having him there would be a valid justification for any changes in the battle's outcome.