Dynasty Warriors 4 (真・三國無双3 Shin Sangokumusō 3?, Shin Sangokumusou 3 in Japan) is a hack and slash video game and the fourth installment in the popular Dynasty Warriors series. Dynasty Warriors 4 was developed by Omega Force and published by Koei. The game is available on PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Xbox and is based on a series of books called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong. As the series has progressed, it has strayed further from the actual plot of Romance of the Three Kingdoms but instead has given the user more input on how the storyline progresses. When it was released in Japan as Shin Sangokumusou 3, it topped the sales charts, sold over one million copies within nine days,[2] and received an average of 78 out of 100 on Metacritics reviews.[3]
Originally released on the PS2 in March 2003, it was later ported to the Xbox in September of the same year and, in 2005, ported to the PC under the name Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper. Two expansions were released for the PS2 version of the game, Xtreme Legends and Empires. Whereas Xtreme Legends requires the player to use the original Dynasty Warriors 4 disc to access all of its features, Empires is a stand-alone game and can be played with all of its content without the use of the original disk. The game is the first in the Dynasty Warriors series to introduce an Empires expansion pack and the second to include an Xtreme Legends title. These expansions are not available for the Xbox version of the game.
Dynasty Warriors 4 is set in Ancient China during the time of the Three Kingdoms era. The game begins at the fall of the Han Dynasty, shortly after the death of Emperor Ling when the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao begun an uprising against the Empire. A number of elements in the game build on aspects of Chinese Mythology and there is a mix between fact and fiction as the game is built on the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Many of the locations, characters, and events in Dynasty Warriors 4 are reported to have happened in Chinese history although many have been exaggerated to make the game more appealing to the player. There are also some features that are historically inaccurate such as Zhou Tai’s weapon, a Japanese tachi, as there is no historical record of this kind of weapon being used in that era. The game features environments resembling that of ancient China and various items from the era. Common items throughout the game include Fairy Wine and Dim Sum’s.
