Easily one of the best cinematic experience I've had the pleasure of having regarding the Three Kingdoms Era of 3rd Century China. My first formal experience with Dynasty Warriors and this is a great start.

My main gripe is you auto start with stupid strong weapons due to having all the DLC but it's w/e.

♥♥♥♥ SUN QUAN.

Sidescrolling shmup with boring enemies and repetitive combat. The game starts easy and gets progressively easier with dodging and improved weapons to the point where the difficulty comes from bullet sponge enemies which can be ignored if you don't care for leveling all the weapons. Some of the best levels are the end challenge levels that are never replicated in the rest of the game. It doesn't help that none of the weapons feel sastifying to use due to lack of audio punch or damage even at max level.

Story is fine but the cutscenes for leveling and with Lucas disrupt the gameplay to a severe extent. Music and visuals are appealing but some background get repeated making the later levels feel less unique. As a result the game becomes repetitive very quickly and the insta-kill zones in the later levels do not help the situation. Cally's Caves 2 doesn't engage the player and becomes a chore to complete.

I do not recommend playing the game.