Those who went with the Xbox One as their next-generation console of choice never played Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition. While the original game made it to the Xbox 360, the expanded version skipped Microsoft's console in favor of the PS4 and the PC, marking the debut of the series on the latter platform. Worried Musou fans were relieved when they got Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate in September, only to be forgotten once more when Samurai Warriors 4 rolled around exclusively for the PlayStation platforms. Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires marks the return of the series to the Xbox One, and it's the final iteration before the almost inevitable ninth game hits.

Like previous Dynasty Warriors games, DW8: Empires places you in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era in ancient China. Players choose from a cast of over 70 fighters as they go through the historical eras to unite and conquer the nation. Unlike the main series, where you must plow through stages to reach the conclusion of an era, you'll employ some strategy with the combat. Whether it's invading neighboring lands, defending territories from invasion, bolstering resources, or making alliances, you'll engage in other activities to help your kingdom.

The characters you choose actually make a difference in the field of battle. In terms of combat, each of the fighters sports their own weapons and distinct combos. Selecting between fighters whose primary weapons are dual blades, for example, yields two different fighting styles. You can acquire and use secondary weapons to switch things up, so there's some variety available in combat after selecting your fighter and style. New to the series is Xun Yu, an officer in the Cao Wei Dynasty who uses a special staff that lets him create areas of electrical force after specific combos. Though not historically accurate, it introduces a different fighting style that feels rather fresh. Unfortunately, he's the only new addition to the cast, so those hoping for a larger upgrade like the seven new members in the transition from Dynasty Warriors 8 to Xtreme Legends will be disappointed.

The other difference in character selection deals with the rate at which you can progress in conquering China. In essence, there are three different ranks you can start with, and there are abilities associated with each rank. Officers represent the lowest rank a character can have and, unsurprisingly, the majority of the characters you play are of the Free Officer class, which means they wander around until they find a Ruler to take them in. From there, they take on various odd jobs to build up their income, rank and troop count. They also earn various titles based on their actions, including becoming sworn siblings of other officers and starting a family. No matter what, you're called into fights based on the Ruler's whims, and prolonged success can promote you to the Prefect class.

In the Prefect class, you are in charge of some of your Ruler's land, so you're responsible for maintaining its status and protecting it from invading forces. You'll also gain some benefits, such as periodic gifts and the chance to invade other lands. You're still under the mercy of your Ruler's whims in regards to invading strategies, but you can interject at given opportunities with the hope of modifying things to your liking. Rulers, on the other hand, have complete control over the ebb and flow of their invasion tactics, but they must also worry about making alliances and getting temporary boosts in soldier numbers to put up a better fight against enemies. Like Prefects, they must maintain their governing lands and ensure that their officers are happy enough to not overthrow them.

No matter which class, you'll always have a few different mission types. Side missions are short enough that they can be finished quickly. You'll escort important figures from one spot on the battlefield to another or rid the land of bandits and wild animals. You'll also engage in a few stealth missions where you have to reach a specific enemy before being spotted, though it is so easy to avoid detection that they're not very enjoyable. If you get invaded, you'll partake in defense missions, where you must protect your main base from being taken over during the allotted time period.

Both Invasion and Raid missions make up a bulk of the battle scenarios, and the only difference is whether you obtain new territory by the end. In both mission types, you'll assemble an army of officers and soldiers to man your main and secondary bases in a battlefield while the enemy forces do the same. Your goal is to take over as many of the secondary bases as possible by eliminating the occupying enemies, whittling a rather high number down to zero. Do this enough times, and the main Officer or Ruler shows up at their main base. Killing him or her wins you the battle.

The series is famous for its combat, and that's on full display here. You still maintain the role of the all-powerful fighter as you wipe out hordes of enemies that don't bother to fight back. Enemies come in large groups but almost always stay in their bases, venturing forth only when an officer decides to make a play for a base. Most of the time, those officers don't bother to attack, but every once in a while, they do so in a way that you can't interrupt their moves, so their attacks are quite cheap since you can get hit multiple times on the ground without having a chance to counter. For the most part, combat is easy enough that you can rely on one weapon and combo string to get the job done.

The problem is that everything is highly dependent on grinding and repetition. Those who aren't playing as Rulers will often go after side missions to pass the time as their leaders slowly overtake territories. Though Prefects have more power and activities than Officers, the increase is slight enough to be imperceptible in practice to all but die-hard fans. You'll see the same environments several times over, and the presence of a new stage fails to excite. Raids and Invasions can be quickly beaten with the same strategy of hitting one or two secondary bases before rushing in to the main one.

Since the goal of every era is to conquer China, the only variation you can anticipate is the starting territory setup. Even though there are seven lengthy eras to run with, they all blend together, and when playing as anything other than a Ruler, things become excruciatingly slow, further highlighting all of the previously mentioned issues. Longtime players of the Empires spin-off series will recognize that this is the same pattern in previous entries, but with both the Warriors Orochi and Samurai Warriors series making great strides to improve the formula, it is disappointing to see this one stubbornly stick to the basics.

Aside from the Free and Online modes that let you play out any mission with the desired parameters, DW8: Empires features an Edit mode. As before, you can create an officer of your choosing to use in all of the game modes, and there's a very generous number of cosmetic options available, including cool anachronisms like headphones and sunglasses. Fighting styles can be adopted from other characters, and the same can be done for the various special moves, so you can create a wildly varied fighter. Creation has expanded greatly with this iteration, as you can now create things like your own banners, horses and troops. You can even create custom scenarios to share online, making some of the battles a little more interesting. The only thing you can't do here is import images for your banner like you could in the PS4 version, giving that platform a slight edge in this regard.

One of the more interesting things about the Xbox One iteration is in the DLC. At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any except for some cosmetic items that were given to those who pre-ordered the title. The same goes for the PS4 version. None of this would be worth mentioning if it weren't for the fact that the PC version has a slew of DLC in the form of music and costumes. It is rather odd that there isn't parity between the platforms, but with a free-to-play version hitting consoles in about a month, there is a possibility that the same thing could hit the console versions relatively soon.

Much like Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, the graphics don't seem to take advantage of the new hardware. The only hint that you have that this is on newer hardware is the increase in the number of soldiers that can be on-screen at the same time. The frame rate may be solid, but there doesn't seem to be anything here that would really stress out the engine. Character models look fine for the named officers but aren't up to the level of detail one would expect in the new console generation. Particle effects are decent to borderline broken, especially in the snow-capped levels, where shadowed areas appear banded instead of solid. Textures are rather bland, and there's a good amount of pop-up in faraway environmental pieces and in the soldiers. The pop-up appears so close to the player's field of vision that enemies and allies alike suddenly teleport in. It looks sloppy, and the hope is that the next numbered version of the game will finally get rid of these longstanding issues.

Like the rest of the game, the sound goes back to its roots, for better or worse. The score is comprised entirely of guitar rock that sounds much like it did in previous iterations. It is the sort of music that is simply there, failing to make battles any better but not exactly making them worse. Sound effects also remain unchanged, but they're rather good, with the sounds of steel hitting bodies and bodies crumpling to the ground. There isn't any use of surround sound, though, so there's a definite lack of immersion in this area. As for voices, it's strictly Japanese this time around with English subtitles, a move that adds some seriousness to what would otherwise be some badly spoken cheesy lines.

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires breaks Omega Force's streak in releasing games that can change the minds of series critics. By reverting back to basics with so few modes, the title returns to something of a monotonous grind if you aren't playing as the kingdom leader. Campaigns blend into one another and have very few differentiating factors between them. The creation system is vast but not as much as the PS4 version, and the lack of modes makes the game feel quite small, even though the campaign can last countless hours. It spares Xbox One owners from dealing with a deluge of cosmetic DLC, and it doesn't have to compete with too many other Musou games on this platform. However, it is still the weakest in the series thus far and can only be recommended to lapsed fans and die-hard fans who play all of the entries.

Score: 6.0/10