Dynasty Warriors Online : An interview with Aeria Games

Dynasty Warriors is a series that some love, some hate. To the haters, it’s obvious that every single game is identical, perhaps with a slight character shake-up to make it seem like the poor fools buying are getting something new for their buck. For people who love the series, people like me, it’s a fairly deep game based on a fantastic novel and each major release is an incredible event. The people who hate the series can’t understand how it continues to be a success, the people that love it can’t understand how anybody could ever question it. In Dynasty Warriors Online, Koei took their best loved series into the MMO domain. Read more about it in our DWO interview with Aeria

Dynasty Warriors Online goes West : An interview with AERIA

In 2010, Aeria games finally brought the series to the west. It had been long-awaited by fans eager to get into the action, but faltering US sales and some negative critique for the series meant that people who wanted to play had to wait a full four years for the game to be playable in English. In the end it was worth it; boasting an increased release schedule and, like all of Aeria’s games, a free-to-play model, Dynasty Warriors Online was a very important part of the series and it was the first time many people would have gotten to play it. When they finally got to play, however, it wasn’t a million miles away from what they would have experienced if they’d just downloaded the non-English version of the game.

Dynasty Warriors Online interview with AERIA

“Very little was changed from the original game for publication in North America,” Aeria told us. “We have welcomed players who were waiting for a version of this game to be released in English, many with prior play experience from the game in another language. What’s different with our published version is the release schedule for such content as weapons and gear. We cater to the community’s desire for the more popular and highly sought-after weapons and gear.”

Launching the game four years on would prove challenging, despite the fact that much of the game itself was ready to go. It wasn’t the last of the hard work either: continuing to support the game post-launch would mean catching up with four years’ worth of content drops from Koei. Not only did people know exactly what they wanted from the game coming in, but they knew exactly what updates they wanted as well. Ultimately, their work would be successful and it didn’t take long to move the story along to a point where players worldwide were on the same page.

“The main obstacle we had to overcome was the fact that we were behind in content; four years of content. But we’ve worked really close with KOEI to ensure we not only caught up to the current content updates released in Japan, but also did so in a way that players were still able to enjoy the storyline and progress through the game naturally. We are in constant contact with KOEI to make sure we stay on track to release the regular updates, and are up to date on the current content.”

Taking a look at the official Dynasty Warriors Online site, there have been literally hundreds of updates, new items, deals on items (the game is free-to-play but supported by micro transactions) and general maintenance in little more than a year and a half. This wasn’t a game that Aeria acquired with which they wanted to make a quick buck from the name, this is something they have really tried to keep alive. Considering some people’s reaction to recent entries into the series, especially in North America, it’s surprising that they’d be willing to put so much effort into the title.

The complaints are numerous and usually from people who don’t actually play the games. “All you have to do is mash buttons.” “Every game has you playing the same maps with the same characters.” “The story never changes.” In some ways they’re fair complaints, but voiced far too often. For Aeria to publish Dynasty Warriors Online, it would have to manage to surpass some or all of these problems.

“DWO has had its fair share of obstacles, but the game remains successful. Our players enjoy the multiple factions, ongoing storyline and competitive nature of the game. The elements of forming Guilds and using teamwork to accomplish faction wide goals, and also the competitiveness between the factions are what keep the game interesting and new every day. By taking the familiar game play formula and applying it to a multi-player setting, fans of the series will now be able to enjoy the same world and storyline in a whole new way.”

When you look at the Dynasty Warriors series, there really is a lot that would appeal to the MMO market. Vast battles, an element of tactical combat, lots of weapons/costumes to collect or buy. If you enjoy the gameplay - and at this point if you decide to get into a Dynasty Warriors MMO there’s a good chance you’d definitely enjoy the gameplay - there’s no reason to think that you couldn’t just keep playing indefinitely, especially if Aeria plan to keep the extra content coming. They definitely felt confident about it anyway: “Given our focus on bringing a wide variety of new, fun and exciting games, it seemed natural to add DWO to our lineup.”

This concludes our Dynasty Warriors Online interview with AERIA

Dynasty Warriors Online offers long-time fans and newcomers the chance to try a new entry in the series for absolutely nothing. That seems like more than a fair deal to me. The fact that it’s actually a fun game, that it offers something different from the MMOs that people usually think of when they’re thinking about the genre, is just an extra advantage. People who hate everything Koei put out be damned; there’s nothing to lose by giving it a go and you might just be impressed.