Since the franchise’s musou-driven mechanics were first established in 2000’s Dynasty Warriors 2, developer Omega Force has offered increasingly loose interpretations of the source material. Concurrently, the recent release of Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita demonstrates unification- appending mislaid characters such as Chen Gong, Lü Lingqi into Dynasty Warriors 8’s already profuse cornucopia of content.

A sprawling series which has spawned eight main iterations, a variety of spin-offs and tactically-rooted variants, as well as offshoots situated in the worlds of Gundam, One Piece, and Fist of the North Star, the Tecmo-Koei property has splintered into a mini-industry.

The opening lines of Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms encapsulate not only the cyclical destiny of a post-Han Dynasty China, but also the trajectory of the Dynasty Warriors franchise. “It is a general truism of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide.”

Dynasty warriors 8 pc online