Musou Games: Things That Make Me Go "Weeeeeee!"

A sizable number of the games that Tecmo Koei have ported to PC have turned out pretty terrible. One exception to this is Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends, which is actually quite good. I've been playing it of late, as RWBY had whet my appetite for more games like this, and the game has reminded me of two things. First, these musou (aka Warriors) games pitting players against hundreds upon hundreds of enemies to hack and slash their way through are surprisingly fun for something so simple. Second, the practice of removing the first "E" from "extreme" is something that really should just be left in the 90s.

Now, I'm not one of those people who religiously goes out and gets every single iteration of Dynasty Warriors that hits the market. I've never been able to justify that, and ditto for similar series like Samurai Warriors or Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. However, I do like to keep abreast of them and grab something new every few years, at least once per generation cycle.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam

There is something so very appealing about hearing the crunch of your weapon tearing through a dozen or so enemy troops and watching them go flying as your character does his moves, doing combos, building meter, and unloading special attacks. Add on top of this that there are so many different characters with their own weapon types plus various factions to play as, and then you have a whole lot of replay value on your hands.

Some folks are quick to dismiss these games as being mindless. Sure, they aren't on the same level as Bayonetta, the Devil May Cry series, or God Hand, but they aren't trying to be. The beauty of series like Dynasty Warriors is that it taps into a primal joy while playing them. It's an environment where you can turn off your brain, run around a map, smash, slash, and bash all of the things, and love every minute of it as the flashes, combo counts, and KOs mount up. As much as the word gets overused these days, it really is a wonderfully visceral experience playing these games.

Hyrule Warriors

Even better, they've been branching out over time. At one point, it was nothing but Dynasty Warriors if you wanted to play something like this. Then we started to see other games doing this like Samurai Warriors. Now we even have licenses. Want some musou Gundam? Go for it. Fancy a bit of Dragon Quest musou? Try out Dragon Quest Heroes. Want to fight hordes and hordes of baddies in Hyrule? Go get Hyrule Warriors.

It's early days yet, but I could see this trend continuing. There's certainly an appetite for it. What will we see next in the world of musou? Persona? Final Fantasy? Obviously, a Star Wars musou would be amazing. There's a lot of potential for these sorts of games still. They're simple, but can really pull a person in as they run around slashing up everything, shouting, "Weeeeeee!" all the while.