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[Ma Su]

Some information about the game has come out so starting a thread on it.

[Ma Su]

DW7 Empires will have Xu Shu as a new character

Xu Shu's look, thanks to Saber at koeiwarriors for that.

A new character for empires? I'm guessing a marketing strategy but hope they have thought through how to implement the XL and empire new guys to the next main game.

Clothing nice but slightly seen it all before, I like the facial hair and spiky hair which nicely reflects his pre-scholar days.

In terms of him as an add, does seem like a Fatisuma based poll choice rather then a particularly strong choice. Can't say I'm particularly happy with this choice, more slightly bemused.  Personality is doable, the former swordsman turned serious scholar whose past won't let him forget and who loves his mum. Judging by the look, they might not go for the serious part. I'm not sure he is a particularly good add, yes he plays a decent part in Shu's rise (Liu Bei's first novel strategist) and wins one battle for them against the novel Cao Cao... then he leaves. Add in the Chi Bi chat with Pang Tong. Then that's it. In history, he serves as a law officer and in novel, he refuses to serve Wei so it ends there. The Chi Bi scene can be done by a cut-scene, the battle against Cao Ren though gets absorbed into Bowang Po so what battles is he going to have? I can see Bowang, Chang Ban and Chi Bi, then what do they do with him?

The biggest issue is the Wei/Shu/Xu Shu's mother issue. Personally, I would suggest just following history: his mother falls into Wei hands at Chang Ban, Xu Shu considers duty to family and lord before picking family, serves Wei ( we can ignore lack of battles part of that). They can jazz up the heart-ache of making the decision, weepy farewells and so on, in later battles then can be scenes between him and Shu guys, hopefully without insulting Wei. If they do that, might want to balance it with one of ex-Wei officers sometimes missing his old kingdom.

What I worry is they will go the novel route. It's a good tale, makes Wei evil and thus makes Shu look better, it has clever schemes, it should have more emotional power, as long as you don't find the mother the most annoying character in the book, the after-effect could be great for Xu Shu's story. However I see two problems: 1) the mother. The wise, virtuous woman came across badly for me in the novel but fair enough, others like her. However I suspect such a hard lady who might get only one or two scenes could come across very badly, I think they would have to change her personality. 2) It would send Wei back to the kingdom of evil rather then the kingdom of well-meant ruthlessness. It will alter the balance, Shu has always been the goodies but DW Wei has moved away from evil towards a more ruthless but well-meaning alternative. The act here is one of those things that I don't think koei can attempt to do if they wish Wei to remain as an alternative rather then evil, it is such an unpleasant deed.

[Sazac]

Xu Shu's look is pretty cool, though I prefer him with the hood. It just looks better. Hopefully it will be an alternate costume.

As for the evilness of the ploy, I'm not sure if holding a person captive could be more evil then copying someone's handwriting. Maybe if you account for Xu Shu's mother's suicide, but I doubt that they would. They are trying to make a Teen game here.

You also have to take into account how they did that part in DW7 - Xu Shu appears out of nowhere, wins Liu Bei the battle, then rides off into the sunset after suggesting he find Zhuge Liang. I hope they don't do that, because that part was pretty bad, but they might.

[Ma Su]

Going history and it is an accident of circumstance that she ends up in Wei's hands and she isn't used as a hostage. Kidnapping an old lady on the other hand to get to her son? That's on the line of stealing candy from babies and kicking puppies.

On the second part, why have him if not to have the mother/lord turmoil.

[Sazac]

It wouldn't surprise me if Koei just added him to fill out the roster, just to say, "Lookie here! Shiny new Characters!", unfortunately.

Though Wei didn't actually kidnap his mother, Cheng Yu just copied her handwriting and claimed she was kidnapped. A bit of a difference, and it could be altered slightly to eliminate the whole "hostage" bit.

For example, "Dear son, I'm sick and dying and stuff. Come get a job over here and take care of me. -Mom.
PS It's cold up here, so pack a sweater!"

[Ma Su]

They tricked her into a place where they could keep her prisoner and use her. Think that counts as kidnapping (and fraud ) but either way, it is not going to make Cao Cao look very good.

The last bit is where I think they could well go and done right, work effectively. Also I sadly agree with your statement on why they might have added him, that or the Futsima (probably got name wrong? Japanese magazine?) poll

[Sazac]

Ah well. I suppose we won't really know until DW8. If they even plan on keeping him, they may choose to cut him for the main series. Empires isn't exactly a storyline-heavy game, so things may change.

It's "Famitsu" I can only remember the name by starting to spell "Family", then just adding the last three letters.


Speaking of Famitsu, I was on their website, translated with Chrome, and I noticed something interesting. They said, "Supremacy is becoming the main mode of this work. "Become a mercenary in the opposition, strive to discipline"" While this extremely rough translation is hard to read, what I got out of it is that they are focusing on the Officer mode more then the leader mode, maybe? If so, that would be very strange for a strategy-focused version of the game. Of course, as a direct translation it's more likely that I'm just misunderstanding what they say, but that whole paragraph seems to be about Officer mode.

[emerl103]

ill say what i said in another thread bout this game...xu shu looks like Ma dai and magoichi saka

[Sazac]

Trailers for everyone!

EDIT: Quick question about Xu Shu's weapon: Does anyone know if it's any particular martial arts fighting style/weapon? Or is it just a sword-on-a-string?

[XLR8]

This ought to bring some life into the forum! And I hope this game's gonna be good - I didn't buy XL because I didn't think it'd be worth it, but empires could be different.

[zhou-gundam]

so based on what i can find out it looks like that this game is another Playstation exclusive like Xtreme Legends, any word if that is true or not?

[Sazac]

so based on what i can find out it looks like that this game is another Playstation exclusive like Xtreme Legends, any word if that is true or not?

According to Insp. Chin, yes. Also, the game will apparently feature only Japanese voice actors, which really sucks. Doubt I'll pick the game up if that's actually the case.

[zhou-gundam]

okay, just wondering...i don't mind so much that the game has only japanese voice actors. as long the game is in english voices really doesn't matter, i'm a diehard anime watcher and 9 times out of 10 i prefer subs over dubs. i'm gonna get this title because i love DW games and Empires are always awesome to play, not to mention its gonna finish up my DW7 line up

[emerl103]

okay, just wondering...i don't mind so much that the game has only japanese voice actors. as long the game is in english voices really doesn't matter

soo... you want japanese voice actors to use english voices???

[zhou-gundam]

english menus and sub titles