Dynasty Wars

Dynasty Wars, known as Tenchi wo Kurau (天地を喰らう) in Japan, is an arcade beat em' up game released by Capcom in 1989. The licensed game is based on Hiroshi Motomiya's manga series Tenchi wo Kurau ("Heaven And Earth Destroyed" in English), which follows the story of popular Chinese historical figure Liu Bei and his sworn brothers. The story itself is loosely based on the events of Luo Guanzhong's dramatic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms which in turn is based on the real-life historical events and battles which occurred during the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China.

Gameplay

The player rides around on horseback throughout the entire game. There are three buttons. Two of them are attack buttons, one being for attacking left and one attacking right (similar to Section Z and Side Arms Hyper Dyne. There are four characters the player can play as. There are eight stages total, and there is also an RPG element to the game where the player can level up.

This was the first Capcom game that let players choose from different characters to play as, and while it remains completely unknown, it's an important part of the company's history being the first game to use such a feature.

Story

"When power centralizes for too long, it always splits. However, disrupted power is doomed to be reunited. It has been 400 years since Liu Ho, the founder of the Han Dynasty, established the country. The Han Dynasty was about to face a troubled time. We swear, we will die together. Even though we were born separately".

Characters

Front of Dynasty Wars arcade flyer (USA)

• Liu Bei - He is a descendant of Emperor Kei of the Han Dynasty. He swears to be brothers with Kuan Yu and Shong Fei to defeat Huang Ching.

• Kuan Yu - He is not only a great warrior who defeated many famous, but also educated and well-mannered.

• Shong Fei (spelled Shang Fei during his profile in the intro) - He stands in the middle of a bridge and brandishes his snake halberd to put thousands of his enemies to rout. He is as strong and powerful as Kuan Yu.

• Shao Yun - He is a true warrior who sweeps through millions of enemies with ease.

• Thung Chok - Main antagonist of the second chapter. He tyrannizes the imperial court along with his top officer Li Pu.

Legacy

• Capcom made four more Tenchi wo Kurau games. Two for the Famicom, another arcade game, and one for the Super Famicom. The first Famicom game was ported to the Famicom's English counterpart, the NES, under the name Destiny of an Emperor which is an RPG and the game was later ported to the Game Boy. The second Famicom game, Tenchi wo Kurau II, was released only in Japan. The second arcade game was released in English as Warriors of Fate and it is a beat 'em up much in the vein of Final Fight and Captain Commando, it was later ported to ported to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation. The Super Famicom game, Tenchi wo Kurau: Sangokushi Gunyuuden, was the final Tenchi wo Kurau game developed by Capcom.

Trivia

• The music for Dynasty Wars is done by Manami Matsumae, composer of Mega Man and co-composer of Mega Man II. In the end credits of the game, which the player can only see by beating the game without continuing, Matsumae is credited as M. Goto. Gotoh is her maiden name.

• The English and Japanese versions have different voice acting and speech samples (vocal sounds for character actions). The English version, of course, has them in English, and the Japanese one in Japanese.
  • In the Japanese version of the game, the announcer at the player select screen is a woman, whereas in the English version, the announcer on the character select screen is a man.
  • Also in the Japanese version, there is no voice acting during the cut scene, whereas one of the enemy generals says, "You're going to get my head? You make me laugh! Come to see me at Ton Men Gu!" in the English version.

Credits

Arcade Version

Produce: K Okamoto
Game Design: Poo, S Sato, K Kataoka
Program: Y Mutsunobu, M Kobayashi, Y Tsunasaki
Obj Design: Kurichan, Y Tamago, M Tanabe, M Matsuura, S Sakashita
Scr Design: Fukumoyan, M Konishi, M Miyao, K Koizumi
Sound Music: M Goto
Illustration: S Shintani
Special Thanks: M Shinohara, N Ogawa, Bamboo, Nin
Presented by: Capcom

Gallery

Screenshots

Dynasty Wars character select screen

External Link

• Wikipedia article