Front of Dynasty Wars arcade flyer (USA)
Dynasty Wars is an arcade game released by Capcom in 1989. The game is based on Hiroshi Motomiya's manga Tenchi wo Kurau (translates to English as Heaven And Earth Destroyed), which is set during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China. 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.
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 4 characters the player can play as. There are 8 stages total, and there is also an RPG element to the game where the player can level up.
Characters
- 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.
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".
Trivia
- The music for Dynasty Wars is done by Manami Matsumae, co-composer of Mega Man. In the end credits of the game, which the player can only see by beating the game without continuing, Matsumae is credited as M. Gotoh. Gotoh is her maiden name.
- Capcom made five more "Tenchi wo Kurau" games. Two for the Famicom, another arcade game, one for the Game Boy, 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. The second arcade game was released in english as Warriors of Fate. The former is an RPG, and the latter is a beat 'em up much in the vein of Final Fight and Captain Commando.
- 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. In the English version, 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!"
- The game and the manga are, of course, based on real events.
Gallery
