Game:

Dynasty Warriors 3 (2001)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 3:20:17

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1

General info here: https://pastebin.com/9XVJyHV9
Link to playlist with all the playthroughs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP_HRkMmTI50Ms_tQ14MwPjP_ceTw5yY

Note: This playthrough uses a relatively recently discovered patch, which disables the auto lock-on system that normally locks the player onto the first enemy they hit with a normal attack, making it impossible to turn afterwards. (see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHUzuyzu1k4)

The reason for using the Chinese version is simply to show off the dub since I haven't seen much footage of it around. For that reason I play with event cutscenes on and don't skip them.
For weapon stats, the main ones that actually matter if I get them are Musou Charge 無雙增加量
and Attack Power 攻擊力
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(Unfortunately, I realized too late recording these that clearing Dian Wei puts him in a lot of stages after he's supposed to be historically dead, to the point it feels like he's suddenly in every battle against Wei, while the people he replaces appear half as often now maybe. Dian Wei will steal appearances from Xiahou Dun, Zhenji, Xu Huang, and Zhang He.)

Dian Wei is one of the "bigger, stronger" officers. What that translates to in-game unfortunately is that he is slow and lacks both attack speed and attack range. A lot of his moveset is meant for 1v1, except we're in a game that's often 1v10 instead, so he struggles in crowds.
His Musou Attack is weak because of juggling and the awkward range where the left-handed strikes have less range than the right-handed axe swings.
At least with the lock-on gone, the charge attacks are all aimable, so the C4 Axe Throw can be freely rotated, and the C6 vertical shockwave becomes an actually usable attack instead of flying right by enemies.
His unique weapon has only three stats, but they are all useful: Musou Charge, Attack, and Life, as well as a Lightning element effect on C6. The combination of Musou Charge and Life quite reckless play, as his Musou bar is short and fills up rather quickly with the weapon.

Stage-wise, it's the same as Zhenji's stages, except some of the starting locations are different, Hu Lao Gate is first, and instead of Raid on Rogue Fortress Dian Wei gets Wan Castle.

Hu Lao Gate is quite painful because of the lack of speed/range/everything. You can't even really combo with Dian Wei at that point either. Most realistic option is using the True Musou attack in low health, as that one hits 8 times by itself.

Wan Castle has a victory condition for Cao Cao escaping, but it is impossible to show here, as he will not retreat until after Dian Wei dies in battle. The battle itself for Dian Wei is pretty much just fighting off all the enemies that run to your position. Huche'er is the officer to defeat to spawn Dian Wei's unique weapon. The supply team carrying the weapon then spawns near the starting position of Huche'er.

Afterwards, the longer life bar helps out a fair bit, and even with it there's plenty of close calls since the enemy officers still hit very hard, and Dian Wei doesn't move forward much during attacking..

This playthrough is the last time we get to see Wei's Shi Ting, as no one else will have it after this.
The entire Wu army is being supplied from a single gate in the south, so after you defend one fortress, it's best to help your allies who will recklessly charge forward - which is quite funny since the very first line the commander says at the start of the battle is basically to 'defend and wait for further orders' - and since you're there, you might as well shut the gate down at that point. I've had Zhang He survive the rest of the stage afterwards, but he does get himself killed often enough even with help. If you don't assist him, he'll die every time.
At the end of the battle I discard a weapon with Attack+16 which is quite dumb, but I wasn't quite thinking of the weapon collection at that moment (and Dian Wei's unique weapon has more Attack on it, so I guess that influenced my decision as well. I got another third weapon in Free Mode later.)

He Fei Castle was a bit problematic, as the inability to properly combo catches up with Dian Wei, where he doesn't deal much damage to enemies even with the bonuses on his unique weapon. Thankfully the Musou Charge and Life upgrades let him power through the stage still.
You can see at the very end of the video that even after He Fei Castle neither his Attack nor Defense are maxed yet.

At this point:
6/32 Characters Done
6/12 Rare Items Obtained
11/13 Regular Items are at or above 75% of their maximum value

Chapters:
00:00 Start
00:20 The Battle at Hu Lao Gate
40:33 The Battle at Wan Castle
01:01:20 The Battle at Chang Ban
01:23:46 The Battle at Chi Bi
01:59:19 The Battle at He Fei
02:19:06 The Battle at Shi Ting
02:45:37 The Siege of He Fei Castle
03:15:41 Ending (Text)
03:17:08 Ending (Cutscenes)

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