Game:

Dynasty Warriors 3 (2001)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 3:36:48

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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)

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Zhang Jiao's story is all about protecting peasants on his not quite 40 years journey through China. Every stage has peasant units, and if all get wiped out, it's a game over.
His C4, C6, and Musou automatically have the Fire element, making them the main method of offense for the entire playthrough. Musou also causes KO screams on every hit, including every hit of the finisher.
C4 in particular can now be spun around for full 360 coverage, and often enough you can fool the enemy into approaching you and then you hit them with the very end of the attack. If you do hit them with the very end and they do the animation of slowly falling over, there can be enough time for a quick jump attack to juggle the enemy.
C6 is a pretty good attack, firing a massive fireball (it's actually five small fireballs all fired at the same time). You can extend the attack by pressing charge multiple times, but the extensions only fire one fireball at a time, and the awkward juggling just makes the 5x fireball miss, so it's better not to even bother with the extra inputs.
If you keep turning as the 5x fireball shot happens, you can see it spread out.

The first stage is rough, as Zhang Jiao's attacks are overall terribly weak, and don't have much range. By the time I'm done with two units, most of the allied army is dead already, including the peasants. Thankfully, one of the peasant groups is placed inside the center fortress, where He Jin is in the normal Yellow Turban Rebellion.

The second stage is just the Mountain Bandit Campaign, just with new lines for Zhang Jiao. There's one difference here that the loss condition has been changed from all peasants being defeated to either two or three groups out of the five.

Chang Ban is basically like a Shu Chang Ban, with Yuan Shao and Liu Bei doing the pursuing. Zhang Jiao can do the bridge scene here, terrifying the enemy by swaying from side to side a lot. Liu Bei has a cutscene with Zhang Jiao after which we pulls back. Not that it makes that much sense considering he will show up again in later stages. Guess his conscience doesn't run that deep.

Assault by Liu Biao has the enemy doing a rockslide attack, and immediately Zhang Jiao retaliates with one of his own. I don't think either of the events actually do anything, though. Also very honorable of the enemy forces to ambush the civilians.

Chi Bi is probably the simplest of the long stages. Zhang Liang's magic moving the ships raises the morale of all allies so much they'll have no problems beating enemies without further assistance even on Hard difficulty.
Killing Sun Jian and Zhou Yu quickly speeds up the enemy reinforcements appearing, so I took my time on purpose.

At Yi Ling, Liu Bei is back yet again, still not having had enough. The peasants wait before deciding which way to take. If you defeat either Ma Chao or Zhao Yun fast enough, the peasants will go in whichever direction you clear out. If you take too long, they will split up and advance regardless. One path is through the Stone Sentinel Maze, and the other is around it to the left. The escape point is in the lower left corner.
I'm not sure what happened, as one of the peasant units refused to die despite being completely surrounded by enemies for quite some time.
There is a unique item here for letting Huang Zhong survive for 10 minutes. The item spawns with a supply unit up north in the main camp. At first I figured I would have to ignore it, but it turned out to be barely possible to get back in time before the allies defeat the supply unit. All possible thanks to that one undying peasant.

Nanman Campaign — Approaching Wutugu while playing as Zhang Jiao will instantly get rid of him through a cutscene. You also get his Attack+ drop for free this way. Then Zhuge Liang shows up. Most of the ambush is part of his unit, so getting rid of him first is the simplest option.
After getting rid of the Shu remnants, it's just pushing for Meng Huo's camp using the usual route.

And then they lived happily ever after in tropical paradise (?).

Fun fact: Liu Bei's group at Yi Ling (with the exception of Zhuge Liang) are the only ones who actually die in this story. Everyone else gets to retreat.

00:00 Start
00:24 The Battle at Ru Nan
39:39 Mountain Bandit Campaign
50:42 The Battle at Chang Ban
01:27:09 Surprise Attack by Liu Biao
01:54:41 The Battle at Chi Bi
02:20:48 The Battle at Yi Ling
02:54:29 Nanman Campaign
03:22:13 Ending (Text)
03:23:42 Ending (Cutscenes)

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