Actually quite a bit better than I remembered. Compared to DYNASTY WARRIORS 7 this has much more engaging gameplay and is fuller-featured. But it seems like to achieve those steps forward they had to scale back the presentation significantly, and that's a shame given how strong 7 was in that regard. There is a TON of story content, but it's not particularly well done, with lots of important aspects of the narrative skipped over and mainly in-engine cutscenes which can be janky and ruin some of the drama. Overall there's less of a focus on the individual characters besides the big ones. Also, there are some notable corners cut here and there - missing v/o, an abundance of typos, graphical oversights. It seems a little bit like quality was sacrificed for quantity.

Honestly you could make an argument for this over 7, but personally, I can't put it there. It's frustrating that there has never been a best one of these games in all aspects.