Dynasty Warriors 9 Announced, Reinvents Series as Open-World

Dynasty Warriors 9, the latest in the long line of Japanese hack-and-slash games, has been revealed.

Publisher Koei Tecmo has said the series is going open-world for the first time with this ninth entry. You can take a look at a Japanese teaser trailer below. Don't be confused by the "8" on the title screen--in Japan, numbered Dynasty Warriors games are one behind their western releases.

According to Siliconera, producer Akihiro Suzuki has described Dynasty Warriors 9 as a "rebirth" for the series, with developer Omega Force aiming to boil down the whole of China into one in-game map. All 83 playable characters from Dynasty Warriors 8 will return, in addition to a selection of new fighters; one of these is Zhou Cang, a character from the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the book on which Dynasty Warriors is based.

Koei Tecmo had previously said in January that a "big announcement" regarding Dynasty Warriors would come this year. The last core game in the series to be released was Dynasty Warriors 8 in 2013, though that has since received a pair of expansion packs. More recently, we got a Zelda-themed spinoff, Hyrule Warriors, for Wii U and 3DS.

Further Dynasty Warriors 9 details, including a release date and which platforms the game will launch on, are currently thin on the ground, but GameSpot will keep you up-to-date with new information as we get it.