The final mainline Dynasty Warriors recreation I performed is so outdated that it may purchase me a drink, however I nonetheless remembered the 5 immortal phrases uttered by ardent followers after I booted up Dynasty Warriors: Origins: Don’t pursue Lu Bu. Once I first got here face-to-face with the notorious warlord in Origins, the sport spared no expense to ascertain how fearsome he’s. “That is Lu Bu… a ferocious man whose abilities are legendary,” mentioned my then-companion Cao Cao. “Do not threat your life combating him.” My mission goal modified to “Escape with Cao Cao,” and a warning flashed on the display screen saying “Be cautious of Lu Bu’s strategy!”
There is just one sacred rule on the battlefield in Dynasty Warriors. Do not. Battle. Lu Bu. Naturally I charged headfirst into Lu Bu’s course and loved about 40 seconds of intense motion earlier than he slaughtered me.
I am unable to see an enemy overrated that a lot with out getting curious. Honestly, I did not intend to combat him greater than as soon as. I used to be early in Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ marketing campaign, and I knew I would virtually actually get beat down unhealthy. But after I chipped off a sliver of Lu Bu’s well being throughout that spherical, my curiosity wasn’t sated. His assaults have been fierce, however the extensive swings of his spear and his dramatic dive assaults could not have been extra telegraphed. He wasn’t wiping me out in a single shot, so I knew I had room to make errors. And I may swear I detected a touch of disappointment when Lu Bu mentioned “…Hardly price my time” after I fell.
The sport’s telling me to run, however is it actually? If Lu Bu is meant to be unstoppable, why did Omega Power put a lot effort into making him look so surmountable? “He is proper at first of the stage, so yet one more strive,” I assumed to myself.
Twenty minutes and several other beatings later, it was “Oh, so his third hit on his bow and arrow assault has a delay, I will wait to tug off an ideal dodge there subsequent time.” After 40 minutes my bouts with Lu Bu have been lasting lengthy sufficient that Cao Cao began begging me to assist him retreat. His cries fell on deaf ears. I used to be hungry for the candy style of victory. An hour later my grind lastly got here collectively in a single near-perfect run; I made Lu Bu retreat from the battlefield, with barely sufficient time left to avoid wasting Cao Cao ultimately too.
With adrenaline coursing by my veins, my award for my tussle towards this unimaginable foe was… mainly nothing. I could not have been happier.
The aim of problem
Video games have conditioned me to undertake challenges for the sake of a reward on the finish. Optionally available bosses and sidequests usually exist to bathe us with expertise factors and loot. In any other case, a tough boss could exist to check my ability earlier than I can advance the principle story. Even most fashionable multiplayer video games supply a drip feed of beauty prizes to inspire gamers to queue for only one extra recreation. There’s nothing inherently incorrect with these methods—I benefit from the dopamine rush of leveling up and equipping good gear as a lot as anybody. So why did successful that Lu Bu combat really feel a lot extra rewarding ultimately?
Dynasty Warriors: Origins made it clear to me that I ought to have run, and in doing so it attacked my pleasure. I do not assume I am an egomaniac by nature, however you must perceive that at each alternative earlier than Lu Bu confirmed up, the sport went out of its method to stroke my ego. Few video games are as empowering as Dynasty Warriors. I’m the one true “Guardian of Peace,” the strongest swordsman within the land, and maybe most significantly, a real warrior of the Three Kingdoms. I can kill actually dozens of troopers with a single swing. By endgame I do know I will have obliterated total armies. By constructing me up so excessive, solely to dangle a clearly beatable problem in entrance of me and inform me I could not deal with it, I felt like a young person studying to say no to his dad and mom for the primary time.
Clearly, Lu Bu was fastidiously balanced so gamers may decide to defeat him as a substitute of operating away, however the combat was framed in such a method that I knew I solely engaged with him for my very own satisfaction. That was all of the reward I wanted.
It is such a intelligent trick that I fell for it once more when Lu Bu confirmed up a mere two battles later, this time on horseback and with a plethora of latest assaults to dodge. My loyal companions warned me towards difficult the legendary Lu Bu, however they could not even end their dialogue earlier than I threw myself on my horse and rushed headfirst right into a jousting match. Whatever the prize on the finish, I used to be too invested in my self-imposed rivalry with this man to disregard him. And although this was removed from the final time Lu Bu would ambush me on the battlefield, I used to be completely satisfied to see him once more.
An unlikely romance within the Three Kingdoms
If I’ve one criticism about Dynasty Warriors: Origins, it is that I might have cherished extra boss encounters like Lu Bu. There was just one different opponent throughout my playthrough that I would take into account a “boss” within the conventional sense, and these encounters achieved highs I by no means thought attainable in a Musou—a mode of recreation principally constructed round smashing legions of weaklings. I had tons of enjoyable mowing down total armies of enemy troopers as in the event that they have been blades of overgrown grass. However there’s nothing like combating for my life towards an awesome foe in the midst of a crowded battlefield as troopers on each side are caught within the crossfire till just one particular person is left standing. I am unable to muster the identical pleasure for Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ fortieth man with an enormous hammer who makes use of the very same strikes that the 39 hammer guys earlier than him did.
I started to really feel a bizarre kinship with Lu Bu. Dynasty Warriors: Origins repeatedly addressed me because the “Guardian of Peace,” but I by no means believed in that title. With my physique depend reaching into six-digit figures after my first playthrough, “peace” is the very last thing I’ve stored. In the meantime, after I see Lu Bu cost into battle on his horse, trampling total armies whereas he claims his enemy’s strongholds for himself, I understand he is going by the very same motions as I’m. In combating Lu Bu every time I see him, I break the story construction that treats him as an unbeatable foe that I have to concern. It is an act of defiance towards the title “Guardian of Peace” that exposes why I am actually right here; the sheer energy fantasy of overcoming the hardest challenges the Three Kingdoms have to supply me.
I initially thought I could be studying too arduous into my relationship with my rival, contemplating Koei Tecmo’s collection just isn’t precisely Solar Tzu. However then I spotted that Dynasty Warriors: Origins’ interpretation of Lu Bu truly reciprocates these emotions. In a sure scene that followers have interpreted as intimate to the purpose of being romantic, he expresses pleasure in lastly discovering somebody whose energy is price his consideration. It is a cursed friendship, as it’s going to inevitably finish when one in all us claims the lifetime of the opposite. On the identical time, its sincerity would not simply communicate to my in-game avatar; it addresses me because the participant behind the display screen holding the controller. In order we watch the dawn collectively, I take solace in understanding that we full one another in our pursuit of problem for the sake of problem. Whether or not that trace of disappointment I first detected in Lu Bu’s voice was actual or simply my creativeness, I am glad it led me right here.
“With you round, life won’t ever get boring—even after I’ve claimed this world,” Lu Bu confesses. “You’d higher make it by all of this alive. For you’re the just one who can supply me such amusement.”
I really feel the identical method, Lu Bu. You are price my time.
