Koei later created a new game as a spin-off and added the word shin (真, true, genuine) to the beginning of the title to differentiate it from its predecessor.
[Note 1] This is evidenced by Koei-Tecmo's celebration of the series' 20th anniversary in 2020, two decades after the release of Dynasty Warriors 2.
Dynasty Warriors 3 has two secret characters, Nü Wa and Fu Xi, that are not playable in Musou Mode.
Instead of participating in the entire set of their kingdoms' events, the characters appear only in certain battles that they had fought in, as according to the novel or factual history.
In between stages there are some dramatic cutscenes, in which the character will express their thoughts on the situation, adding a more personal touch and keeping the player updated on the events.
By fulfilling conditions in previous battles, the player can unlock a hypothetical route for each country where it manages to achieve what it failed to do in actual history.
In 2002, an Xtreme Legends (猛将伝, Mōshōden) expansion was first released for the main games, beginning with Dynasty Warriors 3.
The Xtreme Legends expansion only have the new content, and so players would require the original game disc and use the "Mixjoy" option to access all features.
A PS Vita port of Dynasty Warriors 8 was released in 2013, which includes features from the Xtreme Legends expansion for that game.
Later, in 2015, the Empires expansion of Dynasty Warriors 8 was also released on the PS Vita, notably also compatible with the PlayStation TV.
For example, Zhang He appears to be more feminine while Wei Yan becomes a bestial tribal warrior, while historical accounts depict both to be relatively normal generals with no outstanding characteristics such as these.
A touch of mysticism is also added, as some characters such as Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi and Zuo Ci have the ability to use magic in their attacks.
A total of 96 characters have been made playable at some point in the series (not counting spin-offs); however, only 94 currently make mainstay appearances as of Dynasty Warriors 9.
Other related titles include: In January 2018, the president of Koei Tecmo, Hisashi Koinuma, said that he wanted to make a Dynasty Warriors spin-off using characters and settings from the Star Wars franchise from Lucasfilm after they managed to be successful with Nioh and Fire Emblem Warriors.
However, as Electronic Arts owns the game rights to the Star Wars franchise, it would be a difficult collaboration to achieve, and is more of a future goal.
[14][15] As of 2021, EA have lost the exclusivity rights in developing Star Wars games and in the development of their other projects such as Samurai Warriors 5, Koinuma reiterated that both Super Mario and Star Wars in a Dynasty Warriors format are projects he personally wanted to do it in the future.
He also revealed that he had approached Koei Tecmo four years ago and secured the rights to adapt the Dynasty Warriors franchise into a movie.
[18] On 11 July, Shiu announced that Han Geng, Wang Kai, Louis Koo, Tony Yang and Gulnazar are part of the main cast.
[19] On 28 September 2017, director Roy Chow announced that after 63 days of filming in mainland China, the team will be moving to New Zealand in November 2017 to shoot the background scenes.
The music for the Dynasty Warriors game series is a mixture of traditional Chinese instrumentals, hard rock and heavy metal.