The Encyclopedia feature gives a description of each officer in Dynasty Warriors 5, including every non-player character.

Xtreme Mode is a parallel to Shura Mode in Shin Sangokumusou 4: Special, in which the objective of the game is for the human-controlled character to survive as long as possible while collecting gold dropped by enemies to regain health and increase stats temporarily.

In Destiny Mode, the player creates a custom character before being asked to join the Kingdom of Shu, Wei and Wu.

A unique feature of Destiny Mode is that at times the player is given the option to betray one force, while setting a ruse for another.

If the player defers the offer to switch sides their commander may approach them in the hopes of creating a ruse to destroy the opposing force.

It includes gamepad support, allowing the user to use PlayStation 2 or Xbox 360-style controllers compatible with Windows.

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires was released on March 28, 2006 for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 video game consoles.

Battle tactics can be discussed, a feature of other titles in the strategy genre, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Time limits can also be altered to fit your needs, also special tactics can be used to turn the tides of battle.

Many of the stages are recreations of notable battles present historically or from the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while original creations became more common with the newer installments.

Koei published a series of trading card game (「真・三國無双 4」トレーディングカードゲーム) based on Dynasty Warriors 5 in 2005-7-29.

There are total 266 cards in the game, including 36 commander, 160 general, 35 strategy, 15 trap, 20 item.