Dynasty Warriors producer would rather make new games than more remasters
Dynasty Warriors producer Tomohiko Sho says he would rather not make any more remasters.
Sho spoke in an interview with Japanese games outlet 4Gamer to mark the release of Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered, according to Video Games Chronicle. A remaster is an older game rebuilt to run on modern hardware. In this case, it is a version of the PlayStation 2 game Dynasty Warriors 3, recreated in Unreal Engine 5, a widely used development toolkit, to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
“To be honest, I don’t want to do it,” Sho said of making further remasters. He is in his 50s. He said he does not know how many more games he has left to make before retirement, so he would prefer to use that time on new games or sequels.
It is a straightforward calculation. A remaster takes months of work from artists, programmers and designers. That is months not spent on an original project. Sho said he would rather put that effort into something new.
He has not closed the door. Sho said if the Dynasty Warriors 3 remaster performs well, the chance of remastering Dynasty Warriors 4 and later entries will increase. Success here means sales and player interest strong enough to justify another project.
If that happens, it may not be his project. Sho said he is thinking of letting someone else take on the next Dynasty Warriors remaster. The series would continue. The leadership would change.
Sho has a long history with the property. He joined Koei in the 1990s and served as a planner on Dynasty Warriors 2. A planner helps design how a game plays, from combat rules to stage structure. His credit on that game matters because the series changed direction there.
The first Dynasty Warriors was a one-on-one fighting game. Dynasty Warriors 2 introduced the one-versus-many hack-and-slash formula, where a single warrior fights through crowds of enemies at once, that has defined the series since. That shift created the large battles and fast clearing of enemy troops that fans now associate with the name.
The producer has also spoken frankly about the series outside Japan. In an earlier interview, Sho said Dynasty Warriors was not yet in a position to be called a success in the West, according to Video Games Chronicle. He leads the ω-Force brand, the Koei Tecmo development group behind the series.
For fans, this means the next step is conditional. A strong result for the Dynasty Warriors 3 remaster could bring Dynasty Warriors 4 back in updated form. It just may arrive with a new person guiding it, while Sho focuses on what comes next.
