Koei Tecmo has updated their Dynasty Warriors 9 website with new designs for seven returning characters, which include Wang Yi, Zhang Liao, Xiahou Ba, and more. You can read more details about the newly revealed characters right below.
Wang Yi
Historically, Wang Yi is the wife of a Wei officer named Zhao Ang. She became famous in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms episode of Cao Cao’s confrontation against Ma Chao, where she persuaded her husband to fight even at the cost of the life of their son Zhao Yue who was captured by Ma Chao, and she also made an active participation in defending their city from Ma Chao’s attacks.
In Dynasty Warriors 9, she is depicted as a woman whose family were killed by Ma Chao’s Xiliang Army, so she swore revenge on Ma Chao and joined the Wei Kingdom as a planner. She rather dislikes having unnecessarily intimate relationships with other people. Her weapon is also getting changed to Chakrams, which makes her wield the same weapon as Sun Shangxiang.
Zhang Liao
Zhang Liao (courtesy name Wenyuan) is perhaps the most famous general among Wei’s Five Great Generals, and he is also considered as the group’s leader. Although he originally served under Lu Bu, Cao Cao spared him and added him to his ranks when he defeated Lu Bu. He was especially famous for his act at the Battle of Hefei where he raided the invading Wu army.
Zhang Liao is known to be always calm and collected, and he would go into battlefields by making precise decisions. He highly esteems honor, and he wouldn’t even hesitate to give gratitude to his enemies. He is still using the Twin Halberds, which have been assigned to him since Dynasty Warriors 6.
Yu Jin
Yu Jin (courtesy name Wenze) is known as one of Wei’s Five Great Generals. He rose through the ranks of Cao Cao’s army, and made a lot of contributions in battles he fought in. He was also known to highly esteem military discipline and was strict about it, so he was feared by enemies and allies alike.
However, Yu Jin was forced to surrender to Shu’s Guan Yu at the Battle of Fan Castle, which would ultimately tarnish his reputation for the rest of his life. He is retaining the Tri-Edged Spear weapon design that has been with him since his first addition in Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends.
Xiahou Ba
Xiahou Ba (courtesy name Zhongquan) is Xiahou Yuan’s son, who has a personality similar to his father. He also has an unexpectedly very young look, so he covered it with helmet and armors. His weapon is also being reverted back to Great Sword, which he used when he first appeared in Dynasty Warriors 7.
He used to be highly anticipated by the people of Wei as he comes from the famous Xiahou family. However, Wei would later undergo a political change due to the coup d’etat by Sima family, the eventual founders of the Jin dynasty, which made Xiahou Ba’s position in the kingdom uncertain, and would be one of the factors why he decided to defect to Shu.
Guo Huai
Guo Huai (courtesy name Boji) is a Wei general who was actively participating in battles against Shu’s Northern Campaigns, although in the Dynasty Warriors series he is classified as a Jin Kingdom character due to most of his feats being done under the Sima family administration.
In this series, he is depicted as a frail man who coughs often, but he still makes contributions in battles. He has deep gratitudes towards his superiors Xiahou Yuan and Sima Yi, and his loyalty to the Wei Kingdom is very strong. He loses his iconic Arm Cannon weapon in Dynasty Warriors 9 though, and is instead being assigned Shooting Spears, which are also used by Man Chong and Jia Chong.
Deng Ai
Deng Ai (courtesy name Shizai) is a famous Wei general who used to be a civil official until Sima Yi discovered his talent and suggested him to join the military. Because of that, he is considered as a Jin Kingdom character in Dynasty Warriors.
He has a hobby of observing maps, which makes him excel in terrain-based strategies. In the final phase of the Wei-Shu war, Deng Ai managed to maneuver his army to reach Shu’s capital Chengdu, which promptly triggered Liu Shan’s surrender to Wei.
In Dynasty Warriors 9, Deng Ai is seen wielding what seems to be a Great Axe, which if confirmed, will make him have the same weapon as Xu Huang.
Huang Gai
Huang Gai (courtesy name Gongfu) is a veteran general who, together with Cheng Pu and Han Dang, had served three generations of Wu’s founder clan: Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan. Huang Gai is a brave warrior who lives for battle. He also played an instrumental role in the decisive Battle of Chi Bi where he would eventually lead a unit of fire boats that would set Cao Cao’s ships ablaze.
In Dynasty Warriors 9, Huang Gai is back to using a Great Club as his weapon. But unlike his Dynasty Warriors 7 rendition, his weapon design here becomes very similar to what has been used by Wei’s Xu Zhu.
Although a release date for Dynasty Warriors 9 still has not been announced yet as of this writing, we are to expect even more returning characters to be revealed in the near future, as Koei Tecmo has already confirmed that all 83 existing characters as of Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires will return in this game, in addition to a number of more new characters.
[Source: Koei Tecmo]
