I've only played a bit of 9 and it's well, not terrible but not great either.

Unfortunately other than 9, none of the Three Kingdoms based Dynasty Warriors games have button prompts, but Koei has been adding them since.

If you are amenable to their Samurai Warriors games those have button prompts and are also solid games. Samurai Warriors 4 for gameplay and Samurai Warriors - Spirit of Sanada if you want something that also has a strong story.

Originally posted by Half-Tomato:

I've only played a bit of 9 and it's well, not terrible but not great either.

Unfortunately other than 9, none of the Three Kingdoms based Dynasty Warriors games have button prompts, but Koei has been adding them since.

If you are amenable to their Samurai Warriors games those have button prompts and are also solid games. Samurai Warriors 4 for gameplay and Samurai Warriors - Spirit of Sanada if you want something that also has a strong story.

Yeah I did end up going with Samurai Warriors

I have only played 8 and 9, but I found 9 way better. It is very easy to run. I haven't had any performance issues on either of my PCs. The battles are pretty all-encompassing. The map is gigantic, and there's many capture points that generally always have fighting. It has a lot more freedom and much less time constraints than 8 did. I personally find it to be a big improvement, and would recommend this over that. Downside is the atrocious purchasing options, but some of the best storylines are hidden in that DLC; for some reason.