Lucas
Versantvoort / December 28, 2014
Anyone
familiar with this game series is undoubtedly familiar with Dynasty Warriors by
the same developer (Koei). Like that ever-popular series, Kessen II is based on
the same (highly romanticized) history. And believe it or not, the story in
Kessen II is even more romanticized. So, those familiar with Dynasty Warriors
will have to adjust their expectations.
You control Liu Bei who’s in love
with Diao Chan…uh, what? Yeah, so just roll with it. He’s saved during battle
by reinforcements from warlord Cao Cao. So they become instant buddies, but Cao
Cao has other plans. He decimates Liu Bei’s forces and kidnaps Diao Chan. Liu
Bei retreats with his sworn brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and what’s left of
his army. Inspired by his comrades, he decides to stand up to Cao Cao and
sacrifice his troops so he can get laid and save Diao Chan.
My feelings regarding the story are
twofold: on the one hand, it’s all incredibly over the top—lots of eye rolling,
but on the other hand, there’s an undeniable sense of epicness to the
proceedings that’s conveyed well. Plus, after you beat the game, you have the
option of replaying the story from Cao Cao’s point of view. So, you get the
story from a new perspective and get more gameplay. Granted, most of these
battles are the same, except this time fought against Liu Bei. However, this
results in new possible tactics and several battles unique to Cao Cao’s
storyline.
All’s not well however. Gameplay
tends to feel stiff, particularly when navigating units. You’ll try to squeeze
between two units, so you can join the fight, only to find your route blocked
by an invisible wall even though you’d think you could pass through. What’s
worse, during naval combat you aren’t even able to directly navigate your units
beyond giving them orders on where to go or who to attack. Also, sometimes
you’ll order a unit to retreat and it’ll take them ages to do so. What’s worse,
once they retreat chances are they’ll be overtaken by the same enemy before
long, making retreating only useful to buy time.
The score is also fantastic. Whether
it’s the softer, atmospheric music during strategic phases or the battle music,
it always gets me in the mood to strategize and fight. When that music kicks
off the final battle…chills every time.
The voice acting is kind of meh. While
some voices are well-judged—strategist Zhuge Liang sounds appropriately
‘wise’—other voices are failed attempts at comic relief. Lip syncing is even
worse. Sometimes a small ‘cutscene’ during a battle will show someone’s face
talking and the mouth will keep flapping, sometimes several seconds after the
line’s been spoken. This is mostly likely the effect of bad localization and
anyone familiar with Koei’s Dynasty Warriors 3 will know how hilariously bad
that can get.
Overall, I really like this game
despite its flaws and believe me, they are myriad. There are issues on
virtually every front and yet I find myself occasionally dusting off the ol’
PS2 so I can play it. The strategic gameplay, though actually quite limited,
does something absolutely right and the result is addictive. For those of you
who are knee-deep in Dynasty Warriors games, consider this an alternative if
you’re looking for an epic, strategic version of Dynasty Warriors.
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