[Mini-Review] Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2
Strike 2.
Published: October 9, 2006
[The Good]
You know, it's easy to make fun of KOEI and their internal development studio Omega Force's ceaseless string of Warriors games. They're pumped out -- sometimes multiple times a year -- across multiple platforms with minimal changes to the gameplay and yet they still manage to have the simple hook of beating up thousands of guys and rewriting ancient Chinese and Japanese history. And really, the games are what they are. You'll either love them for their direct approach or hate that they still manage to woo people by the tens of thousands the day they hit.
So with that said, Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 sees little new added to things. The core gameplay is the exact same, though things have been wisely improved over last year's PSP outing. For starters, the levels are now broken up into bite-sized sections -- some of which take as little as 30 seconds to claim for your side -- laid out in a grid-based map with interconnecting paths. Because things are semi-turn-based, you'll have to plan out how you attack and capture squares on the grid appropriately. By exploring some of the more out-of-the-way sections, you can actually find hidden sections of the map that offer shortcuts or bonus items.
Branching storylines and multiple costumes for each of the game's now-familiar 48-player cast (yes, that's the whole cast) and a whopping 50 stages (helped by those teeny-tiny breakdowns) all add up to what initially seems like an impressive amount of hack-and-slash fun. All the tiered combo systems, new weapons, officers, mounts and hidden characters are present and accounted for. This is Dynasty Warriors for whatever that's worth.
And really, what you can play here is a nice approximation of the console version. KOEI added the ability to do dual Musou attacks with officers if they're in range, allowed weapons to be carried over from major story sections and included a Camp Mode to check out all the stuff you've unlocked. There are still thousands of enemies to cut through, and thanks to the PSP being set up for short bursts of play, they're felled much more easily. In fact, the game as a whole seems skewed a little more toward allowing maximum KOs with minimal effort.
[The Bad]
That's not to say it's all a cakewalk, mind you; a tap of the L button re-centers the camera, but it still means a fair amount of tapping. And really, there's just the inescapable feeling that this is a shoddy cash-in on the franchise. Harsh, yes, but if you're going to counter all the naysayers out there, you need to do with a nice amount of depth or at least some variety in the modes. DW Vol. 2 has two of them; Free and Musou Modes, one of which is just a slash-up and the other with text-driven storylines. Technically, there's an Ad-Hoc-only multiplayer mode, which is a nice touch, but online play would have been much more appreciated, or at least some basic game sharing.
Maybe it's just that this doesn't feel like a proper sequel. Being a launch title, the first DW for PSP was a mess; enemies would regularly bamf in from nowhere, the maps were tiny and the game didn't even run at 16:9 (a map took up a part of the screen). With the sequel... well, at least it uses the full PSP screen. The framerate is rather sluggish, you'll still see enemies charge in from the ether about 20 or so feet away, and you'll still have to contend with stretched, muddy textures (though they do look a little better on the PSP's smaller screen) and plain... well, plains.
[The Verdict]
If I seem a little apathetic about the whole thing, maybe it's just because I still count myself as a fan of the series. Samurai Warriors 2 on the PS2 and even Samurai Warriors: State of War on the PSP showed that recycling things with just a few new modes could keep the game fun for another couple dozen hours if you were hardcore about it. This, however, is just a rushed, quick attempt that does nothing to dispel the belief that the series has gotten caught in a loop of constant sequels and pointless rehashes.
Though it is improved over the first PSP game, Samurai Warriors Vol. 2 is nowhere near the kind of game one should pay $40 bucks for -- not on consoles and certainly not on a portable.
You know, it's easy to make fun of KOEI and their internal development studio Omega Force's ceaseless string of Warriors games. They're pumped out -- sometimes multiple times a year -- across multiple platforms with minimal changes to the gameplay and yet they still manage to have the simple hook of beating up thousands of guys and rewriting ancient Chinese and Japanese history. And really, the games are what they are. You'll either love them for their direct approach or hate that they still manage to woo people by the tens of thousands the day they hit.
So with that said, Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 sees little new added to things. The core gameplay is the exact same, though things have been wisely improved over last year's PSP outing. For starters, the levels are now broken up into bite-sized sections -- some of which take as little as 30 seconds to claim for your side -- laid out in a grid-based map with interconnecting paths. Because things are semi-turn-based, you'll have to plan out how you attack and capture squares on the grid appropriately. By exploring some of the more out-of-the-way sections, you can actually find hidden sections of the map that offer shortcuts or bonus items.
Branching storylines and multiple costumes for each of the game's now-familiar 48-player cast (yes, that's the whole cast) and a whopping 50 stages (helped by those teeny-tiny breakdowns) all add up to what initially seems like an impressive amount of hack-and-slash fun. All the tiered combo systems, new weapons, officers, mounts and hidden characters are present and accounted for. This is Dynasty Warriors for whatever that's worth.
And really, what you can play here is a nice approximation of the console version. KOEI added the ability to do dual Musou attacks with officers if they're in range, allowed weapons to be carried over from major story sections and included a Camp Mode to check out all the stuff you've unlocked. There are still thousands of enemies to cut through, and thanks to the PSP being set up for short bursts of play, they're felled much more easily. In fact, the game as a whole seems skewed a little more toward allowing maximum KOs with minimal effort.
[The Bad]
That's not to say it's all a cakewalk, mind you; a tap of the L button re-centers the camera, but it still means a fair amount of tapping. And really, there's just the inescapable feeling that this is a shoddy cash-in on the franchise. Harsh, yes, but if you're going to counter all the naysayers out there, you need to do with a nice amount of depth or at least some variety in the modes. DW Vol. 2 has two of them; Free and Musou Modes, one of which is just a slash-up and the other with text-driven storylines. Technically, there's an Ad-Hoc-only multiplayer mode, which is a nice touch, but online play would have been much more appreciated, or at least some basic game sharing.
Maybe it's just that this doesn't feel like a proper sequel. Being a launch title, the first DW for PSP was a mess; enemies would regularly bamf in from nowhere, the maps were tiny and the game didn't even run at 16:9 (a map took up a part of the screen). With the sequel... well, at least it uses the full PSP screen. The framerate is rather sluggish, you'll still see enemies charge in from the ether about 20 or so feet away, and you'll still have to contend with stretched, muddy textures (though they do look a little better on the PSP's smaller screen) and plain... well, plains.
[The Verdict]
If I seem a little apathetic about the whole thing, maybe it's just because I still count myself as a fan of the series. Samurai Warriors 2 on the PS2 and even Samurai Warriors: State of War on the PSP showed that recycling things with just a few new modes could keep the game fun for another couple dozen hours if you were hardcore about it. This, however, is just a rushed, quick attempt that does nothing to dispel the belief that the series has gotten caught in a loop of constant sequels and pointless rehashes.
Though it is improved over the first PSP game, Samurai Warriors Vol. 2 is nowhere near the kind of game one should pay $40 bucks for -- not on consoles and certainly not on a portable.
