![]() ![]() Kessen II's character design is strongly reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors' glorious excess, and like the Kessen before it, all but the most rudimentary issues of logistics, politics, and government are long gone. ![]() The Kessen series takes the historical setting of the classic games, pumps it up with a strong infusion of the fantastic, and strips down the gameplay into something a little more user-friendly. Old-school Koei strategy demands a serious commitment just to contemplate success - winning those games is an effort requiring dozens of hours. The Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms games were always excellent efforts, but their appeal gradually grew limited to a small audience of die-hard fans. For fifteen years or more, the company's bread and butter has been complex historical strategy sims, heavy on the political and logistic elements to complement the business of actual conquest. Gameplay Kessen, as you know if you played the first game (released here via EA), is Koei strategy for people who hate Koei strategy. It's an unusual synergy between presentation and gameplay, and it works to enhance what is already a solid strategy game. For now, though, it's the Three Kingdoms world that makes the game - the new emphasis on powerful magic and the use of heroic characters is perfectly in keeping with the theme of the story. Now that Kessen II has covered the Romance of the Three Kingdoms milieu (the fantastic version of third-century China portrayed in the famous historical novel and many Koei strategy games past), Koei will presumably go beyond its traditional stomping grounds in search of a new setting. ![]() It's interesting to wonder where it will go in the promised next installment, though. ![]()
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March 2023
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