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A real-time / ground level vision of Three Kingdoms

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As one of many players with a background in old-school strategy / war simulation games, I have played several installments of KOEI's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. So naturally, Kessen seemed worthy of further investigation.

What you probably already know is that the Kessen series covers the same historic period as the RTK series. And it has the same great personalities of all the Generals. So what makes it unique?

Kessen is different due to the ground-level view of events, as opposed to 3 Kingdom's very high-level views. Example, in RTK you fight battles by-the-numbers and the feel is like moving men on a chess board. The important decisions often happen before you ever enter battle, and have to do with logistics.

With Kessen you are in the trenches, controlling the body movements of individual generals, in real-time, as they engage the enemy. Logistical decisions still affect the battles, however, the complexity of managing resources has been wiped so that the game can focus on the fight. Decisions are very general and might be as simple as "Choose one to produce: Rice, Soldiers, or Weapons".

Is it worth it / fun to play? Yes, absolutely. KOEI did a great job on the execution and balance of the game. It can get a little bit button mashy, but thats OK, because you are enjoying watching the battle unfold and there's only so much a general can do at once anyway. Its a bargain to add to your colection.

Brilliant. game, for those who like KOEIs games...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Kessen 2 is a game which suits me fine. Good graphics, Cool music and excellent gameplay. However, if you are not into ROTK stories and strategy / Epic battle games maybe you should avoid it as it can be somewhat tedious. The story is excellent and there are alot of cool characters and plots. I played it non-stop (Well, almost. I went to work in between the sessions) just because I wanted to know how the story would unfold. I still play it sometimes. It's one of my favourite moments in front of the Ps2.

Game is nothing special

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It is better than the first and you are more involved but I have to say that in the cut scenes it is over acted and once you beat the game it loses it's enjoyment. This game has really cool parts to it, there are different abilities each lead warrior has. For instances Charge ability, (Lets you charge through the enemy effortlessly) Fire Storm (Sends a hail of fire down on the enemy. There are alot of spells that I wouldn't have the time to list on here. One cool thing about the game is being able to control the leader of one of your arms and going through and hacking up guys all in all I would say the game is worth ... I wouldn't spend more than that on the game though. It isn't worth it, it could have been better. It almost seems like Koei was just creating a game just for the heck of it.

Incredibly fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Unlike the first Kessen it's not realistic like the first one but it's much better because you shoot thousands of rocks onto troops or shoot massive lightning bolts at them. Also unlike the first you are inside the battle with all your troops which is amazing because theres up to 500 soldiers fighting at once in a battle.

Battle isn't the only thing you do in this game. You strategize which commanders you use and what route they take. Also you can decide ways to improve your army like making your troops farm for more provisions or devolope new weapons.

Although not educational like the first one it took a good turn in the right direction.

One of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you are a fan of Romance of three kingdoms, this is the one you must have. Good graphic, and more stages than the other version...

Visually appealing but has a hard learning curve

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The game is visually very appealing, one of the best among playstation 2 games; but it has a very steep learning curve. You need to have a lot of patience to learn how to play it. It is not something you can pick up and get to it right away. The Chinese names of all the characters probably didn't help either.

EXCELLENT

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: March 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

OMG... U ppl dont just get it its not china, its japan and the reason i rate it the best is because it has samurais and ninjas plus funny parts but if they had more higher rates in kessen 3 i would have rated kessen 3 the best

Don't be fooled by the begining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: April 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I had been wanting this game for a couple weeks after i got my PS2 and i would have to say the first time I played it, it seemed horrible. I soon found out it was just the tutorial and that you do almost nothing. But once you get into the game it is great. The battle system is the best I have ever played. The decisions you make in the game also get you very involved. I only have 2 complaints. One is that it was pretty easy, and I beat the game in a week. The other was that it seemed to Asian. The main characters are Lui Bei and Cao Cao, and others are Zhang Fei and Guang Yu, so you get the point with the names. And of course there uniforms are very Asian to.

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is excellent! The storyline is very interesting and the cut scenes are awesome! I highly recommend this game to anyone. If you enjoy playing as a general leading his/her army then this game is for you.

KOEI STILL HAS'NT LEARNED..................

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: August 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It sad to see that Koei still hasnt learned that to make money on a game like this or any other WAR/RPG you have to make it for the PC. I once was a big fan of Koei and of their games but now I have lost all hope. They once made great games like Uncharted Water part 1 and 2, and PTO 1&2, RTTK 1,2,3 etc. back when they were making games for the Super Nintendo but now they are going down hill even having to make fighting game just to turn a profit. When you play this game or any other like this that has been made for PS2 X-Box etc. you can only wonder how much better it would have been if they had made it for the PC. I would have to say save your money and buy a game like War Craft 3, Cossacks etc. for your PC, and maybe one day Koei will get smart and go back to what made them in the first place. Games like Uncharted Waters 1 and 2, Gemfire, PTO 1&2 etc. But until then I guess I'll just still back and watch Koei Corp. lose more and more fans and slowly sink their once great name (and logo) down the tube.

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