User Reviews (1 - 11 of 38)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Horrible!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: June 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game hoping for something as good as Dynasty Warriors 3, but it was pitiful! Bad graphics, gameplay, and storyline along with a long tutorial makes this game good enough for burning material and thats about it. If you really want to try it, rent it first.

This is one of the worst games I have ever played.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: May 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In a gaming career that spans nearly to the very beginning of console and/or pc gaming I have come across [bad ones] before. This one may very well hold the crown of the dumbest game I have ever had the misfortune of purchasing. The graphics, well actually they are pretty good. Too bad the only thing they show is the games characters which amount to various warlords surrounded by teenage girls... BTW these same girls half the time are officers in your armies despite their 12 year old voices and facial appearance. The warlords stand and make these bizarre gestures with their hands the ENTIRE TIME they talk. It looks [silly]. I have met many a person who "talks with their hands" and this is way, WAY beyond that. Now the heart and soul of the game is mass combat. Too bad it never really seems like you are doing anything. You will win when you think you are losing and lose when things seem to be going well. You then finally win a large engagement only to have the cutscenes inform you that your armies broke in a most cowardly manner and you really lost the fight. I mean c'mon!!! Yeah that really makes me care about a plot when it is arbitrarily decided for the games miserable excuse for a plot. Your girlfriend and bride to be has been kidnapped. WOW! I have never seen that one before. This is SO not romance of the three kingdoms and spending money on this game will infuriate you. It is foolish and juvenile in the worst ways with voice acting and plot so bad you are embarrased when someone sees you playing it and can actually hear what is being said... DO NOT BUY THIS.

Kinda fun, but too simplistic

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: December 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Having played both games, I found the first one to be much more interseting than this. Sure, the story is vamped up and is actually a story, sure, you can now control the general and all that, and the new battle system looks cool. However, while it is fun to play, I think it's even more repetetive than the old game for a few reasons

1) You can no longer directly determine what to do with the units in terms of placing them and the grand strategy involved. All the unit commands have to be issued after you adopt one of the three strategies you can choose from in the beginning of any map. The problem with this is that sometimes it completely determins how you can play, for example the battle between Cao Cao and Sun Quan -- where you place the mines determine where you units go. Also, the maps are small in comparison with the old game, and there's just not much room to move a lot of times, limiting your strategic choices. Battles often end up as a crash of two lines and not much strategic nicety involved.

2. It seems like the game is even more heavily geared towards the special moves that you can use -- if timed properly, the fight between the two units is over in minutse. If your guy has no special maneuveur left, there's no way to try to get one (no more zeal rating) and you just have to wait it out, which could be painful.

3. There's nothing that really goes on in addition to what happens in the battle. Whereas in the previous game you can pick who to use, who to try to convince to come to your side, etc, in this game all there is is to choose one of three options that upgrade one thing over another. It's very simplistic -- I think too simplistic -- to be fun.

The old game offers a lot more in terms of strategy decisions, and to those who thought the old game was easy, they have never played the most difficult level (which is fairly challenging, at least at first). This game is even easier and is less fun -- it becomes very monotonous after a few battles. The graphics and sound and story improved, but at the expense of gameplay. Get Dynasty Warriors 3 instead, or if you haven't played Kessen the original and don't like action games like DW3, try the old Kessen.

Kessen 2

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 17
Date: September 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I am currently living in Japan and I have to admit that I was very disappointed by this game. It was really not very different than the first except for the ability to use magic and this time it takes place in China. If you enjoy a long lasting game than this is not the one for you but if you enjoy eye candy and not much else than please proceed. I finished the first game in about 1 day and this time I finshed it in about the same time. I found this game to be a waste of time and money. My advice save your money and buy the new Dynasty Warriors 3. It is ten times better.

Substandard

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a poor, poor game. I loved the first Kessen, even though I beat it in one night, but almost all of what I like is gone.

Kessen II features much worse graphics, horrible dialouge, and a dearth of real options (pick from three choices, woohoo). But I could live with all of those if Kessen II did not commit a unforgiveable crime: Slapstick comedy mixed in with a serious story. I cannot take this game seriously and care about the charecters when the hero becomes distracted by one of his general's breasts. (Kessen 1 didn't feature a large amount of cleavage, and I wish this one didn't either.) Slapstick comedy and a serious story do not mix, and Kessen II has too much slapstic comedy for me to care much about the story. Even that could be redeemed by a good battle system, but in practice, you basically pick one general's strategy, sit back and occasionally unleash a special attack.

In short, this game falls short everywhere. Go with Kessen I instead. You won't see as many computer-generated breasts, but if that's what you really want, you can always just go play Dead or Alive instead.

Kessen 2: Fine Sequel That Only Slightly Disappoints

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Kessen 2 isn't really another fantastic reason to own a PS2. It does continue akin to its predecessor by presenting another immense Oriental Military Simulator. By allowing interacting in an amazingly impressive cinematic video game experience, you personally will absorb the epic drenched melodrama of this game's tale. However despite a fantastically labored frame rate, finely portrayed graphics, and an amazing initial dramatic draw, Kessen 2 reduces the gamer's options and responsibilities in the game itself. Instead of being able to decide between a half-dozen different battle strategies or concocting one yourself, you are now derailed to choose between three different strategies per battle. Though you still can personalize your strategy once the battle has begun, the comprehensive personalized hardcore catering of the original game is sorely missed.

With many more abundantly optioned and dramatically more captivating upcoming P2 games than Kessen 2's admit-tingly intense action, progressively interesting gameplay, and unfortunately limited experimentation. Kessen 2 is only recommended for genre extremists. With a woefully inane ensemble of supporting characters and blatantly monotonous gameplay in it's battle sequences, Kessen 2 sustains a market only for those into Koei's previous military strategies or for those who enjoy camp with their gameplay or for those willing to play a game with no replay-ability.

Much jabbering, little action

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am most likely not alone when I say I bought this game because it was on sale for around ten dollars. Koei has had quite a bit of sucess with the ROTK based games, but they seem to have slipped a little with this one.
The graphics are good for the most part, but the animation is, at times, choppy and un-fluid. But I can live with that.
The dubbing...oh the horror... Couldn't the US editors have tried at least a LITTLE bit better to time it right? Bleh, this is the kind of thing that really annoys me. I don't expect perfection, but I did kinda hope for more than this...
And the so-called "strategy" element? Eep. You can move your troops and perform actions in many different ways, but the gameplay is simplistic. This is definitely not for hard-core strategy gamers. (Don't even get me started on the "unable to enter" areas...)
And the story, the main reason I even glanced at the game...well, let's say I don't trust the packaging anymore...the story is the same one: Guy is in love with Girl, Girl is kidnapped by Guy's rival, Guy fights huge-ass war to save Girl, and then we see it from the other side. At least seeing it from the other side wasn't an ANCIENT idea... And why do these characters insist on telling you every little thing that runs through their tiny heads?
I'll have to give this game an mediocre 3 out of 5... (too much X-Play...)

Good graphic, Too Simple

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are good. The story line is interesting, although it gets bit cheezy.

If you micro manage this game, you mostly like to lose. But if you place the army in certain positon and use specials at the beginning of the battle, you'll win.

You can control the general but it's not that fun. There is only two mode of attcking. Rush or just simple swing. There is something called dual but you cannot control it. You can ask for it or decline it only.

After a while, you just setup and watch. 60% of game time is spent on watching the story and army being moved. Almost feels like I bought a DVD movie not a game...

Mabye, if you don't mind innacurate history.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you are a purist like me, then you will hate Kessen II. I'm not sure why Koei decided to break its history for historical accuracy in Kessen II. The game screwed up the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms timeline. If all you care about is some flashy graphics and sound, then mabye this game wouldn't be so bad for you, but I hope not everyone is that shallow minded.

An exciting game but....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because it featured characters from the romance of the three kingdoms series. That, and the fact that it was cheap. I got it on sale because it was used. Sometimes when I buy used games I take a moment and wonder why the individual sold it. I may never know for certain why the previous owner sold it but I think it may have something to do with the characters. All the characters look kinda, I don't know, off. It was like the designers wanted the characters to stand out and they do but not in a good way. Zhang Liao is wearing antlers on his head for goodness sake! Zhou Yu looks like a character from a Mercedes Lackey novel. Why does Liu Bei not have a beard? Why is he clean shaven? Why does he keep whining about Diao Chan? Zhang Fei is a drunken bufoon. Also, the voice acting is pretty weird with some hilariously bad lip synching. Watch Zhao Yun in particular.
But enough about the characters. Let's move on to the gameplay. This game is somewhere between Dynasty tactics and Dynasty warriors. There is some action involved. You basically ride around on your horse, whacking people upside the head with your weapon and occasionally you use special attacks that wipe out a whole bunch of people at once. The strategy isn't very deep. You basically have to find the quickest way to get your army to the enemy's commander and defeat him. It's too bad that you can't decide who to attack and when, although you sometimes
are allowed to choose between targets. Probably the best thing about this game are the cinematics. It is fun to unlock the various movies and what not. But the biggest downer is that you can't play as Sun Quan. As one of the rulers of the three kingdoms you would have though they could find a place in the story for him but he only has a small role to play. Think of all the potential that was missed? There could have been a scenario involving Sun Quan having to get Zhou Yu to stop hanging out with Firesong so he could plan out a decent strategy and if you didn't understand that one then I envy you.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions