A historical
PlayStation 2 action game, developed and published by
Koei, in which you (the
player) assume the role of a
general during the
Three Kingdoms territorial war period in 2nd-3rd century
China (see
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which I believe this game is based on; various characters from the book, such as
Lu Bu,
Cao Cao and many others are playable, or eventually become playable). Your character leads a small
army of his/her own to
victory in crowded, active
battlefields where you might expect to see 100
soldiers on screen at once (with no slowdown! Praise
Sony!).
It has the potential to be a good game; but, unfortunately, the gameplay consists of a hell of a lot of pressing the square button. Once you have pressed the square button enough, you can press the circle button. What the square button does on screen, is basically swing your character's sword, spear, gigantic mace, what have you, at enormous hordes of enemy warriors. The circle button initiates a massive uber-death technique once a bar, representing your character's spiritual energy (called Musou) becomes full due to either being hit, or hitting someone with your deathstick of whatever variety, be it a sword, mace, a fan, a stick with shit on it.... Anyhow, the game is really quite simple to play, and very direct -- the point of the game is to kill massive hordes of people, and that's all you'll expect to see; no sissy puzzle-solving or interacting with NPCs for the likes of you. Actually paying attention to the plot is optional.
Though repetitive, predictable, and not very impressive in terms of graphics or voice acting (which is highly reminiscent of a cheesy, badly dubbed martial arts movie), this game actually is quite a lot of fun to play (it's bad, but fun. Like Army of Darkness). I suppose the appeal from this game comes from having your single character be able to single-handedly dispatch hundreds of enemy soldiers before taking even close to mortal damage. There's also quite a lot of weapon and items collection and levelling up to do, thereby increasing its replay value. If you have a PS2 and want to have a fun waste of several hours (friend to play with/against optional), pick this one up.
Rated T for Teen (violence, mild language); released November 27, 2001 for PlayStation 2. 1-2 Players.