PS2 GAME - Kessen (MTX)

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Κατηγορία: Παιχνίδια Μεταχειρισμένα PS2

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12.90

 

Amazon.com Kessen is the first DVD PlayStation2 title--boy, what a difference a DVD-ROM makes! Kessen's fantastic cutscenes showcase the difference between the visual capabilities of non-DVD and DVD formats. That difference is analogous to the gap between analog television and HDTV quality.

The graphics are awesome, too. In a triple barrage, three rows of gunmen draw and fire their guns. Not everyone does it at exactly the same time, and the number of men goes back as far as the eye can see. The smart choreography makes the battle seem much more real. In fact, you actually can see other soldiers fighting as the generals duel.

The game's orchestral score is wonderful, and the sound effects also are great, with booming cannons, neighing horses, and clanking spears.

While all of the above makes for a very splashy presentation, it doesn't do much for the gameplay. Those who have found fault in the micromanagement of past Koei strategy titles surely will be disappointed with Kessen. It's often painful to see every single stat and try to improve them all in a set amount of time. Kessen goes too far in that every battalion has a morale level, called zeal, as well as a certain number of soldiers of different types. Each general has a different amount of loyalty to you, but it really doesn't affect gameplay, as far as we could tell.

Before each battle, you go through the political stage. Here, you can persuade undecided generals or enemy generals to join you in battle, or not to fight at all. That's a cool aspect, but the game basically tells you outright who will join you and who won't.

The pace of the battles is extremely slow, like in most other Koei games. However, the difficulty is not. Many times, you're given so many reinforcements that you just can't lose. Also, every single event involves a 20-second cutscene, with no obvious way to skip these. Sure, the triple barrage is impressive the first few times that you see it; but, after the 100th time, it wears a little thin. And you get to see a cutscene every time that your enemies do the same to you.

Unlike other RTS games, there's hardly ever any cause for alarm or stress--even if you're losing, you feel like there's not a lot you could do about it, anyway. --Todd Mowatt

Pros:

  • Fantastic cutscenes showcase the visual capabilities of DVD format
  • Great graphics, score, and sound effects
Cons:
  • Too many statistics to manage
  • Slow game pace
  Review Koei's strategy title for the PlayStation2 is quite a surprise, because it's turned out to be one of the better PS2 launch games. Koei is well known for its console and PC strategy-simulation games, like those in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, but the average gamer tended to shy away from them due to their complexity. Kessen happens to be somewhat of an exception.

Kessen, roughly translated as "Decisive Battle," is a strategy-simulation game based on the samurai era in Japan. Although some of the elaborate costumes are fictional, the plot and setting for the most part are true to the history books. You initially take the role of Ieyasu Tokugawa, leading your troops to battle against Mitsunari Ishida (whom you can play as once you finish the game). Watching a brief summary of the first battle at the start of the game is like watching a documentary. The narration and presentation are superb and very reminiscent of an actual Japanese television show. A real-time cutscene then shows Ieyasu and his generals discussing battle strategy.

The game progresses in real time as you control a group of armed troops led by a general and face a similar group. Your general's decisions are AI based, and while the game is in progress a tutorial can be displayed to help explain the game system. In the later half of the game, you take control of your troops and make your own decisions. It is easier to pick up the control at that point since the enemy forces have been thinned out enough for you to finish the job.

When you're engaged in battle, the triangle button lets you switch from the field map to the battle view. First it shows an overview of the battlefield, with all the troops shown from far away. You can use the D-pad to move the cursor to particular areas of the battlefield and then hit the triangle button to zoom in on the area to show the troops battling against each other in real time. You can also switch to different areas by using the L1 and R1 shoulder buttons. Aside from the normal attack, you can execute special battle tactics, which range from making your cavalry charge, to shooting cannons, to even performing a dance to taunt enemy troops. There are also occasions when the generals of each cavalry will duke it out one-on-one, or a general will run across the battlefield swinging his ax-spear, hacking dozens of enemies. Although giving commands on the field map can be quite boring, it pays off when you can see the battles up close. Koei has definitely made use of the hardware capabilities of the PlayStation2 here - you will see hundreds of troops on one battlefield, and you can view them up close in real time.

There are not enough voice-overs during gameplay, but the cutscenes have much more speech, which balances the game out. The dialogue is very witty and sharp (from a Japanese historical point of view, that is). The soundtrack is so amazing - even if you weren't watching the game, the music alone could bring the epic battles to mind. The sound effects are also realistic, but unfortunately the graphics don't always match the high marks achieved by the sound. Seeing hundreds of soldiers in one battlefield is indeed an accomplishment and a good use of the PS2 hardware, but there are some details that can't be ignored. There is no blood in the game at all. Sometimes, the cutscenes really have very good animation, but not seeing blood when one soldier slashes another is pretty unrealistic. After playing the first few missions, you might even find the battle animation to be a little redundant. It may be captivating the first few times, but you'll probably get to a point where you'll want to skip the animations. Although the gameplay may become redundant, there are different scenarios, depending on your loss or victory during a battle - which also means straying from the history-based storyline. You will also be able to play as Mitsunari Ishida after you finish the game once and experience a different point of view of the story. So, in that sense, there is a decent amount of replay value in the game.

Japanese history buffs will definitely love this game, and even novice players will appreciate the game, with its stunning visuals and sounds. The only question is whether you are willing to sit down and play the game, with its continuously redundant nature.--Ike Sato--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review

 

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