Kessen II is a distinct departure from the first, both story and gameplay wise. It's set in Three Kingdoms China, rather than Sengoku Japan, and focuses on smaller scale battles with more control given to the player. Unfortunately, the battles have gone from large open fields to smaller fields with lots of corridors (like a Dynasty Warriors map). The gaps are typically big enough to only fit one officer, so you constantly get drawn into 1v1 fights with no flanking opportunities and fights come down to who has the better stats. Sieges were even worse in this regard, and the naval battles are just plain horrible. Unlike the first game, you can't skip the special attack cutscenes, and some of them are pretty damn long. IA neat new feature I really liked was how before each battle your advisors and officers would each give their own plan for how the battle should be fought, and these often changed the course of the fights in significant ways.

As for the story, well, while the first was a relatively grounded affair this game turns it up to fucking 11 and goes full blown fan fiction. It begins with Liu Bei and his loving girlfriend Diao Chan being kidnapped by Cao Cao and his dastardly witch ally Princess Himiko who secretly loves Cao Cao and hates Diao Chan. So Liu Bei enlists the aid of his allies including Zhang Fei and his ninja daughters, and of course his trusty wizard Zhuge Liang. Towards the end of the game Zhuge Liang and Himiko even have an epic DBZ style beam fight. When you finish the game as Liu Bei you then unlock a new playthrough from Cao Cao's side, at the end of which it is revealed that Cao Cao and Liu Bei are actually brothers! And then Cao Cao lets Diao Chan go and be with Liu Bei while he supposedly turns his own desires towards a genderbent Xun Yu.

So while the gameplay felt frustrating most of the time, the outrageous story and cutscenes almost make it worth playing alone.