A true start into the three kingdoms
Sort of had enough mental momentum and hearing the unfortunate news that my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be delayed allowed me to dig deep into Dynasty Warriors 2. This would actually be considered the true start for the series considering it veers completely from the first game fighting game roots into its own sub genre of hack and slash we know today called "musou".
Despite being called Dynasty Warriors 2 in the west, the japanese name is actually a completely different title and series in a sense. The original title is Shin Sangoku Musou while the first game was just called Sangoku Musou thus being the reason why Japan is always a number behind us. This game was actually gonna be another fighting game until they were told to do something different with the franchise which brought about the radical departure. Dynasty Warriors 2 ended up being a launch title for the West and it's actually kind of impressive how many models they managed to render for their very first attempt.
Sadly though there really isn't much to this game either as there's only three modes here: Musou mode, Free mode and the options menu which shouldn't really count as a mode to be honest. The titular musou mode lets you do a story mode with any of the twenty eight characters as you go through a couple of the stages depending on the character. Free mode allows you to re-enact any stage however you want with any character. The main thing to mention here is that Dynasty Warriors 2 only has twenty eight characters and a very low eight stages making this a surprisingly sparse experience compared to what would really come after but I really think it's a great foundation for what was Omega Force's first attempt. Being greeted with the map screen when you load into a battle looks like something that came out of a middle school news program while the user interface really feels like something thrown together in a week.
To my own surprise, the gameplay didn't feel that different to playing another one of the PS2 musous that I remember albeit very simplistic in a sense. You have your four hit combo that you can interrupt with charge attacks, the standard affair but then that's really it. You can never upgrade from the 4 hit combo you get and that's all you have for the rest of the experience. The only form of character progression comes from picking up stat boosts after defeating officers and doing well in the stage to upgrade your overall stats but that's really it. The bodyguard system is here and progresses just through the point system as well. A cool note is that doing a better combo during the final blow on the officer will actually upgrade the stat item you'd get from the enemy making it worth attempting it. The bow makes its first appearance here and after playing most of the series, I never really found a good use for it other than very specific situation that rarely happen. A regular bow attack does what you expect, a charged attack takes a bit more time to charge but it does stun if you pull it up and using your musou meter unleashes a volley of arrows at your own discretion. After putting a good fifteen hours into a couple of musou playthroughs to experience most of the weapon styles and stages, this game is actually fairly difficult. More difficult than I expected actually. Enemies are surprisingly aggressive and tanky in this game on the Normal difficulty. It's also to the point that a musou attack can't even kill one grunt sometimes and they can interrupt your own musou attack as well which I was kinda surprised by. You actually had to be fairly careful in this game. While I do appreciate that the game was difficult, I was a bit put off by not having enough tools to properly deal with it in a sense. You really only have a four hit combo, a jumping attack and that's pretty much it that I feel I couldn't make the most of the challenge. You can defeat gate captains which reduces the flow of soldiers coming in and attempt to increase the morale which on paper allow the friendly AI to do more but I never noticed it do much honestly. Horses are here which allow for faster movement but I got knocked off so many times due to the aggressive AI that I barely used them honestly. Only form of a checkpoint during battles is collecting a memory card item hidden in crates which is an overseas exclusive too. After the end of a battle, you get a score based on how much you do and that goes into upgrading yourself and your bodyguards automatically. Not much to say on free mode itself, as I mentioned you can just pick any character and any stage and go nuts really. Difficulty options are there if you want an easier experience but knowing this series, you'll eventually want to turn up the difficulty soon.
Dynasty Warriors 2 isn't that bad honestly, it's a pretty good foundation that they built here for the series but if you played any of the mainline titles before playing this one, it will really feel like a prototype with the lack of content and not fully fleshed out action movesets. I would recommend checking this title out if you're a fan of the series even more so since this is really the true start into what would be known as Dynasty Warriors and you really don't want to try the fighting game.
Sort of had enough mental momentum and hearing the unfortunate news that my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be delayed allowed me to dig deep into Dynasty Warriors 2. This would actually be considered the true start for the series considering it veers completely from the first game fighting game roots into its own sub genre of hack and slash we know today called "musou".
Despite being called Dynasty Warriors 2 in the west, the japanese name is actually a completely different title and series in a sense. The original title is Shin Sangoku Musou while the first game was just called Sangoku Musou thus being the reason why Japan is always a number behind us. This game was actually gonna be another fighting game until they were told to do something different with the franchise which brought about the radical departure. Dynasty Warriors 2 ended up being a launch title for the West and it's actually kind of impressive how many models they managed to render for their very first attempt.
Sadly though there really isn't much to this game either as there's only three modes here: Musou mode, Free mode and the options menu which shouldn't really count as a mode to be honest. The titular musou mode lets you do a story mode with any of the twenty eight characters as you go through a couple of the stages depending on the character. Free mode allows you to re-enact any stage however you want with any character. The main thing to mention here is that Dynasty Warriors 2 only has twenty eight characters and a very low eight stages making this a surprisingly sparse experience compared to what would really come after but I really think it's a great foundation for what was Omega Force's first attempt. Being greeted with the map screen when you load into a battle looks like something that came out of a middle school news program while the user interface really feels like something thrown together in a week.
To my own surprise, the gameplay didn't feel that different to playing another one of the PS2 musous that I remember albeit very simplistic in a sense. You have your four hit combo that you can interrupt with charge attacks, the standard affair but then that's really it. You can never upgrade from the 4 hit combo you get and that's all you have for the rest of the experience. The only form of character progression comes from picking up stat boosts after defeating officers and doing well in the stage to upgrade your overall stats but that's really it. The bodyguard system is here and progresses just through the point system as well. A cool note is that doing a better combo during the final blow on the officer will actually upgrade the stat item you'd get from the enemy making it worth attempting it. The bow makes its first appearance here and after playing most of the series, I never really found a good use for it other than very specific situation that rarely happen. A regular bow attack does what you expect, a charged attack takes a bit more time to charge but it does stun if you pull it up and using your musou meter unleashes a volley of arrows at your own discretion. After putting a good fifteen hours into a couple of musou playthroughs to experience most of the weapon styles and stages, this game is actually fairly difficult. More difficult than I expected actually. Enemies are surprisingly aggressive and tanky in this game on the Normal difficulty. It's also to the point that a musou attack can't even kill one grunt sometimes and they can interrupt your own musou attack as well which I was kinda surprised by. You actually had to be fairly careful in this game. While I do appreciate that the game was difficult, I was a bit put off by not having enough tools to properly deal with it in a sense. You really only have a four hit combo, a jumping attack and that's pretty much it that I feel I couldn't make the most of the challenge. You can defeat gate captains which reduces the flow of soldiers coming in and attempt to increase the morale which on paper allow the friendly AI to do more but I never noticed it do much honestly. Horses are here which allow for faster movement but I got knocked off so many times due to the aggressive AI that I barely used them honestly. Only form of a checkpoint during battles is collecting a memory card item hidden in crates which is an overseas exclusive too. After the end of a battle, you get a score based on how much you do and that goes into upgrading yourself and your bodyguards automatically. Not much to say on free mode itself, as I mentioned you can just pick any character and any stage and go nuts really. Difficulty options are there if you want an easier experience but knowing this series, you'll eventually want to turn up the difficulty soon.
Dynasty Warriors 2 isn't that bad honestly, it's a pretty good foundation that they built here for the series but if you played any of the mainline titles before playing this one, it will really feel like a prototype with the lack of content and not fully fleshed out action movesets. I would recommend checking this title out if you're a fan of the series even more so since this is really the true start into what would be known as Dynasty Warriors and you really don't want to try the fighting game.
2 Comments
I think you'll be surprised how much of the core concept they got right that would eventually evolve even more into the PlayStation 2 entries later on.
ExSOLDIER
1 year ago