Having birthed the musou genre as we know it today, it's very interesting to take a look at this, and I dare say it's even quite playable to this day. That being said...yeah, there's more than a few square miles of room for improvement.
Dynasty Warriors 2 may be titled as if it's a sequel to the original fighting game on the PS1, but it absolutely is not - it was called Shin Sangokumusō in Japan, a successor to the original Sangokumusō, but they just decided to make it a straight sequel in the West. Of course, as a result this barely resembles a fighting game, and is more of a hack and slash on a far larger scale than anything at the time.
The main gimmick of the game, and what would therefore become the main gimmick of the Musou genre, is the sheer size and scope. You are a soldier on a sprawling battlefield, and said battlefield is littered in enemy forces. You have to mow them down as you make your way through enemy officers until you confront and kill their leader, before they reach and kill your own. It's as if a real time strategy game let you play as a solider and let the AI do the orders instead, and it's ridiculously impressive for early PS2.
Levels are huge areas, usually sectioned off by gates that necessitate killing the officer guarding it to progress, who is clearly marked with their name (and usually riding a horse). As you make your way through the enemies immediately ahead of you, your allies will also be fighting far away in the distance, and may push forward or get pushed back depending on the morale of them/their opponents. Morale is determined by, well, killing lots of guys. If your guys are dying, allied morale drops, and if enemies are dying, allied morale rises, which in theory makes them more aggressive and powerful. It all happens in real time and you get non-stop status updates on the minimap on how your buddies are doing. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but I can't help but feel in awe of it all.
Of course, this might sound really impressive, but you already saw the 5/10 rating and can probably tell what I'm about to say: it doesn't actually make for an especially good game. The biggest offence here is easily content: now granted, there are 28 characters to play as. The problem? There are only 3 campaigns between them, one for each of the three kingdoms. The story isn't particularly the highlight: it follows the events of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a dramatisation of ancient Chinese conflicts. Rather than a clear-cut narrative, it's basically a greatest hits compilation of battles from RotTK, with a little flavour text. You go from level to level, and between the three campaigns there are several reused ones, albeit from the opposite perspective. Between this and only like, 3 different weapon types, once you've played as a character from each kingdom, you've seen everything you need to.
The gameplay is also pretty monotonous, not that I think that it was too bad the first time around. Square is your normal attack and Triangle your heavy. Pressing heavy to end normal attack combos results in a different effect, from knocking down, to launching, to stunning. Circle is your special Musou Attack, which does decent damage and needs to be charged, either by holding Circle or killing enemies. While you can air juggle enemies, it's difficult and really just pointless when most enemies go down in a handful of hits...assuming you're increasing your stats. Killing officers and gate guards drop items that permanently increase certain stats, and these are absolutely necessary to beat later stages. The game is actually designed to make you grind the earlier levels for a while until your stats are high enough to continue Musou Mode, which is just more tedium on top.
Oh, I didn't mention X. Uh, X jumps...which is never really useful unless you encounter an officer on a horse. Funnily enough, X also lets you get on said horse, but only when you're in the pixel perfect position. Horseback combat is pretty neat and essential for rescuing your useless allies before they get slaughtered, but killing enemies via horse-and-run annoyingly doesn't go towards your kill count, which determines exp gain and morale. You can still get the kill by swinging your weapon on horseback, but the hitbox is large enough to accidentally hit them with the horse before your weapon. You also have a bow and arrow by holding R1 and aiming, though it feels like complete shit, it may be one of your only hopes against bosses: more on that later.
On top of everything, the graphics are understandably poor. While you participate in massive battles, the PS2 can only render so much, resulting in a pitiful camera position and fog everywhere. Character models are pretty fine...maybe too much so, as if enough enemies are in close vicinity, they'll begin blinking in and out of existence, which is just really poor for combat. The droning action music is samey, but encouraging if nothing else.
However, the biggest nail in the coffin for this game is the difficulty. Particularly, enemy officers and generals. While they're not all too aggressive or damaging, there is one biazarre choice in their behaviour. Whenever an attack of yours (or an ally) knocks them down, which will happen a lot as that is what they're designed to do, the boss will get a random buff. This can be attack up, defense up...or full HP restoration. This completely deranged mechanic makes encounters completely anticlimactic, as you're forced to chip away at them lest you incur all your work undone. Unfortunately, your allies did not get this very important memo and will try and sabotage your efforts. It's a really unfortunate mark on this game that keeps it firmly below getting a 6/10.
Altogether, I actually really liked this game, but it's just got too much holding it back. It sucks that most of the 28 characters are reskins with nothing original to them except a model and a basic ending text, as I'd have honestly played through 28 story modes with any kind of distinct features to them. Alas, it's simply a curious tech demo of a game that I can't recommend, but also can't bring myself to hate. What it does excite me for, however, is seeing how DW3 improves on making the Nasty Warriors Die.
Dynasty Warriors 2 may be titled as if it's a sequel to the original fighting game on the PS1, but it absolutely is not - it was called Shin Sangokumusō in Japan, a successor to the original Sangokumusō, but they just decided to make it a straight sequel in the West. Of course, as a result this barely resembles a fighting game, and is more of a hack and slash on a far larger scale than anything at the time.
The main gimmick of the game, and what would therefore become the main gimmick of the Musou genre, is the sheer size and scope. You are a soldier on a sprawling battlefield, and said battlefield is littered in enemy forces. You have to mow them down as you make your way through enemy officers until you confront and kill their leader, before they reach and kill your own. It's as if a real time strategy game let you play as a solider and let the AI do the orders instead, and it's ridiculously impressive for early PS2.
Levels are huge areas, usually sectioned off by gates that necessitate killing the officer guarding it to progress, who is clearly marked with their name (and usually riding a horse). As you make your way through the enemies immediately ahead of you, your allies will also be fighting far away in the distance, and may push forward or get pushed back depending on the morale of them/their opponents. Morale is determined by, well, killing lots of guys. If your guys are dying, allied morale drops, and if enemies are dying, allied morale rises, which in theory makes them more aggressive and powerful. It all happens in real time and you get non-stop status updates on the minimap on how your buddies are doing. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but I can't help but feel in awe of it all.
Of course, this might sound really impressive, but you already saw the 5/10 rating and can probably tell what I'm about to say: it doesn't actually make for an especially good game. The biggest offence here is easily content: now granted, there are 28 characters to play as. The problem? There are only 3 campaigns between them, one for each of the three kingdoms. The story isn't particularly the highlight: it follows the events of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a dramatisation of ancient Chinese conflicts. Rather than a clear-cut narrative, it's basically a greatest hits compilation of battles from RotTK, with a little flavour text. You go from level to level, and between the three campaigns there are several reused ones, albeit from the opposite perspective. Between this and only like, 3 different weapon types, once you've played as a character from each kingdom, you've seen everything you need to.
The gameplay is also pretty monotonous, not that I think that it was too bad the first time around. Square is your normal attack and Triangle your heavy. Pressing heavy to end normal attack combos results in a different effect, from knocking down, to launching, to stunning. Circle is your special Musou Attack, which does decent damage and needs to be charged, either by holding Circle or killing enemies. While you can air juggle enemies, it's difficult and really just pointless when most enemies go down in a handful of hits...assuming you're increasing your stats. Killing officers and gate guards drop items that permanently increase certain stats, and these are absolutely necessary to beat later stages. The game is actually designed to make you grind the earlier levels for a while until your stats are high enough to continue Musou Mode, which is just more tedium on top.
Oh, I didn't mention X. Uh, X jumps...which is never really useful unless you encounter an officer on a horse. Funnily enough, X also lets you get on said horse, but only when you're in the pixel perfect position. Horseback combat is pretty neat and essential for rescuing your useless allies before they get slaughtered, but killing enemies via horse-and-run annoyingly doesn't go towards your kill count, which determines exp gain and morale. You can still get the kill by swinging your weapon on horseback, but the hitbox is large enough to accidentally hit them with the horse before your weapon. You also have a bow and arrow by holding R1 and aiming, though it feels like complete shit, it may be one of your only hopes against bosses: more on that later.
On top of everything, the graphics are understandably poor. While you participate in massive battles, the PS2 can only render so much, resulting in a pitiful camera position and fog everywhere. Character models are pretty fine...maybe too much so, as if enough enemies are in close vicinity, they'll begin blinking in and out of existence, which is just really poor for combat. The droning action music is samey, but encouraging if nothing else.
However, the biggest nail in the coffin for this game is the difficulty. Particularly, enemy officers and generals. While they're not all too aggressive or damaging, there is one biazarre choice in their behaviour. Whenever an attack of yours (or an ally) knocks them down, which will happen a lot as that is what they're designed to do, the boss will get a random buff. This can be attack up, defense up...or full HP restoration. This completely deranged mechanic makes encounters completely anticlimactic, as you're forced to chip away at them lest you incur all your work undone. Unfortunately, your allies did not get this very important memo and will try and sabotage your efforts. It's a really unfortunate mark on this game that keeps it firmly below getting a 6/10.
Altogether, I actually really liked this game, but it's just got too much holding it back. It sucks that most of the 28 characters are reskins with nothing original to them except a model and a basic ending text, as I'd have honestly played through 28 story modes with any kind of distinct features to them. Alas, it's simply a curious tech demo of a game that I can't recommend, but also can't bring myself to hate. What it does excite me for, however, is seeing how DW3 improves on making the Nasty Warriors Die.