Customer Reviews

Devil Kings

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Devil Kings is a Dynasty Warriors style game where you choose a main character, start on a map, and plow your way through literally thousands of enemies.

The game is set in feudal Japan, but in a bizarre twist, they decided to "rename" every single Japanese historical character to have a made-up name. In the original Japanese version of the game you get the real characters. In the US game, we have to play with "dragons", "minotaurs" and "devil kings". Why? Do they think a historical game with cool characters would be too boring for us US folk?

Playable Characters:
Azure Dragon is Date Masamune
Scorpio is Sanada Yukimura
Devil King is Oda Nobunaga
Lady Butterfly is Nouhime
Frost is Kenshin Uesugi
Red Minotaur is Shingen Takeda
Puff is Itsuki
Q-ball is Zabi
Hornet is Mori Ranmaru
Venus is Kasuga
Talon is Sarutobi Sasuke
Iron Ox is Honda Tadakatsu

Non Playable Characters:
Zaan is Shimasu Yoshihiro
Lark is Maeda Toshiie
Bramble is Matsu
Reaper is Akechi Mitsuhide
Irdene is Ieyasu Tokugawa
Arslan is Shosokabe Motochiga
Orwik is Hojo Fujimasa
Kahz is Mori Motonari
Muri is Imagawa Yoshitomo

In any case, you start out with a few of the characters and unlock more as you go. Each character has strengths and weaknesses, and you really do find favorites that match your personal gameplay style best. Gameplay in general involves wading into giant groups of enemies, swinging with massive combo strikes, and taking them all out at once.

Instead of authentic feudal Japanese music, you get a rock music track, just like in Dynasty Warriors. I suppose if they had to turn the people into mythological monsters, there was little chance of authentic sounds :) The vocals are reasonably good, and there isn't much to "sound effect" here besides CHING! and BASH!

The graphics are rather good, with a very long range of the battlefield and hundreds of enemies massing against you at once. Characters in the background often look like they're actually "awake and active" many times, as compared to Dynasty Warriors where the enemies often seemed to be hanging around chatting until you reached them.

There are even special, reasonably long anime sequences that are quite nicely done. They are triggered at different times during the game and help to move the story along.

The combat system does have many cool features. You can pre-weaken people sometimes with certain powers, or hook up your fury gauge to build up your super attack. In general, though, this is a lay-back-and-have fun button masher that gives you a GREAT sense of achievement as you see the bodies flying and the counter ratchet up. This isn't a stealth planning game, or a long term strategy game. It's a fun game that you can pick up the controller when you've got an hour, bash through a few levels, then save and go off to whatever else you want to do.

The gameplay itself does move from feudal Japan into fantasty rather quickly. There are robots, Egyptians, shotguns and double-hand-shooting going on. This isn't just a game of swords and armor.

In general, we found this quite a lot of fun to play!

first, let me say i am an avid fan of the 'Dynasty Warriors' series by Koei. this game reinvents the genre by far.

it is the typical hack and slash war epic. not much to controls or strategy. but the simulation of fighting in a large scale, primitive war is awesome. the line of sight goes beyond the latest Dynasty Warriors game. this entitles more enemies on the battelfield. the footsoldiers to an extent, are endless. i've reached well over 3000 KOs in one battle. the enimies range from soldiers, samurais, ninjas, mythological creatures, and mechanical robots. because of this, every battle seems individual and not repetitive.

the game takes place in an unkown continent, with the time period around 1500's or so. depending on your character, you can be armed with various swords, axes, spears, shotguns, or dual pistols. all upgradable through expirence points. various equipible items are also found throughout battles. each having it's own attributes.

the best part about the game, in my opinion, is that it takes its physics from the Devil May Cry trilogy. if you are a big fan, you'll appreciate the fighting visuals. Samurai Warriors tried intergrating firearms into a game like this, and it just didn't seem to work. one character in this game uses dual revolvers, (with infinate ammo and no reloading just like DMC games) and she fluidly transitions from each target.

overall, this is an amazing game. if you like roaming hack and slash games. this one definately outshines the rest with superior graphics and much better voice acting. with all kinds of unlockable items, levels, weapons, and characters, ensuring tons of replay value.

I had ordered this game previously--I broke it--so, I had to order it again! Some people have said this is simply a "mash button" game, but you know what? That doesn't bother me one iota! The game pretty much plays itself (thank God for simplicity), therefore, you won't have to pay $25-$30 for some guide to let you know all the "tricks." You have three modes: easy, normal, and hard. I've only tried a couple of times on the hard mode. I don't see how anyone can beat it. The easy and normal modes are the best. You have several characters to choose from and you'll find hidden and ornate treasure chests along the way filled with goodies! Although classified as a "fighting" game there really is no blood or carnage, so even the kiddies can enjoy.

The game is a lot of fun--not offensive to anyone. Enjoy.

This game is pretty much a remake of Samurai Warriors, but it is ten times better! The graphics and voice acting is so much better. The way that the game is based is like dynasty warriors 4 empires and samurai warriors mixed. The empires feel is what the game is based on,being you are either a general of an army or an officer in an army, you get to choose which land you want to conquer first. The samurai warriors feel comes in on battle and characters. While battling, every person that you kill adds to your exp., eventually leveling your charaacter up. When you defeat bosses or commanders, you can gain treasure boxes that hold more exp., new items or even new weapons. The only difference is that your weapons increase in level for every new sword that you find. The battles also have missions that you must complete in order for the battle to go in your favor. As for the characters, all of the characters on the game are characters from samurai warriors redone. Below is a list of some of the characters in the game and their true name:

Devil King-Nobunaga Oda

Azure Dragon-Masamune Date

Scorpio-Yukimura Sanada

Lady Butterfly-Lady Noh

Red Minotaur-Shingen Takeda

Venus-Hanzo Hattori

Talon-Kunoichi

Frost-Ieyasu Tokugawa

You might be confused as to why Kunoichi went from a girl to a boy and Hanzo going from boy to a girl. This has made the armies even more historically accurate, being that Takeda was protected by a nameles ninja and his ninja clan, and Tokugawa was protected not only by Hanzo, but by one of Hanzo's Followers too.

Overall these are my ratings for this game:

Graphics-5

voice-5

Characters-5

Story line-4

music-5

replay value-5

If you really want to fulfill everything on here to complete the entire game, being maxed level characcters, all items maxed out, all weapons maxed out then it will take you quite a long time, just like any dynasty warriors or samurai warriors. Have Fun!!!

Basic: Devil Kings, as most of us know, is the NA installment of Sengoku Basara in Japan. What makes it different from games like Samurai Warriors, etc from Koei? It's actually hard to tell at first glance. In my own personal opinion, the battle system is much more fluid and realistic as compared to games like Samurai Warriors. However, it's more of a mix of the hack n slash genre with some Devil May Cry thrown in, but I'll get into that a bit later.

Graphics: Very clean, crips and fluid. Alot of detail was used for the character designs. Stages are your typical hack n' slash stages and maps. The real gem is the characters themselves.

Sound: Music isn't half bad. There are some catchy tunes in the sound track. VA's aren't half bad either. I wasn't really expecting good VA's, but I was pleased to find that they are all tolerable, and some are very good.

Gameplay: Remeber when I said there was a Devil May Cry element thrown in? Well, when you get your fury guage maxed out, hit your circle button and see what happens. It's your character's ultimate attack, and they are all very flashy and damaging. Aside from that, each character has skills that they acquire as they level up, and can use them in battle. Each one is different, so it's really up to how you like to play.

Story: It has your typical hack n' slash story. What makes it a bit more rewarding is hearing how the characters interact with each other. There are obvious rivals, etc. Having only 12 playable characters gives you a better sense in learning about them and how they seem to fit into the general scheme of things.

Replay: You start with 6 characters from the start, and you unlock 6 more by completing Conquest mode with the first 6. That should take a bit of time, but not too much. The real challenge lies in if you can complete the game on Hard mode. That is seriously a challenge, especially for characters with lower stats. There is also the weapon/item feature. There are treasure chests spread throughout the map during play that you can collect, sometimes by defeating a commander of your enemy general, or something in wooden boxes that are scattered around the area. You can't get the best weapons and items for your characters unless you attempt hard mode, which is another reason to try that out.

Overall: Fun game, and VERY addicting. You can find yourself playing for hours. I'd recommend it to anyone that just wants a fun game, or that enjoys the hack n' slash genre.

This game is so fun! I can't deny that this title is one of the best "slash and burn" games around. Definitely kills Dynasty Warriors 4 by a long shot. The playable characters, moves, and levels are much more unique than DW4. My only issue is the replay factor. The character design is great, but I think the level you can upgrade to should've been higher. To start from a weakling (which you pretty much do) to becoming an untouchable force of nature (Iron Ox only) would have been better (in my opinion). Just some minor touches on some of the characters Boost Moves (an additional one for Frost, or changing Scorpio's last Boost move) would topped off the character factor. Other than that, the combos achievable (I reached 1620), the amount of people fighting (I thing up to about 20-30 at once on the screen), and the all around design of the game was really great. I REALLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ANY ONE WHO LIKED FINAL FIGHT AND ANY GAME FOLLOWING THAT "BEAT'EM UP" TREND! Trust me, you will be satisfied.

classic hack and slash game. pretty fun even though its an older game. this is the first game in the sengoku basara series. they never brought over number 2, but sengoku basara: samurai heroes for ps3 is actually number 3 in the series.

I was planning on a savaging review of the game after I first played it. I simply hated it. After playing for a couple days though, I was pretty much addicted and playing at least a couple hours a night until my wife finally made me stop.

You play the part of one of one of 6 different characters who are either the leader or supporting characters for their realm. Your goal is complete conquest of the land. Your opponents aren't sitting idle waiting for you to come to them; they're out attacking their neighbors too. The effect is that you can sometimes luck/choose to avoid a battle and instead fight a different character if they're particularly difficult for you. If you've ever played Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War -- Dark Crusade you'll recognize the style of map. As you conquer the land with each character a new one is unlocked for you to use. You won't ever get to play all the charters in the game, but you'll play the most interesting ones. The only problem is that unlike those first 6 the ones you unlocked don't give you much incentive to play them. I mean they're OK to try out, but the best you can unlock a short movie or two, including their endings. For me the exception was Iron Ox who was just a blast to play. He's gigantic, fairly fast, and devastatingly powerful. Don't get me wrong, the others were still OK, but he was so much fun.

The reason I hated this so much when I first got it is the lack of tutorial. You have no tutorial mission, nothing to guide you through a first mission and no items to help you. Literally the only thing the game gives you any preparation is a short demo video. You start out with no boosting items and no special attacks. You can't play the Free Battle mode or get ANY experience until you first beat a level. The first few times you face a boss, you're going to die since you don't know what to expect. You then lose and have to play the whole level over again. All the experience, all the time you spent, all of it wasted. Playing the same level three times in a row gets old fast. If you're just starting out, I'd suggest attacking Azure Dragon's level because you fight the boss very first thing and he's fairly weak. After you win a few levels things will start to settle down and get easier. The next character you play through with will have access to any general use items you've found. It just makes it really hard to get into the game that first time.

The graphics are somewhat mixed. You have some gorgeous cut scenes for introductions/ending movies for each character. Then you have some other short anime style cartoons that are, I guess, supposed to give some sort of story line. I liked most of the videos, but I thought those just fell short and were not as interesting. The game graphics themselves are quite good for a PS2 game. Everybody looks good and the levels are well designed and detailed. The female characters look nice, especially Lady Butterfly who's a knockout. She's the wife of the game's namesake, the Devil King. She's supportive of her husband's power grab and also one of the best characters in the game. She literally brings a gun to a knife fight and if used properly is nearly unstoppable with distance killing. Strangely, this little Japanese woman seems to have an English accent. Oh well.

The majority of your fights will be against an army of peons. Generally these soldiers will be under the command of one or more commanders, who are more dangerous to you. In fact, if you take out the commander the soldiers will often lose the will to fight, even falling down on their backsides. You have your own commanders, but mostly they're useless. If you are using a charter with allies, then some/all of the commanders will be other characters in the game. Either way they don't seem very interested in helping you out and even when you get warnings they're in trouble and falling, it really has no baring on the game. At most you'll lose an exp bonus which isn't all that big anyway. Your only goal is to kill the general.

The enemy models you fight are surprisingly varied. You'll face different models in different armies, which was a very cool touch. Each model set fits in with the theme of their army and they look great. What isn't great is the draw distance. You'll can literally be looking across to the other side of a room and see nobody there, but as you move forward a bunch of guys appear out of nowhere. It's not that they appear/disappear randomly, the PS2 tracks where they are at all times, it's just that you cannot see them further than a couple yards away. This can lead to some confusing fights as the guy you though you killed suddenly stabs you in the back. Not cool, but I suppose it's the limits of the PS2 hardware. AT least it doesn't happen against bosses. You can always see them.

Another BIG problem with the game is the camera. There is NO way to lock the camera on an enemy. Bosses especially like to dart around to the side or behind you and it becomes very easy to lose sight of them. The best you can often do is turn in the direction you think they might have gone and use a button to center your vision in that direction. It's an awful, clumsy system and nearly ruined the whole game for me. I lost many battles because I wasn't able to turn to fight a boss. Not cool. Just a heads up, if you don't like the control scheme your out of luck. You can't reconfigure the controls.

I know I'm pointing out a lot of the bad stuff, but I find it useful to hear the bad stuff about a game before I buy it. If I can stand that stuff, then the good stuff is icing on the cake. For a first try at a Dynasty Warriors type game, Devil Kings is really pretty good. It's just got a lot of frustrating rough edges I wish they'd have smoothed out. Still, it's tremendous fun to tear through an army of peons and landing 400+ hit combos on swarm after swarm of enemies. I've enjoyed playing it.

This game is alright if you enjoy having to fight 1000's of enemies in a single level, with 100's of enemies coming towards you at a time. Though, the game does get quite monotonous between levels. Let's hope you have some thick calluses because this game is a button smasher!

The game is like Dynasty Warriors. There are some interesting units in the game, and the characters attacks can be more responsive than in DW. There are not many maps and they are very static. Many of the faction and character designs are way over the top. The voice acting is not very good. There are a handful of playable characters, 10 or so. The AI is mediocre, your officers have to be pushed along into the next section of the map to keep them fighting, or you end up fighting solo. Despite its flaws, it is fun enough to fill in that Dynasty Warriors craving if you you are looking for something new.