Dynasty Warriors 2

by Koei

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004YC3N
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 18, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,486 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

GameSpot Review

When Kessen displays thousands of soldiers fighting onscreen, it's not uncommon to wish that you could go down onto the battlefield and actually fight in the battle.Koei seems to have answered that wish with its second PlayStation 2 release, Dynasty Warriors 2. The original Dynasty Warriors is a fighting game for the PlayStation, but the sequel offers a mixed collection of action and strategy-simulation elements.

Dynasty Warriors 2 is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, in which three kingdoms - Wei, Wu, and Shu - battle each other in China during the second century. Much like in Sega's Spikeout and Yukes' Sword of the Berserk, you'll control a character in a fight against thousands of enemies in a 3D polygonal environment. Initially, you will be able to choose from one of nine characters (three from each kingdom) who all serve as the leading generals of their respective kingdoms. You can unlock about a dozen playable characters upon finishing the game. The health, attack, and defense parameters of each character vary at the start of the game, but ultimately the range of attack (determined by the different weapons) and the fighting style are the only things that differ. The control scheme is straightforward, consisting of jump, attack, and Musou (special attack) buttons. Tapping the attack button two times allows for air combos, three times to stun enemies, and four times for a chain combo. The L1 button is also helpful, since it allows for blocking, strafing, and immediately changing the camera angle to match the direction your player is facing. You can also switch to first-person mode to shoot arrows, which is a handy technique for attacking enemies from a safe distance.

At the beginning of every stage, a map of the battlefield is displayed with the locations and quantities of troops from your kingdom's battalion, as well as those of the enemy. A little bit of strategy helps in playing the game, but as your level increases, you can pretty much overpower enemies all by yourself. Cutting off enemy lines to prevent them from calling in reinforcements and defeating enemy generals to decrease morale are the fastest ways to increase your level and finish the stages quickly. The game is fun and exciting when playing the first two stages, but the game's difficulty increases pretty sharply in the third stage. Luckily, in addition to the main quest mode, the game features a free mode, which lets you replay stages you've already cleared and level up your character in the process. However, the game is repetitive enough as it is, and with only five stages, it can get old fast. There is also an intro edit mode, which lets you place your favorite characters in different scenes in the opening demo, much like in Namco's Soul Calibur.

While you can always find your troops in the field, it seems like your comrades just stand in one area and don't help you in battles more often than not. It's as if they are waiting for you to clear up the front line so they can position themselves further into the enemy territory. Even a simple summon command would have helped. The other concern is that enemy bosses have a tendency to cheat. After being knocked down with a chain combo, they tend to use items to replenish health or to increase attack or defense. You, however, can do that only when you pick up an item from defeated enemies or when you destroy things like crates.

Despite some concerns, the game happens to be one of the most efficient among the PS2 games so far, as the frame rate stays at a constant rate of 60fps. Although the early version of the game had us worried, the final version successfully cut down the slowdown, which now occurs very rarely. It is also a demonstration of how powerful the PS2 hardware is, displaying dozens of soldiers on one screen. There are CG cutscenes with voice-overs between each stage as well, adding plot details. The music is mainly heavy metal rock, and, despite the cool opening intro sequence, the in-game music gets really redundant after a while.

Dynasty Warriors 2's beat-'em-up gameplay is simple enough to make it easy to get in to, and the game is interesting enough to keep you entertained for a while. It's definitely a solid purchase for fans of the genre.--Ike Sato--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Product Description

The Legends of Fierce Warriors come alive in Dynasty Warriors 2! Plunge into battle as one of nine devastatingly fierce soldiers and battle hordes of enemies on foot and on horseback. Join the ranks of the heroes of old in your quest for the greatest prize of all - the right to control all of China. Features include environmental battlefields based on historically accurate locales, upgradeable weaponry and characters, and various full motion video cut scenes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice combo of real-time strategy and hack-and-slash fun., December 18, 2000

By 

Raymond R. Rivard (Washington, D.C. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynasty Warriors 2 (Video Game)

Dynasty Warriors 2 is one of four games I currently own (including Tekken Tag, Ridge Racer V, and Madden 2001), and quite frankly, Dynasty Warriors has been the only one I've played on PS2 since I bought the game. By way of history, I'm an old gamer, and have been playing Koei games since "Nobunaga's Ambition" back on the NES, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms through its various incarnations. Koei took a SimCity approach to ancient warfare in China and Japan and the results were city micromanagement and hexagonal warfare with many of the characters currently in Dynasty Warriors 2. And they're all here...Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Zhang Fei, Lui Bei, Zhao Yun -- except this time they're full size animated characters with individualized weapons and attacks. Zhang Fei uses a snake spear, while Dian Wei uses a huge axe, and so on. The action is fast and furious, but also progresses better when a plan is executed. By looking at the map prior to game play, or pressing "start" during game play, the player sees where the enemy generals are fighting (knocking them out opens gates, and drops morale of the enemy boss). There are also smaller maps (pressing R2 switches overhead perspective) showing where the flow of the battle is going (the enemy is orange, the "good guys" blue). I have come to depend on these "onscreen" maps, as you can get lost without them. Hints that I've noticed: 1.) it's hard to do, but try to keep your bodyguards alive, otherwise you're fighting solo...try to build them up in the "free" mode so they get tougher; 2.) take out archers ASAP...they become a huge pain in the neck; 3.) try to team up on tougher generals with another good allied general on your side -- you can sometimes just swoop in after the target is banged up and finish him off with a special move; 4) break all the boxes and jars for saves, health and "mosou" (special move) power-ups. Graphics-wise the game is excellent, with little pixilation, beautiful scenery and cut-scenes. Drawbacks are the repetitious nature of free mode, the fact that levels 3 and higher are VERY hard (at least in normal mode), and the annoying ability of the tougher generals to FULLY re-heal in a second. In any event, Koei has set a great standard for other games to follow and here's hoping they move into similar PSII simulations for perhaps the American Civil War, Waterloo, WWII or other scenarios.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How Dynastys become Legends..., October 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dynasty Warriors 2 (Video Game)

As one of the first consumers to purchase a Playstation on launch date, my first selection for a game had to test out the power of the newly designed PS2. So ideally I choose Dynasty Warriors 2 in hopes of utilizing it's amazing graphics display.

I was so blown away that when disc loaded in the machine and the intro began I forgot that I was looking at a video game and was lost in a movie. The sensational inroduction storyline was extremely breathtaking alongside the mindblowing graphics and smooth finishing graphics. It including real background graphics, realistic human movements and unforgettable designs.

The setting takes place in ancient china and puts you in the place of several different soldiers who must lead a vast army against the notorious Han dynasty. As the Lead commander you are responsible for fighting your troops into battle. With control of only the main character you fight through thousands of troops to help the army take strategic points of a territory. Some territories more than 5 acres long, you must plow through soldiers and fight constantly in battle ground atmosphere.

With weapons in hand you can engage in furious battles and summon special attacks by saving energy in one powerful burst. Arrows are also shot across distances. One of the greatest highlights of the game is being able to ride on a abondon horse which allows for quicker coverage and towering advantage over your enemies.

Though DW2 is filled with spectacular army combat at times it seems inveitable to have this a multi-player game. Unfortunately its 360 degree style can only allow 1 person to play.

Fighting swarms of people are impossible but while bodies fall like flies a body count is given for each enemy that falls underneath your blade.

Small details provide the most greatest advantages. Costumes and names of the characters are those which could have existed in that time. But Rembering and ally and enemy with chinese names can be easily confusing.

In conclusion the graphics are compared to no other, fighting styles are somewhat repetitive after 200 kills and single player situations can make this game flat, though it provide the greatest strategy and leadership to pass the levels it's no easy task to lead a dynasty.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even Decently Historically Accurate! I Love These Guys!, April 16, 2001

By 

J. N. K "Esco" (Central Mass) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynasty Warriors 2 (Video Game)

My personal reasons for loving this game, for those who care- My story starts about 11 years ago, when I accidentally got an old RPG for Christmas called "Destiny of an Emperor", wondering what it was. I soon found out it was meant for my cousin, but since he asked for it so much, we found there were two copies bought, and I kept my copy just the same. It played like Final Fantasy I (years before I ever saw a Final Fantasy), but with armies of troops instead of HP. I learned the names of these heroes over the years of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun...etc, and the lands, such as Chen Du, Shu, and The Han Dynasty. The game took me over 5 years to beat. It was a superb game!

Then around the time of the PS2 launch, a local store was playing this game as a demo. "Damn!" I thought to myself, "Look at that simple interface! Look at those amazing graphics!" I knew that this game would eventually come into my PS2 library, but I didn't know it had to be soon until a month later when I saw that the character name was "Zhao Yun"! I knew this character! He is like an old best friend of mine! I looked further and found the familiar names of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. I got this game for Christmas! Now I only pray that every time I get a game about "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Era (what the era is called), I hope I always receive it on Christmas! For the record, I used to pronounce Liu Bei as "Loo-ee Bell."

Now the game itself- Like I stated earlier, the gameplay is clean and simple, and the graphics are phenomenal! Nobody will ever have a hard time adjusting to playing the game, or believing it to be real characters or people. This game can be learned in less than three minutes, and mastered in about another hour, so that then you are a powerhouse of skill and technique! The story is told in cutscenes before each level, each that psyche you up to fight, but leave you wondering what is going to happen, whether you are going to triumph, or fail due to the enemy's great strategies.

While individual units have low AI, the collective of about 5000 troops, all at once combined, must use the PS2 emotion chip to full extent. You are only forced to sit through 40 seconds of loading before each level, and that is to generate the AI and the textures and polygons of thousands of units. Sometimes do you get slowdown, but it's incredibly rare, sometimes not for weeks straight of playing; and when it does slow down, it's more like a dramatic slow-motion effect rather than becoming choppy. This game gives you hours of fun, and never ceases to be cool. Even the out-of-place music is really cool here! The worriers dance to it!

However, amidst the greatness', there are three major problems that make me give this a review lower than the perfect score. #1-Any side you choose to play will win, and you don't exactly know who won the war in official history, at least not much until you take notes of the dates and forces involved. #2-The first two levels are easy (except Lu Bu), when suddenly the third level (whichever Kingdom you choose) turns up the difficulty exponentionally. And #3-It is only five missions per scenario. I know that it is because there weren't that many actual battles, no more than that really, and being the way it is, it is more non-fictional than long-lasting fun. At least the replay value is very high!

Overall, if you can forgive the game for its shortcomings, then get up right now and buy this game (or buy it here) immediately! It is one of the funnest and most energetic games I have ever played, and it shows off a good chunk of the PS2's capabilities! Han Dynasty Forever!