"A Special And Underrated Game"

Released back in late 2002, Dynasty Tactics is a game that has flown generally under the radar, primarily due to the fact that it wasn't hyped much and thus not very many people heard about it. Additionally it was completely different to the Dynasty Warriors series, which is where a lot of its potential fans would probably come from due to the same basic story, publisher, characters, etc.

As a result, Dynasty Tactics is paid very little attention which is an undoubted shame. The combination of addictive and deep gameplay, a solid 'map' phase, the challenge of finding, hiring and utilising all 227 available officers and the 13 different endings to the story, each with a multitude of paths available to unlock them, made the foundations of a very solid game.

From a technical aspect the game is good, but nothing special. Each character has a special portrait to identify themselves, although outside of unique characters there are only three or four different voices to go around. There are many in-battle cutscenes activated when you use a tactic (more on them later), which adds an immersive feel to the game although once you become a more seasoned player you will no doubt find yourself skipping through them with the start button. The music is solid - nothing special, certainly nothing you would want to listen to away from the game, but it always does a great job setting the mood - forboding at the start of the battle, fiery during exchanges between units, anxious when you are in danger of being wiped out, etc..

When you first load up the game, a nice and simple tutorial will be waiting for you, explaining over the course of three simple battles how to activate basic commands such as moving, attacking, and the significance of tactics and tactic combos. In addition to that, during your first play through a game a small tutorial box will come up explaining each feature, meaning that despite the game mechanics being complex the learning curve actually isn't very steep.

The game can be divided into two parts - the 'map phase' where you move your officers and armies around China, and the 'battle phase' where you wage war against the opposing officers. It's an easy mistake to think "well the battle phase is far more important", but depending on how you play you may spend even more time in the map phase. It never feels like a chore though, due to the simple yet enjoyable mechanics of moving your troops around - if you send an officer out in an army, they can move four spaces on the map; if you send them out alone they can move six spaces. Certain cities are off limits due to not being relevant to the current objective, or because you cannot reach them in the number of turns remaining in the current phase.

A typical phase would involve beginning by investigating the free officers to see whether any of the generals in your army can recruit them (each officer has between one and three friends, and a free officer can only be recruited either by someone who has them on their friends list, or who is on the free officer's friends list - fortunately, both of these scenarios can easily be checked with the L2 and R2 buttons). Then, once you've sent out all your recruiters out, you will look at your remaining pool of generals to form armies. Each generals has a few stats that will help make up your mind - their level (which determines how many troops they can command), their Strength, Intelligence and Leadership stats (which govern the strength of their corresponding tactics, as well as affecting the power of the unit, ability to use 'trumps' which are ruses that can confuse enemy units or benefit yourself, and the turn order in which you'll move respectively), their unit type, their skill and which tactics they can use. Skills give the officer a certain benefit - unlimited use of certain tactics once the unit's morale is high enough, a boost to their attack, or the ability to negotiate with other forces to give but a few examples. Tactics, however, are the focus of the battle phase.

In battle, the basic aim is to take out the enemy commander's unit, although most people will try to take out everyone else as well, for the thrill of it ;). The main way you will hurt the enemy units is through the use of tactics, and the better can utilise them in combos the easier you will find battles on the whole. Tactics are special moves - the number of which an officer can hold corresponding to the officer's level - which do all sorts of things, primarily focusing around boosting your units' morale, hurting the enemy officer, and moving units without taking up a turn. Once a tactic is resolved, if it is possible for any other tactics to be activated (assuming they relate to the first one) they will do so, allowing for combos of up to 10 (the maximum amount of units allowed for one side in a battle). Combos play a vital role for a few reasons: the effects of tactics are magnified for each stage of the combo, so for example if you used 'Raid' then you might deal around 3000 damage, but if you used it as the 5th combo in a sequence you would be more likely to deal around 15000 damage; you can capture certain enemy officers if you defeat them on a high enough combo (which again corresponds to the level of the enemy officer); you can also acquire equippable items from certain officers if you defeat them on a high enough combo; the later on a tactic takes place in a combo, the more 'deeds' (which are effectively experience points since they determine your characters' levels) you get from doing the move; but mainly, despite all the important aspects already mentioned, one of the best parts of the game is the satisfaction of owning your opponents with high combos!

One of the things that makes the game so enjoyable is that, in addition to there being multiple stories, there are multiple ways to play. For someone who just enjoys the battles, you can ignore the map screen for the most part and just attack territories. For someone who enjoys the diplomatic side of things but finds the battles a bit of a chore, you can hire enough people through the map screen to help yourself advance, and then use Pit or Taunt to play for a quick battle victory (Pit or Taunt being tactics that drag an enemy officer over to your side of the battlefield, allowing you to isolate him easily). For the perfectionists such as I, you can get immersed in both the map phase and the battle phase. What makes the game special is that all of these options are challenging in their own way. It is difficult to put into words just how impressive the replay value is, on the whole.

One aspect that only adds to replay value even further is the stories, which are magnificently done. If you like, you can play according to the stories we're all familiar with, and they are all told very well through impressive FMV cutscenes - however, there are some interesting "what if?"s. What if Cao Cao had made a truce with Yuan Shao? What if Sun Quan had told Liu Bei to stuff himself when the latter asked for an alliance against Cao Cao? What if Sun Ce hadn't died? What if Guo Jia had been around at Chi Bi? There are some truly glorious scenarios played out impeccably well that manage to create rich characters without feeling as though they betray who the characters really were.

Overall, it's difficult to say enough great things about this game. Immersive, deep, fun, replayable - what more do you want?

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/07