Dynasty Tactics 2

"Yes, Tactics Indeed"

I don't play chess or anything like that. Never have, never will. Dynasty Tactics 2, on the other hand, has demanded my attention for scores of hours. I bought it shortly after I had played the first Dynasty Tactics, but found it to be too complicated at the time, for reasons I can't really say. Regardless, years later I finally played this game and would recommend it to anyone who loves to think, or plot grand strategies which can be executed flawlessly and ruthlessly. To define this game in two words I would say this: Total Annihilation.

Overall Ratings:

Gameplay - 9/10
As stated when the game loads, Dynasty Tactics 2 is part of Koei's tactical simulation series. The game itself is based in the time of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era, and allows you to assume control of any of the three kingdoms of Wu, Wei or Shu. In addition, there are certain plot branches that bring you away from the historical situation, and generate their own fantastic story leading to the end of the Three Kingdoms era in a way which is historically inaccurate. Furthermore, there is a special scenario allowing you to take control of Lu Bu, in an attempt to unify China by might alone. The game itself plays out in two parts. There is the map screen and the battle screen.

The map screen is basic, and on this screen you are not usually able to roam freely as you might like. For each chapter of each scenario you will have a limited amount of China available to be conquered, generally focusing around your current objective. Objectives are simple, usually being something like "Take control of prefecture X within 15 turns."

Each prefecture is represented by a simple square, and you can rarely allow for your capital prefecture to be lost to the enemy. In your capital you can form armies or appoint members of your military to be spies. Armies obviously move around china, passing through appropriate prefectures to engage your enemies in battle. Spies can do several things in enemy territory, such as lower the morale of armies before you engage them, or make enemy generals less loyal to their lords, which allows you to more easily recruit them when they are defeated. Both armies and spies can move a set amount of squares through owned, allied, and enemy territory per turn.

Other activities that can be done from the map screen include visiting villages to get information, visiting mystics to learn special tactics or obtain unique items, attending training to enhance the power of your military, or recruiting new members for your military who have no previous loyalty to any existing army. All of these things are pretty straight-forward and painless, though recruiting can be a pain in the neck. Each officer has from one to three friends. You'll be forced to send a friend of the desired officer to that prefecture in order to recruit them. Ocassionally this means you'll have to recruit enemy generals after defeating them in order to obtain free officers.

The bulk of the game takes place in the battle screen. Battle mechanics are hard to explain, but I will try to do my best. Battle in DT2 is turn-based, and takes place on a small variety of territory which is divided into squares. Turn order is based on the morale of each officer, and movement is determined by the unit type of each officer. Unit types include infantry, spearmen, cavalry, archers, engineers and several others. This unit type determines several things, ranging from which tactics can be used to how far the officer can move over varying types of terrain.

During battle, two armies will face off on a map determined by which prefecture was engaged upon. Each army consists of a commander, two strategists and several more officers. The amount of additional officers involved is determined by the commander's leadership stat. Meaning great leaders like Liu Bei or Cao Cao can command more units. Strategists should be intelligent and can order chains (which allow you to chain several tactics together with a single officer), and can execute a tactic in link mode. When you link an enemy they will be unable to be attacked or interacted with in any way until the link is broken. The main purpose of linking is to execute your tactics immediately after another friendly tactic is executed anywhere on the battlefield.

Tactics generally deal more damage than a regular attack, and can be linked together to form combos. Tactics are linked automatically, assuming the conditions for a tactic to be executed are met. For example, a tactic called Flank must be executed from the flank of your enemy. When executed it will damage the enemy, lower their morale, and force them to move one square forward. If, when they move, they end up in front of another of your officers who has the Charge tactic, then the Charge tactic will automatically be executed, damaging the enemy and pushing them back one square and changing their facing so that they face the officer who executed Charge. As you can imagine, you can set up your entire army in a fashion where by executing a single tactic you will ultimately be executing a tactic from each member of your army in one turn. This generally leads to the utter destruction of your enemy. When enemies are defeated they will restore used tactics to anyone involved in the combo that killed them. Thus, by executing intelligent and intricate combos you can infinitely execute tactics in combat. Conversely, if you mindlessly waste your tactics without total destruction as your goal, you will eventually run out of tactics and be forced to simply attack your enemies until the battle is over.

There are a wide variety of tactics which do an even wider variety of effects. The main point of a tactic, in my opinion, is to control the facing and movement of your enemies. By controlling them like puppets you can achieve total success in combat, while your enemies are left with no morale and are led to total destruction. Tactics include basic concepts like flanking, pincer, and rear attacks. If you understand my words (which right now I'm doubting, due to my poor explanation) then you can imagine the potential tactical value of this game, as well as it's innately intricate nature. By carefully planning ahead and selecting sets of tactics for your officers that compliment each other, you will get to take part in some of the most intricate tactical executions I've ever seen.

Officers, obviously, are what composes your army. Officers gain deeds as they take part in battles. As they gain enough deeds they will increase in level. Levelling your officers up allows them to use more tactics in battle, increases their stats (leadership, intelligence, and war; these stats determine your officer's efficiency with the appropriate tactics), and allows them to command more units. To command more units basically means to increase your officer's HP, as when you have no units in the officer's battalion they will be defeated. In addition, each officer has a predetermined skill. There aren't too many skills, and their balance is definitely debatable. Most skills adhere to the principle that they only take effect when the officer's morale is above 80, but others will take effect when a tactic of the appropriate type (war, intelligence, leadership) is executed, and even further some will take effect based on a variety of conditions that are not worth your or my time to explain.

Hopefully I did this game justice in describing the flow of it. It's a game that makes chess look like an infant's game, as well as any other board game I've ever seen. With varying levels of difficulty to choose, as well as varying difficulty based on which scenario branching you choose, you can be in for quite a brain stimulating challenge.

With no glitches you might be wondering how this got a 9 instead of a 10 for gameplay. Basically, I felt the map screen options were extremely limited. By comparison to other Koei games, you can't really do a whole lot with each prefecture. Also, the spying is very lackluster and is not needed at all in this game. I feel Koei should have either cut it out, or made it more important. Those are my only complaints about the gameplay.

Story - 4/5
While not exactly intricate or prominent, the story of DT2 is still good. Obviously, I'm a fan of the Romance era and what happened therein. If you're looking for flashy new stories and graphically pleasing cinematics to push the story along then you ought to look elsewhere.

The plot-branching was a nice touch. It added a spin to what happened in this era, and how things could have played out differently if key people made different decisions, showing the true power of choice.

Graphics/Sound - Nil
Take this with a grain of salt, because as of my writing this review DT2 has already been out for six years. By standards of the PS3/XBox 360 or beefed up PCs, the graphics aren't too hot. For their time they are comparable to Dynasty/Samurai Warriors graphics around the year 2003. Regardless, it's doubtful anyone would choose to play this game for it's graphics.

Sound was par. Nothing spectacular happening here, and nothing too terrible. Naturally, if you have read any of my reviews, you will know that I complain regularly about terrible English voice acting. Yes indeedy, the English voice acting in this game is terrible. With no option to change dialects you are left to listen to it, or turn your volume off since there isn't much audio value in this game.

Play Time/Replayability - 5/5
While first playing Liu Bei's prologue this game is deceivingly short. It left me with a feeling that each scenario would last only several hours and have close to no depth. After playing Cao Cao's main story and taking the alternate path of attacking Wu rather than hunting down Liu Bei, I realized the true depth of this game. The aforementioned scenario took around 30 hours to complete in itself. While I did everything there was to do (conquering neutral prefectures and recruiting everyone I could), I still feel it would have taken around 20 hours without. The play time is stunning, really.

Replay value is also good, as each time you beat a scenario you will start new games with bonus items, deeds and craft (which is used to purchase tactics). In addition, each scenario will allow you to use different officers and will have different tactics available for learning, as well as focus on battling in a different part of China. Strap in and get ready for an all out tactical addiction.

Final Recommendation - 9/10
With several scenarios that include plot branching (which creates a vast difference in the way a scenario plays out), varying levels of difficulty, dozens of different tactics and hundreds of officers, DT2 provides a tactical depth which I haven't seen anywhere else. You can spend countless hours playing this game, and plot intense and intricate ways to destroy your enemies with the utmost efficiency and brutality. For a definition of the word overkill, simply look up Dynasty Tactics 2. Any strategy fans or fans of board games like chess ought to love this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/09

Game Release: Dynasty Tactics 2 (US, 09/23/03)