"Is this really a game or a long story book?"

I was one of the lucky few to have preordered my PS2 early enough to secure it before Christmas, and this was one of the games I decided to drop the cash to go out and buy considering I'm a huge strategy fan and at the time it was the PS2's only strategy title on the market, plus it got some decent reviews. So I got it home and popped it in my machine, so...umm...where's the game? The numerical rundown below:

Graphics: 10/10
The first thing that comes out and smacks you in the face when you play this game is the drop-dead gorgeous graphics. I mean seriously, the folks at Koei have done a spectacular job in this department. The game runs at liquid framerates with absolutely astounding graphical detail in the in-game actions, and it looks even more impressive during the masterful CG cutscenes. The only thing that got me close to giving it a 9 was the dull and drab main battle map where the textures are flat and ugly enough for an SNES game. But the rest of the graphics just kick so much ass that I can't help but give this game a perfect score in this category.

Sound/Music: 6/10
The sounds in this game wouldn't be absolutely terrible if you could TURN OFF THE VOICE ACTING. Ugh, how lame can you get with some of that utter garbage? Thankfully, the most important characters in the plot don't seem to have terrible actors behind them. Ishida and Tokugawa really aren't that bad at all, but most of the other generals are absolutely horrendous and totally take away from the experience of the game. The voices would have been better off left as Japanese with subtitles. The rest of the sounds are pretty standard to this genre of game. Throughout all the booms of rifles and cannons, and the clash of steel on steel, there is nothing groundbreaking or even worthy of major note in this game. Average sounds overall with terrible voice acting. The music isn't bad, it gives the game some mood, but there really isn't anything about it that stands out as even that exceptional.

Gameplay: 3/10
Are they sure that this is a game and not a storybook? Really? Could have fooled me sometimes. The challenge is equivalent too. The gameplay works like this, you can set strategy before every battle as to who to try to influence on the other side (in the earlygoing it doesn't really give you much of a choice though), then you can select your officers and choose their formation (I don't think it affects gameplay much and is pretty much useless), then you can choose overall battlefield strategy, not that you'd want to bother, the game has already laid out the best plan of action for you to take. Basically once you've finished the unneeded planning phase you go to battle (finally) and to the main battle map to command your forces in battle against the enemy. You can command your armies to move, attack, or use a special maneuver like a cavalry charge, a cannonade, a rifle barrage, a triple rifle barrage, (I don't see the point of this one) a mounted barrage, a raid, among others. Different moves work more effectively against different unit types. The major drawback of this portion of the game is the fact that you can let the computer follow the plan that was laid out in the beginning and win every scenario without even taking control. Well, I don't know about you but I like a little challenge in my video games, and being able to beat the game without even playing is a little easy. So much time is spent in cut scenes and flashing back and forth from the generals that it hardly feels like a game at all, but more like a story that you're watching.

Replay: 2/10
Why would you want to play it again? Hell, I can't even understand why in the world you'd want to play this game through in the first place, the ONLY redeeming values of this game are its graphics, and the only thing which would inspire you on is the story, which isn't terrible. It's just hard to turn away from the gameplay.

Overall: 5/10
A graphically spectacular and ultimately flawed game that is marred on several areas of the game, especially the gameplay which is totally inexcusable and is hardly a strategy game at all. The only thing that will keep you playing is the story, but it may be good enough to keep you going. Rent the game before you buy and decide for yourself though, don't take my word for it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/01, Updated 02/07/01