"It feels linear and non-linear, feels shallow yet complex, feels beautiful yet unsatisfying... this is 'Dynasty Tactics'."

Synopsis
Dynasty Tactics is a strategy game with a similar battle interface to Romance of the Three Kingdoms but with a far more direct approach to storyline. Dynasty Tactics has some good and bad moments, as it leaves the political complexity of previous Three Kingdoms based games, but implements a strategy concept that tries to be deep.

When I played this game, I was really frustrated in the beginning, as I made some essential mistakes in Dynasty Tactics. I didn't have enough 'strong' generals, nor did the strong generals have enough men in their army. It turns out that Dynasty Tactics required a chess game with combos. Till that moment when I was playing my first run-through of Dynasty Tactics, I was simply playing a 'chess game'. Dynasty Tactics, for me, is a middle-ground of all the games Koei has given. It is not as cinematic as the Kessen series, although it does give some good cutscenes and it is not as deep as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, although it offers some complexity. In generally moreso feels like a mix of good concepts and bad concepts. It feels linear and non-linear, feels shallow yet complex, feels beautiful yet unsatisfying... this is 'Dynasty Tactics'.

Gameplay Elements:
Let us start off by mentioning you will have three leaders to choose from, and Koei fans will know them as Cao Cao (the apparently ruthless and power-hungry), Liu Bei (the apparently virtuous and honorable) and Sun Ce (the apparently loyal and respectable). I say 'apparently' as this is how Koei projects them and that there are various other opinions of these ancient Chinese leaders.

'Dynasty Tactics' offers two screens - the up-close battles and the land-conquering board of China. It is through these two that you will conquer all of China (or hopefully the majority of it) and make decisions upon your next moves. The map of China is the place where you move your units to trespass against foreign lands and then engage them in combat, taking you to the up-close battles.

Now, before you think that you're just diving into a great big world of land-conquering, you are limited... very limited. You are offered an objective that you must complete within a required amount of days. For example, you must take over Wu Ling in 3 days. Pretty much what this is saying is that you will steal a territory and that you must do it within a certain amount of days. This offers a lot of direction and pretty much points you to what you should do. While this may help beginner gamers to know what to do, it is severely linear. However, it does not fall to the same fate of linearity as Kessen did, as you sometimes may be offered two or three choices, which would direct you to a completely different set of choices the next turn after a battle. The map of China screen, therefore, is rather shallow.

The battles are what attempt to be the saving grace of this game. Once your units trespass onto an enemy territory or the enemy does that to you, the units that oppose each other will be the generals that will enter the battle. You can have up to 10 generals on your team, which in my opinion, is rather small considering the amount of generals in this game. One unit composes of 4 men, so you can have four units and two spies. These opposing teams will fight against each other in a chess like gameplay, using 'tactics'.

This is where the depth can come in rather well. You can pull off tactics easily, approaching a general or meeting the requirements of the tactic. Then you can simply press the available tactic and the tactic will be completed along with a pretty cutscene of what's going on. However, simply putting in tactics will not merit a victory in the later game. You will need to put your generals in strategic areas of the grid so you can trigger off combos.

Sounds a bit complicated? Okay. Let's say general A and enemy A are adjacent to eachother. General A uses repel, which is a tactic that pushes Enemy A back one square. However, once Enemy A is pushed back one square, he is adjacent to General B, who performs Switch, which is a tactic which 'switches' the two pawns' position. Because Enemy A has taken the position of General B, he ends up being beside General C, who then performs a combo as well. This is what we call combos in 'Dynasty Tactics'. A various amount of tactics become triggered, and the interesting part is that the tactics increase tenfold through each consecutive tactic!

However, I can't say that this tactic system doesn't have its flaws. Let's take a look at the horrible tactic 'Pit' and 'Taunt'. Let's say the battle has just started and the two teams are on the opposite sides of the chess screen. Taunt can be performed as long as there are no obstacles directly in front of you. So your enemy can be 7 grids away from you and perform Taunt, which forces YOUR general to fall prey to their base. This is truly disappointing, and these two tactics could've been implemented a bit more intelligently. However, this is not the case, and in the later game, it is a fierce competition as to who can perform 'Pit' or 'Taunt' the quickest.

One gripe I have about the battle system is that once a general performs a tactic, a cutscene that CANNOT be turned off is shown. Granted, you can shorten the cutscene by fiercely tapping start, but you'll be going through the same generic 'action' sequences as you did the 18th time before.

By pulling off large combos using your generals strategically, your enemy general will be captured and thus, join your side. Even faithful generals that were loyal to the end to their leader (Dian Wei) can join your team (only a handful will refuse). Due to this serious dependence on doing well with your combos, you will need to learn the combo system and try to strive for a long chain of tactics put together. In other words, setup and setup! However, I am slightly disappointed with the lack of emphasizing the fact that you have to pull off high combos. Many gamers would not have known this fact and would have most definitely realized that it was too late near the late game.

As many Koei historical games use, there are unit types that make this game slightly deeper. You can create builder units (create catapults and the like), you can create crossbow units (long-range), you can create cavalry units (horses and excellent on plains) and more. Along with this, the unit type will have advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, this was just some nice flavour which would have made this game significantly shallow without.

Overall, the battle system is rather engaging, and once you understand the combo system, this game will be all-too-easy. However, the awful use of 'Taunt' and 'Pit' tactics, which can immediately shift the battle early on can make this game rather devoid of strategy if used incorrectly. This is my biggest gripe about the battle system. The sequences of animation one must watch continuously through each tactic performed is another issue. The map of china, which is the area you do your 'political' decisions is all-too-linear and the objectives are not as varied as I hoped they would be.

'Dynasty Tactics' could have been a slightly smarter game than what it is now, and there are a few things that save it from being a 'Kessen', but it is so unfocused that it ends up being middle-ground from trying to be both a deep and a simple game. 'Dynasty Tactics' fails to accomplish this well, and thus, may disappoint gamers who wanted a game as strategic as 'RoTK', as theatrical as 'Kessen' or as action-driven as 'Dynasty Warriors'. However, this can work easily to its favour, due to the fact that it is a bit of everything, there will always be something that fans may feel reminiscent to or may feel familiar to with 'Dynasty Tactics'. 8/10

Visual Presentation:
'Dynasty Tactics' uses beautiful character portraits (more cartoonish portraits compared to RoTK, but still Koei-goodness) and uses nice portraits along with action-packed animation for tactic sequences.

The map of China is nothing impressive. There is a map, along with markers presenting the territories, and markers presenting the location of your units and enemy units. This is pretty much a basic 'board game' style screen where you'll only get the barebones of visual appeal to understand your objectives and the like.

The battle screen is nothing impressive, either. You are introduced to a grid that looks much like a chess board, only flourished with some nice grass representing grasslands, rocky grey steeps representing mountains and blue representing water and streams. While this may affect the gameplay, it does not really affect visual style. It is just a basic board and also uses the barebones of visual appeal to get its point across.

The animation sequences amidst the tactics are very well done, however, and is very reminiscent of Kessen. Many soldiers are sprawled across a large battle ground, fighting and attacking each other and doing their own thing. Quite impressive, and occasionally, the general you selected to do the tactic will be the star of the scene, yelling some generic general talk.

The visual presentation is, however, extremely clear and organized. By being organized, I mean that, for such a grid-based strategy game, one can easily locate the terrain you are on, the amount of men in your army and the type of general you have. These are all integrated into the somewhat uninteresting visuals. The marker on your selected general will be smaller or larger in regards to how many men you have in your army. For example, the marker on your general will be extremely small if you only have 32 men out of 10 000. In this respect, the visual presentation can be excused for its bare-bone aim for presentation. It is organized and while the animation can be pretty, it is repetitive.

The visual presentation in 'Dynasty Tactics' is all about organization. It is clear, crisp and organized due to the fact that there are many variables that tell you things about the current battle. If you have too many generals with small markers, the battle is turning out rather unfavourably. While the overall visual presentation will not impress the graphic-hungry gamers, it does enough to achieve what it is trying to achieve. Dynasty Tactics is not trying to be the next graphically impressive game, nor does it try to act like one. It shows clarity and surpasses expectations for what it is trying to show - a good organized, comprehensive grid to achieve better gameplay. 8/10

Audio Presentation:
'Dynasty Tactics' most often incorporates background music, nothing catchy nor nothing awful. The repetition of this music makes this a saving grace as it moreso sounds like ambience most of the time than an actual cinematic score.

Let's look at the theme of 'Dynasty Tactics' on the map of China. It is nothing memorable nor is it anything truly eardrum-smashing bad. If you've heard the music themes of 'Kessen II', then you will be introduced to a less-epic type of music. As all Koei games of the Three Kingdoms is (except Dynasty Warriors), you'll be hearing orchestrated goodness with most often a foundation of strings, brass and some percussion for climatic themes. 'Dynasty Tactics' is no different, but I can't help but feel that 'Dynasty Tactics' is less immersive and epic as Koei's previous games in terms of audio presentation. Koei's games are famous for good audio presentation especially in the music area, but 'Dynasty Tactics' just feels slightly subpar. Mind you it is good music, but it just doesn't feel as epic as I would've expected it to be.

Voice acting with Koei is usually trash, and 'Dynasty Warriors' does slightly better. While I don't feel it is as well performed as many of the games out there, 'Dynasty Tactics' still is tolerable. Unfortunately, men in their 30s - 40s with beards always sound 'overly' gruff and 'overly' masculine to the point that it just sounds ridiculous. Fortunately, 'Dynasty Tactics' only has voice acting in cutscenes and in the animation. There are not many cutscenes, but there are some animations that might make you cringe due to the voice acting.

Sound effects are there... but are not that magnificent. They are the usual generic screams of soldiers and the clashings of swords. I can't say you'll be disappointed however, nor will you be impressed. I read a review once about 'Dynasty Tactics' sounding amazing with hi-tech stereo and surround sound and the like... but not many people have that luxury... they just have... standard sound. So I can't really say many will be as 'immersed' without the hi-tech wonders of that said reviewer.

The audio presentation is what the visual presentation is - does enough to the point where the presentation tries solely to do what it tries to achieve. It isn't as magnificent or epic as I thought it would be, nor has the voice acting improved much, but as I said before, it does enough to do what it achieves. It is simply what it is... standard. 7/10

Story and Composition:
It's good in terms of how you can change the history to your favor. The fact that the story is structured like a 'tree' makes this game have multiple endings and different twists. What I mean by a 'tree' is that things branch off several ways depending on how you played the game in terms of choosing objectives.

The basic storyline, however, is that there are three dominant lands, Shu, Wu and Wei. You have a decision of playing as one of these and fighting against the opposition. Shu is lead by Liu Bei, a man of supposed virtue. Wu is lead by Sun Ce (or his later younger brother, Sun Quan), who has a respectable family and loyalty all-around and Wei is lead by Cao Cao, the supposedly evil power-hungry opposition. There are other kingdoms, which soon become consumed in all the scenarios and therefore, are simply obstacles for you to overtake.

Now, the fact that you can branch to a different storyline due to this story 'tree' makes for an interesting, drawn-out and nostalgic 'choose your own adventure' type of theme. Therefore, you may want to replay the game to find out what happens if the game went to a differnt leader's favour. However, the execution of this story isn't really all that interesting. How you bond with the character really isn't much of a bond at all. These are simply characters that are historical and for the most part, you won't really overly care about their dire situation. In other words, you won't feel emotionally attached to them.

The execution of this is pretty dull as well, as while you may want to find out what happens in the multiple stories, you may not want to replay the game several times as it is a fairly drawn-out game. The story, for the most part, is well done, but the lack of involvement and interaction with the characters somewhat hinders its overall potential in this department. Again, the 'story tree' that is implemented in this game is a smart idea and easily improves this mark to a certain degree. 8/10

Replayability and Extras:
The replay in this game is good as a single-player experience. As previously mentioned, there is a 'story tree' you can view of which you can see what type of scenarios you have unlocked. There are many scenarios you can choose from, and this helps keep track of what you should do differently the next time through this game. I've managed to replay this game six times, to find out two endings for each leader. Mind you, I liked the gameplay of this game, but people who did not like it may not feel overly motivated to find out what else happens.

Replay as a two-player experience is shoddy though. They do implement a two-player game, but sometimes, I wish they would've done without. Characters are randomly chose with random tactics and your battle with your friend will immediately begin. You cannot choose your characters nor can you choose a type of terrain you want, which severely disappointed me. This shoddy presentation of an excuse of two-player would've been better 'without'!

You are also offered some interesting reading as once you recruit a general, you will have his biography on a list of biographies you have. You can read up on his true involvement in the game and how he gave an impact to the Three Kingdoms.

The replay is good as a single-player experience, as I have already said. You can read up on biographies and you can check on what happens if Leader A won the game if Leader B didn't and so on. The two-player experience, however, seriously disappointed me and would've been better if improved upon or without. 6/10

Conclusion
I can't say I didn't enjoy 'Dynasty Tactics'. It was a fun game and I enjoyed many of the things it offered. However, its focus is confusing as it tries to be a lot of things. It, for the most part, manages to be a lot of those things, but just barely. The game is very limited and linear, but it also gives choice to do other things, choose different objectives and play the game differently. The visual presentation is nice and crisp, but nothing impressive. The audio presentation is only what it tries to be, which is to set an atmosphere. It does not try to have a good epic feel. The story is great, it feels uninvolved however despite the story tree.

Do you see what I mean? Where 'Dynasty Tactics' excels in areas, it falls short in others or just feels slightly awkward of out of place. In many cases, we can only thank Koei for implementing things that was the saving grace of this game in all the areas. There wasn't one area in this game that did not have faults, but these faults were excusable for the most part due to things 'Dynasty Tactics' put to its advantage.

It is a worthy purchase, but I just wished 'Dynasty Tactics' would've used more polish in areas, drastically improved the two-player mode and perhaps improved some things in every criterion. It's standing at the moment is solid, but it could've been better.

How it stacks up!
(Average is determined through the importance of criteria. In this case, gameplay is most important, followed by presentation and story, ending with replay/extras)
Gameplay Elements: 8/10
Visual Presentation: 8/10
Audio Presentation: 7/10
Story and Composition: 8/10
Replayability and Extras: 6/10
Final Score: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/03, Updated 02/09/03