Dynasty Tactics 2

"More Refined But Fewer Endings Than the First Dynasty Tactics"

Dynasty Tactics 2 - Author's Notes

Dynasty Tactics 2 is another Koei game that is based on one of China's most beloved historical novel - Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Koei has came out with 3 franchises from this novel - that includes Dynasty Warrior - an action based game, Romance of Three Kingdoms - which is a historical simulation game, and the last one Dynasty Tactics - which is more like a puzzle, warfield game - the latest addition to this venerable series.

In Dynasty Tactics you take control of one of the feuding sides - Wei (Cao Cao), Shu (Liu Bei), Wu (Sun Family), and try to achieve total domination over a number of battlefield scenarios. In Dynasty Tactics 2, an additional side, Lu Bu is added to the game which added dimension to the game.

Length: Approximately 20 hours up for 1 ending
Learning Curve: ~1-2 hours, In game tutorial system, Flexible Level System for Challenging Game Play

Game Idea - 7/10
The Dynasty Tactic series goes away from the RTK series by paying less attention to micro details, but more on warfare. The game features a big map for strategic missions, and smaller battle maps when forces engage. The battle map is played much like a big puzzle game. Though the game idea itself is rather bland, this game rewrites history according to your action of leading your favorite force into battle, which makes this game interesting.

The idea itself isn't appealing, but for fans of ifs, then Koei has provided some interesting scenarios to play in :)

Game Balance and Mechanics 7/10
Basically Dynasty Tactic is a huge puzzle game. We make a number of choices in the game which changes how the game will proceed. Each choice will give a different outcome. Later we are required to finish a certain scenario - which gives goals to accomplish. To do so, we are required to use our generals to fight with a number of army. During the process we can upgrade our generals much like in an RPG game. In the battle mode, this game is essentially one big puzzle game where you have to plan your strategy to make chains of attacks. Its hard to explain what is chaining, but essentially every general can use a certain number of tactics -which are activitated differently. If you can use your tactics, you can trigger other generals to aid the attack. The more you can do, the more damage it will be done. Basically if you can chain a number of attacks you can easily vanquish your foes.

Its nothing much, but at times the game can be rather addictive trying to get high chain attacks - though it is repetitive at times.

Graphics - 8/10
This game though the game graphics aren't that distinctive, the game shines with its cut-scenes which were rendered very beautifully - much like the Dynasty Warrior Cutscenes.

The character portraits are done well much like the RTK series, though in the Dynastic Tactics series are done with a different group of artist. The in game art of the battle scene are rather disappointing, with repetitive 3D tiles and not very unique battle avatars for generals.

This high score is reflected by the fact that the cut-scenes during our story part is done well which is where the effort should be done in this type of game :)

Music/Sound Effect - 8/10
I like the music in this series as it is distinctively Chinese - much better than the gothic style in RTK VII/VIII. However there isn't a very distinctive track making the score lower than what I would normally give it.

Others - 6/10
For Dynastic Tactics 2, there are certain in game features that are added, including new tactics, and chaining methods. This episode also contains a new force - in Lu Bu. However the major drawback is that the game has become alot of linear - which each force having only about 3 endings each - much unlike the previous episode that has more facet endings.

Replayability - 8/10
As with many forces and scenario, this game is rather replayable though it may be repetitive after awhile. Also since many people are interested in only 1-2 forces, they won't play every scenario, but only based on what forces they support making the replay value a little smaller than it could be.

Overall - 7/10
Though Dynasty Tactics 2 is an enjoyable and addictive game, it lacks some refinements that could make this game a classic. This game can keep you entertained for over 50-60 hours though it gets repetitive after a while. Good and solid game, though a little spark somewhere can make this game alot better.

Lets see what they will come in Dynasty Tactics 3 :)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/10/04