Samurai Warriors 2

"Really fun game with friends."

Samurai Warriors 2
Samurai Warrior 2 is a great game to launch you into the genre. The game boasts a classic story, shown through the eyes of 26 playable characters. Even with the compelling story telling, there are a few flaws that hinder the game from being perfect.

Depending on the character you choose, you will witness basically the same events unfolding. Nobunaga Oda is a young warrior who is trying to conquer and unite Japan. He enlists aid of many warriors and clans. Nobunaga Oda, however, is very smart and devious. He betrays some of his allies to get what he desires. That is what ultimately kills him. You will know how he dies when you play as a certain character, if not you will get the same “He disappeared in a sea of flames” twenty-five times. How will he die? Who will he betray? Who will betray him? Who will stay loyal? Who will be the ruler of Japan? How did the ruler obtain his power?

A majority of the games is similar to Dynasty Warriors, as in you will control a single character and you must slice your way through the enemy. The game is much deeper than killing your enemies. Most of the levels require you to carry out your duties with killing enemy officers and defend a base and/or allies. These proves to be very difficult, because all of your allied officers have a mind of there own, and will continue to push forward to the death. It is up to you to keep everyone alive on the massive, mazelike battlefields. It is easier said than done, you can be sure of that. Even in coop, I had to play certain stages over countless times. They force you to think and strategize.

With 26 players you expect to be playing the same five battles, huh? That is not the case. Each battle is very different, and each character plays on different battlefields. Sure, occasionally you play the same battle location and rules, but your placement and strength of the character makes you use a different approach to the same problem you had before. You may be on an aligned with the other side. The battlefield take place in a variety of locations, such as an island that has many natural barriers, a river that only allows you to travel with the current, castles that have many garrisons to conquer and walls to breach, or villages. Each place has its weaknesses. In a castle, if you capture a central garrison, then you have the upper hand. The villages can be set on fire with the “Fire attack” that is offered during battle. Capture enemy cannons, and protect your own.

One of the most ingenious things about this game is the use of captains. If you defeat a captain of a platoon, then the rest of the platoon will flee the battlefield. Captains/Officer ranged from named officers, named playable officers, to unnamed captains. In some cases, if you defeat a majority of a platoon, then they will flea. This is due to the moral system. If an allied officer or enemy officer loses enough moral, they will flee. This is hardly happened with the enemy forces, but can be a real pain for those missions that require all allies stay alive and on the battlefield. Another thing worth a mention is the fact that you can capture an enemy reserve point, which are scattered throughout the levels, by defeating the captain at that point. This stops the flow of enemies from that point, and places an ally captain there to defend it. With this, your own reserves can enter the battlefield. But works for you also works for the enemy. If they capture a point, then they get to receive new allies on the field.

As for actual battles, it relies on the “X” and “Y” button more than anything else. “X” is a normal attack, while “Y” is called a Charge Attack, which is much slower to pull off. As you gain levels, you get a very easy to learn combination list. In addition to the basic attacks, you can use can use special attacks. In combination with the “RB” button, which enters you into Special Stance mode, you can press “X” or “Y” to unleash character specific attacks. As you defeat enemy soldiers, you will fill up a red gauge at the bottom of the screen called Musou. Once it is to the point that it clinks, you can slow down time around you and unleash powerful attacks until the Musou gauge is drained. If you are near your coop partner, or near your guard, you can do link Musou attacks. There are buttons to roll and guard, but they are never really used. With addition of foot combat, you can mount a horse and plow through the enemy, and gives you the speed boost you may need to reach an ailing ally.

Every time you slay an enemy, you get experience. Certain enemies drop XP scrolls also, which give anywhere from 50-100 xp. After the mission is completed, you get bonus experience for the amount of combos, people killed, and how fast the mission was completed in. Enemies also drop weapons and gold. In the chapter lobby, you can enter the shop to spend the gold you earned to upgrade weapons, learn new abilities (Also learned by fighting other officers), new guards (Start with 3), and horses.

Visually, the game is slightly better than the original XBox graphics, but it pushes the amount of characters on screen way past the capabilities of the old XBox. The music is really repetitive, as are the same few lines the officers spout out in battle. Other than that, the voice acting is pretty much good all across the characters, especially Nobunaga Oda.

Online multiplayer is a joke and a disappointment. Instead of having a 1Vs1/2Vs2/4player every man for themselves, they put a cheap race gaming. You got that, it is a race. All you do is pick your character, and your opponent picks there character, then you play on two different playing fields. The person you pick will be the boss to your opponent, and your opponent's character will be your final boss. First person to kill the boss first wins. That's it. You never meet your opponent in battle. They were kind enough to put your opponents map on your screen so you can see their progress though.

There is a great amount of extras in the game. In addition to Samurai Warriors 2, you get a mini 4 person party game called Sugoroku, which is quite addicting. In fact, you gain a few characters from it I believe. You also have Survival Mode, which is a whole new game in itself. The “Vault” houses all the weapons you have gotten, character stats, movie gallery, guard gallery, and other small things. Xbox Live also has a large amount of content available, most of which is useless. Things such as horses and guards, which are weaker than the ones available for the most part, are available for download. It would have been fine if they were packaged together, but each item is sold separately.

With all this greatness it does have its drawbacks. When you fail a mission, and you will fail, you have to replay the whole mission over. There are no checkpoints. 20+ minutes wasted. Sure you will be more aware and stringer for it, but when you replay the same level four or five times, you get pretty upset. Like Dynasty Warriors, the fighting is very easy and repetitive. The AI is pretty dumb also.

Overall, it is a game that is worthy of a rent at least. With 26 playable characters, a story told from 26 points of view, and the fact that it will force you to use strategy is worth a few plays through. Prolonged play will make your fingers ache and stiff, because it is a lot of button mashing. Good visuals, 70 cut scenes, and great voice acting barely push it as a next-gen game. It is a great game if you want to have a friend over, because you will be shouting orders and planning your attacks with each other. Online is not even worth a play, so do not get it if you want an online slash match.

+26 characters
+Voice acting was a joy to listen to.
-Your finger will hurt
- Who ever thought of the online mode needs to be fired.
? Will Samurai Warriors 3 have a GOOD online mode?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/07