Review NaN of 10
, from Massachusetts
Price Paid:
$30.00
from Funcoland Summary:
It’s big trouble again, and where else?
I’m not sure whether or not Koei’s penchant for releasing titles that take place in China’s Three Kingdoms era can be labeled an “obsession,” but I can’t help but lean towards it. It seems that they shall not rest until every home on the planet has at least one person in it that can tell the life story of the namesake of General Tso’s Chicken. The layout of the story has proven to be a perfect model for strategy/simulation games, however, so who can blame them? But they didn’t stop there. No, we also have a fighting game to thank them for, and THREE AND A HALF unparalleled melee combat games. But were they satisfied then? Was that enough for the krazy kats at Koei so say, “Hey, man, how about we frigging cool it with 3rd century China?” HELLS, NO! Koei treats Chinese history like the Indians treated buffalo: there’s always another use for it, and NOTHING gets left over.
And so Dynasty Tactics was born.
Koei is brilliant for no other reason that to take the same characters and the same story to make games for both ends of the spectrum: the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series for the strategy buffs, and the Dynasty Warriors series for the button-mashers. Dynasty Tactics, however, appears to have been created to try and bridge that gap. By removing most of the oppressive menu sorting that scared off the casual gamer, and upping battles from what was little more than large-scale 3-D versions of Final Fight, they’ve created something that resembles chess on methamphetamines. It’s fun. Really.
Admittedly, Koei has never been much for flash and eye candy. The Dynasty Warriors series definitely has it’s moments, but they tend to let the playability speak for the games. Dynasty Tactics again rests somewhere in the middle of the Koei spectrum, with detailed stills and portraits of the officers and events, and nice FMV cutscenes thrown in to show story development. During battles, the “tactics” trigger action sequences to bring things to life a little more, but sometimes the fact that the soldiers are carbon copies of one another and even move in total unison like synchronized swimmers is hard to ignore. They get the job done, but they, like the map screens and battlefields, are just a big cup of nothing special.
The dialogue can get pretty lame, too. It would do them well to try to translate it a little better. The smack-talking in battle, at least. I’m sure whatever they’re saying cuts like a knife in Japanese, but for us gringos…eh, not so much. The music is traditional Asian fare, with a symphonic touch during the battles. Thank God they skipped the goofy Joe Satriani electric guitar music that they use in DW. Man, was THAT terrible.
The game and the story are essentially one in the same, so prepare for some run-on sentences.
The time: the late 2nd century. The place: CHINA, FOR CHRISSAKES!! WHERE ELSE?!? The Han dynasty is in serious decline due to rebellion at the hands of the Yellow Turbans, and the heir to the Emperor’s throne is only eight years old.
(*dramatic thunderclap*)
Nobles across the land scramble to suppress the rebellion and protect the Han, but some decide to use their fame and the ensuing chaos to unify the land under their own rule. The result is treachery, bloodshed, astounding bravery, eighty years of war, and more self-proclaimed “emperors” than you can shake a stick at. But in the end, it all came down to three kingdoms vying with one another for control: Wei, Wu and Shu.
After a quick and useful tutorial about movement, interaction, and the three basic types of “tactics”, you are asked to select which of these three kingdoms you wish to play as. This is also, in effect, the difficulty setting in the game. The kingdom of Wei begins with several strong officers and a few cities already under it’s control. Wu starts small, but after a quick show of force, it becomes a stronger power with a few able officers. Shu, who are the living embodiment of the phrase “nice guys finish last,” has only one city and four officers, counting the leader. Three are quite possibly the strongest in the game, to their defense, but they’re still the pity vote. And the “hard” mode.
Each also has it’s own unique storyline, which means you can beat the crap out of everyone that even LOOKS at you with Wei, take what you’ve learned and conquer with able-yet-cursed Wu, then use your veteran status to take the underdogs of Shu to victory. Adding to the replay value is a system that allows you to fork from actual history to other fictional storylines depending on what decisions you make. For example: you might have the option to ally or destroy a certain ruler within six turns. Destroying them takes you down one path, an alliance takes you down another, and sometimes doing neither will send you in yet another direction. Kinda like those old “choose-your-own-adventure” books. Each ruler also has four different endings, so replay value is not an issue at all.
In between battles, you’ll manage your cities, armies and generals on the map screen. Many of you will be pleased to hear that the “managing” of the cities means no more than occupying them by placing an army on them for one turn. No planting crops, no collecting taxes, none of that bull that puts your ass to sleep, toughguy. In fact, the only purpose at all for cities is that the number you occupy directly affects how many armies you can form at one time.
Armies are made up of one commander, one strategist, and up to two other officers. Only certain officers have the stats to be a commander, so you’re slightly restricted from having a marauding force ready at all times. Each officer has stats for strength, intelligence and leadership, and each has a unique skill that can be triggered by meeting certain conditions, either on the battlefield or off. As they gain experience and build levels, more soldiers and soldier types will become available, allowing you to drop those weenie foot soldiers for some nice armored cavalry. The best part is that soldiers just regenerate in between battles, so there’s no bothering with recruitment and appeasing the townsfolk for taking their young men off somewhere to die.
Recruiting officers is the most complicated part of the city screen. Each has a list of “friends” on their info screen. If you notice a free officer wandering around the map (noted by a little white flag) and have someone in your employ that is friends with them, dispatch your officer as an envoy to their town. After one turn, the free officer will join you for life. Sure, it doesn’t SOUND complicated, but it can be. You might notice that free officer Hu Flung Dung might have your boy Pots n’ Pans on his list of “friends,” but Pots n’ Pans’ list might not mention Hu Flung Dung at all. When you spot a potential employee, you might get stuck going through your whole list to see if anyone that works for you knows him. This is tedious at times, but necessary since you really can never have too many officers.
When war is a-brewin’, you’ll be transported to a battlefield where you’ll see your officers in formation like chess pieces. Turns are dictated by the level of the unit’s morale, and you’ll see a number above all the characters’ heads showing the order of how the turns will go. In many ways, the battles are fought very much like Final Fantasy Tactics: you move your unit to a certain square, choose what direction they face, and attack when you can. Attacking another unit on it’s flanks will cause more damage than a frontal assault, and even more damage can be done by attacking the rear. Build experience points for your units by wiping out the enemy, or crush them in a day by taking out the commander. So where’s the gimmick? In the tactics.
Each officer begins with at least one “tactic” hardwired into him, and can earn more as they build levels. When moving, certain squares you walk to will glow gold. This is either because Billie Jean is not your lover, she’s just a girl and she says that you are the one, but the kid is not your son; or just because they are squares that you can activate your tactics from. Some tactics will cause damage to the enemy, some will effect their morale, or make them move to other squares. Other tactics will boost the morale of your allies, heal their wounded, or cure status ailments. The real key to success though, is chaining the tactics together. For example: Pots n’ Pans uses a “boost” tactic that raises Hu Flung Dung’s morale and makes him move forward one square. This makes him adjacent to the evil David Lo Pan, and therefore triggers his “charge” tactic, which sends David Lo Pan three squares to the right. He is now next to your allies, Egg Shen and Jack Burton, which makes ‘ol Jack Burton say “What the hell,” and it triggers his “aid” tactic that makes both Jack and Egg attack David Lo Pan in unison. Causing tactics to chain-react like this exponentially increases the damage they do, as well as the amount of experience the units gain. It can also mean the difference between just defeating an enemy unit and capturing them, which leads them to becoming your loyal subjects if you win the battle.
Does it sound complicated? Good, because it really is. Chaining one or two together isn’t terribly difficult, but getting into four- or five-hit combos doesn’t seem even conceivable at first unless you’ve going to take an hour or two to set it up. I read in forums about nine- and ten-hit combos, and I can’t help but feel like a moron, or like I’m just missing some big trick. Challenge is not a fault, however. After a few days of practice, I landed my first seven-hit combo. And it was good. In the mean time, a decent army can still win with single and two-hit tactics, and just a crapload of fisticuffs.
Dynasty Tactics is definitely a game that fits into the cliché: “simple enough to get into, but incredibly hard to master.” Thankfully, not knowing how to chain moves together twelve moves before they happen doesn’t mean you’re dead in the water. But learning how means earning stronger officers, getting more elaborate animations, and getting the immense satisfaction that can only come from really kicking the holy crap out of someone. In any event, discovering all of the possible paths each kingdom can take to victory (or failure) will keep you pretty busy, the story is as genuinely interesting as ever (even with the culture gaps), and the learning curve is wide enough to welcome ROT3K and DW fans alike. Report this review >>
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