Kessen II

PlayStation exclusive

The real time simulation of Kessen returns to the PS2, with a story of love and battle in the three kingdoms. It's a magnificent historical fantasy in Kessen II.

Released: 29 March 2001
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Historical Real-time strategy Real-time tactics Strategy
Developers: Koei
Publishers: THQ Koei
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Fantasy Historical
Country: Japan
Age ratings: CERO B ACB M ESRB T
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean

About

Kessen II (決戦 II, Kessen Tsu) is a strategy game developed and published by Koei that is loosely based on the Three Kingdoms period of China. It is the sequel to Kessen in name only; both Kessen and the later sequel Kessen III are based on events in Japan. The gameplay involves playing out major battles as the storyline progresses, with cutscenes between each battle for the development of the events and major characters. Before battle, players are given a choice of strategies to take, although they can manually control all units in the battlefield.

All units are controlled by the AI unless the player directly intervenes, and battles between forces are carried out in real-time. While in control of a unit, players are able to use special skills or magic spells to turn the tables, although enemy characters are also able to do so.

Keywords

horse
war
grid-based movement
sequel
human
polygonal 3d
bow and arrow
morale
ps2 classics
western published japanese games
soft reset

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Reception

The game received "average" reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic. In Japan, the four reviewers Famitsu complimented the game. They compared the game to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, saying it dispels the image of Koei's historical simulation games only being for hardcore fans with one reviewer saying fans of the series may find this game lacking, while another was surprised at how humorous it was. Other reviewers complimented the increase of gameplay depth from the previous game and more easy to use controls while others praised the visuals during the battle scenes.