The ancient storied battlefield lies before you. At your command are 100,000 troops including archers, infantry, riflemen, and the powerful cavalry. Kessenis a real time strategy game that gives players strategic command and control over huge armies during epic battle sequences from the Warring States period of seventeenth century Japan. Key features include more than 100 movie segments, battlefields with full 3D terrain, separate animation routines for every character, and three different camera views. Known best because it is the very first PlayStation 2 game to ship using the DVD format.
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This game is basically Total War if Total War was made by Suda51. The story was hilarious and was really the only thing that kept me going, cause the gameplay is a snooze fest, and I'm saying this as a fan of the RTS genre.
Hard to oust me from PC strategy titles, but an early console curiosity all the same.
Rental - played briefly with my dad and uncle. Was a relatively decent time from what I can recall.
doesnt feel like your playing feels like your just watching the game play it self
The first Kessen is a relatively simple RTS that served as a launch title for the PS2, set towards the end of the Sengoku Period in Japan. The battles are either huge, open battlefields with dozens of officers on either side, or smaller battlefields with only a handful. From a gameplay perspective there were some really neat ideas, like officers refusing to follow your orders if their morale was low (or if you told them to do something their personality wouldn't let them), officers commanding multiple groups of infantry that would engage the enemy's groups individually while the commanders stood back and watched, and the scale was impressive.
Unfortunately, for like 80% of the game, the AI was just too stupid to really serve as a threat and almost every battle could be finished by standing still, luring the enemy into your ranks, and then jumping them with everything you have. The cursor was also really slow, which made giving orders to various officers scattered around the battlefield annoying at times.
After finishing the game for the first time as the Eastern Army (the 'historical' path) you then unlock the 'what if' path where the Western Army wins, and I found the game much more enjoyable. The game starts off at Sekigahara, the "finale" of the Sengoku Period, and many of the battles afterwards feel really minor by comparison. The Western Army story however is fictional, and allowed the developers to make up whatever they wanted and the freedom shows. Many of the battles are more enjoyable, more open, and the last few are actually somewhat challenging, which was a breath of fresh air.
Overall an interesting and experimental little piece of PS2 history (it was advertised as the first strategy game for PS2) that laid the foundation for its wacky successor.
Unfortunately, for like 80% of the game, the AI was just too stupid to really serve as a threat and almost every battle could be finished by standing still, luring the enemy into your ranks, and then jumping them with everything you have. The cursor was also really slow, which made giving orders to various officers scattered around the battlefield annoying at times.
After finishing the game for the first time as the Eastern Army (the 'historical' path) you then unlock the 'what if' path where the Western Army wins, and I found the game much more enjoyable. The game starts off at Sekigahara, the "finale" of the Sengoku Period, and many of the battles afterwards feel really minor by comparison. The Western Army story however is fictional, and allowed the developers to make up whatever they wanted and the freedom shows. Many of the battles are more enjoyable, more open, and the last few are actually somewhat challenging, which was a breath of fresh air.
Overall an interesting and experimental little piece of PS2 history (it was advertised as the first strategy game for PS2) that laid the foundation for its wacky successor.