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Mabye, if you don't mind innacurate history.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you are a purist like me, then you will hate Kessen II. I'm not sure why Koei decided to break its history for historical accuracy in Kessen II. The game screwed up the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms timeline. If all you care about is some flashy graphics and sound, then mabye this game wouldn't be so bad for you, but I hope not everyone is that shallow minded.

Kessen II

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I liked it because it has cool graphics and you can change if you would want to use Liu Bei or Cao Cao troops and there are dificulty settings and you can repeat the game agian and change your chioces.I also don't like it because expert mode was not so hard.

If you are looking for a ROTK storyline, don't buy this one

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After playing other games based on characters from Romance of Three Kingdoms (ROTK), I decided to try this one. I kinda sensed the non-ROTK storyline, but bought it any way. Instantly, I realized my spider sense had not tingled for some unknown reason. I'm not gonna go through the differences between ROTK and this game because there are too many.
BUT THAT'S OKAY! I still would recommend this game to casual strategy game players, but hardcore fans may find it quite simplistic. However, regardless of what anyone says, you CAN change the strategies that you are given. However, you can't change position of traps, etc.
Now, to the technicalities.
Graphics=5
This game has wonderful graphics. The characters hands don't pass through stuff(well every once and a while...).
Storyline=3
Guy falls in love with girl.
Guy loses girl to former "ally".
Guy fights big war to save girl and meet destiny.
Story viewpoint then switches to villan's war.
Villan kidnaps girl.
Villan fights against girls lover.
Villan eventually beats guy.
Girl is sad, very sad...
Sheesh, like I haven't heard *most* of that before...
Gameplay=4
Strategies are very simplistic and limited. VERY SIMPLISTIC AND VERY LIMITED!!!
You are always way outnumbered, unless you recruit troops all the time...
Overall Game= See rating above review
If you want a last resort for strat games, BUY IT. It's your money, not mine...

Better than Kessen

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Once upon a time in China two warriors, Liu Bei and Cao Cao, made a pact to take down the evil Han empire. Unfortunately, C. Cao went all Dark Side on Liu and the two ended up fighting each other. Their epic struggle is the stuff of Chinese legend and is recorded in a famous tome called Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Veteran strategy gamers know that Koei and RTK are practically joined at the hip. So it's no surprise that after launching Kessen last year with an ancient Japanese scenario, Koei's returned to familiar territory for Kessen II. This historical PlayStation 2 strategy game's more show than go...but what a show! Kessen II's visuals are primarily a spectacular display of computer-generated cinematics. You witness titanic clashes between armies, awesome elemental magic attacks, stunning ninja fights, and ingenious Asian instruments of war. It's like watching the trailer for some awesome anime DVD! However, things trail off dramatically once you get into the gameplay. The workmanlike controls don't ask you to do much, but they enable you to adequately oversee 30 campaigns. You can easily select battle units and painstakingly move them into position with the overhead view contour map. The pacing here is very slow as you select and then move multiple units. It also takes several minutes for units to reach their positions, but at least you can watch some great movies as they charge forward.
Battles are mostly won and lost from this vantage point. You spend a lot of time just watching, but you also have the option of affecting the outcome by quickly zooming in on a particular battle to control an individual commander. A few simple button presses enable you to bust magic attacks and you can jam buttons to fight with weapons, but moving around with the joysticks is slow and imprecise. Kessen II gets pop from nicely synched music and dramatic dialogue that you must hear to advance through the game. However, since it's translated from Japanese and is so movie-like in its presentation, it occasionally suffers from stereotypically wacky dubbing. Some dialogue doesn't match lip movement and a few voices don't fit the look and feel of the characters-you hear ancient Chinese warriors talk with the hint of irritating Valley girl accent or a little stoner dude drawl. It's humorous and entertaining but probably unintentionally so.
This campaign comes off as unbalanced. It's a decent battlefield challenge that marches steadily along surrounded by major cinematic fireworks. But the difference between the sheer energy in the cinemas and the painstaking gameplay is so striking that it feels like you're fighting battles less to win them than to see the next visual treat.

killer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 16
Date: October 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

this game kick's some massive butt and i think the creator was one heck of a smart man and me and all my friends think this game is the tightest with all those clanes and the viliounce

Horrible!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: June 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game hoping for something as good as Dynasty Warriors 3, but it was pitiful! Bad graphics, gameplay, and storyline along with a long tutorial makes this game good enough for burning material and thats about it. If you really want to try it, rent it first.

awsome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: August 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

its the best game ever and it has the best graphics too what else is there to say ITS AWSOME!!!!

This is one of the worst games I have ever played.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: May 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In a gaming career that spans nearly to the very beginning of console and/or pc gaming I have come across [bad ones] before. This one may very well hold the crown of the dumbest game I have ever had the misfortune of purchasing. The graphics, well actually they are pretty good. Too bad the only thing they show is the games characters which amount to various warlords surrounded by teenage girls... BTW these same girls half the time are officers in your armies despite their 12 year old voices and facial appearance. The warlords stand and make these bizarre gestures with their hands the ENTIRE TIME they talk. It looks [silly]. I have met many a person who "talks with their hands" and this is way, WAY beyond that. Now the heart and soul of the game is mass combat. Too bad it never really seems like you are doing anything. You will win when you think you are losing and lose when things seem to be going well. You then finally win a large engagement only to have the cutscenes inform you that your armies broke in a most cowardly manner and you really lost the fight. I mean c'mon!!! Yeah that really makes me care about a plot when it is arbitrarily decided for the games miserable excuse for a plot. Your girlfriend and bride to be has been kidnapped. WOW! I have never seen that one before. This is SO not romance of the three kingdoms and spending money on this game will infuriate you. It is foolish and juvenile in the worst ways with voice acting and plot so bad you are embarrased when someone sees you playing it and can actually hear what is being said... DO NOT BUY THIS.

One of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you are a fan of Romance of three kingdoms, this is the one you must have. Good graphic, and more stages than the other version...

Visually appealing but has a hard learning curve

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The game is visually very appealing, one of the best among playstation 2 games; but it has a very steep learning curve. You need to have a lot of patience to learn how to play it. It is not something you can pick up and get to it right away. The Chinese names of all the characters probably didn't help either.

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