Return to feudal Japan for more of the same button-mashing mayhem that Koei's been serving up for years.
The Good
* Six new characters
* Some variety, courtesy of the new mercenary mode.
The Bad
* Repetitive hack-and-slash gameplay
* Cheesy, disruptive voice acting
* You've played this game before.
411mania talks about this week's game releases. Highlights include DeathSmiles, Little King's Story, Fallout Trilogy, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2.
PSX Extreme writes: "Its never going to end. What began with Dynasty Warriors over a decade ago on the original PlayStation has now escalated into full-on milking. Koei issued several promising PS2 games early in the systems lifespan (Kessen was another one), but due to the sheer number of sequels spawned by the DW franchise, were now inundated with clones. The Samurai Warriors series is very similar, and even though avid fans will be able to list out a myriad of differences, these differences simply dont alter the gameplay enough to matter. And now, heres Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends, which does nothing to change our view that Omega Force and Koei are just churning out title after title of games that offer nearly identical experiences. In fact, this one somehow takes a step backwards despite offering a bit more in the way of depth. We know itll be more popular in Japan, but even so, how long can they go on doing this? Its long past tiresome.
The graphics are about what youd expect, as theres always a lot of pop-in and jaggies that plague this visual presentation. Weve got some nice detail and choreography in the cut-scenes as we usually do with Omega Force but the gameplay suffers due to a lack of environmental variety. Most all of the enemy soldiers, with the exception of the mini-bosses, all look the same (faceless, lax opponents), and youll soon grow bored with the bland terrain that repeats so often you will wonder if youre going in circles. There used to be a lot of good color in these games, but for some reason, Xtreme Legends is darker than anticipated and not surprisingly, it can be very difficult to discern friend from foe when in the midst of battle chaos. Its nice to see the numerous available weapons, guards and mounts that will assist you in battle, but even those dont show any significant effort on the part of the developers. This really is nothing but a been there, done that, supposed tried-and-true formula that isnt so true as we would hope. Perhaps its more about gameplay, as it always is, but these graphics remain wholly unimpressive and mostly unchanged in comparison with previous Omega Force/Koei titles."
Koei's Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends is a standalone expansion for a game with very close ties to the company's Dynasty Warriors series. In fact, the two franchises are almost identical except for a change in scenery, with Koei abandoning ancient China in favor of bringing its outlandish characters and simplistic mechanics to feudal Japan. This expansion follows last year's release of Samurai Warriors 2: Empires, which added a welcome layer of strategy to the the series tired formula, but it lacks even Empire's depth. The real problem with the game is that it does almost nothing worthwhile that its predecessors haven't done before it.
