Archview #54: Dynasty Warriors 2

 I didn't plan on doing this so soon, yet here I am.

 Dynasty Warriors 2 was the first true 'Warriors' game(Pun intended, since the japanese name is "Shin Sangoku Musou"(True Warrior of the Three Kingdoms, roughly), and the game that introduced me to the series that I now love. I used to love this game, and was kinda annoyed that most publications disliked it, yet I'd always defend it. And 12 years later, here I am...
 DW 2 has you take control of one out of 20+ generals, most of them falling inside one of the Three Kingdoms in which China was divided a great many years ago. You are to go through 5 stages as you slay hundreds of enemies. Hundreds of enemies per stage. Besides the historical background, there's not much story to the game. You can read the background of each fight before you go to battle, and there are some short CG cut-scenes before each, but they do little to fill you in on the overall story.

 This game set the foundations for future Dynasty Warriors games. You have a 5 hit Square button combo, a pressing Triangle during the string produces a different, stronger move, usually with crowd-clearing properties, that ends the chain. There's also your Musou Attack, used with the Circle button, that can only be used when the Musou gauge is full, filled by hitting enemies and getting hit, but it doesn't feel very powerful. You can also mount horses, if you steal them from the enemies, but if you unmount it and get too far, it usually disappears(Probably stolen by an allied officer or an enemy). This entry also has Bows, I don't know when this feature was removed, but it's not very useful and feels rather cumbersome. Holding the R1 button switches you to first person, and you can aim and shoot arrows, but it's really slow, so it's not very useful.
 The gameplay is very flawed, specially when compared to future entries(Unfair, I know, but I am playing it today). For starters, you have no control over the camera, besides pressing L1 to strafe and put the camera behind you. The Right analog stick does nothing, so it's a bit baffling as to why they didn't let you move the camera around. Then there are the attack strings. Whenever you hit many enemies, your character will lock on one of them, you can't choose who, so the next attacks will aim him. If you are hitting an officer, and accidentally hit a normal thug at the same time, your character may switch locks to him, allowing the general to get away. Very annoying. Speaking of generals, almost every time they hit the floor, they will gain a bonus. Maybe double attack power for thirty seconds, though it's usually healing. There's nothing, NOTHING, more annoying than when they get completely restored. Specially when you are also surrounded by other enemies, and the general gets completely healed. It's by far the most annoying thing in the game. Oh, and the Minimap is no help at all. Sure, you can see allies, enemies and the enemy that you must defeat in order to win, and the ally that has to survive, but it doesn't distinguish Gate Captains or Generals from common enemies.

 The presentation hasn't aged gracefully at all. A lot of the playable characters look very generic and could pass up as non-playable Generals. The stages themselves are very barren, with short draw-distance and muddy textures. To be fair, when it was released, it actually looked pretty nice since there were so many enemies on-screen at the same time with no slow-down, but nowadays it doesn't impress. The music, on the other hand, is as fantastic as it once were, easily rivalling tunes that would later be used in the series. There's not a whole lot of voice acting, but the little that is, is pretty bad.
As for replay value, there's plenty of characters to unlock, but... there's only 8 stages, which means it gets repetitive very fast. There's also a unlockable "Opening Edit", in which you can edit which characters appear in the opening, and it's actually rather fun. Otherwise, there's not much, and there's only two modes: Musou, the story mode, and Free Mode, where you can play any of the 8 stages as any character.
 I won't deny that when it was released, it was really good. I loved this game. But nowadays, it's very dated, and I'm willing to bet that every sequel outshined this entry, and what is left is a curiosity, a game that shows just how much the series has evolved.
 4 out of 10.