Developed by Koei Distributed by EA Games ESRB Rating: Teen Genre: Strategy/Simulation Players: 1 Memory Card: 216Kb Vibration Function Compatible Analog Control Compatible Digital Control Compatible Da Introduction: Kessen - the Japanese word for "decisive battle." It's the historical account of a troubled time in history. In the 16th century, Japan was under the control of local lords who squabbled amongst themselves in an attempt to gain power. You control Tokugawa Ieyasu, a cunning commander of the Eastern forces. Let the games begin! Da Graphics: Kessen is truly a testament to the newfound power of the PlayStation 2 platform. There are a significant number of cut-scenes that tell the storyline and set the stage for the conflicts. These are extremely well done with eye-pleasing effects and fluid animation. The game engine is rather simplistic, but serves its purpose well. Each of the units appears as a blue or red mass of troops in formation that you can shuffle over the rolling landscape to your whim. Each time you give your troops an order, you are presented with what looks like a cut-scene. These scenes show your generals acknowledging or protesting your orders, carrying them out, or falling under enemy barrages. Although the image quality is high enough to be a cut-scene, they aren't. Each of these events is an actual presentation of your troops on the battlefield. The artistry behind these events is exceptional and really gives you an idea of what you're commanding and how they're doing. You can really feel the pain as your troops are being ripped from their horses by cannon fire. Da Sound: As the cannons and rifles fire, your controller rocks and the enemies fall. The sounds are extremely appropriate and engrossing. If you zoom into your troops, you can hear the clanging of metal on armor and the cries of the troops. Even the voice acting is well done as each of your key generals has their own voice with different intonations to help you identify them. Da Gameplay: Kessen really struck a chord with me. Not just because of the great graphics and good sound, but also unlike most other war simulators, the characters you are commanding were real people in history. Each of your generals actually fought at Tokugawa's side in the late 16th century. The controls are simple enough, given some practice. Kessen has an easy-to-use tutorial that you can skip, if you like, but I would recommend sitting through it. The sheer number of steps required to deploy troops and the numerous pre-battle events is overwhelming so going in blind is not advisable. Before each battle you get to choose your generals, subvert enemy generals, assign troops, change formations, deploy men, plan attacks, etc. It can be rather involved you if really want to get into it. Thankfully, the game helps you out significantly with pre-set plans that you can opt to use. Once the battle begins, you can issue the standard move and attack orders and your generals may, or may not like it (but thankfully they carry out the orders anyway). Each army has a zeal rating. This rating represents the excitement your troops feel on the battlefield. If your zeal is low, your troops tend to fall in battle faster. Alternatively, if your zeal is high, your troops fight better and can even execute special maneuvers such as firing their rifles in a barrage to cut down the enemy troops. Essentially zeal is the representation of how much control your general has over his troops. If the troops are disillusioned or disorganized, it's hard to get them to get into formation to fire a volley of arrows at a neighboring army. Some realistic elements of battle are missing, however. First of all, your generals never die. You always see them running from the battlefield in defeat. I expect this was necessary so the storyline could continue properly. It's no good if you let a general die when the battle gets out of hand, but that general is instrumental for some later battle in the war. Unfortunately, this contributes to the "expendable forces" attitude where you might just let 4000 cavalry ride to their doom just to keep the enemy busy while you're concentrating elsewhere in the battle. The other big element that is missing is the idea of friendly fire. You may have 3000 pikemen duking it out with 5000 archers and wish to sway the tide of battle by firing a couple thousand cannonballs into the enemy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if troops are engaged in battle, I don't see how it's possible to only hit the enemy when you fire a salvo of explosives into the fray. It's possible in Kessen, however. Those Japanese must have been really good shots! Da Conclusion: Kessen tells a story. The elements of the battle simulation may be somewhat simplistic, but that doesn't stop it from being engaging. The battles themselves are almost always immense, with more than 30,000 troops a side (that's the smallest battle I can remember in the experience) but you don't get that feeling of enormity. If they had chalked up on a few aspects of realism and improved the ambiance to improve the feeling of ordering around thousands of troops, the game would be even more enticing. There is one more major falling of Kessen, however. Even though the special maneuvers are dazzling to look at, they really do get tedious after a time. Large battles can mean that you have more opportunities than you might want to watch Fukishima leap from his horse and tear into his enemies in a raid. Thankfully, you can skip them but it still drags things out after a while. Even for it's failings, however, Kessen is a true testament to the abilities of the Playstation 2 and a helluva game! Da Ratings: Graphics: 10 Sound: 9 Gameplay: 7 Tilt: 10 Overall: 9 Reviewed by GameBoyz contributor Nickolas "Colossus" Burger.