#aethersx2

Time for a Zach Gaming History Lesson: I was excitedly waiting for the PS2 launch, and of the small selection launch games there wasn't anything too exciting. But the titles did explore new possibilities only achievable on the PS2 (or equally powered systems). Smuggler's run introduced an open world off-road game with a long draw distance and surprising freedom. Time Splitters offered a fast shooter with lots of personality from the legends behind GoldenEye 64. And then there was Dynasty Warriors 2...

DW2 was a sequel to a Soul Caliber-like 1v1 fighter on PS1. I remember playing the demo. It sucked. The game moved very slowly. Every move seemed to take an hour to complete. It wasn't exciting. No one someone played that and thoughts, let's get a sequel! But DW2 utilized the power of PS2 to complete change things up. Instead of 1v1 fights, the player chose a hero and entered into a massive battle based on the Historical Fiction: Romance of Three Kingdoms.

In my excitement to play PS2 before owning one, I used every excuse to go to the mall and play the demo. One of the demos was of Dynasty Warriors 2, and you played as Dian Wei. There's two armies featuring hundreds of soldiers and about a dozen officers on each side. Basically, you just bashed buttons and slaughter (or KO, I guess) dozens od soldiers at a time. It was a simple gameplay loop that was actually quite satisfying. Every swing of Dian's axe smashed multiple foes, and the powerful attacks launched enemy soldiers into the air, knocking down anyone else they hit along the way. It was just mindless fun. And it was the demo I played the most.

As much fun as I had, there always seemed to be another game that was more important to me to buy at the time. At one point I would rent DW2 and have a good time, but given there were only 5 levels (5 huge levels), I couldn't commit to a purchase.

Enter Dynasty Warriors 3. This game had dozens of levels and about 63 playable characters. I decided to commit and was not disappointed.

DW2's levels were very flat and simple. DW3 had much more going for it. You could climb mountains, castle walls, cross rivers, and walk across boats. One moment you'd be in a grassy plain, the next a rainy forest, and then suddenly you're breaking into a chinese palace. Levels took place in deserts, boats, jungles, mountains, at night, in the snow, during a fire...so many scenarios..

But what about the button mashing gameplay loop? The biggest complaint is that it's a button masher not requiring strategy. It's true, you're quite limited on attacks. But that's because this is not a fighting game or a beat'em up in the typical sense. This game is about impacting the tides of large scale battles with small scale actions.

At the basic level, each side has a commander. If the commander is defeated, the other side wins. There's also several officers on the field. About 5-10, usually. These officers lead an army. They often have side officers under their command, 1-3. And then there are gates with gate captains. These gates feed each army with reinforcements. The more enemy gate captains you defeat. The fewer reinforcements they receive. Also, each officer has a morale rating and there's an overall morale rating for both armies. If the blue team's morale is at 45% then the red team's is at 55%.

These all are systems the player can use to influence the success of their army. Remove gate captains while defending your own to maintain numbers superiority. Defeating enemy officers raises your sides morale and prevents your officers from being defeated. When an officer is trouble, they'll call for aid. You can choose to abandon them to their fate and run the risk of losing that officer and taking a hit on morale, or you can race over to rescue them. This is the true heart of the game, not the combat. The combat is simply how you execute your high level strategies.

But it gets even deeper: Every level has a story. Characters have complicated relationships with allies and foes. Those relationships can change the tides of war. At some point, Guan Yu is forced to fight for Cao Cao. But while in Cao's service he faces his sworn brother, Liu Bie. Rather than fight his friend, he withdraws from the battle. Depending on which army you're fighting for, this can help or hurt your chances. Every level has several events that trigger over time or when certain conditions are met. Learning the scenario and understanding the relationships of the characters can help the play gain an advantage, or avoid catastrophe. Also, depending on the character you're playing, how you trigger events or prevent events from triggering can change.

When I first started playing, I felt the need to defeat every enemy I faced. Every low level archer or pikeman was a target. If there were 500 soldiers in the palace, then I'm defeating 500 soldiers. This made each level last 30-50 minutes. And many of my allies were defeated in the process. I learned that I should focus on the officers and gates, then trust the morale boosted allies to clean up the rest. See, when an officer is defeated--their soldiers retreat. I didn't need to kill everyone, just the leaders. This allowed me to move more quickly, help endangered allies, stay ahead of the bad triggers. I wonder if there's a life lesson here.

Speaking of officers, the game has tons of playable characters. I think there's 63 in total with 38 having a story mode ( Musou mode). There's three main armies: Wu, Shu, and Wei. Wei is very pro-war, if you can take it by force you deserve to have it. Shu seems to be more honorable. I believe they see themselves as the legal authority over China after the fall of Han. Wu, I think, is more of a grass roots movement. They seem more concerned with ending corruption and helping the ppl. Within each army are about 12-13 officers. Each has their own story. You end up playing many of the same levels, but it's pretty unique to each officer. Guan Yu escapes Wei, and basically gets his own level to do that. Other characters are involved in small campaigns outside of the main conflict, so get levels based on that.

Also, every character plays differently. Some are slow but strong, some are weak but fast. They also use different weapons: swords, pikes, spears, machetes, bars, and...fans. So every character feels different and requires micro adjustments to your combat strategy. This combined with the unique level order makes each character feel like a unique experience. I found I could play through a character's story in about 5 hours. This was perfect. It made me feel accomplished in a short period of time while also offering dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of gameplay.

So...I played tons of DW3, DW4, and DW5 (my favorite). I've wanted to play more, but I know how easily it sucks me. Yesterday, my kiss started watching Mulan. That inspired me to retry this classic game. I chose Guan Yu because spears are better than swords and Wu seems like the more noble kingdom. I thought I'd just play a few matches, but I ended up playing through his whole campaign over 5-7 hours. Such a blast. I want to play more but that would mean playing less of my backlog.

Decisions decisions.