Samurai warriors galore, but thankfully no Tom Cruise.
Publisher: THQ
Mon, 1 August 2005
by: Australian Ninja
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The last Samurai? Apparently they lied to us. There are a million of them in this feudal free for all.
Kessen 3 is a hybrid slash em up / strategy game. It's very similar to KOEI's other weapon based combat game Dynasty Warriors but different enough that it's worth playing. Think of Dynasty Warriors with a more zoomed out view and you're in control of a whole troop of soldiers instead of one lone warrior. The troop control as if they were one lone soldier though, all moving together and staying in formation until they get in the thick of battle. At any time you may be in control of two to eight troops in a battle. It is only possible to manually control one troop at a time. Switching to any other troop [for manual control] is simple to do and essential to winning.
For instance, you may charge into the enemy with your strongest attack troop, or perhaps those with the most health. Then switch to your support troop and charge their special attack, such as bow and arrows. While this is going on, switch to another support troop and charge into the enemy from behind. Then throw in some magic status attacks and defenses. Kessen has a few RPG elements to it, such as the magic abilities. After a battle each winning troop will receive experience, level up, get stronger etc. Visit the item shop for new weapons, armour, troop types, special skills and accessories. Sound familiar?
 | | What a pimp this dude is. I Gots ta get me one of them helmets. |
Kessen has a reasonably extensive tutorial, which is useful if you pay attention. It's really helpful in the beginning especially if you don't mash the button like a madman to get through the menus like I did. Having said that, it's not overly complicated to play. Charge at those crazy soldiers, keep on charging and you will get the hang of it.
It's worth noting that the in game menu is somewhat confusing to use, though dead simple once you get some practice and the cumbersome commands are understood.
For example; you want all those soldiers to haul ass up to the top of the map and attack the enemy. Easily done. If there is something to attack that is. If there are no enemies currently on the map, there is no option to make "everybody go to this point" at the same time. Instead it's up to you manually select each troop and send them on their merry way. Once done, they will run all by themselves to where you requested them to go. At any point you can manually take over their control. It's no big deal though, just a minor irritation and one that is easy to work around and does not ruin the gameplay at all.
Getting into the battles themselves, rushing into the oncoming troops is a real thrill. Which is a good thing because that is the meat of the game. Charge at enemies, mash attack button, mash attack some more, charge a special attacks. Lather, rinse and repeat. Use the support troops to heal with magic, alter stats such as attack or defense up/down.
This is standard stuff that is used well and can make a major difference to any battle. In the beginning I generally forgot to use the special abilities (magic) at all. Didn't really matter, still won all the time. Further into the game, not using the specials wisely will see your troops getting slaughtered. The most unique magic ability is the Rampage Attack. With this, the General of your troop will run alone into the enemy like Wolverine in a berserker rage. During the rampage, the object is to kill as many people as possible and have a go at the enemy general. This section plays the most similar to Dynasty Warriors, except the play area is limited to the immediate environment (invisible borders) and your general is always on a horse rather than on foot. Beat the opposing General and afterward the enemy troop will lose health and yours will gain health. Just like in real wartime battles. Who needs medics when you've got healing items and magic?
Despite being a game about war, killing and death, Kessen is very light hearted. There is no blood or messy jugular veins on display here. Dead men tell no tales, unless they are the dead men in kessen who appear and disappear like well, magic.
Seriously, soldiers will just appear back in your troop when you heal, but you won't actually see them appear or anything, they will just be there all of a sudden. Same when they die, but in reverse. After the battles, half the bloody Generals you fight join you in your campaign. It's truly bizarre to see Lord Nobunaga (the main character in Kessen) fraternizing with the enemy immediately after a battle as if they were old friends. Not just once or twice, but throughout the game this happens.
This is also another good reason for why I highly recommend switching the language option to Japanese over English. Jap with subtitles is far superior to the whiny annoying English voice actors. In Japanese the game has English subtitles so nothing is lost. Plus, in Japanese people shout angrily all the time for no real reason during the cut scenes, which is just brilliant. The game becomes more authentic seeing Japanese ancient Samurai warriors actually speaking in their native tongue rather than modern day American English. I could be wrong though; maybe they really did all speak American and eat hamburgers back in the good old feudal days.
The presentation in Kessen is just plain classy. Many of the cut scenes / FMV have a delicate artistic beauty to them. At the same time most of them are boring as hell. Having said this, they really are worth watching if you enjoy the aesthetics of film and nice camera shots. Add to that traditional Japanese classical music, fancy backgrounds, nice pacing and the story becomes enjoyable to watch but not interesting at all in the content. A real paradox. Simultaneously enjoyable and dead boring.
Watch out for one sweet stand out scene that beats any recent action movies. The scene is where Lord Nobunaga arrives at a village and is ambushed by a clan of Ninja. The Ninjas wipe out half of Nobunagas men before they can counterattack. Fancy samurai sword play, ninja's with chains and shuriken (throwing stars) in a long scene that is breathtaking to behold.
Earning money in Kessen allows you to upgrade your gear. Most useful and interesting is the different troop types. Cavalrymen (dudes with pointy sticks on horses), Riflemen (dudes with boomsticks), Katana swordsmen, Ninjas, Spearmen (dudes with pointy sticks and no horses) all become necessary to use in a delicate balance of different types. Do you choose raw firepower over maneuverability? Brutal strength over speed? Having a good mix of each type is generally the way to go. Or you could load up almost all your troops as Ninjas and just go nuts. Nobody would see them coming right?
A brief note about why there are ninjas troops (in Kessen) amongst all the samurai. Ninjutsu is a vast system of learning that incorporates far more than just martial arts.
There are the purely martial aspects, but the full Ninjutsu incorporates many things including: Ninjitsu and Samurai physical martial arts using hand to hand techniques as well as all kinds of oriental weapons. Art of swimming. Horsemanship. Archery. Armour combat. Rope binding. Special disappearing. Spiritual refinement. Wartime strategies. Information gathering. Mental arts. Ultimately, Ninjutsu specializes in "survival" and expert ninja's are comparable to modern day Special Forces troops like Delta force, Navy Seals, S.A.S etc etc.
Kessen's graphics do a nice job of portraying big scale epic battles. The kind we usually see on a big screen. Up close in the cut scenes the character detail is commendable, especially the lavish flamboyant Samurai headdresses that feature so prominently on all the Generals. In battle the backgrounds are rather plain but suit their purposes. All the armour, weapons and horses look authentic, because they are with few exceptions.
New Generals are frequently added to your ever-increasing roster. My favourite was the "mystery" enemy in one battle who turned out to be not Japanese but actually a hot European blonde chick in full armour.
 | | The battle of "pants" vs. "no pants" was a harrowing ordeal |
In between battles is the menu screen. Here you can upgrade items and equip all sorts of junk. No really, actual junk, like antique teapots and other obscure items, god only knows why. Of course you can also choose your next battle here, usually several available with varying difficulty.
The between battles orchestral menu music I really enjoyed. Often I left a menu screen dormant for quite some time just to listen to a piece of music in full. The in-battle music is bland by comparison but actually it suits the battles well. Mostly it gets over-powered anyway by constant yelling from the troops.
To sum up, Kessen III is fun game that is "something different" in the action game genre. The replay value is there if you want it. Finishing the game will take 20+ hours and result in a 'New Game +' option.
Minor differences the second time through, the major one being a whole extra chapter (set of mission battles) when you reach the end again.
Kessen is a quality game buy may not interest a lot of folks due to its content. While it is fun, the gameplay is very repetitive. The story is mostly boring but interesting to watch anyway because of the presentation. It looks nice, plays well and has no major faults. Have a go.
by: Australian Ninja
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