Following the success of the Kingdom manga in November 2010, Konami released a game on PlayStation Portable called Kingdom Ikki Tousen no Tsurugi. Interesting fact that the game was released before the first animated season. The setting suggests that the game will be similar to Dynasty Warriors, but the developers decided to surprise. Undoubtedly, they succeeded. Bad or good? Let’s get to the review!
After the great era of the Jin reign, rulers began to lose power over their nobility. A full-scale civil war ended with the division of Jin into three kingdoms: Han, Wei and Zhao. The neighboring three kingdoms of Qi, Chu and Yang absorbed nearby territories.
The Seventh Kingdom of Qin, a previously lagging kingdom in military and technological development during the “Spring and Autumn” period, after a series of reforms, becomes one of the most formidable. Ying Zheng, whose mother was from the lower class, became the crown prince. His paternal brother Cheng Jiao hated Zheng for this, as he believed that only people with royal blood could become the true rulers of Qin. He teams up with Chancellor Jie Shi, who decides to use Cheng to make his way to power.
Minister Chang Wen Jun was Zheng’s only supporter. During one of his trips, he notices how young people fight with wooden swords. They were Piao and Xin, orphans whose parents were taken away by the war. They trained with sticks every day in order to one day realize their cherished dream – to become generals of the Celestial Empire.
Piao was very similar to Zheng, which is why Chang Wen Jun takes him away from the family where Piao and Xin were slaves. A month later, news reaches Xin that there has been a coup in the palace, and at night the mortally wounded Piao returns to him, who asks him to go to the place indicated on the map. It is there that Xin meets Ying Zheng, after which their long journey begins along the path of unifying all the kingdoms.
The player is greeted with a high-quality animated screensaver that demonstrates the battle of the main character and his squad against the enemy army. The menu is not overloaded. For the game you can choose a story campaign or an alternative mode. Bonus materials are available in additional tabs:
* Character information cards;
* Achievements that the player can receive as he progresses through the story and alternative modes;
* Mini-quiz where you can test your knowledge of the game world or your Japanese, because the game was not released in America or Europe, so English is present only in certain places and in small quantities.
Anyone who has read manga or watched anime will immediately recognize each character. 3-D models of the main and secondary characters are as close as possible to the original source. This applies to both faces and appearance. Robbers, tribes of mountain people and hired killers have their own characteristic models. And the rest of the extras, for example, soldiers of different kingdoms, have the same base, but different colors:
* Qin – blue;
* Wei – green;
* Zhao – red.
Before the final confirmation of the mission, the player is given a mini-briefing, where they are shown a mini-map with a description of each stage. Story inserts are first shown as static pictures with text at the bottom of the screen, which can be scrolled through or skipped completely. Speakers are marked with a corresponding avatar, and some characters have multiple sketches of emotions that change depending on the conversation. Then a small animation begins in the game engine. Small conversations mid-fight are also noted at the bottom of the screen.
Maps represent corridor levels. Most of them are similar to the location in the original source. For example, in the first battle with the kingdom of Wei, barriers were also placed against chariots.
However, the authors still made their changes. Since there are no trees in the game, the fight with the second killer was moved to the plain. What was more surprising was the final story mission, which takes place at night in a dark gorge. It is unclear why the location of the battle changed here, despite the fact that in the alternative mode the battle takes place during the day, although again on a different territory.
The screen during combat contains minimal basic information such as:
* The lives of the controlled character are in the upper left corner in the form of a sword;
* Mini-map, counter until mission completion, as well as the number of killed commanders and soldiers – in the upper right corner;
* Bottom right – two types of super attacks and their charge scale, but more on that later.
It is not possible to get confused about where to run, thanks to the clear division on the mini-map. Allies are indicated on the mini-map by a blue circle or blue and yellow if it is a general who should not die. Enemies are the same, but red is used instead of blue. Plus, a red flag with an exclamation point appears above the heads of targets that need to be saved or killed.
Control points are indicated by a flag, and a yellow crosshair where you need to move, if your general or control point is about to be destroyed, then white circles will appear on the mini-map, quickly moving clockwise.
The health bar for friendly units and enemies also differs in color. In the menu settings you can completely remove them if it annoys someone.
The maps have action areas where you can jump over ravines, climb higher, activate a button to open doors, or confirm the completion of a stage.
Ten story missions follow the manga narrative. Events take place as in the first season, namely: the rescue of Ying Zheng and the return of the throne, the war with Wei and the final battle with the kingdom of Zhao. The chapter selection menu has information inserts that describe events that are not included in the game. Missions can be divided into the following modes:
1. Clearing the map of enemies or destroying enemy commanders. This also includes the capture of enemy positions, which are marked with a flag;
2. Clearing the map while saving certain allied characters. They can be either the main characters in the manga or simple commanders who defend the point;
3. Defense of control points or protection of retreaters who are slowly and leisurely moving towards the evacuation point.
Before moving on to enemy variations, it’s worth talking about enemy command. Almost every enemy detachment necessarily has its own leader. There is some kind of imitation of the commander of five, hundreds, thousands or a general, but since so many models cannot be shown on the screen, the scale is correspondingly reduced. The commander is marked with a small icon above his head. The higher his rank, the longer his life bar. All commanders can use a super strike depending on the type of unit:
* Archers create a cheerleading pyramid from their bodies if there are more than five of them;
* Swordsmen either ram with a quick dash, or make a powerful jumping strike, or, like a wolf pack. approach the player in a zigzag motion.
Thousanders or generals can call additional units from the air or heal wounded comrades. Generals have additional individual skills, such as a damage boost or a combination attack when paired with another general. But the second option will be used in alternative mode and only for two characters.
When the commander is killed, in most cases the squad scatters. If this does not happen, then the soldiers can no longer carry out super attacks, which is why they become easy prey. An enemy control point is also destroyed when the commander located on it is killed. If you kill a general, then even ordinary commanders can escape from the battlefield. Basically the mission ends here.
There are many enemies, although most of them are of the same type. Regular enemies can be divided into infantry, archers and cavalry. In the first missions, the player trains on bandits or simple village troops who are armed with spears or swords. Does not pose a significant threat.
Variations begin with well-armed soldiers. They are visually depicted in armor, but this makes them no more difficult to destroy than robbers. Absorbs a couple more hits at maximum. Armed with swords, spears, halberds (I apologize for not telling you the exact Chinese name). Some soldiers have small shields, but there are also full-fledged squads that form a wall of large shields, rhythmically piercing the player with spears.
Archers can deal area damage if there are five of them. Pre-show the player a mark that will be fired upon. They always shoot with explosive arrows, which cause characters hit to fly up. At the same time, they do not hesitate to attack their allies if the player gets into the thick of things.
As mentioned above, if there are more than five archers, then there is a high probability that a pyramid will be formed. They shoot not across an area, but with individual projectiles in a straight line. Visually, the arrows look like they’re burning, but they don’t make you fly up and catch fire.
Cavalry units can fight both on regular horses and chariots. When the wagon is destroyed, the riders survive but fight on the ground. Only commanders or bosses can be shot down from simple horses. Regular cavalrymen die immediately.
Hill tribes and killers stand out separately. Both factions are agile and resilient. Their commanders hit harder than the thousands from the kingdoms, but the set of reinforcements for their squad is no different.
Konami decided that in this game there is no need to hide anything from the player, so all the main mechanics are revealed over 3 missions. In the 1st mission we are introduced to Xin, whom the player will control for all 10 chapters. Like the original, the character runs fast, jumps high, delivers quick blows with lightning speed, and heavy ones with a slowdown and only two in a row. Armed with a one-handed sword, which, as in the manga, will not change.
Two types of blows are combined in the simplest variations. By combining jumping and heavy punches, Xin’s signature move from the early chapters of the manga can be reproduced in a simple form. The character can also block simple blows and target the nearest enemy.
In the second mission, the https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/pub-casino/ player must protect two characters from the killer, namely: Ying Zheng and Diao. During the battle, soldiers join both sides. During which we are shown new mechanics. A squad of 4 NPCs is provided at Sin’s disposal. The first thought is that the classic Dynasty Warriors is about to start. They show you the rules for managing a squad, after which you have the thought: “WHAT?». The point is, of course. not that everything is in Japanese. A squad can perform super attacks from 6 pieces, divided into pairs. Let’s call them a pair of 1, 2 and 3, and each blow in it is A and B.
1.And the Jet-propelled Squad flies into the enemy formation, demolishing everyone in its path. I’ll note right away that every mega strike will have wild acceleration.
1.In “Circle Formation”. After activating the strike, a counterclockwise rotation begins, which sucks all enemies inside, killing their vestibular apparatus.
2.A “Parody of Sin”. All five jump up and deliver a powerful blow from above.
2.The entire squad makes a synchronized dash forward. Almost like 1A, but weaker and more boring.
3.A “Wheel of Death”.”Each member of the squad forms a kind of wheel with their bodies, which crushes nearby enemies.
3B. “Helicopter”. Our Xin is strong, so he has no problem grabbing one partner with each hand, who, in turn, also hold the leg of his comrades from the squad. Unlike 1B, this move throws enemies around rather than sucking them in.
You cannot customize the pair itself, for example, by choosing a strike 1A and 3B, but you can choose one of three groups in the middle of the battle. No restrictions are imposed. It is impossible to combine super attacks. So if you want to suddenly launch your party members into a bunch of enemies from the wheel mode, then forget.
And then I move on to the slightly dreary part, which, it would seem, should not have been surprising at all. There are two scales for super attacks, which are filled in their own way, but are conditionally related to each other.
The first charge scale, in the lower right corner, is measured in percentage. Up to 100% the scale is filled with blue. After reaching the limit it turns red and begins to flicker. You can accumulate it either by making a series of blows, and the longer the sequence, the faster it will fill, or with golden spheres immediately up to 100%, but more on them later. The main clarification is that these percentages do not indicate the level of readiness to activate super skills. You can also apply them when the fill mark is 0%.
A second bar appears at the bottom center when the player decides to use super attacks. This happens after holding down one of the buttons for a simple hit. If you release it, the animation will begin. It also accumulates from pressing the simple strike button for a long time. It looks like the game Naruto is trying to collect chakra.
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you have accumulated 100%. Press and hold the light strike button. The second scale is already half full, and the yellow arrow moves lightning fast to the right. If you have 0%, the arrow of the second scale will slowly move to the right.
A very strange solution for such a simple mechanic. In many other games, there is always one bar allocated for mana or energy. And no problems arise, but here they still managed to screw it up. It is visually clear that the percentages in the right scale and the arrow in the central one are not synchronized in any way. Even if the player has 60%, the arrow is located to the left of the middle. But, no matter how confusing it may sound, you get used to it quickly, especially if you played similar games where you can accumulate energy by holding a button.
Well, in addition, the most minor addition from having a squad is that its members can participate in simple combo attacks. For example, they ram enemies at once without mega acceleration, attack an enemy from a jump, or deliver a synchronized blow from the bottom up.
At the same time, the characters from your personal squad will never attack the enemy. It looks very funny when the player does not use combo attacks, but simply presses one of the attacks. Comrades will simply watch, standing in front, behind or around, depending on the tactical formation, which does not really help. At most, they are living shields that under no circumstances can die, unlike nearby allied NPCs fighting.
In the third mission they show that Xin can control a horse. There are no difficulties arising from this; on the contrary, there are advantages.
1. Heavy blows are delivered many times faster than without a horse. Because of this, the damage dealt increases due to increased speed;
2. You can push away enemies by crashing into the crowd on horseback;
3. It becomes easier to destroy cavalry or chariots.
Like opponents, the player can also be knocked out of the saddle. In this case, the horse will gallop away from the battle, but will not disappear. Just like the player’s personal squad is immortal.
After completing all story missions, a difficult mode opens, which keeps new statistics and makes enemies stronger.
In order not to turn the player’s life into pain from the abundance of opponents during the mission, you can find various auxiliary items.
Light baskets always contain food that replenishes lives and is divided into three types:
* One onigiri affects only the player and returns only part of the health;
* Three onigiri – for the player and nearby allies;
* A piece of meat regenerates the player’s entire scale.
A small stack of crates contains orbs that buff the player for a period of time and can be combined. Spheres are divided into three colors:
* Red ones increase damage done;
* Blue speeds up the filling of the lower right scale;
* Gold ones completely fill the scale up to 100%, and also allow you to deliver non-stop super attacks. The scale will remain at 100%. Most useful if a fight begins with a boss or a horde of enemies.
Chests contain pouches that will be used in alternate mode to purchase rare items. In alternate mode, they are filled with armor, weapons, or wrapped jewelry, but more on all of them later.
All items can also drop after the death of commanders. Very convenient when the player is forced to fight for a long time against an enemy crowd, and the boxes have already run out.
Alt mode is the best thing about the game. A total of 30 missions will be available, which are divided into levels from 1st to 8th and have a certain monetary reward for fulfilling all conditions. You need to open them gradually, and even for one level only part of the chapters is active.
The main feature is that now the player can independently select his own squad, choosing both individual members from the four NPCs, and changing Sin to another controlled commander. Squad leaders are unlocked as you progress through both modes. Xin, Wang Qi and Qiang Lei are initially available.
The squad can be formed either from nameless NPCs or from minor characters who appeared in the manga, namely members of Shinya’s squad. Unfortunately, the store has two disadvantages.
The first one is small. The player will only be able to buy 30 soldiers. The extra ones will need to be fired. Actually, 20 is usually enough, since NPCs cannot die completely or get injured, which will put them out of action for a couple of battles.
The second one is already significant. In the store, characters are imported as you progress through the alternative mode. There is no way to see the soldier’s profile. Therefore, you will either have to learn Japanese or know the spelling of the names of minor characters in order to buy the right one. An alternative is to make a preliminary save, buy everyone out, insert everyone into the squad, remember the names, and then load and go, having already specifically selected the desired character.
When opening the squad setup, the main characteristics are displayed:
1. Soldier type icon;
2. Name;
3. Level;
4. Health;
5. Attack;
6. Defense;
7. Type of weapon.
And now more details about each. There are three types of icons in the game that show the type of NPC:
*Village soldiers;
* Professional soldiers;
* Mountain people.
The names have already been mentioned. I’ll add a hint that the nameless NPCs have a similar style.
The level is pumped up during the battle. There are no boosts for this. Just withdraw your units more often and, preferably, they don’t die right away.
Lives, Attack and Defense can be changed with items, information about which will be below.
Initially, items are divided into three sections:
* Weapon;
* Armor;
* Decoration.
There is also a color division according to quality:
* Blue – standard;
* Purple – medium;
* Red – high;
* White – created manually. Depends on the characteristics of the item being connected;
*Black – rare.
The first three are unlocked as you progress through the alternative mode, and can be purchased in the store using coins awarded for completing a mission, or in chests while completing alternative missions. Rare black items can be purchased with currency that is collected from chests in the story campaign.
White is created by crafting. You can upgrade either weapons or armor. For example, the player selects double swords, which can absorb any 10 other weapons. These can be spears, clubs, ordinary swords and the like. Also low quality can be combined with another. There will be no jump from this, but the cost of combining items will change.
* For 200 coins, you can add a blue item to the selected weapon;
* For 600 coins – purple;
* For 1800 coins – red.
Evolution of an item from its quality to another is only possible at level 10. To do this, you need to go to the next tab, where available items will be displayed. For example, by choosing a blue sword, you will have access to one of three purple ones. And if you select red, it will be upgraded to white.
When upgrading a weapon, the characteristics of the item level will change, the number of points that will be added to the character’s life, defense and defense points, as well as passive skills, for example, increasing critical damage. Moreover, the same skills will merge together, and if they differ, they will be summed up. One item can have three skills. If all the cells are filled, crafting continues, and the infused item has two other skills, then a plate will open where you can choose three of the five skills. There is also a chance that during crafting, you can get a unique skill, which will be highlighted in red in the name.
A few small clarifications:
* Armor cannot be upgraded to very high quality. Most likely, this is due to the fact that they did not redraw the models, since white objects change their appearance. We decided to limit ourselves to only new skins for weapons.
* However, not all weapons can be upgraded to the white type. For example, the axes of the second killer who hunted Ying Zheng, or a pipe with poisonous needles. This can only be explained by the fact that they are unique in their own way and do not need to be changed.
What about the items themselves?. Jewelry is available to everyone, but armor depends on the type of soldier. For example, professionals may wear heavy armor, while mountain people wear fur “shorts”. If you don’t want to do crafting, then you can sell extra items in the same store where you buy them.
Fifth characteristic: “type of weapon” is precisely the restrictive barrier. A soldier who displays a sword will never be able to take a spear or club, and hill tribes may fight with sabers rather than simple swords. Everything is predetermined.
Squad leaders are also tied to their personal items. Xin can’t take the guan dao yet, Diao shoots darts, and Ba Jo from the mountain tribe wields two sabers.
On the one hand, the player is given a chance to play for different characters so that he is not stuck with only one. There is a difference between commanders, but usually insignificant. Ying Zheng or Xin wield one sword equally quickly and move deftly, Wang Qi no longer dodges so quickly, and his guan-dao blows are slowed down, but not as heavy as those of a mountain representative who wields a club.
But there are also exceptional ones, for example, Ba Jo quickly carries out both simple and heavy attacks, and Diao is the only shooter for allies. Moreover, there are no allied archers either in the recruitment store or with allied NPCs during the mission. Apparently due to the fact that these units did not appear in the first chapters of Qin.
You can fill 5 lines of units. You can control one, and the rest will act as NPCs, if you are allowed to take more than one group on a mission. However, you cannot give them instructions in the middle of battle. They will all act at their own discretion. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the general standard of living, which is marked on the right on a green background.
An important fact is that you must fill all 4 NPC cells within the squad. Otherwise the group is incapacitated because the super attacks were not set up for one or three members. The player can refuse to take customized units to help only if he wants to test himself during the mission.
Despite the fact that units cannot be controlled during battle, their usefulness does not decrease. There are missions to protect five control points. If you do not deploy your troops, the allied forces will be defeated in the near future. Your assistants will not only delay the enemy, but will even be able to repel the attack if they are well armed.
In the section for selecting squad members, you can assemble a group manually or select it based on certain properties, for example, strength. The party will be staffed by NPCs who are not included in anyone’s squad.
There are separate tabs for outfitting groups. In one, the player can personally select equipment for each soldier, and in another section there is a function for automatically selecting weapons, armor and decorations for squad members.
There is also a tab where you can see statistics about the passive skills that NPCs have unlocked in the squad, or the percentage of wins and losses for a particular commander.
The development team had a blast in alternate mode. Yes, there is, as in the story mode, capturing or protecting points, killing or protecting generals, but the presentation is different. For example, one of the missions is to defeat the guards of the royal palace. It would seem that the player saw this in the story chapters, but now the enemies are positive characters. One of the missions will focus on Diao, who will parody Naruto. Copies of different sizes will attack the player. What’s funny is that in a few years there will be a bonus chapter of the manga where Diao has a similar dream.
In most cases new enemies will be introduced. If you were surprised by cheerleader archers, then this is nothing compared to other variations. For example, soldiers will form a living hand that will make a giant leap and fall flat on the player. Someone apparently liked The Addams Family.
Next, pyramid-cheerleaders will appear, which are complemented by arms, and fiery halberds are attached to the ends. But the most enchanting case is when the soldiers unite into Sabertooth Tiger. Hello Power Rangers! Despite the fact that he will still spit out flames with the help of a soldier who holds a la sparklers. The “paws” and “mouth” are studded with sabers, imitating fangs and claws.
In addition to specific missions, there are those not included in the main story mode. For example, an attempt to kill King Ying Zhen, albeit in an abbreviated version. This same scene will not be included in the first season of the anime. Added a mission with elements of stealth, when Xin and the Wei brothers will have to pass by patrols. When detected, the brothers’ chance of survival approaches 0%.
There is an interesting mission where the player must protect the commanders, then leave them to accompany reinforcements that were ambushed, then fight off a massive attack, and finally get to the opposite end of the map, where there is a cavalryman and horses, saddle one of them and, together with the soldier, get to the defenders, simulating the arrival of cavalry.
The alternative ending of the battle with Zhao left pleasant feelings, since one of the important characters remained alive, and at the end he was still joking at the common table. Those who watched the first season or read the manga will, of course, understand who I mean.
As after completing the story chapters, a difficult mode will also open in the alternative mode. Only here it is still important to level up your characters, since, having immediately run from the final mission of normal difficulty to the last of the difficult level, the player will lose all the NPC units, as well as his character, in a few minutes.
