Review: Devil Kings (2005)

• September 6, 2014
• James Skemp
• review

Perfectly acceptable example of the genre

There's something satisfying about games of this particular genre. You play a kind of super-powered individual, able to wade your way through groups of the enemies armies, fighting your way to their lord(s), and taking them down.

It can certainly be repetitive, yet despite that ... the simple controls, basic story lines, multiple characters, and excited announcer, drives you play each character, and at increasing levels of difficulty.

If you're not a fan of the genre, or are a fan of the Sengoku Basara series, you won't find anything here that will win you over. I knew enough about the 'universe' after playing Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes to know a bit more about each of the characters, but names have been changed, and the historical background has been almost completely removed.

But if you like Dynasty Warriors, or enjoyed Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes and want to play as some of those characters again, you can probably find this game cheap, and will have an enjoyable time.

Playing through all 12 characters I got somewhere over 15 hours of play. However, I still have many weapons and items to find, and still have a ways to go before my characters reach level 20.

The cutscenes look pretty dang good (as expected from the PlayStation 2). The camera ends up being a little tight on your character, especially with 'Iron OX,' and the map always in the corner, but you'll stop noticing it after a while.

While I enjoy the genre I'm pretty average when playing it, so I did feel as though I had to start at easy, but leveling up some items (which carryover to all your characters) certainly gives your other characters a better start.

It would be nice to be able to back out to the menu after getting into Conquest mode, without having to start the mission and then exit out, but it's not horribly inconvenient.

Ultimate I give Devil Kings 4 of 5 stars.

• review
• playstation 2