More of the same, but always with style.

User Rating: 8 | Sengoku Musou 2 X360
I've been quite in a mood to play hack n' slash games lately. Maybe that's due to Koei's excellent work in these games.

Samurai Warriors 2 is a direct sequence of the Samurai Warriors game, but those who didn't play the previous game (like me) won't really miss any story from the first game. You can choose amongst several famous generals from the Warrying States Period (Sengoku Jidai) and know a bit more of Japan's History during one of the most turbulent periods of the Muromachi Era (well, actually the story goes a little but farther than the Muromachi Era).

Like in Dynasty Warriors, there is a great variety of characters to choose, each with their own Story Mode (except for two characters). As you finish the Story Mode with the available characters, more characters are unlocked. Of course, each of them with their Story Mode. There are 24 characters available in Free Mode (and if you download the Xtreme Legends pack, you'll get six more) plus two who have no Story Mode and can be obtained in the other game modes. Some characters share the same cutscenes, but each of them has a unique ending. Each character has their own moveset and fighting style. As you proceed through the campaigns (each character goes through five campaigns and after the last one another one called "Dream Mode" is unlocked) and level up, you can unlock more moves and attack combinations.

The gameplay is as simple as the other games of the Warriors series. With the X button you perform the regular attack. Y executes the special attack, which is slower, but more powerful. Holding down the B button with the Musou Gauge blinking allows you to unleash a powerful chain attack all at once. RT allows you to perform a front roll, quite useful to escape chain and frontal attacks. RB + X and RB + Y makes you do something particular to a certain character, like calling your horse, planting/blowing bombs, using the secondary weapon, raise your defense or things of that sort. LB sets the camera behind your character and LT changes the map mode to a close-up version, very useful when you're inside castles or want to find a particular soldier. The controls overall have a good response time, though I found quite an irritating bug: when you're surrounded by enemies and try to flee only by running around, you'll find that you can't attack nor use your Musou Attack unless you STOP running around. Which turns even more irritating when you're stuck in the enemy's chain attack.
I also missed the "call your horse" button. Some characters have that as an special ability.

During the battles, you'll occasionally find generals who are playable characters and each time a significant general shows up, an animation rolls out with them introducing themselves saying something significant like "I am the supreme lord of - whatever". You'll be awed by their cool poses and stuff at first, but after a while it starts to get irritating, specially when you're chaining that infinite amount of combos with a Musou attack. The worst part is that there is NO option to automatically skip those scenes, so you have to press the Start button to skip the scene and quickly press whatever you were pressing in order to continue your combo. If you were riding your horse in full speed and a cutscene runs in the middle of your riding, your horse will suddenly stop running if you forget to keep the directional button pressed.
Yeah, the cinematic of the characters' presentation is cool, but not THAT much cool that makes me want to watch them MORE THAN SEVEN TIMES.

Before each campaign, you can also go to the Shop to buy new weapons, faster horses and stronger guards. The money is easily obtainable during the battles and they're cumulative for all characters.

There are a couple of interesting game modes so that you won't get bored with the Story Mode. Besides the traditional Free Mode (in which you can choose a campaign and a character and go through it in the way you want), there is also a board minigame called Sudoroku, in which you choose a character do play against four others (and you can do it online against other real players) with the goal of becoming the richest daimiyo in Japan. You have to roll dices and choose territories to dominate and each time you enter an enemy territory, you can either pay him a certain amount of money or challenge him to a battle with a certain goal (finding more hidden enemies, causing more ruckus, stuff like that).
You can also play the Survival Mode, in which you have to go through determined goals to go to the next floor. By beating certain floors, you can unlock more guards and extra characters.
There is also the Online Mode, which unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to test (no money for Live account...).

Overall, a nice game. It may seem quite repetitive after the second of third character, but fans of hack 'n slash games might like the game. I would still stick with Dynasty Warriors 6, but in therms of story, this game won't disappoint you.