E3 2002: Dynasty Tactics PS2 preshow report

Japanese developer Koei is best known for its Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy series. As the company has grown as a developer, its range of titles has broadened considerably. While still producing strategy titles, like the upcoming Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII for the PlayStation 2, the company has also started branching out, offering original games totally unrelated to strategy, such as Gitaroo Man and Yan Yan Cabalista. Koei's latest PlayStation 2 title returns to its strategy roots but offers a new spin on the theme with Dynasty Tactics, a turn-based strategy game that seems to be cut from the same cloth as Square's FF Tactics and Koei's own Saiyuki.

Set in the Three Kingdoms era, Dynasty Tactics will put you in the role of one of three heroes: Liu Bei, Cao Cao, or Sun Ce. Your goal is to conquer 60 key cities in China. To meet that challenge, you'll have to recruit powerful officers and build an army. You'll encounter new difficulties and meet with historical figures along the way.

As you might imagine, a large component of the game will be centered on combat. You'll organize your forces and try to position them in such a way as to trigger a domino affect among your officers and perform a series of attacks. For example, officers in charge of your units will have special attacks, such as fire attack and ambush. You'll be able to trigger the special attacks if you manage to meet certain conditions on the field. Carefully positioning and timing can result in a "tactical combo" by triggering a series of special attacks, which can have devastating results on your enemies. In addition to your officers, you'll be able to take advantage of your group's tacticians, who will have a special set of attacks of their own, like trumps, which nullifies enemy strategies, and links, which paralyzes enemy units and makes them vulnerable. You'll even be able to access special weapons, like catapults during siege battles. Outside the battlefield, you'll be able to engage in some political maneuvering as well. You'll find yourself hiring officers, participating in diplomatic negotiations and espionage.

Dynasty Tactics looks like an interesting title for Koei to develop. Given the company's history, creating a game like DT was likely to be the natural progression for one of its series. The game looks very promising and will certainly be one to watch for in the coming months before its release.

Dynasty Tactics is slated to ship this fall on the PlayStation 2.