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| Dynasty Warriors 2 | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer | Omega Force |
| Publishers | |
| Director | Akihiro Suzuki |
| Designer | Kenichi Ogasawara |
| Series | Dynasty Warriors |
| Platform | PlayStation 2 |
| Release | |
| Genre | Hack and slash[2] |
| Mode | Single-player |
Dynasty Warriors 2, known in Japan asShin Sangokumusō (真・三國無双), is a 2000hack and slash game developed byOmega Force and published byKoei for thePlayStation 2. It was released outside Japan as a launch title for the console. It is the second game in theDynasty Warriors series, but the first in theShin Sangokumusō series.
The game was released in other countries asDynasty Warriors 2, leading to the assumption that it is a sequel to the originalDynasty Warriors. The entire series was influenced by the game's success, with all future installments following the game's gameplay style. It was released on thePlayStation Network in 2012.
From this game onward, the player chooses aplayable charactergeneral, and plays through a number of levels representing particular conflicts in the time of theThree Kingdoms, eventually defeating both of the other kingdoms and becoming the ruler of a unifiedChina. Unlike the one-on-one fighting style of the originalDynasty Warriors, the game is abeat 'em uphack and slash fighting game in full3D, similar in genre toFighting Force. Unlike previous games in the beat 'em up genre,Dynasty Warriors 2 allows players the freedom to roam to any point within the limits of the current stage being played.
This game was the first to introduce Free Mode and Musou Mode to the series. Free Mode allows the player to replay any missions that they have already completed in Musou Mode. Musou Mode is the character's main story, where you play as the officer until the kingdom you are fighting for has unified China. However, due to the small scale of the game at the time, many important battles were missing. Some of the missing battles were added inDynasty Warriors 3.
There are a total of 28 characters.
* Denotes new characters to the series
Bold denotes default characters
Many of the stages are recreations of notable battles from history or from the novelRomance of the Three Kingdoms, while original creations became more common with the newer instalments. This is a list of stages inDynasty Warriors 2.
| Year | Stage |
|---|---|
| 184 | TheYellow Turban Rebellion |
| 191 | Battle of Hu Lao Gate |
| 200 | Battle of Guan Du |
| 208 | Battle of Chang Ban |
| 208 | Battle of Chi Bi |
| 215 | Battle of He Fei |
| 222 | Battle of Yi Ling |
| 234 | Battle of Wu Zhang Plains |
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 75/100[3] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame |    [4] |
| CNET Gamecenter | 7/10[5] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 6.67/10[6][a] |
| Eurogamer | 6/10[7] |
| Famitsu | 31/40[8] |
| Game Informer | 8/10[9] |
| GameFan | (J.W.) 89%[10] 75%[11][b] |
| GamePro | [12] |
| GameRevolution | B−[13] |
| GameSpot | 7.8/10[14] |
| GameSpy | 80%[15] |
| IGN | 7.9/10[16] |
| Next Generation | [17] |
| Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [18] |
The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to thereview aggregation websiteMetacritic.[3] Daniel Erickson ofNextGen said of the game, "While it is the first third-person, 3D action game to feature a real-time battlefield, the gameplay is strictly old-school. Fun but not terribly deep."[17] In Japan,Famitsu gave it a score of 31 out of 40.[8]
The game sold 300,000 units in its first six weeks of release in Japan.[19]