The original Kessen was one of the first games released for PS2: A real-time strategy game set in feudal Japan where you controlled thousands of men in epic battles (some that would literally go on for hours). Kessen II added a bit more action into the mix, allowing you to take control of the commander for each unit and throw a bit of a wobbly into the enemy units. Kessen III sees the line between strategy and action further blurred…

Kessen III could indeed be called “Dynasty Warriors 5”, as that is the direction that the game’s moved in - It’s now primarily an action game with a bit of strategy thrown in for good measure. Gone are the thousands of rendered troops to be replaced with a squad of twenty or so men (representing the thousands), with the commander in the middle. You move the unit with the left stick, and control the camera with the right. Moving around feels very similar to Dynasty Warriors, only with several men attached to your character, and it's quite easy to move around the terrain. You can switch to control any unit under your command on the battlefield very quickly, which is useful because you’ll need to be constantly switching if you want to keep all your units alive.

As well as standard/charged attacks, your officer has certain abilities which can be used (after buying a manual to learn them). They range from support abilities such as healing to reducing the enemy’s attack or defence, to all-out ass-kicking tornados, walls of water and comets. These work well to stop enemy charges, but also when used in conjunction with support units e.g: lowering enemy defences then ordering a support unit to charge the rear. When pulled off properly it decimates the enemy, and looks pretty cool. You can also go on a solo rampage into the enemy formation for a short while, which plays like a very simplified version of Dynasty Warriors, and although you can pick up gold and troop regeneration bonuses, at the end of it you’ve only killed about 150 men which, given the time spent fighting, isn’t really worth the effort.

So what’s all this about support units? Well, this is the bulk of the strategy part of the game. For each unit deployed on the battlefield, up to two support units can be placed in formation around it. They follow the main unit around the map, but when trouble starts, depending on the orders you’ve given them, they’ll get stuck in. The tactics of this work really well as you usually have a stable unit in the middle (spearmen) to hold the enemy up, a fast unit to flank them (horsemen), then a firearms unit to fire volleys into the enemy as they’re stuck there. This perfectly orchestrated theatre of destruction is mostly automatic - the AI will run the support units until you want to take control of them, so requires very little work on your part.

Okay, on to the storyline part of the game. You follow the quest of Nobunaga Oda, the leader of one of the ancient clans in Japan as he attempts to conquer and control mainland Japan. The storyline is mixed well between historical narrative and personal events, and held together with some good CGI. The voice acting is a bit iffy so I switched it to Japanese with subtitles - it feels a lot more like watching “The Last Samurai” that way!

The campaign is split into chapters, most being played out from a different province of Japan. There will be several battles available to fight at any one time and they are usually of different difficulty settings. This means that you can fight some minor skirmishes to prepare you for the main battle, which moves the story along or into another chapter. You don’t have to fight the minor battles, but given the difficulty of some of the later missions I don’t see how you could win without fighting them and gaining experience.

The other options in each province are the castle, where all of your officers and their equipment are listed. Most of it is stats-boosting (weapons and armour mostly), and most of the time I couldn’t be arsed to sit there and swap weapons until someone got +3 damage and +4 defence. The other options however offer different advantages than just stats; Certain accessories increase the experience gained (helps to level up), some increase the effect of the officer abilities, horses offer bonuses when using the rampage ability listed earlier and the manuals enable officers to cast lightning bolts and such, probably the most important part to play with.

Kessen III doesn’t play too badly. Although some of the attack options are a little basic, the strategy element attached to it makes up for that, and you never feel like you’re button-bashing all the time. The AI does make a hash of fighting battles for you, but sitting back and just watching battles is boring anyway, so it doesn’t affect the game too much. My only niggle is that KOEI already has a game quite like this, mentioned many times in this review. Although fun, I would much rather have had a return to origins of this once RTS, now third-person fighter.