User Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Devil KingsWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Devil Kings Mini Review
Jon Wilcox
06/02/2006
TVG grabs the nearest katana and checks out Capcom's Dynasty Warriors wannabe...
After forging a five title franchise with Dynasty Warriors and launching a spin-off series in Samurai Warriors, it was perhaps somewhat inevitable that a rival Japanese developer/publisher would jump onto the psuedo-historical feudal hack 'n' slash sub-genre created by Koei - but it's a bit of a surprise that the competition comes in the form of Capcom, a company with a number of gigantic franchises in its own portfolio. Released in Japan as Sengoku Basara, the game largely follows the story of Japan's feudal past, with many of Capcom's key personnel working on the title including Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. After creating the Western 'friendly' titles such as Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry, it seems that Kobayashi-san wanted to develop a title that would appeal primarily to his countrymen - and so decided to bring Japanese feudal history front and centre with Sengoku Basara.
In bringing the game to the West however, Kobayashi-san decided to amend the product to suit the new audience, and removed the narrative about Japanese feudalism (including the names of the historical characters), instead focusing it on a character who sells his soul to the devil - thereby making it darker in the process - before finally changing its name to Devil Kings.
With a selection of warriors to choose from including the Devil King, Azure Dragon and Scorpio, players begin to plan their takeover of the gameworld from their homeland. Each of the 'Generals' are broken down into several constituent parts such as Health Points, Attack/Defence Points, the name of their army, and the number of lands ruled by them at the beginning of the game. From there any new weapons or special moves picked up through the course of the game are added before the final rush towards war begins; a cut-scene describing the events immediately before the battle is played and then the fun starts...
...Seemingly. The thing is that right from the off it becomes blatantly apparent where Devil Kings gets its inspiration from. A solid 80% of the game bares an incredible resemblance to Koei's efforts, and if you play the Japanese version (featuring the Japanese feudal story) the game is even closer to Samurai Warriors, which also follows the same history of Japan. The general gameplay of running around preset paths killing as many as possible before destroying that environment's boss, is just as repetitive as Koei's two franchises, though Capcom does make an attempt to liven things up with some outrageous weapons including a huge axe, and a musket like gun. However the process of building up combinations of kills, or stunning enemies to build up a Fury Meter (which enables gamers to unleash more powerful attacks) is achieved through a severely limited combat system that largely feels unsatisfying. Further to that, missions can actually be finished just by running through to the main enemy, disregarding the minions that stand in your way; it all begs the question, what's the point of the game?
At the end of the day, Devil Kings was originally created for a Japanese audience, and whilst certain games specifically developed for the territory (such as the Katamari Damacy titles) can flourish, it would be wrong to expect every game to be well received elsewhere. Losing games in translation is just one reason why Xbox failed to take hold in Japan, and it's one reason why games such as Devil Kings will never be a roaring success outside of the Far East - it's a different audience.
Visually at least Devil Kings has trademarks of Capcom about it, and the environments don't seem to be quite as stark as Koei's efforts, but that doesn't mean that they're groundbreaking either because they aren't. Elsewhere there's very little inspiration to be found in the game, which just seems to be a little thin on the ground in pretty much every area.
Despite some superficial changes, which add a certain Capcom-esque feel to the game, Devil Kings remains extremely similar in terms of gameplay experience to Koei's Chinese dynastical franchise. In such a case, if you're a fan of Dynasty Warriors then it's more than likely that you'll enjoy Devil Kings but if not, it's hard to believe that the game will stand out to you. It's a run around hack 'n' slash that no doubt appealed to Kobayashi-san's original intentions, but it's largely a superficial gameplay experience that quickly boils down to become repetitive and dull.
