PS2 Game Review – Devil Kings
- The box art tells you what you’re in for. In this case, giant capes.
Running with the Devil…. Kings
I’ve been into the metal since high school, and I’ve never seen a combination of words more suited to be a metal band name than Devil Kings. It was pretty well-recieved…. well, it wasn’t hated. Besides, I had Gamefly, so I could return it in a day if I didn’t like it (as it turns out, I returned it in a day, after beating it).
What is Devil Kings? It’s the American adaptation of what seems to be a Japanese game about the Japanese warring-states period, or something. Instead of a historical pretense, Devil Kings creates an imaginary landscape of magic and war. Oda Nobunaga becomes the Devil King, which is much easier to repeat while headbanging and flashing the horns (incidentally, he’s the guy with the Spawn cape in the above picture). It plays like…. well, ever played a Dynasty Warriors game past the original? It plays like that. For those of you that never experienced DW2-6, it goes something like this.
Tactician: We need to take this city, and we’re only gonna send you. You’ll cut through and make it happen, right?
Warrior: There’s thousands of enemies out there! Do you expect me to kill all of them?
Tactician: Here’s a sword. The sharp part goes into the… multitude of soldiers out for your blood. Have fun!
You’re a guy, and there is a teeming mass of other guys for you to kill until you win. The enemies are faceless and nameless (mostly, there are heroes with names floating above their heads), and collapse handily when you cut them with sharp things. Generally, your character swings in wide arcs, allowing you to kill at least 10 cannon fodder men with every swing. It’s mindless twitch gameplay, and it is fun, at least for a little while.
Anyway, Devil Kings is that, with a supernatural gimmick. The hot-blooded young guy actually has fire powers, the evil guy with scary mustache can beat people up with his Cape that He’s Probably Borrowing from Spawn, and the lightning-themed guy can use his powers to bring his enemies to a shocking conclusion. Get it? Because lightning is…. never mind. The game revolves around you killing more and more guys, getting power ups that allow you to kill more and more guys. I usually use that language to make fun of MMOs (eventually moving on to some sort of treadmill metaphor), but it’s deeply rewarding on some level to swing a sword once and have it send 20 poor souls to the Great Beyond, watching your kill count rise in the lower-right corner of the screen. The single player is mercifully short, which prevented me from getting bored of it. I was able to beat it in one sitting (I didn’t actually complete the game, which would have involved beating it with everyone), and I can say that I beat it because the game showed me the credits, so there.
I invite you to watch the following cutscene.
It will teach you three things about this game.
1. It is english-dubbed. That’s a huge plus for me, and tends to be a minus for people who aren’t me. This game has a bit of acting, so you can see here if it won’t stab your ear drums to listen to it.
2. Look at the self-righteous youtube comments from a variety of people who are deeply offended about a video game’s take on Japanese history. This, and similar, might be the rationale for repackaging it as a wholly fictional fantasy game for American audiences. That, and the new name they chose is f***ing metal.
3. A guy drives a spear into the ground, and uses it to flip both himself and the horse he’s on. You’re seriously doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t watch the video.
In conclusion, it’s a fun romp that you’ll get tired of quickly. Rent it, enjoy it, and never look back. Games like this make me happy to be a Gamefly subscriber.
Devil Kings
Rent it.