It is a shame, however, that most of the controls are rarely used. You will spend the majority of your time hacking your way through the droves of minions as they attempt to block your progress in a lacklustre manner, rather than posing any real threat to your character's safety.
They feel like they are merely window dressing more than anything else at the best of times. They only seem to become aggressive and pose a real threat when you're taking on the game's bosses. It's annoying, given that said bosses alone are difficult enough to defeat for even the experienced hack and slash fan, without getting battered repeatedly by their grunts whilst on the floor.
This is something that definitely should have been addressed at the production and testing stage. No player will enjoy the inability to get out of harm's way when a large group of enemies pin you down with no viable means of escape. Challenge in a hack and slash title is welcome; unfair game design is not.
The game fairs better in how it looks and sounds. The characters are well-realised and presentation of the in-game world is impressive and grand in equal measure. The game is subject to bouts of slowdown when the enemies are on screen in their droves, but this is rare and thankfully does not detract from gameplay a great deal.
Menus look stylish, with the character menu allowing you to make adjustments to your chosen character, change their weapons, equipment and also raise their stats to make them more effective for use in the game's missions.
The soundtrack is an orchestral delight which does an effective job in completing the grand sense of scale that the game is aiming for. The voice-overs (which can be set to English or Japanese) are solid in both cases with convincing portrayals of the game's characters (no doubt something subs vs. dubs fans will argue ad infinitum).
Conclusion
N3 II may pique your interest if you are a Dynasty Warriors fan and you delight at hacking and slashing through droves of enemies for hours on end. For everyone else, more variety in the gameplay is desperately needed. As it is, there's little to prevent N3 II from being shelved within the first hour or two of being played and relegated it to 'maybe worth a rental instead' status.
The creators get a thumbs up for realising the game's world and characters in a solid and stylistic fashion, but when it comes to the meat and potatoes of the package (the gameplay) many players will be left wanting more very quickly. Maybe the developers can strike gold with a third in the franchise if that ever gets greenlit? Fingers crossed it won't merely replicate N3 II if it does.
SPOnG Score: 68%
