Dynasty Warriors 2

Dynasty Warriors 2 is a hack-and-slash action game developed by Omega Force and published by Koei for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. Despite its title, it is effectively the first game in the Dynasty Warriors action series, as the original Dynasty Warriors was a one-on-one fighting game; this entry redefined the franchise as the large-scale battlefield combat it became known for.

Set during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China, the game casts the player as one of a roster of historical officers fighting through massive battles against hundreds of on-screen soldiers at once. The player hacks through rank-and-file troops while working toward enemy officers and commanders, capturing bases and swinging the tide of each battle, with a Musou gauge that unleashes a powerful area-clearing special attack when filled.

Dynasty Warriors 2 was notable at the time chiefly for the sheer number of enemies it rendered on screen, a showcase for the new PlayStation 2 hardware, and it established the template, one-versus-thousands battlefield action, that the long-running Warriors series and the broader musou genre would build on for years. Contemporary reception was mixed, with praise for its scale and criticism for repetition and technical rough edges, but its influence on the genre it founded is considerable.