Okay, so you've been around. You've played everything from shooters to sports to whatever the hell Vib Ribbon is. You've got a system-spanning gaming collection whose total value would make the Louvre jealous. You can dragon punch Gill to death in your sleep, one-credit Battletoads with a U-Force, and you beat Mars Matrix so bad the disc started to bleed. So as you sit there in your fortress of gameitude, upon your throne constructed entirely out of Darius Alpha HuCards looking out upon the gaming release landscape below, you can't help but ask "isn't it about freakin' time somebody made something original!?"

You sir, are in luck.

Koei's latest draw from the Three Kingdoms well is Dynasty Tactics, a game quite unlike any you've played before. The game isn't for everyone, but hopefully I can describe things well enough for you to decide on your own if you're up for it. At the very least, stick with this review long enough to read the description of the battle system before deciding one way or the other. Superficially, it appears to be a console strategy rpg in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle. And while it shares some traits with those games, due to the game's 'rules' it ultimately comes off feeling a bit like a more indepth game of chess.

Don't let that scare you off; you needn't possess Deep Blue levels of calculatory ability to get by, and there's a heck of alot more going on visually than your average edition of Chess Master. It's quite addictive in fact, and the story segments, cg cinemas, three scenarios each with multiple story paths, hundreds of characters, 12 (count 'em!) endings and a multiplayer mode will keep you going for months.

Graphically, the game's a mixed bag. The cinemas are absolutely stunning, expecially on the battlefield. But the battlefield graphics themselves, while well animated, resemble a tabletop strategy game. They get the job done, but they're nothing spectacular. Part of the story is told in cg cinemas, part in well narrated segments, and the rest in text accompanied by rendered pictures of the character speaking. The map of China, where you decide the direction of your campaign, is very basic - it could quite well have been done on an FX chip enabled SNES. But I didn't find it really mattered to me one way or the other.

The music is excellent, done in a traditional Chinese style, much of it with a full orchestra. But overall there aren't as many tracks as there should be for the amount of time you'll spend going through the game. I found on average it took between 15 and 20 hours to get through each scenario, and while the music set changes the closer you get to unifying the country, it still could have done with more.

The game begins with you choosing one of the historical three kingdoms (think Chinese King Arthur), and setting about reunifying a fractured 3rd century China. From there you'll see cinemas setting up the characters and your particular motivation for the battle at hand, following which you're thrust from the main map into the meat of the game, the battles.

Explaining the combat system takes a bit of doing, so bear with me and bring your imagination along. You begin with two armies facing off across a grid-style battlefield (there are dozens in the game), and the basic idea is to wipe out the opposing force. Victory can also be had by taking down their leader. From there, you can carry out your standard FFT commands - move your different types of units (there are several) around and do battle with the other guys. The main wrinkle in Dynasty Tactics is that each unit commander possesses special one-use abilities called tactics (go figure).

Using a tactic causes the screen to explode into a battle scene straight from Gladiator, as hundreds of soldiers charge across the battlefield bringing death down upon their foes in the unique fashion of that particular tactic. The cutscenes are rendered on the fly, using the proper unit types, uniforms, weather, terrain and generals for the situation. But where the game's true beauty lies is in linking tactics into devastating army-demolishing combos.

For example: your brigadiers use the charge tactic on an enemy unit; this has the effect of pushing them back a square. If the enemy ends up in a square next to another one of your units, and that unit has a tactic that can be used under the circumstances, it will automatically be triggered. So, let's say your charge triggers an allied infantry unit's flank tactic. This will in turn cause them to attack your enemy from the side, pushing them over another square - straight into the waiting arms of your rangers hiding in the forest, triggering their ambush tactic, causing them to retreat into the range of crossbow towers set up by your builder units. Every tactic has unique conditions, properties and effects, and it is these that give the game its chess-like feel.

Each chained tactic does more damage than the last, and putting together 4-5 tactics in a row results in a glorious continuing scene of your army attacking the enemy from all sides, bodies flying everywhere. Of course, managing this takes a fair degree of strategy in setting up your units' positions and tactics. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes extremely addictive, and can turn the tide of a losing battle in one well thought out stroke. Your best tactical combos are kept on a hi-scoreboard, unlocked upon finishing the game once. The better your side does, the more their morale will increase. Morale directly affects the game's pace by determing the order the units move in - the higher the morale, the sooner you move. This helps greatly in setting up combos before they can be evaded. Individual commanders may also have special abilities activated when their unit's morale goes past a certain point, alowing them to do greater damage, withstand more, etc.

One other nice detail I feel I should mention - occasionally, you can land a critical hit, which results in the unit commander going crazy and single handedly laying waste to the enemy unit. It was pretty cool seeing my scrawny strategist getting ticked off and taking out dozens of soldiers in slow motion rotating Matrix-cam. If you land a critical on a particularly tough general with one of your own, it can trigger cinematic a duel between them, complete with ancient Chinese trash-talk. Take him out, and the unit's toast.

The rpg elements come into play in DT a few ways. The first is the various unit commanders you have at your disposal, all pulled from history. They each have varying abilities, ranks, unit types, items, numbers of troops and tactics, which can all be improved by gaining battlefield experience. You can also send delegates to other cities to recruit more commanders, allowing you to form more armies and attack an objective from multiple angles. The second rpg angle is the story - you can play along with the standard Three Kingdoms story, or you can change it altogether by allying with or attacking certain warlords, or simply making different strategic decisions than were made in real life. Each possible path (and there are many) results in different cinemas and different chapter goals, ultimately leading to one of four endings for each kingdom.

So is the game worth buying? I'd say most definitely. I've enjoyed this more than any other strategy rpg I've played - including the genre's strongest entries in Shining Force, Final Fantasy Tactics and Vandal Hearts - entirely on the basis of the battle system. It keeps every battle fresh, and the multiplayer mode and varying story paths and endings have kept me coming back even after going through the whole game a few times. But I will acknowledge the fact that some will have difficulty relating the unpronouncable (to many) character names and turn-based setting. But if you're looking for something off the beaten path, something more complex than Final Fantasy Tactics or simply love the sight of massive ancient armies kicking the crap out of each other, Dynasty Tactics is highly recommended.