Preview: 'Hundred Swords' stands out

	GALLERY

Platform: Sega Dreamcast

From...

by Tokyo Drifter

(IDG) -- Dreamcast owning Real Time Strategy fans have suffered through delay after delay of "Age of Empires II." Some relief has just arrived in the form of "Hundred Swords," currently available only for the Japanese market. Choose from four different warring factions who each have their own unique stories and battle characteristics. The offline mode offers only single player action, but makes up for it with a large adventure mode and a wide assortment of stand alone, situation based missions. The game really stands out visually thanks to the character designs by Yoshio Sugiura blend a medieval painting style with modern anime sensibilities.

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Unlike many RTS games, polygons replace sprites in everything from the soldiers, buildings, and terrain. The animation greatly benefits from this approach although subtle texture details take a hit for the worse. The control method differs slightly from the norm of this genre since this was designed more as a console game than PC. The game does allow the use of a keyboard, but only in online network play.

Epic battles demand epic music and "Hundred Swords" has it covered. In fact, the game covers enough of the requisite standards for a great game that a U.S. release seems hopeful. The great barrier to this is the large amount of Japanese that would need to be translated. Look for updates on this site for the latest on "Hundred Swords."

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