Samurai Warriors 2: Empires announced @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on December 08, 2006

News: Koei's tactical action series goes to Japan for the first time.

Koei has announced that the next game in their Empires series of tactical action games, Samurai Warriors 2: Empires, will ship on February 27, 2007 for the PS2 and Xbox 360.

Uniting all 25 regions of Japan under one ruler is the goal of this Empires game and here's what Koei thinks you should know before you undertake this quest:

Samurai Warriors 2: Empire is the first in Koei's successful line of УEmpiresФ games to be set in Japan. Accordingly, the game's deck of 90 policy cards, used to issue military commands and impose political policies, is boosted by 50 new cards inspired by Japanese history, while all-new formation cards are based on historically-authentic samurai attack formations.

Special events in the game chronicle major turning points in Japan's history including УThe HonnЇji IncidentФ where the powerful warlord Oda Nobunaga, met his demise, and УThe Battle of Kawanakajima,Ф considered the largest and most prolonged encounter of the Warring States era.

Key product features include vicious multi-Musou attacks with up to four officers, 5 УUnificationФ scenarios plus 6 УRegionalФ scenarios, over 400 playable characters to choose from, a create your own warrior mode, as well as 2-player co-op play.

Koei has also said that the Xbox 360 version of the game will be playable in a 720p HDTV mode. While we don't have a look at that, we do have a huge batch of screenshots of the PS2 version.