Kessen (PlayStation 2, 2000)

Kessen is Sengoku chess with war drums—real-time formations, morale swings, and battlefield gambits that flip a clean line into a stampede. You script the plan, then watch it unravel in glorious PS2 launch-era cinematics while you scramble new orders. If you’re filling a PS2 strategy shelf and planning to buy retro games on Retro Games eXchange, this is the dramatic “what if Oda’s scouts didn’t fall asleep” simulator you didn’t know you needed.

Online note: no online features—single-player campaign only.

1. Formations decide the first minute: wedge to pierce, line to volley, box to absorb cavalry. Pick wrong and you’ll watch morale evaporate before you land a hit.
2. Morale is the real HP bar: time volleys after your charge connects—impact shock + gunpowder panic stacks fear and triggers routs faster than raw damage.
3. Command rhythm: issue short, chained orders (advance → hold → flank) instead of long marches. Micro-pauses keep units braced for counters instead of waddling into traps.
4. Stratagem timing wins fights: rally, rain, and ambush abilities are strongest when they break momentum, not when you’re already winning. Pop them to cancel the enemy’s spike, not to pad yours.
5. Flank geometry: pin with spears, swing cavalry at 45° into the rear, then volley from the side. Three-angle pressure shreds morale and deletes officer auras.
6. Officer auras matter: keep generals close to their best troops; swapping leaders mid-battle to stabilize a crumbling wing often saves more men than any stratagem.
7. Weather as a weapon: rain nerfs arquebus volleys—call pushes under dark clouds and stall during clear skies to avoid getting mulched by muskets.
8. Pre-battle loadouts aren’t fluff: unit upgrades and troop types change matchup math; don’t send horses into pikes just because the cutscene got you hyped.
9. Alternate-history routing: fail or succeed certain objectives and the next map rewrites itself—secure supply lines and you’ll see reinforcements that never show in the “canon” version.
10. Cool fact: Kessen was a PS2 launch-window strategy showcase in the West—co-published with EA—and it let you flip major Sengoku outcomes into full-blown “what if” branches long before that became Koei’s standard playbook.