From the makers of the Devil May Cry, Resident Evil and Street Fighter comes a new fantasy-action game for the PlayStation 2 called Devil Kings. At first glance you'd think Devil Kings was set in a historical inspired timeline, but take a closer look reveals soldiers carrying muskets, shotguns and powerful magic. That's because Devil Kings' setting and its characters are completely steeped in fantasy.

The game consists of six main characters, with the ability to unlock six more. The variety you get from the different characters makes it appealing to anyone who might want to play. The Devil King who is my personal favorite, wielding a sword and shotgun as well as an elemental darkness attack. Then there's his wife, Lady Butterfly, who carries duel pistols and uses a fire element. Also there's the Devil Kings biggest rival, Red Minotaur, who carries an awesomely giant battle axe and knows how to use it. You'll meet Scorpio in your travels - he carries duel spears and wants nothing more than to see his general, Red Minotaur achieve world dominance. Then there's Venus, who uses two large circular shurikans and excellent stealth - she wants nothing other than to protect her loved ones. And finally there's Azure Dragon, who has samurai swords and a lightning element who fights solely for his cause.

The many different enemies you encounter in this game could only be called diverse, such as the bomb carriers who chase you around with their "oversized bombs" and commit suicide, giant soldiers who carry what can only be described as "giant sledgehammers," archers and soldiers carrying muskets, soldiers on horseback, and many others. Then there's generals, guards and captains - these guys serve as leaders to various forces scattered throughout the map or block progress at gates. The territorial generals and their rulers vary from giant metal armored men with axes to small women with dangerous sledgehammers that like to jump around and hit you when you not looking. All in all its a very solid assortment of enemies you'll face that will keep you on your toes.

When starting the game you pick from one of six characters and play in conquest mode, where you have a territory (there is a free mode but you first have to unlock the maps throughout the game in conquest). Your objective is to expand your territory by conquering the other generals, during which time you earn experience points for your kills as well as gold that transfers to experience points. You will also find treasures that include new and upgraded weapons, fury, special items and health orbs.

At the end of each level you'll have to fight the boss of the territory. After you do that you go to the stat screen where you see your kill totals, treasure you've found, etc. All these elements are then tallied up and turned into experience. Kill enough bad guys and collect enough gold and you'll level up, making your character even stronger. Leveling up will boost your strength, health and fury. You can also unlock special moves for each character that you'll be able to assign as well as up to three equipable items, which include but are not limited to armor, fire charms, and items that increase health meters attack and defense. I found that a good way to build a character up is to play in free mode (when maps are unlocked) where you can earn a lot of experience - that way you can level up and get better weapons as well as new special moves without having to do more than one mission.

Before starting each territorial conquest, you'll see the fictional storyline and cutscenes, which I noticed were sometimes cartoonish and other times like anime . This made for a real original but strange overall presentation.

It's pretty obvious to anyone that's played KOEI's Dynasty Warriors games that Devil Kings borrows many of its gameplay elements liberally. If you like the button mashing style of DW like I do, then you'll see that this observation is not a negative. You'll see the levels are set up in the same fashion as DW, with hundreds of foot soldiers blocking the path to the main enemy (whose strength is completely at the other end of the spectrum from the rest of the enemies you've faced). Other obvious attributes borrowed from DW include the battle map (which I feel is a definite plus) that includes almost all the same statistics, level up info and character upgrades. Also the gate captains who (once killed) halt anymore soldiers from coming through. You'll also see chest, whose contents (like Dynasty Warriors) contain health and fury (mosou in DW) orbs, especially around the rulers you fight at the end of the levels.

As much as the game captures the positive parts of the Dynasty Warriors games, it actually improved on some of the negatives as well, such as using a horse in battle. Another plus is the fury moves, which are a lot more outrageous and spectacular than the mosou moves seen in Dynasty Warriors. Even better are some of the special moves you can equip (when unlocked) to each character, like the Devil King's special cape move: he uses his cape like a weapon, sweeping it all the way around him while quickly, taking enemies completely off their feet. Each character can gain extra special moves like this, which really help in the more harrowing battlefield situations.

If there's one thing that is lacking in Devil Kings, it's the on screen map you use for finding soldiers, rulers, and seeing your location - at least in comparison to that of the one in Dynasty Warriors. There's not always any indicator of enemy stragglers that you may have missed - a minor thing to some, but not for those of us who like to completely rid an entire level of enemies. Another thing I didn't like was the dialog - not only was it on the cheesy side but some of the characters had silly accents, like Puff's (who carries a huge mallet but talks like a southern teenager). Then there's Scorpio's lingo, which can only be compared to an ass kissing surfer.

All in all Devil Kings is a pretty solid action game. Though it may borrow a lot from the Dynasty Warriors series, its a very decent game that brings some nice improvements to the genre. Congratulations to Capcom for creating something fun and exciting. The bottom line is that this game is worthy of your attention.