Koei has finally managed to give each character his own distinct play style. Generalizing like that, though? It's really not fair.
Each has his or her own weapon and method of fighting, done by smacking the Circle and Triangle buttons and occasionally blocking, hitting Square for a super-move, or holding L1 plus another button for a special move. You do this by selecting one of those epic heroes. (This isn't Freudian at all, really!) The real challenge involved is following the orders given by your commanding officer, making sure the right enemy generals die or the right people stay alive to keep troop morale high and your fighting force rolling across the map.
It probably didn't really happen that way, but this way is cooler because you personally get to account for roughly 95% of the population of Japan per battle by getting out there and walloping people with your massive sword, or cannonball-shooting lance, or your double-pronged spear. If Samurai Warriors 2 is to be believed, these people were killed by grand heroes who strode across the battlefields, flicking pathetic foot soldiers aside with one swipe of their powerful arms before clashing with each other in epic duels that left the landscape fairly trashed. People die by the thousands on the battlefield.
The local lords hate each other, the Buddhist monks hate the local lords, Oda Nobunaga appears to personally hate everybody, and thus there is great war throughout Japan. This is what's called the "Sengoku jidai," or "Warring states" period. Those of you who are new to the series, however. We'll get into the new stuff a few paragraphs down, so if you're a returning champion you can feel free to skim on down past the introductory stuff. If you've buffed up your fifth digit on the games before it, however, you'll quickly notice that while Samurai Warriors 2 is a lot like the previous games, it does present several new features.
Much like Dynasty Warriors before it, the Japanese-set Samurai Warriors features huge battlefields, lots and lots of enemies, collectable weapons and unlockable characters (get them all!) and enough button-whacking to put you in a thumb cast. Thus they gift us with Samurai Warriors 2, sequel to Samurai Warriors. Koei decided that, perhaps along with the Three Kingdoms-based games, they should also make some games for the action-starved and just-as-large Nobunaga's Ambition fans.
The right answer is nobody worth mentioning, and that's why the Dynasty Warriors series is up to installment number five. Everybody set? Here's your question: Is there anyone alive who doesn't enjoy using ridiculously oversized weapons to fling hundreds of faceless ancient Asian soldiers violently around a battlefield at the push of a button? Close your textbooks and get out your notebooks – it's time for a pop quiz.