Sometimes you're clicking around through a few of your favorite shmup OSTs and something in the sidebar catches your eye. In this case it was a thumbnail of an unassuming and seemingly out-of-place box art of Naval Ops: Commander for PS2 that has some hitherto unknown to me Hyakutaro Tsukumo (Thunder Force V, Hyper Duel) bangers hidden away on its soundtrack
ah, nice to see Naval Ops pop up here. secret Koei gems!
i highly recommend these three PS2 games (Naval Ops: Warship Gunner, Naval Ops: Commander, Warship Gunner 2) if you'd enjoy building warships from modular parts and taking them out into the field to sink or swim. the design phase is very absorbing and it's satisfying to find ways to squeeze one last gun onto the deck while staying under weight, energy, etc. limits. and the further you play, the stranger / more anachronistic the ship parts and weapons you unlock; don't be surprised when you start developing beam weapons to keep up with UFOs. Naval Ops looks like World War II, but is secretly World War Weird.
the Gunner games have more of an action-based aiming aspect while Commander is more about steering your ship(s) around the sea and letting real-time combat play out automatically based on your build. it's been long enough that i don't even remember which approach i like more, but i do remember digging both.
don't think i ever got to the last game. i'm clearly overdue to revisit!
i'm actually not really a Koei fan, but Naval Ops made me wonder if they might have made other obscure little games i'd dig.