Overall 9.2 Graphics 7 Sound 7 Addictive 9 Story 8 Depth 8.7 Difficulty 5.3
7.5
Before Dynasty Warriors, there were numbers.. endings
KOEI used to make tons of strategy games. This one is about a real event in ancient China, when the emperor died and the many, many governors of all the plots of land fought each other for restore order or take the crown for themselves. It was full on civil war. Since most video games are about violence, you now get to take control of one of these would-be rulers, and expand your territory. The good news for strategy buffs is its not just "stab-stab, those are my terms", there are a lot of sneaky things you can do behind the scenes to convince betrayals and incite rebellion and rivalries.
Graphics: 5
Before Koei took things to the next level, they started small graphically, and here it is. The generals and rulers each get a profile picture, and you get small windows for random events (good harvest, locusts, a ruler dying of old age). The main screen has a scroll-like tab for the options of each of the areas you can work on in your kingdom.
Combat visually, is a ugly mess. You don't see your troops, they are just a square with numbers. LOL. you do get a rough map of the area of combat, and there is some strategy involved in what units you bring and what the areas natural defenses are. You can still see your generals profiles and have them interact with the enemy generals, so strategy (such as bribes, confusion) still plays in here. But by and large, if you have more soldiers and they are armed to the teeth, you're likely gonna win. You can let the computer control the fights if you want. This is good in a way, if you're sure to win and just want it over - but you miss out on the duel dynamic, which is pretty awesome. Hot headed generals call out other hot-headed generals and they fight, mono e mono on horseback. The troops the loser commands are taken instantly from field! Big game changer.
The Good : Its easier to tell who is important based on if they have a unique, dynamic profile pic. Duels are fun!
The Bad: the window for random event graphics is small, and the menu takes some getting used to.
What is better in this game graphically than in future, newer 3 Kingdom games? : Of your actual territory you control, actually you see very little, sadly. This was improved upon in later titles of the series. However, I always found myself liking the map screen in this game. The later 3 Kingdom games dont show borders, they just give you a city and say you own it.. it seems less impressive to me.
Sound: 6
Not a lot of tunes to this overall, I'd say maybe 9 tracks total. The ones that are most often played did not get on my nerves, but if you have a low tolerance for repeated tracks, you might want to mute. The ruler view plays slow, somewhat-regal sounding music, while the combat is brisk and full of pings and pops that I just didn't really like. It may not be great music, but it sounds like angels next to the Genesis version of this game.
Sound effects are minor unless its combat. Combat gets arrow sounds, a curious charging noise (kind of like a whistle), and more. In the planning stage of the game, the most notable probably being the 'sad trombone' type wah-wah noise when something doesn't go right, and the advantageous messenger horse sound. More on that at the end.
The good: The opening title and a few of the ruler tracks kind of grew on me.
The bad: Why so few tracks?? Look how sparse my sound section is!
Addictiveness: 7 Story: 6
Taking control of China can be a pretty big time sink. You can also play this friends, taking turns. Its kind of a drag since turns can drag on, and they better leave the room while you secretly bribe their general to join your team (lol). I recommend being Liu Bei, Cao Cao or anyone in the Sun family, its actually more fun to play as one of the big 3 (its called 3 Kingdoms because three rulers got crazy powerful). All of them have a list of loyal, smart and strong generals, and make things much easier. The fact they often have more territory is a plus, too.
You can play the game in one of several timelines, starting from the earliest - with the tyrant Dong Zhou, all the way to the end of the 3 Kingdoms. Some are more chaotic than others, with a lot of small rulers on the map trying to take each other out. The later timelines there are much less. The fact you can play as any of them is pretty awesome, and lets you set the difficulty even more by picking a backwater province ruler.
You can just jump into this game, but theres a whole set of numbers and terms you're not aware of behind the scenes. Since most of these characters are based on historical (well this fictional take on historical) account, then learning who is more likely to work with your ruler gives you great advantages. Starting it, I knew nothing about Chinese history. But man, play this game you will learn how treacherous Lu Bu is, how great Zhuge Liang is, and learn with loyalties are iron clad. If you tire of all this historical farce thrown in your face, you can makeup your own fantasy ruler and followers. Or both, starting a new game and adding your own created followers as random recruits can be kind of fun too.
The good: Choose from 6 different maps, over 20 rulers, or make your own. Add as many players as you like. Watch other wars if you like.
The bad: Some of the maps play out similar (5 and 6). Its very hard to win (fairly) the latter scenarios with your fantasy ruler.
Depth: 7
Wow. Well, you have more choices for who to play than you can shake a stick at, there is the option to add your own created characters, theres trying to win the game as peacefully as possible, you can really do a lot of stuff in here.
While the game looks intimidating with all its numbers and stuff to do, its actual play style is fairly simple. Taxes and rice, your kindgom lives off them. Make armies, make sure they actually have weapons (i know, right?), train them, and hope to have better leaders and/or more soldiers than the other guy. The more you build up a city, the better is production value. Learning which areas flood means you should build some flood protection there or lose your investments. Keep generals loyal by giving them gifts. Marry off one of your kids for alliances. Play to your strengths.
The subterfuge section in this game I love. You can make others start wars, make bribes or forge letters, or even make enemy reinforcements walk off the battlefield. There is a lot of harm you can do for the sneaky ruler.
The good: By being slick, you can take your opponents strongest pieces from him with some luck and some forged papers.
The bad: War of attrition wins most conflicts. Its a numbers game, with some luck elements involved.
What is better in this game depth-wise than in future, newer 3 Kingdom games?: The options for treachery are more numerous here, and the marriage/loyalty option was removed in later games. Also the horse messenger I mentioned in sound? One neat thing in this game is you can catch those messengers when they pass through your territory, even if its meant for another ruler or their general. This is another great feature taken out of later versions.
Difficulty: 7
Well, you can set your own for starters. But the in game difficulty is not the main issue. Its what ruler you chose, and when you choose them. Playing as the Liu Bei family in chapter 4 - he only has one territory. In Chapter 6 he has several. Yet its stronger to play him in Chapter 4, because you will lose a lot of your strong players due to historical events later on if you choose a later time. Its trial and error. Also you can get squashed if you play someone small and you're near one of the bully rulers, like Cao Cao.
Actually the electable in-game difficulty doesn't seem to do much on the surface. It doesn't make the enemy super aggro, but I believe it does make their troop hire rate higher, and might give them other small bonuses.
What is better in this game with the difficulty than in future, newer 3 Kingdom games? : Well, if you are a Liu Bei player, Zhuge Liang (the advisor) is a beast. His awesomeness was toned down in later versions, because in this game, lol, he's never wrong. Serious. Ask him if a enemy will surrender to you if sent a strongly worded letter about how lame they are. He'll tell you a hundred times it'll fail. But if one time he says it will work, then hallelujah, it 100% will.
Conclusion: 7.5
Despite its flaws and lack of graphical prowess, this is a solid, if somewhat slow paced strategy game. Its story seems sparse, but knowing all the characters ticks and which Cao isn't related to Cao Cao is pretty daunting in scope. If you like ruler simulations, especially the plotting part, give this a try.
Graphics 5 Sound 6 Addictive 7 Story 6 Depth 7 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 04-29-16
Updated: 04-30-16
Review Replies: 2
9.8
Excellent Game grwilliams63
This game brings back a lot of memories for me. In fact I still have the original SNES game somewhere in a box (may have to dig it and my old SNES system out again). Besides the historical aspects (which are intriguing) it has some very addicting game play. Each of the scenarios offers a completely different game. I highly recommend this game if you are fan of turn based strategy games. Even though the graphics and sound are dated the game play more than makes up for it. Have to get back to my saved game now. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 9 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 12-20-12
Review Replies: 0
9.8
romance of the three kingdoms thenumberone
First off, this game does not have nearly as many plays as it deserves. I have played many total war games and conquest games, the fact I enjoy playing this is tribute to the fact it is so good.
So its for the snes, and its pretty much now my favourite retro game.
Overall, 9.8, it has problems but the overall awesomeness just destroys them.
The graphics are a little pixely at times but not overly so, so its all good. You get a campaign map with pictures of all the province leaders, and in battle you get little images from a top down view. The battlefield is split into grids and the movement is very much like chess, only with some catches. Flat areas can be crossed with 3 moves for each unit, whereas things like forts and heavy forests take all your 3 moves for one square.
Sound: Its really just the themetune over and over but its ok. If a leader dies, you get a dramatic tune and picture, and in battle you get something a little faster and more intense.
Addictiveness: Im going back to it after i finish this review, good enough?i only did a review because 1, it dosent have one, and 2, it totally deserves more plays. This game is very addictive.
The story: I put as not existant but I suppose it does. Basically, everyone starts with one chinese province. You have to unify china by gaining all the provinces through various means.
Depth: This is going to take a while.
soooooooo, here goes. The game is pretty big and complex considering the age of it and its system, and id love a remake. So you start as a ruler and get a max loyalty general. From there in, you can do many things. Each general has loyalty (can be improved by gifts etc), intelligence, war, skill, charm, arms, soldiers and an age bar. Most can be increased.
So, you can improve your farmland. Once every year you collect part of your peasants farm yield, which is all rice. Rice can be used to feed troops, give away (to your civilians) or sell.
Additionally, once a year, you also tax your peasants gold. I dont think I need to explain what thats for.
So you can upgrade land to 100, but what if there is a flood? I spent ages upgrading my land then a flood damaged all my fields and i had to do it again. Well you can also build flood defenses up to a maximum of 100, which i am doing. Both these things require a general to carry them out, the higher the inteligence said general has, the better results.
You can give your peasants rice which increases there loyalty, particularly effective during a hard winter. If they get disloyal, a revolt will start. At the opposite end, you can do an unscheduled tax, that gets there loyalty down unsurprisingly.
You can buy horses and weapons for your generals, which improves them on the battlefield. You can also buy and sell rice. This depends on if the province has any merchants though. If you buy rice, its far cheaper in the summer than in the winter, a nice tactic is to stockpile rice in summer then flog it in winter for huge profits.
Equally, you can systematically increase your provinces loyalty.
What i like to do is wait for the auto tax. Then a month or 2 later, i do another tax. Lets say i get 300 rice each time. In winter, i get a decent charm level general to distribute food to the populace, maybe about 100. This generaly works out increasing there loyalty higher than the first 2 taxes yet you have more rice. You can then sell the extra, or all of, the rice, or even give it all away to try and maxemise loyalty.
You can hire soldiers, train them (a general with high war skill is best), and of course, make war.
You can use diplomacy across the map, by allying, by proposing joint invasions, by marrying (hetro only though, =p), giving gifts, or threatening people. Sometimes your general is captured going through the foreign territories, if this happens, they will behead them, release them, or force him/her to work for them. I saw an enemy leaders faction break up when he was beheaded making an alliance, pretty funny.
You can also instigate trouble in enemy territorys. You can get the generals to join you, to start a rebellion in the territory, or get the province leader to declare independence(which is why you should make loyal generals the leaders).
The difficuly is 5 because it depends, at the easiest difficulty, its still pretty challenging. You can increase the difficulty too, so it can be as hard as you want.
So yeh, great game, play it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please? =p
Graphics 8 Sound 6 Addictive 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 3.8/5
Submitted: 09-06-11
Updated: 04-09-12
Review Replies: 0
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