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. 

I never knew the Romance of The Three Kingdoms games had Western releases. I'd like to try it out now, since I'm a big strategy fan. Also you make it sound like this is the best three kingdoms game; would you say that's correct?

Eirinn :   I am fond of this version, but the Fourth game (Wall of Fire) is also quite good, making combat much more robust and adding more to do with your cities health and growth. You might enjoy the 4th version better. The subterfuge you could cause in this game is what makes me nostalgic.  While the options for such *mostly* exist in later versions, they were not as powerful/useful