The romance of the three kingdoms has been prime literary material for video games for many years. Prime material that Koei Tecmo have heavily exploited to their gain, most famously in the form of the Dynasty Warriors series. However, there is a less well known yet longer running grand strategy series simply called romance of the three kingdoms or Sangokushi in Japanese. This series was the foreground from which the Dynasty Warriors franchise spawned.
The thirteenth instalment of the romance of the three kingdoms series is finally set to have a western release and a localized version, which is timed to release with a special 30th anniversary edition. The series has often been received well by critics and players alike, enough so that Koei Tecmo often localise for western markets on launch.
In a nutshell romance of the three kingdoms 13 is a game about managing empires. From war to economics, everything is under your control as you try to unify china in its turmoil filled state. Choosing to either play as a famous historical figure such as Liu Bei or Cao Cao, or create your own officer, you embark upon an epic campaign to rule the nation.
Gameplay
It’s been a long time since I’ve played a grand strategy that’s actually been grand. Many games try to oversimplify in the vain hopes to attract more casual gamers to their titles. This in turn can have a negative effect on the actual target audience. Romance of the three kingdoms XIII doesn’t try and be what it’s not, instead it embraces the very core essence of what grand strategy is all about, all the while adding in a little unique spice for good measure.
Before choosing a scenario to play as your campaign, each denoting different time periods in the saga. The game allows you to choose from a variety of options to tailor your experience. Everything from difficulty to how armies behave can be tinkered with for the desired effect. There’s a great amount of customization here even allowing you to create your own fictional officers and factions to play as.
Before you make war however, you must play ruler. Each ruler has several officers that serve and more can be hired. These officers all have unique abilities and traits, some for example, may be good farmers allowing you to set them to agricultural missions to improve your supplies. Officers will advise you as you go and help you set faction goals at the council. You will have to oversee everything from domestic policy to foreign policy so the key is to delegate to officers to not only take the load off but so they too can gain experience and become more proficient.
There’s a whole ton of depth to the game that is at first, overwhelming. Once you get the hang of it however, you’ll be send goodwill envoys to rivals and helping your local populace with quests in no time. There are a ton of ways officers gain rank and grow more powerful but the most interesting aspect is the bond system. By gaining rapport with your underlings, your friendships grow stronger, this in turn grows loyalty eventually unlocking unique traits. Not only are their huge benefits by investing time into the officers from a statistical and narrative level but it also ensures that hirelings wont betray you at the sight of a sack of gold from unsavoury types, here’s looking at you Cao Cao.
The game also contains a duelling and debate system which can resolve disputes and events such as bandit attacks. These systems both work the same in that your character goes toe to toe with another in a rock, paper, scissors style mini game. It’s a nice little feature that is not particularly difficult if your character has high stats but can be challenging and nerve racking if your of a lower level.
Once ready to expand, ensuring that troops are well trained and supplied. It’s time to head out and deploy the forces. Once deployed armies will use up resources on a daily basis and sustained sieges and attacks can be costly for underprepared armies. Armies must be disbanded after you complete, or not, your given objective to save on supplies and allow officers to head back to their assigned posts.
Battles themselves are probably the weakest part of the game however still remain somewhat entertaining. It’s a simple click this unit then click to attack affair with no real control over anything. Winning usually consists of making sure to gank the enemy with more forces, attacking two on one gives significant bonuses. Officers also have abilities that can be activated to turn the tide, these often simply consist of grant temporary buffs to defence, offence and morale.
Character Classes
Each character in the game will either be a domestic or military officer. Military characters can essentially do everything a domestic officer can but also go to war and command troops. The benefit of domestic officers however is that they often excel at commercial, agricultural and diplomatic affairs. They also are good to have around to run the kingdom while the others make war.
System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: Windows® 10, Windows® 8.1, Windows® 7, Windows Vista®
Processor: Pentium®4 1.6GHz or over
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: 1024×768 over or 1280×720 over display
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 7 GB available space
Sound Card: 16 bit stereo, 48KHz WAVE file can be played
Additional Notes: Shader model: Version 3.0, VRAM: 256MB over
Recommended:
OS: Windows® 10, Windows® 8.1, Windows® 7, Windows Vista®
Processor: Core2 Duo 2.0GHz or over
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: 1024×768 over or 1280×720 over display
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 7 GB available space
Sound Card: 16 bit stereo, 48KHz WAVE file can be played
Additional Notes: Shader model: Version 3.0, VRAM: 512MB over
There’s a decent amount of customisation available on the graphical side. Thanks to the art style and engine, it shouldn’t be too much work for most rigs even on the highest setting.
Release Date
Coinciding with the 30th anniversary edition, the western version of Romance of the three kingdoms XIII will be coming in July 5th 2016. Barring the localization, no new features or changes have been worked into the game.
Additional Thoughts
It’s difficult not to love the charm and freedom of Romance of the three kingdoms XIII. It’s a true grand strategy that holds great appeal. As a boy I loved played Dynasty Warriors, slaying men in the thousands as a single warrior. This time, I get to rule, I command the entire army and there’s just something awesome about that.
On a mechanical level, the game is superb, from the depth of the game systems to the subtle expansiveness of the bond system, it’s nothing short of a strategy masterpiece. Fans of the three kingdom tale should find this to be utterly enthralling. While the combat lacks a certain finesse, the overall package does not.
It is simply one of those titles that sucks you in from the start. It’s easy to lose hours and hours in this game without really realizing which in itself is a feat. On July 5th I’ll certainly heading back to ancient china to quell those pesky yellow turbans.
Most Anticipated Feature: Bond System. Gifting, bribing, talking, debating and courting your way to the top is all the rage. Who doesn’t want friend like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei anyway?
