Romance of the Three Kingdoms X

Introduction

 

First off, if you've never played a Romance of the Three Kingdoms (I'll abbreviate it RTK from here on in because I'm lazy) game before, I'll explain what they are. 
 
The RTK series is based on the historical novel of the same name. It is loosely based on the fall of the Han dynasty in ancient China and the story of the warlords who sought to fill the power vacuum in its wake. It makes for a good premise for a game, which is probably why I'm sitting here reviewing the TENTH game in the series. 
 
Chances are you've heard of Koei's other series based on the novel, Dynasty Warriors. While the two series have similar settings, the RTK series follows the novel much more closely. Gameplay in the two games is also radically different. 
   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As you can see, the games are fundamentally different. While Dynasty Warriors takes a hack-n-slash approach where you fight against nearly endless waves of soldiers, RTK focuses on strategy and roleplaying. 
 

Gameplay

 
Before you can begin a game, you must decide on a character you want to play as. There are about 6 or 7 HUNDRED unique officers with their own set of stats, skills, abilities, portraits, and biographies that tell you who that person is. Aside from their statistics, different characters hold different amounts of power. For example, one might be an emperor, another a viceroy, another a warrior, another a minister, another a small-time warlord, another a strategist, another a free officer with no ties to a lord, and the list goes on. Of course, you can form a force, join a force, or raise in the ranks at any time, effectively changing your character's position. Sometimes, though, you want to start with a certain amount of power, so choose wisely.  
 
If 600-700 unique characters isn't enough, you can also create up to 100 custom officers (also with custom skills, abilities, etc.). You can customize their personality and motivations (which will determine which officers they get along with), their date of birth, skills/abilities of course, portrait, family members, close friends, and spouses. 
 
Once you decide who you want to play as, you must still decide what you want to do. Your ultimate aim is to defeat your rivals and conquer all of China, but of course you could decide instead you wanted to be a pacifist that remains on friendly terms with everyone through skillful political maneuvering. If you wanted to, you could just be a free officer and travel the land completing miscellaneous quests and honing your abilities. It's really up to you what you want to do.  
 
Most of your time will be spent at domestic city screen such as the one shown near the beginning of this review. Other common occurrences are battles, campaigns, duels, debates, and the world map. 
 

Battles

 
If you decide that your neighbor's city or outpost looks like a sweet place and you want to add it to your empire (or if your neighbor makes a similar decision of your city or outpost) then you will be drawn into a battle.  
Battles can take place in an open area (in which case the objective is to simply destroy the opposing army or cause them to retreat), a gate or outpost (defend cities and give bonuses to economies and whatnot, your objective would be to capture of defend it), or a city (you must siege the city's gates and defeat the defenders, or defeat the invaders if you're on the other side of course). 
 
 
 

 
Before going to war, you must draft an army, train your army, and make sure that your city harvests enough food to feed both your army and its populous. 
 

Campaigns

 
A campaign is similar to a battle, only much larger scale. Instead of just one city, your target to conquer an entire region. It is a high risk-high reward option than can be rather time consuming. I find them very effective, however, and think they are a good addition to the game. 
 
 

Duels

 
In battle, a general may challenge another general to a duel. If they accept, the two will fight in personal combat, and the loser of the duel will lose their unit (soldiers) and often be captured. Consider carefully before challenging/accepting. 
 

 
Duels can also be played if you are attacked by bandits, try to enter an enemy city, attack someone on the road, or if you are simply having a friendly sparring match. 
  

Debates

 
Needless to say, duels are for stronger characters. A political minister will not fare well. So where do characters such as that shine? In debates, a character's intelligence and speaking skills come into play. 
 

 
Debates aren't performed in battle. They are important in the political side of RTK (forming alliances, peace treaties, ultimatums, and demands for surrender). There are also friendly debates. 
 

World Map

 
This should be fairly self-explanatory. On the world map, you can move from place to place and perform miscellaneous tasks. Beware of bandits while on the road. 
 
 

Story

 
I already outlined the basic premise for the game in the introduction (the fall of the Han dynasty), but the story get a lot more in-depth than that. Various events that happened in the novel play out while you are in game and can effect the outcome greatly. For example, a character may die of illness or be assassinated, a ruler may absorb a nearby force, etc. 
 
You often have a choice in events and they can turn out very differently depending on what you decide to do. Often times, different characters respond to events in different ways. They add a lot to the game and I like to try and get as may events to play out as possible. 
 
Of course, if you'd rather not, you can turn events off. 
 

Graphics and Sound

 
The music is classical Chinese music, which fits the game well, but can be a little odd. The sound is good quality, though there are no voice files (everything is in text). Characters do grunt and yell and whatnot while in duels and debates. 
 
The graphics are great for a strategy game. I particularly like the officer portraits. I love that they take the time to draw hundreds and hundreds of unique faces that are very detailed. 
 

Overall Appraisal of the Game

 
Romance of the Three Kingdoms X is not for everyone. It is slow-paced, requires a lot of thought and management, and can take too long for some folks. If you've got patience and a love for role playing strategy games, however, it doesn't get much better than this game right here. It's one of my all-time favorites.