For the past half year, Koei has been releasing their classic strategy games on steam in batches, to very little fanfare. Just seeing these names again gets me pumped up, and I would have shouted from rooftops for everyone to try them, if not for the unfortunate fact that these titles are still not translated for the potential audience outside of Japan. No news articles, no localization, and not even discounted in the steam summer sale, these titles seem to exist only to taunt loyal fans of how far Koei has slipped from the throne.

Unbeknownst to most western gamers, the Warriors game conveyor belt known as Koei was once associated with diverse genres and innovations. Growing up in the late 90s to early 2000s in China, Koei games made up about half of all my gaming time. While I understand that localization work is costly, and that the Eastern history focus of these games may have limited appeal, I am still dismayed to find that some of my best gaming experiences are so obscure in the west that a few are even missing from the Koei wikipedia page.

(I should note that these are simply descriptions of some of my favorite games. I don't pretend to know the financial situation at Koei or the sales numbers of these games. Perhaps they are indeed so niche that Koei had to turn elsewhere to survive. Koei was also officially banned in mainland China for at least a decade, so Koei saw zero cents from their extreme popularity there.)

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The Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Nobunaga's Ambition series, simulation games based off of historical periods in China and Japan, are still chugging along. However the latest iterations have been downgraded in complexity and are clearly tailored to tablets. 9, 10, and 11 in the RTK series were masterpieces in wildly different ways. 9 threw out the traditional turn-based overview, instead opting for a real time system (like Hearts of Iron). Remarkably, once a general and his army is ordered to depart, his behavior during battles is left solely to simulation. This flushes out individual characters, and forces the player to think hard on the grand scale. 10 was focused on role-playing a single character instead of controlling an entire empire. Players had the freedom to work up the hierarchical ladder, or focus on leveling the character's own skills and talents, or just roam unaffiliated with any faction. 11 then restored the turn-based management and combat, and is considered the peak of those mechanics.

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Eiketsuden (roughly translated as Legend of Heroes) is an srpg series, each revolving around a historical figure in the RTK or NA era. While each is enjoyable, Sangokushi SouSou Den (Legend of Cao Cao) stands out as one of the best srpgs ever. Cao Cao the antihero serves as the central character. The final third of the game branches into 2 distinct paths and endings, depending on Cao Cao's morality meter. Important characters, friend and foe, have unique sprites and animations to convey emotion. Each character has 3 equipment slots for upgradable weapons and armor, some with very special effects (Guan Yu's blade, for example, is so heavy that enemies cannot return attack). China for some reason also has a huge modding community for the game, producing quite a few high quality total conversion mods for other historical periods. In total, I played through the game 6 times. Suffice to say, since 1998 I have waited for any hint of a sequel, and all I got was the crappy Dynasty Warriors Godseekers (it had the Eiketsuden name/logo. HOW DARE THEY).

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Taikō Risshiden (the Grand Regent's Success Story) started off as almost a visual novel/jrpg, documenting the character's rise from peasant to ruler of Japan. 4 added very fun card-based systems for individual and large army combat. 5 further expands on the idea, making almost everything cards--reaching full friendship or completing quests unlocks new character cards, allowing players to then play as those characters and trigger specific storylines; each achievement, each skill, each collectible is a card with beautiful illustrations. The individual combat was changed to a simultaneous turn-based system, like froze synapse, and worked very well. Players had an insane amount of freedom, to be a warrior, ninja, merchant, blademaster, pirate, etc, with dozens of minigames representing various skills.

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Suikoden Tendo 108 Sei (Bandits in the Marsh, 108 heavenly stars), based on a beloved Chinese historical novel involving 108 rebel heroes, features a unique sim city-esque base-building layer, over 300 recruitable characters with different skills and professions, and an action points turn-base combat system. Unfortunately no sequels or anything similar have come out of Koei since.

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Daikoukai Jidai (Uncharted Waters) is a pirate/merchant simulation series set in the Age of Discovery. While the game has a main plot, players can freely wander around the world, building up fortune and fleets. The best in the series, 2, or Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, actually has an English version. 3 and 4 also have their supporters. 5, however, is a free-to-play web browser game (not joking). Steam also has another free-to-play MMO under the name.

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I still remember my first encounter with the Warriors series (2005 for PC). Seeing Guan Yu in full 3D was nice, but his move set was pretty limited, and things got boring in a hurry. I didn't understand the hype around this game, or any other since. It's unclear whether the development talent for the above games is still there, or if the bosses have any intention of taking chances ever again.

2 more complaints to end the blog:

I may be in the minority, but I still perk up when Koei's logo shows up on press presentations. Admittedly I am a fool for still getting my hopes up after these years. Koei teased a fire emblem warriors game at the Switch reveal :(

At some point I got my hands on a Switch, and after finishing Zelda I started to look into Switch versions of RTK or NA. Even if they were dumbed down for tablets, I could talk myself into thinking Switch basically is one anyway. Well, the Switch version of RTK/NA only contains Japanese language, even though the steam version clearly already had English and Chinese localization done, for about half a year :(

What happened to you, Koei?