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Incredible! | | Matt Anderson from South Carolina, USA says (10/Jul/2004): | I've played this game about 100 times, and never get sick of it.The gameplay is great! It is so cool how you control the story. I like the graphics, it suits the game. But battle sequences should be like the graphics in kessen. The use of skills and tactics and the way you get them is so cool. There are so many officers you can play as. Over 600 I think, all with their own unique abilites.You could choose to rule a land, serve a lord, or be free in search of friends or treasure. The only thing this series needs is better created officers portraits.
| Great game but... | | Grey Bishop from Walnut Cove, NC says (28/Aug/2003): | A great game all in all save a few annoying features. The pros of the game are better graphics, coupled with a more complex and involving government system. There are also great new features like wives, children gotten in game, sworn brothers, rivals, sworn enemies, and coalitions.
One of th ekey features that turned me on to this version was having children in the game that are created by choices in game as opposed to children created outside the game as in all previous versions.
Unfortunately they set up what should be a key feature from the get go as a secret to unlock by getting ALL items and ALL events. Some of the events are also unbelievably difficult to get and without going to a strategy guide it is unlikely you ever will get them all.
That one point aside it is a great game with only a few minor issues. Battles can be extremely long. The graphics are still sub par with the standard fare while a step up from part seven. But in the end you have a good game with replayability if you can accept turn based strategy with the potential for a very long battle here and there.
| A glorious attempt, but.... | | Jack C from Enid, Oklahoma says (23/Aug/2003): |
I've played many games in this series- parts 1, 2, 3, 4.. 7 and now 8. I have the feeling that Koei tried to make 'the perfect Three Kingdoms game' with this particular edition. But, unfortunately, as great as the game can be, there are many flaws and more than a few irritations in it.. even including misspellings and the like. In most (I think all) of the events 'throne' is constantly spelled 'thrown' (IE- Prince Xian ascended to the Imperial Thrown). Koei should re-learn how to spell before they release new games. Very unprofessional.
One of the biggest improvements over the previous Three Kingdoms games is the amount of scenarios. Previous games had around 8-9 scenarios to play in. Now, we have tons of scenarios. I think there's about 50 scenarios or more than 50. Yes, a lot. Each scenario starts out with a little play that shows how the current rulers got to where they are now (if you've already seen it you can just hit 'start' to bypass it) and if you start out in the territory of a famous ruler you'll see another little act (like Cao Cao telling his officers about how he'll take revenge on Tao Quan for killing his father and those officers trying to calm him, or Yuan Shu arguing with his advisor in disbelief that other rulers are coming for him when he tries to proclaim himself an emperor). If you start out as an officer in the territory of a ruler who was a 'bad guy' (like Dong Zhuo or Zhang Jiao) the game plays this weird, dark music while you watch the opening interactions. Overall, the scenario setup alone is easily 100 times better than any previous Three Kingdoms game. Easily.
Music and graphics are a big step up from the previous Three Kingdoms game. The music you listen to on certain battlefields can leave one with a particular feeling of insanity. Very nice. However, the gameplay for going to war in Three Kingdoms 8 can feel mediocre or worse if you've played part 7, which had an excellent warfare system. Koei really shouldn't have revamped the entire thing, because it did work very well. Going to war in part 8 can take an uncomfortable amount of time. There now seems to be almost no limitations to the amount of reinforcements one can send. It does make sense, yes, but with a lot of reinforcements for each side, one attack on one city can take an ungodly amount of time. Also new is that morale will rise when an enemy unit is defeated and the officer who commanded it captured. This means that if you're playing an advisor type with high intelligence and a low war stat, you can be guaranteed every enemy officer will be looking to take you out. It was always true in the Three Kingdoms series that the weak advisor types should hang back and let the tough guys go first, but it's especially true now and can be almost impossible to actually accomplish, because the enemy will run right around the units ahead of you and literally break a leg to attack you. Can be extremely annoying. Many times, I was like.. good God, leave me the #!< remove me > at $! alone and attack the guy that's attacking you! Having morale going up when an officer is captured should've been left out, in my opinion, because with the new system of doing more 'government' things, some players (like me I guess) are going to be less tempted as before to play a nasty tough guy that can't manage a city as well as other officers.
Okay, warfare aside. What about governing your city or cities? I greatly appreciate that they tried to create a more detailed government system than the simple one in part 7. Now, instead of just one advisor (called a 'warlord') for any ruler ever (as in part 7), you can now have a warlord for every city. Very nice. Now those other intelligent officers have more use than they did before. Should've done that in the previous game. Also, if your territory becomes rather large, you can split it up into regions and promote one of your officers to be the viceroy of that region. The city prefects of that region answer to the viceroy and the viceroy answers to you. You can then set a policy for a region that the viceroy must follow and the viceroy, in turn, sets the policy for the cities he's responsible for. Of course, as the ruler, you are the natural 'viceroy' for what cities you delegate to be your first region. Although setting a policy for a region is actually a little limited and simple, I must still tip my hat to Koei on this one. It does give the game quite a good 'government' feeling. Also, in order to balance the game more toward giving you this 'government' feel, Koei made part 8 to where you can only do 'official' things every three months, such as attack a city, diplomacy, hire officers, draft troops, sell or buy food. Basically things you could do on any given month in the previous Three Kingdoms games. The months in-between you're spent working on your city, interacting with officers or interacting with various peoples of your city like the farmers or the merchants in the marketplace. I don't mind this so much, myself, as others seem to have. There's plenty to do in those months in-between. I like a game balanced toward doing 'government' things.. but it should have a nice warfare system. I mean, the Three Kingdoms game series is a cake you can't have without the icing, if you get my meaning. I know I'm reiterating, but the icing on this one feels rather bland.
One last thing.. which is my main gripe about part 8. The class system. Koei went a little overboard with the fame and deeds system this time. Many of the historical officers are born into the game with a rich load of deeds points, which starts them off at a higher class, which of course allows them to command more troops, higher wage, etc. I mean even people like Sun Ce who when he just becomes of age and is able to join his father, Sun Jian, seems to start out with a mega deeds rating. Same for Cao Cao's son, Cao Pi, etc. I could see sons of famous rulers starting out with fame, but deeds? Whenever you start out a game with a new officer, you start with zero deeds and zero fame. Same goes for all the officers you choose to work under your newly created ruler. Part 7 was like this, but it was manageable and only a minor irritation. In part 8 there's now nine classes instead of just five, which means it takes much, much longer before your created generals can command a respectable amount of troops. A mistake, I think. If Ma Teng didn't wait eight years before he let his invincible son, Ma Chao, command more troops, why should I wait before I let my created general with his 99 war start command more troops? The class system can be a major pain in the arse in several ways and Koei should seriously reconsider what they're doing. It's nice to give a player something to work for, but it does a little more harm than good.
| Great game play | | Jeff from Norfolk, VA says (22/Aug/2003): | I have been a fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms since it first came out on Nintendo. Since then I have had every one that has been released in the U.S. The new edition is definitely worth the time. At first, if you didn't take the time to read about it or go through the tutorial, it might be difficult, but it is a great game. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of this series, or the actual history of that era.
| It was shockingly dissapointing... | | Hunter from MN says (15/Aug/2003): | I loved Romance 7, despite its poor graphics or repetition I played it non-stop, so when I saw Romance 8 on the shelves there was the instant impulse to buy, and what a shame. While it does improve on graphics, pretty much the entire gameplay has been warped. The 3 month councils are pointless, and slowly gaining points at each different area of the town, only to be moved is aggrivating. You'll see what I mean if you haven't played it yet. There are cool things like sworn brothers, and bandits, enough for a good rental, but I suggest a rental first. Oh, and you thought the battles could get long in the last game, in this one there seems no limit to the reinforcements, and the attacks used by the computer players can be pathetic. Maybe I just set the standard too high, and for that I go back to 7.
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