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The Best RoTK Yet.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 34 / 34
Date: July 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The thing about Romance of The Three Kingdoms games is that they can seem complex, confusing, and intimidatingly alien to a newcomer. In fact, it's bizarre seeing such an odd bird on a console rather than a PC. However with the popularity of the spinoff Dynasty Warrior action games many of the characters and much of the Romance story is a familiar thing these days. There are certainly much more complicated strategy games on the PC for that matter and few of them have half as functional an interface for managing all the information about the game's world.

Romance is a strategy game for roleplayers. It allows you to create a character, or step into the shoes of any one of hundreds of historical and fictional officers, or his entire family and try to unify China under one ruler. How you go about that or whether you even decide to pursue that end is up to you. Other possible goals for a given run-through of a campaign might be collecting items like treasures, tomes or weapons, winning debates, battles or duels. Certain conditions unlock special events, locked gallery content, or new portrait art for custom characters.

The sheer variety of things to do in RoTK assures that it never feels the same twice. In my first game I played as Zhou Yu, a Lancelot sort, and ended up spending a goodly amount of free time after the Yellow Turbans were defeated just accomplishing private missions and exploring the map. My Liege was allied with most of the other powers and so peace remained stable until He Jin, the Emperor's protector, unified China.

The next game was with a custom character as the son of a minor warlord Kong Rong. Kong, the younger, spent much more time helping his father build up their small city and delved into diplomatic missions as well. All for naught as Yuan Shao overran the city. But that didn't mean game over. Instead Kong's son was released from captivity with many fellow officers. He formed a rogue army on the spot, as he was close with these worthies which included Taishi Ci and his own father, and marched on a distant unclaimed territory. After conquering it, he swore allegence to Cao Cao, a rival of Yuan Shao, and has been working extremely hard to build the city up.

To make ends meet he's had to take on common missions and put his own funds into the city's accounts but it is slowly paying off. His networking with wandering officers has built his ranks up. And the occasional bandit raid keeps his armies in practice until revenge can be exacted on Yuan Shao. There's also a young maid who recently gave him a zypher as a gift. Perhaps she's marraigeable and a new Kong Dynasty will come into being? Must save gold and get a fine present for her. She seems literate, constantly quoting from historical works, maybe a rare treatise?

Anyhow - this is how things go. Over time you can become the magistrate of a city, the overseer of a province or a ruler in your own right. You can form alliances with other forces and friendships, even sworn blood oaths, with other heroes. There's political intrigue, espionage and a decent tactical game which rewards preparation of both your military, economy and character's evolving abilities. New features include a campaign mode which seperates out a section of the strategic map and feels much more like the regional campaigns described in the novel. Also a fine debating mini-game allows non-martial heroes to have some fun for a change.

A great mix of RPG and Strategy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 27
Date: July 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Romance games are known for kingdom management and stategic battles. RTK X focuses more on the life of officers during that time. Unlike the previous games where you play kingdoms and their leaders, this game allows you to play any officer of any rank. You can be a free officer, doing deeds for the people (or against the people), be employed by the kindoms and progress the ranks, or be a kingdom leader your self.

Confrontations come in different sorts,
1) Turn-based battle where you attack an enemy city or army.
2) Large scale campaign where you attack a whole region with several armies (turn-based).
3) One-on-one duels
4) Debates (for officers with low WAR but high INTELIGENCE).

The new debate mini-game makes it even fun to play officers who are not good in fighting as battles can be won by wits. My best description of debating: The game is like 'Trump Card' where you have a hand of balls of different numbers. Higher numbers defeat the enemy's played balls and damages the enemy. The balls are then palced on a board based on the played numbers. Like Bingo, you can form lines and you can deal greater damage to the enemy when this happens. So even if you lose out in Trump Cards, you might win in Bingo. It all depends on strategy. Characters with higher intelligence have more powerful counter moves.

The game has a lot of features and I don't want to make this review too long so here's my summary.

Pros:
Limitless replay value
Lots of roles to play
Lots of ways to play the game
Good background music (historical flavor)

Cons:
Might get boring doing mundane tasks
Needs a lot of patience

Great game but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: December 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Where's the multplayer? All of the games in the series had it except this one. Granted Romance 7 didn't either but there was an easy to figure out cheat code that let you add more players. Not only does it not have a multiplayer mode but it says it does on the back of the box. False advertising! Boo! Baaooooo!

But on to the positive, this is the best games in the series as far as a single player experience is concerned. It is much more focused on character development than the previous game, Romance IX(it's even more hardcore than romance 7 in some respects). Unlike the other games there are no 'turns'. Time flows smoothly, day by day instead of the usual 'do a bunch of stuff, click the done button and the month is over' routine. That is cool and it makes the game feel more natural. Historical events are integrated smoothly and the games has a very storylike quality. One of the best additions is the art of debate where you outtalk you opponent instead of the usual head bashing. Even though it is pretty much just a card game, draw the best number and your guy will say something piffy and your opponent will stagger back under the wieght of your words.

I would have to say that for those who enjoyed Romance 7 and 8 then this will be the best game you have ever played but if you are more interested in strategy and battles than chopping down tress for some old peasant(or if you want to play with some buds) then you would be better off with sticking to the other games in the series.

Pros: Excellent Rpg elements, debating is interesting and fun

Cons: No muliplayer. Lame. Duels are somewhat convultuted and confusing, at least at first.

Fun Game About Chinese History

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I got this game and it did not disappoint. I already have ROT3K 8, so I was wondering what the difference would be. The two games are similiar yet different. The characters are the same and many of the faces for created officers are the same. The story of the three kingdoms are the same and the gameplay is basicly the same. The graphics are a little better than 8 but there are some differences.

There is a new debate system that is like dueling with knowledge. The system is played like a card game but it is still fun. The regular dueling system has been modified. Instead of picking one kind of attack and defense for each round, you pick three kinds of attack and defense for each round. It is more complex than ROT3K 8 but still fun. I like the dueling system in 8 better because it is quicker and you can go on playing the game instead of being stuck in a duel that drags on.

You can take jobs at the tavern to earn gold and other items. One of my favorite jobs to take is to get revenge for a little boy who's parents were murdered. I hunt down the murderer traveling throughout China and when I find him, I duel him to his death. I get a reward for doing this job but I wish I could turn down the reward. I want to do it for free, as a gift for the little boy.

The battle system is different. Instead of only fighting outside the city, you also fight inside the city. Instead of thirty days to finish the battle, you have sixty days. And the way the battle is fought is different. I don't have time to get into it now but one thing is that an officer can now have multiple units, unlike 8 where an officer could only have one unit.

You can drink wine with your fellow officers and increase your bond with them. In 8 you had banquet, talking, and gifts. In 10 you have that with drinking wine. I think it was a good addition. Time goes by differently in 10. It has a more natural feel which is nice. Instead of always checking how many action points you have, you do things in a natural way and the computer counts the days. Like when you leave or enter a city, it takes off one day. When you travel from one city to another, it takes off days according to the distance you travel and never tells you how many points you need to have. Also, you don't have to go home every month to take your rest. Now you can travel away from home for many months and that is more realistic. One change that I don't like is that you can only buy items at selected cities. In 8 all cities had a market where you can buy items but in this one you can only buy items at bazzars.

ROT3K 8 and 10 are similiar but I like 10 better because of the new debate system, the way time is measured, and the ability to drink wine with fellow officers. One thing that many might not like is that there is no multi-player in 10. I wanted Koei to downplay pictures of dragons but they didn't. satan the devil is a dragon and it was made known through John, one of the LORD'S twelve disciples. May this review be helpful in your decision about this game. Thank you and GOD bless in CHRIST.

The only game I enjoy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Turn based strategy, as the name implies, let's you work at your own pace. I can easily spend 10 hours on the game without feeling the time passing by. I use the game as a time killer, reference for an unclear part in the "Three Kingdoms" novel and of course, the thrill of living the life/being an officer of the Three Kingdoms.

If you've never played Romance before, you will not fully enjoy/understand the game unless you are familiare with the charecters, politics and scenarios of the Three Kingdoms. You can do that through the "Three Kingdoms" novel, or for a faster and easier way, a Dynasty Warriors game.

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