Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII

"Good? Yes. Better than VII? Possibly."

The newest installment of Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. While the seventh installment introduced a new RPG-like idea of gameplay, VIII follows up on this concept.

Graphics: 7/10
A plague for the series. The ROTK series never had stellar graphics. However, this one does have some good points to it. Battle tactic animations are very colorful, city overviews are very detailed, and battlefields have improved. Not an incredible amount of detail, it still looks like it could be on the PS1, but, it was still a nice improvement.
Gameplay: 10/10
This is where the ROTK series has always shined, and this installment isn't any different. Featuring over 600 officers, as well as 100 slots for created officers. There are multiple scenarios for each time period, improving vastly on VII's amount. While VII had 10 spots to begin the game, whereas VIII has 55. Council is held every season to determine tactics used on opposing cities, command your military, transport goods, or other functions such as hiring an officer. At the end of every council the prefect, liege, or viceroy assigns work.
Sound: 9/10
Very nice, very nice indeed. The music is very intense during battle, setting a mood and keeping you on your toes. Music outside of battle is nice and serene, once again setting the mood of the game. A beautiful quality of music, though I would have liked more of it.
Replay: 8/10
Fairly good, but I just didn't get that feeling to keep playing like I did with VII. At some point you'll just find yourself speeding through council sessions, waiting for something interesting to happen. Though if you have an interesting scenario going, you may just be compelled to play until dawn. Still good, but not as good as VII.
Wow, with all this, it must be better than VII!
Not quite, there are a few problems that I must point out. First of all, I really don't like the new council sessions. In the previous installment, all of these things you can do in the council in this version, you could do every month. This meant that you don't have to go through three months just if you want to go into battle. Another thing I didn't like was that they took out officer rankings. In the previous version, a liege could assign rank to an officer as a reward of service, this was taken out. As well, you cannot increase the wages of an officer. One problem I also had was the new system of friendship. Rather than the previous method of bond (1-100, 100 being the highest) now there's only 6 levels. I couldn't avoid these problems, but maybe you won't have a problem, you may find these changes better.
So, this is what it comes down to, Rent or buy?
Well, if you are a fan of the ROTK series, than this is an obvious buy. If you are new, then rent first, you may love it, you may hate it. But if you are into strategy, chances are you'll love it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/04