Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX

"To Soothe Rev's Anger...TGMC's First Impression"

IV, VII, and VIII are all numbers in my bag of RoTK experience. I must say, it's been a fun ride, starting out with the RPG style of VII, moving onto the Lordly stance of IV, and then finishing out with the deeply satisfying battle system of VIII; what more could KOEI possibly do with their series that I hadn't seen forthwith?

A lot, apparently. Taking the restraining character choices of the first 6 RoTK games and combining them with the depth of the previous 2, KOEI has found a sort of RoTK Nirvana, a subliminaly satisfying aura of Chinese history. Aside from the beautiful imagery and sound of this colorful excursion into 2nd and 3rd century China, KOEI has mapped a seamlessly intertwined mix of both the mind-rattling scheme of politics and the heart-pounding risks of combat.

Story

Quite simply, it's a give or take. If you've read the book, know some SGZs(for the newbie, historicaly pleasing biographies), and know the difference between Zhou Yu and Zhao Yun, you'll spend hours trying to unlock the multitude of story events within the game. You'll be giddy with excitement as you march towards Hu Lao Gate, guarded by 40,000 of Lu Bu's hardened soldiers. Reliving the fires of Chi Bi will satisfy the inner-Wuist, holding Lord Cao's dead head in your hands will find peace within the most hardcore Shuist, and quenching your ambitions under the Wei banner will stifle even the most cynical Weiist's complaints of staleness.

However, if you've been stuck in Dynasty Warriors land, you're in for a confusing ride. When confronted by unknown enemies like Yu She and Chen Deng, you'll forget whose side they're on. Luckily, when an officer speaks or performs an attack, their leader's name appears nearby, saving you the annoyingly suspensful wait to find out if you should be cheering or cringing. So do yourself a favor and read the book, or at least skim a few descriptions on kongming.net. It'll be much rewarding, I assure you.

Score: 1-10/10

Sound

Ah, to hear the epitome of peace emited from a flute as you assign your Officers to farming duties in mid-Spring. What a thrill the beating of drums will give you when you march your force of 55,000 rams strong down the heart of Xu Chang's throat, flanked by a royal guard of 40,000 Wei soldiers to your right and left. Not only is their a situational orchestra for each season and action, it becomes more involving and moving as your forces grow. KOEI has seemingly found the perfect mixture of instruments and rhythms, for this is by far my favorite soundtrack in any RoTK related game.

Score:10/10

Graphics

As always, this is the weakest, not to mention most insignificant portion of RoTK. Despite the sharp, colorful avatars for your Officers and the sleek looking cities upon China's map, their is a foreboding Yin to this ephemeral Yang. Bland troop icons, a grainy map, and weak tactical special effects remind you that this Romantic ride is merely that; a ride. It must be said, however, that when performing a tactic, an entertaining five-second image pops up, showing cute little soldiers fighting, with the attacking officers issuing orders from the rear-guard. As well, duels are entertaining to watch. They could look much prettier, but they aren't ugly by today's standards.

Gameplay

In a game such as this, the most important factor is the flow of the game. For past RoTK's, the gameplay would have to be split into two categories to truly sum up the experience; one section for politics, and one for war. However, KOEI has thunk up an imaginative system in which war IS politics, and politics IS war. No longer can you march a force of 200,000 en masse and guarantee yourself a win. No longer can you take a pair of 99-War generals and pound down the throats of 10 50-war generals without so much as breaking a sweat. My hats off to KOEI for RoTK IX; but enough ass-kissing, here's the explanation.

The game opens upon a map of China. From this map, you can view all structures and cities within the land. Forts, Blockades, Cities, Armies, and the environment all present themselves in partial real-time. Your first order of business is the Strategy Phase. In this menu, you can do anything from drafting and drilling troops to awarding gifts to officers, from executing POWs to hiring Free Officers. You can raise the Trust and stats of your city, or attempt to lower that of your enemies. You can build structures at a certain cost of gold, or simply send out different units towards your enemy.

When you have finished strategizing, you simply press the O button, select 'Yes', and it's off to the Action Phase. Here, a red bar clicks away, a sort of loading time, in which different events occur. If it takes a certain amount of time to accomplish a task, say, sending an army out or trying to Raze an enemies food supply, it occurs here. You are noted by little heads-up sentences, letting you know when events occur. If you don't catch something, you can simply pause and check under a section containing recent history. Each of these periods last ten days, and three of them equals a month. Twelve months makes a year, so you go through 36 Strategy and Action Phases per year. It seems like a daunting amount of time, but in reality, you can go through six months in a mere fifteen minutes.

Now, an explanation of War. When putting together a unit, you are given a multitude of settings to tinker with to your liking. You can select a certain formation, ranging any where from a surefire way to get duels(Mallet), a way to fire arrows directly at enemy officers and lower their Leadership stat by injuring them(Sniper), or any number of formations that fair themselves to certain types of tactics(Horse, Horsebow, Foot, Scheme, etc.). You can also use Rams for destroying a structure's defense, Towers for attacking sentries within a structure's walls, or Catapults, a mix of the two.

Next, you can choose different Tactics. there are essentially six or so Tactics, and from memory, I'd tell you they were Foot, Bow, Horse, Horsebow, Scheme, and Plot. Each of the first four tactics has a higher-level tactic, and can be found through extensive use of an Officer's current level of tactic. For example, a standard Horse tactic is Charge. This can be upgraded to Sortie, and finally, Onslaught. Each is subsequently powerful, and can bring enormous damage to an enemy.

Before you think of this as an unstrategical system, read this. By setting multiple Officers to the same tactic, you could activate a combo. This occurs when two Officers, most likely compatable ones, pull off the same tactic at the same time. This can result in anywhere from 2000 to 16000 dead enemy soldiers. The game forces you to choose between a force of All-War attackers, destroying the enemy with harcore Cavalry tactics, an intellectual group of status-ailmenting mystics, or anything in between. Starting to get the sense of planning this game requires?

Nextly, you position your Officers. Putting an Officer in the front opens them to a duel--which, by the way, happens about 400% more often than in any RoTK game--while putting an officer with low War and high Intelligence in the back keeps them safe while protecting you from schemes, not to mention unleashing them upon your enemy.

When you go to battle, you see a generic picture of soldiers marching, with their mass depending on their numbers. I.E., a 40,000 army is much bigger than a 10,000 army. You can fight in the field, attack a port or installation, destroy a wall, or besiege a city. Each form of combat shows different strategies and possibilites, so deciding whether to lure your enemy out or simply destroy the walls of a city is a better decision is all up to the circumstances. Just remember that a nobody armed with 10,000 troops can oust the best general with twice as many, given the right stratagem.

Score 10/10

Controls

So why only a 9/10? Because the system can get a bit clunky. Monotony in constantly drafting/drilling, just to execute that perfect plan can be quite annoying. However, that's just a small gripe that keeps RoTKIX from its Cloud Nine visit to perfection. So do yourself a favor; buy this game and become immersed in the most interesting piece of history I've ever been exposed to.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/04