Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII

"At Heart, Still the Same Game as ROTK 1"

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (ROTK) 8. Chances are that if you are reading this you are already familiar with both the story (book) and the series. I will begin by saying that it takes a certain will and open-mind to enjoy this game. At the very least, you need to be able to "handle" games that have SNES-quality graphics. The game is definitely not eye candy, nor is it very exciting. It is very much a text-based game with a lot of statistics, and could infact probably be played text-only. If this sounds scary then this game probably isn't for you. The game, like almost all of its predecessors, is definitely tailored for ROTK lovers. If you've enjoyed previous ROTK games then you'll most likely enjoy this one as well. For those new to the series, who are curious but at the same time unsure whether they would enjoy the game, a quick test to predict your level of compatibility would be having to answer yes to the following 5 questions:

1) Can you play turn based games that feature no action whatsoever? (If you can play turn-based RPGs then the answer is "Yes")

2) Could you play a PS2 game even if it had SNES/GBA quality graphics? (Its one thing to play GBA games on a GBA. Anybody can accept that. Its another thing to play a PS2 game that has GBA graphics)

3) Do you have the capacity to become familiar with 600+ Chinese names (written in English of course but Chinese names nevertheless, such as Huang Zhong, Dong Zhuo, Ma Chao, Guan Yu. You do not need to memorize them but you do need to be able to recognize them, otherwise you will have no clue what's going on)

4) Do you enjoy games that revolve around improving numbers and statistics (this could also be reworded as "When playing RPGs, do you enjoy leveling up simply for the sake of leveling up and seeing your stats improve?")

5) Are you able to make decisions when faced with thousands of different possible combinations and mountains of data at your disposal? (Some people, myself included, are perfectionists and have a need to know that they made the very best decision – that everything has been examined and their decision is based on the most efficient allocation of resources. This is often not possible in this game unless you are wiling to spend hours making calculations to have the perfect optimization).

If at this point you've said no to any of these questions, then the truth is that the game probably isn't for you, and I would not recommend you playing it. However if you have money to spare you can always rent instead of buying it if you need to satisfy your curiosity.

Gameplay (7/10): The core gameplay of the ROTK games has always been civil administration and war. During civil administration you will be spending most of your time trying to improve your cities by fortifying the city gates, cultivating the lands, improving the economy, patrolling the streets to reduce crime, and researching new weapons. All of this is based on selecting commands to perform the actions of course. Outside of performing work around the city, you'll also need to improve your relationship with other officers by talking to them or giving them gifts, searching and recruiting new officers to join your forces, and training your battle skills.

Every three months there is a council in which you meet with the other officers in your city. During this council depending on your role you can make decisions regarding the strategic plans of the city (both civil and military) as well as either designate or receive civil work to perform for the next 3 months, until the next council meeting. Being assigned civil work isn't exactly fun, as it simply consists of selecting menus, but it isn't unpleasant either. However it can get a little tedious after a while. There are some random events that require your input that can occur and helps to provide some variety however they are nothing special.

But let's face it. If the ROTK games were only about civil administration then nobody would be playing them. The reason why people buy these games are for the great battles. These are definitely the most excitement that you'll get out of the game. Before a battle begins there is a meeting in which military intelligence is reviewed, officers are selected, allied reinforcements are requested, a battle plan created and tactics/ploys chosen. Once everything has been assembled, you march onto the battle field and proceed to either defend your city or invade your enemy's. Now, normally I would describe this aspect of the game in detail, but here's the catch – this is the 8th game in the series. By now KOEI has mastered the battle aspect of ROTK games. There is simply too much to discuss here for a review. Let's just say that excluding the primitive graphics, you will not feel that anything is lacking from the battles, and it can in fact become quite sophisticated and complex considering all of the different variables such as allied/enemy reinforcements, spies/traitors, officer duels, strategies, traps, weapons, tactics, environments, weather, supplies, officer roles, etc. However if it does become too much for you there's always the option to give the computer control and automate your actions.

Graphics (1/10): Unfortunately, this is where the game falls far, far behind. The truth is that the graphics in this game are primitive, period. Reading other people's reviews I was quite surprised to see anybody give the graphics a score higher than 3/10. Let's be honest here. The graphics are all 2D sprites, feature little animation and static backgrounds, and only appear slightly superior to SNES/GBA graphics. In truth they are probably more like the Sega 32X – more powerful than 16-bit, but far less powerful than the PSX/N64/Saturn. During the battles there are occasional animation sequences in which a small one-eight of a screen full-motion video appears on top, however even given the small size, the quality of this full-motion video is bad. It could honestly be said that the PS2 could generate better real-time graphics – and at full screen - than the pre-rendered video that is presented. Now although most gamers agree that graphics alone do not make a game, in this case when one considers the capabilities of the hardware on which this game runs, it does hurt the overall score of the game. Worse than that, it also impedes on some of the gameplay. The battle maps have a fixed field of view that you can not manipulate (i.e. zoom in, rotate). With many of the battles often having 20+ units involved, it does get difficult to see your specific unit when everybody is cramped together tightly and battling it out within a small area.

Audio (6/10): Although the music in this game is quite good, the sound effects – much like the graphics – date back to the 16-bit generation. They have a certain hiss to them and sound somewhat dull, as though they were sampled at a low frequency (i.e. 22 KHz instead of the standard 44 KHz). To get an idea, try imagining a MP3 file that plays nothing but sound effects, that is recorded at 96 kbps instead of the standard 128 kbps. Everything sounds somewhat “dirty” like over a phone or AM radio. In this case it would probably be more fair to rate the sound and music separately, so I would rate the music 9/10 and the sound effects 3/10.

Replay (10/10): Given the incredibly vast amount of starting data – the ability to pick up to 8 out of 600 different officers to control, to play those officers in 5 different roles, within the 54 different scenarios to chose from, with up to 8 friends (sharing a joystick). There are so many different combinations to choose from that you could play millions of different games. As a matter of fact, it can almost be considered too much of a good thing as certain people may not know where to start.

Load Times (8/10): The game is stored on a CD-ROM (not DVD), and overall the load times are pretty good, you never have to wait very long with the only exception being the loading sequence before a battle, which takes approximately 5-6 seconds (not bad, but not fast either). However at least you are treated with an interesting animation sequence during this load time.

Control (8/10): The controls are not difficult to learn, and there is no flaw or problem with them, however I believe that they could be used more efficiently in order to reduce the amount of "menu hopping" that you need to do in order to accomplish a certain task.

Other Features (4/10): Not really a feature, but the fact that there are 40 different endings is quite unique. There is also an online help that is always accessible however I personally did not find it particularly useful given its format.

Rent of Buy: If this is the first time that you'll be playing a ROTK game then I would strongly recommend renting it first to make sure that you'll enjoy it. As mentioned earlier this game definitely caters only to ROTK fans.

Overall (7/10): Overall, it's a good military/strategy game, but definitely still caters only to ROTK fans. That being said, my main frustration/disappointment with the ROTK series is that they are evolving at a very slow pace. This is the 8th installment in the series, and excluding the different roles you can now play, at the core it is still very much the same game as the original ROTK which was released on the NES in 1988. Not that there is a problem with this – the core gameplay is quite fun. However given the sophistication of the hardware, one would wish that the game would feature better graphics, better sound, more quality full-screen full-motion video, voice acting, and perhaps even online gameplay. The series desperately needs some polishing. The ROTK games are a series that has its die-hard fans who purchase every new release, and perhaps that is the problem. KOEI knows that people will buy the game regardless so they do not bother putting much effort into improving it. But until KOEI does so, I can say that this will probably be the last ROTK game that I purchase. KOEI – if you are reading this – get with the times. There is really no excuse for procrastinating any longer – you need to revolutionize the series with graphics that are on-par with the console. Your graphics are 10 years behind everybody else in the industry. What are you waiting for?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/04