Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI: Awakening of the Dragon

""Your wickedness will also soon end. I'll be waiting for you in hell!""

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 6 {from here on ROT3K} is the latest in Koei's ''Historical Simulation'' series and just like in the other games your goal is to unify the land of China under your rule by manipulating and crushing all opposing rulers. This is definitely a game that will not appeal to everyone because of it's high learning curve and weak graphics.

What I liked about ROT3K 6
As I said before this a game that will not appeal to everyone and that is mainly because of the game's heavily stat influenced gameplay. All your ever going to see is numbers, names and more numbers; with action only coming into play once you enter battles. You really don't have to learn everything in the game to win though; it wasn't until I played through the game a couple of time did I realize the importance of having a high prestige or making sure your officers are happy. Officers are your generals; the people who work under you. They assist you in carrying out plots and other commands but sometimes they are more of a nuisance than helpful. Thanks to the game's new Dream system you have more trouble on your hands. Every officer in the game has a dream; a dream is basically what the officers wants out of life. There are different ones like Empire; territorial; Advance; etc. If someone has the dream of Territorial then they will want to expand your land by taking over as many cities as possible. If you decide to wait and build up your power they will start building discontent; which can be hazardous over time. On the other hand if you rush out and conquer ever city as fast as you can you'll leave your existing cities in bad shape; and those with dreams of 'Preserve' and 'Safety' won't like that. Fortunately you can almost easily solve your problems by simply talking with an angry officer; they'll say what's troubling them and you can assign them the appropriate job to make them happy. If you fail to this then watch out; as officers with high discontent are nothing but trouble.


As the ruler in a chaotic country it's your job to keep your cities safe and secure and then attacking other cities when you are powerful enough. Before you even go into battle you can use various plots to weaken your enemies like rumors; plants {spies} and my favorite 'stir' which causes your enemy's people to rebel during the battle; which results in destroying a castle gate
The battle system is handled differently than in the other ROT3k games as you now give out commands to your troops and watch as the battle plays out over a span of three days. There are two stages to a battle; the first stage is in the fields and the second stage is the castle itself. A battle in the fields is a chance for the defenders to try and stall the attackers and to waste time; the battles go on for 30 days or can be ended by capturing the enemy commander or securing the city you attack.
A morale meter is shown at the top of the screen that displays the morale for both armies. This is basically in the game to balance the battles and to give you a fair chance at winning even if you are heavily outnumbered. By planting traps and stealing your opponents food tent you can easily lower the enemy's morale and when it runs out completely the enemy automatically retreats, giving you the victory.

What I didn't like....
Unfortunately there is no game out there that is perfect and this game is no exception as it has quite a few noticeable flaws. I'm sure most people who follow this series will say the graphics are the weak link but to me I take issues with the downgrading Koei has done. I understand that they wanted to make the game easier to learn but in the process they took out some cool features such as building catapults; training soldiers; and using magic in battle. I also missed all the complicated city management that was in the previous games; it made the game longer to complete as well as more challenging. If anything Koei should have put all this in the game's Advanced mode so it can offer more of a challenge and to distinguish it from the beginner mode.

Graphics: 5/10
Graphics have never been the strong point for this series {although ROT3K4 on the SNES looked nice} and it continues here. The graphics are mainly made up of bland backgrounds covered with lot's n' lots of numbers; not exactly the most beautiful thing in the world. The few CG scenes that are in the game looked nice though as well as the portraits for all of the officers in the game.
See the graphics in the opening CG? God I hope Koei makes a PS2 version of Romance that has in game graphics like that.

Sound: 7/10
Some of the music in the game is very well done and very memorable while others are annoying and sound out of place; the music that plays during diplomacy scenes comes to mind. I especially liked the tunes that played whenever a ruler died; the music in the ending CG; and Cao Cao's theme.
I never really care about sound fx in a game unless it's really good or really bad; or plays a big role in the sound. In this game the sound fx are merely ok. Only during battles will you hear them {unless you considered 'clicking' as a sound fx} anyways and they are just standard weapon clanging and banging; nothing to get excited over. With the amount of space on the CD I wish Koei would have hooked it up with some voice overs of soldiers during battle.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is the game's strongest point. There are just so many things to do in this game; whether it's becoming Emperor; finding new officers; or defeating a short scenario there will always be something to do in this game. No game is ever the same twice and every time you replay the game your bound to stumble onto something new.

Challenge: 7/10
Although the game is more user friendly and easier to learn than the past ROT3K games it will take awhile for newbies to learn the game even when they do they will have to contend with the vicious cpu, who shows no kind of mercy during battle. Once you become used to the game it's almost a breeze! If you ever played any of the past games you'll noticed how many things have been simplified in this sequel such as no longer needing to train your soldiers before sending them into battle, you don't need to send a spy to learn the enemy's stats, etc. And if your like me you'll also find lot's of glitches and cheap strategies that can make the game almost too easy at times. Then again I played through the game dozens of times and have pretty much perfected it; I now give myself absurd challenges.
I give the challenge a 7 because of the game's learning curve.

Replay Value: 10/10
This game offers nearly unlimited replay value for those willing to sit through the game many times as no game is ever the same twice and you can work your way through various different pre set short scenarios that are included in the game. This game also supports up to eight different rulers; which you can use to challenge other people with or to cheat.

Overall: 10/10
If you can look past the game's dated graphics and tolerate the game's learning curve then get ready for one of the most enjoyable game to ever hit the Playstation. This is one of favorite games on the Playstation and I'd recommended it to anyone who plays rpgs and even those who play action games should give it try.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/00, Updated 04/26/01