"Romance part VI is diffrent, but only slightly better than the last."

When I saw another installment of RTK I was very happy, but after I played it for a while, I didnt see that much of an improvement. Dont be fooled, this, in of itself, is a great game, but too many of the things that made part IV good have been taken out. Koei managed to program some more characteristics into there officers, like the ability to set what there dreams in life are, civil planning, conquer, develop own skills, etc, however it seems like some of the nice features from RTK part IV were taken out. One thing for example is you can only have one officer for one group of soldiers, insted of putting up to three officers in one group to increase its effectivness(having 3 generals with 100 war and power each, the ultimate batallion). This affects you when you want to send a small army into neighboring land, but cannot maximize your generals combine leadership and power. Also, at the beginning of the game at least, the ruler is the only one who can command any sufficient number of troops, 200 at one time, but only 50 for subordinate officers. This makes the battle system very uneven, if you understand what I mean. Basically all battles look like one main group surrounded by a couple smaller groups which are to small in numbers and affectiveness to be anything other than support units for the main force. They have become to vunerable to be by themselves. On a different note, one of the best features of this game, which I am VERY pleased with is how battles can almost fight themselves, as long as you outclass the enemy, you can just tell them to ''wipe out'' everybody, and they will. One other thing, which actually makes this game easier, but less realistic, is you really dont have to do any ''training''. You remember that right? You just drafted 100,000 soldiers, but realize they cant tie theyre sandals? Those long months of training where you had to waste you time and resources just to make troops that are worth a darn? Well, you dont have to do that anymore, not really, thank god, but that was a feature that shouldnt have stayed. Of course you loose certain civil statistics when you draft soldiers, like public safety and supplies, but it really doesnt affect the city enough to make you weary of drafting and drafting month after month. Also, you cannot develop technology(which was another killer feature from part IV) so it could take a very long time to have an officer who can draft calvary, or any other of the many classes of fighters. And there are alot.
Graphics: ?/10
What do you expect, its a strategy game...still, they could have kept those neat cutscenes, even if they were annoying.
Sound: 5/10
Considering all of the thinking you do, I hardly notice that annoying, monotonous, droning sound of whatever dying animals they play for music.
Playability: 8/10
Compared to the last installment of RTK, its about the same to slightly better. Cool things that have been taken out have been replaced by other cool features, so its about an even trade, more or less.
Concept: 9/10
I must give this a nine for concept because it really is fun and amazingly stategetic. You can decide to fortify your northern and western borders to pursue you interests in the South, or to quell an uprising.

Overall I'd have to say buy it, but if they only have part IV left in the store, it's ok. Your not missing that much and part IV is every bit as fun as VI.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/00, Updated 06/13/00