Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV

"Perhaps the best strategy game on the SNES."

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV(RTK4) is an historical turn based strategy game based in Ancient China. If you're even remotely interested in strategy games, this one is worth a shot. By the way, if you want the ''to the point'' version of this review, go down to the bottom, and start reading where it says graphics, because most of the other stuff is me ranting about how great this game is. If you're unsure of what to think of the game, read on...

Of course, there isn't much of a story, because the story develops as you play the game, and since no two games are alike, I can't really tell you much of the story. Let's just say that you are among many rulers trying to unify China(under your rule, of course). From there, the possibilities are endless. But of course, some rulers are stronger than other, controlling more cities or soldiers. But the weaker rulers can upset them. For example, Yuan Shao is one of the most powerful rulers in the early scenarios. When you play, he'll usually (not always, though), attempt to attack Gongsun Zan (one of the weaker rulers) pretty early in the game. Most of the time he'll succeed, and Gongsun Zan will flee to a nearby city. But every once in a while, Gongsun Zan will successfully defeat Yuan Shao in that battle, negating the advantage that Yuan Shao had. I've even seen Gongsun Zan launch an attack of his own after that, and grow to be one of the most powerful rulers in the game. This is just one of many, many, many, many, many examples I can use, and usually a twist of some sort will happen. Replayability is infinite, as long as you still want more.

The domestic options range from recruiting new officers to searching for legendary items, to rewarding these items to increase loyalty, to buying and selling in the city market to assigning officers to develop specific areas of your city, such as technology or farming.

You have your basic war option for military, in which you develop your own units, assign weapons (crossbows or horses, or even a catapult), and you also have the ability to execute plots on your enemy, like persuading an enemy officer to betray his ruler or setting fire to the battlefield in hopes that it will engulf your enemy. You can even execute plots outside of battle, such as spreading rumors among the people, which encourages revolts, to snooping around the enemy city for technology to use to improve your own. Back to battles, though. The defender may choose to counter-attack, in which both armies (or navies, in some cases), will meet between the warring cities. The defender may set traps, or fortify themselves behind gates. Or the defender may choose to stay within his castle and defend from the walls. These aren't the same battles with different tilesets, mind you. The tactics and plots you can execute in each are different, as well as the weapons. Catapults and battering rams may be used in castle battles, whereas group attacks and fire arrows may only be used in the field. You may even choose to lay down a siege on the defending city, if you know you can't make it up the enemy walls. The battle options are many, as you see, you can even negotiate with the enemy general, and they never get boring.

The diplomacy in this game is very well done also. You can exchange money for captured prisoners, offer gifts to other rulers, form alliances, with fully negotiable terms, and my personal favorite, propose a joint attack, in which you and an ally team up to attack an enemy city. Of course, the defenders can also ask for reinforcements from their allies. Imagine a battle, where you and an ally attack a city, only to find that the defenders allies are there too! And each player controls their own units in battle. For example, if a computer player sends reinforcements, the computer will control the units he sends.

I could go on forever about this game, as it is one of my favorites, but let's get down to the review, shall we? If you're anything like me, you're itching to go and play the game now.

Graphics: 9/10 Koei games generally aren't known for their graphics, so imagine my shock when this beauty comes along. The main map is very well done (though they could have had more than one type of graphic for the cities), and changes with the season. The intro and ending are great, the duel scenes are nice too, and the battlefields are well done, if not a bit repetitive after a while. The officer portraits are excellent. The menu screens are presented in a easy to understand manner, too. Not to mention all the little animated sprites, from the soldiers training outside your city to the recruiters. Very good job with the graphics. Of course I'm comparing these graphics to other SNES games.

Sound: 8/10 The main map music is very nice, and it changes (seemingly) according to your situation in the game. It will play a neutral sounding piece when you start, and as you grow more powerful, it will play an upbeat piece, and when you are overpowered, it plays a sad sounding piece. The sounds aren't anything special, but they aren't bad either.

Gameplay: 10/10 I rarely give tens to anything, because ten is perfection and nothing is perfect, but if a game can keep me occupied for several hundred hours and still leave me wanting several hundred more, I'd say that it deserves a ten. The game relies on your officers to execute your orders. Your officers each have several RPG-type stats, like power and charm, based on a 1-100+ scale and then each has several skills, ranging from skill in foreign affairs, to the ability to throw lightning bolts in field battles. Lots of options for your ruler, you can promote of fire officers, or abandon cites and become a wanderer. Lots of others too, including (but definitely not limited to), the ones above.

Replay: 10/10 Another ten. Why? Six scenarios. You can play as any ruler in any scenario. Plus you may create up to 8 rulers and 100 officers, customizing stats, age, giving a face to your officer, deciding whether of not the officer is the parent or child of another created officer...it goes on and on. One of the best parts is, that even though your officers' skills are mediocre when you create them, as you play through the game, your officers gain more skills, and even when you start a new game, they keep those skills. So your officer over several games can become extremely powerful, even compared to the natural ones in the game.

The all in all: 9/10 A must play for any strategy/Koei gamer. If the bad graphics kept you from getting into previous titles, try this game. There are a few things wrong, though. The AI sometimes doesn't make any sense, but in those times, very few people were rational, I suppose. And the saves. Each time you edit officers, you lose your save game. It does warn you before doing so, and asks if you're sure about doing it. I find that it's easier, just to create all of the officers to my liking before even playing the game. This will take a very long time, though. It is, in the end, a minor problem, however, and takes very little away from the game.

A final thought: As with all games, your opinion of it may vary with mine. I love this game, but that doesn't mean you should go and buy it. Always rent first. Always. I don't really recommend this, but if you can't find it to rent, download a ROM and play that for a little while to see if you like it. No, I will not tell you where to get it even if I knew where to find it, by the way. If you like it, then try to find it to buy. ROMs really can't compare to the real thing, so try to find the cartridge first. Rental stores and pawn shops are great places to find old games. There are also websites that sell them. So please try to find the cartridge. It's worth your while and your money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/01, Updated 08/11/01