Romance of the Three Kingdoms (video game)

nihongo|"Romance of the Three Kingdoms"|三國志|Sangokushi is a computer and video game that originated from Japan. It is a series of turn-based computerized wargames by Koei. Eleven editions of the series have been published in Japan and Chinese-speaking countries in East Asia. The Japanese title of the game is "Sangokushi".

The games are based on the events of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" in China during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Gameplay mainly revolves around managing numerical statistics, each representing an attribute of a city or character. For example, a city will have statistics indicating the amount of food stored within its walls, its vulnerability to disasters such as floods and earthquakes, how content the people are, and so forth. Characters have statistics to reflect his/her fighting prowess, intelligence and loyalty to his/her ruler among other attributes. Most players will spend more time on improving these statistics than waging war against neighboring territories, as the artificial intelligence of the other rulers tends to be peaceful unless the player attacks them first, or unless they have reached a point of the story where war must break out. Even during such situations, rampant warfare is discouraged.

Editions VII, VIII and X were compounded with RPG aspects, allowing the player to play as a ruler, an adviser, a prefect, a general or a vassal, whereas the player can only control the ruler in other editions. In addition, different characters have various skills to aid them in combat, such as the ability to lure a group of enemy soldiers away from the others or to trick them into retreating.

There are also several spin-offs based on this series, including the more combat oriented "Dynasty Warriors" and "Dynasty Tactics", which is a combination of "Dynasty Warriors" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Koei also published three biographical tactical role-playing games based on three characters in the series. They are Sangokushi Eiketsuden (Liu Bei), Sangokushi Koumeiden (Zhuge Liang) and Sangokushi Sousouden (Cao Cao).

Games in the series

Release dates given are for original Japanese releases.

"Amiga"
* Romance of Three Kingdoms
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms II

"MSX"
* Romance of Three Kingdoms

"MSX2"
* Romance of Three Kingdoms (different from MSX1 version)
* Romance of Three Kingdoms II

"NES"
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms II

"SNES"
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
*
*

"Genesis"
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
*

"Sega 32X"
*

"Sega Saturn"
*

"PlayStation"
*
*

"PlayStation 2"
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms X
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI

"PC"
* Sangokushi (1985)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (1989)
* (1992)
* (1994)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms V (1995)
* Wolong Zhuan (臥龍传)- A rare RoTK game by Taiwanese company NEO GETEN (1995)
* (1998)
* (1998)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII (2000)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII (2001)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX (2003)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms X (2004)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (2006)
*Sangokushi Internet (1999)
*Sangokushi Battlefield (2002)
*Sangokushi Online (2007)

"Wii"
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (2007)

"Portable gaming systems"
*Sangokushi Game Boy (1992)
*Sangokushi Game Boy Color (1999)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms II WonderSwan (2000)
* Game Boy Advance (2001)
*Sangokushi VI PlayStation Portable (2005)
*Sangokushi VII PlayStation Portable (2006)
*Sangokushi VIII PlayStation Portable (2007)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms DS (2007)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms DS 2 (2007)

"Mobile phones"
*Sangokushi
*Sangokushi 2
*Sangokushi Mobile
*Sangokushi Mobile 2
*Sangokushi Mobile 3

See also

*Nobunaga's Ambition
*Bandit Kings of Ancient China

External links

* [http://www.kongming.net/games/#rot3k Romance of the Three Kingdoms Series at kongming.net]
* [http://kongming.net Website written by a Chinese-American and an American. Focuses on the games with extensive information on the novel and history, biographies in particular.]
* [http://www.3kingdoms.net/ Website created principally by Chinese and Southeast Asians. One section, subdivided into several sections, of the forum is entirely devoted to RTK games.]
*moby game|id=-group/romance-of-the-three-kingdoms-series|name=The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" series