The duels are one of the most fun parts of the game you and another general hacking away at each others’ health over the course of fifty quick-fire turns. Sometimes though, turn-based just doesn’t cut it and you’ve got to get your hands dirty with some “real-time” action. When you’re keeping track of battles on several fronts, scrolling backwards and forwards between your armies and keeping track of what is happening close to home, you’ll be thankful of this simple addition to the usual interface. Keeping track of your empire’s expansion and the various battles that take place is so much easier with everything laid out on this new grid-based screen. For seasoned players, this is by far the most intriguing change. You no longer have to flip between several different screens just to manage your people or enter a battle, as all of this can be done from the new universal map. The menus have been further streamlined and in doing so have actually increased the speed of some aspects of the game. The main map screen is now rendered fully in 3D, with units getting a really nice touch of cel-shading. So, what’s new this time? First of all, everything has been given a welcome facelift. Building armies right down to single unit details, raising and lowering taxes and meeting with various dignitaries, all with that final goal of conquering China. ![]() You already knew about the sheer level of micro-management on offer. Thing is, if you’ve come this far, chances are you already knew that. The reward, however, is one of the deepest and richest strategy games you’ll ever play. Quite honestly, how anyone expects your average Dynasty Warriors fan to sit through this is clearly some kind of a fool. ![]() The tutorial here is practically a game in its own right, taking a few hours to truly get to the bottom of each menu and facet of gameplay. Koei seem aware of this, and have created a tutorial so all of us less-experienced potential rulers can catch up on what it takes to be a successful warlord. Now, presumably few of you have experience in ruling over your own dynasty. Somehow, Koei have managed to create simultaneously the most boring and most exciting game ever made. Be it socializing with fellow officers, upping the taxes or even giving the call to send your men to battle, each little thing becomes key to your overall goal of conquering China. However, after giving it a few hours to learn the ropes and start to truly have a grasp over your empire, you are suddenly hopelessly addicted. It is slow – painfully slow, at times – and all you really do is navigate through a series of menus and read more text than even the author of the original novel, Luo Ghanzhong, could be bothered to write. At first, I thought they’d got it horribly wrong this time. ![]() ![]() The boys had thrown up a few recommendations that I had tried out in the past, and they’d hit the spot completely, so I figured it was worth giving them another go. I was first introduced to the series with its tenth instalment about a year or so ago, due to a review on the incredible (and much missed) Consolevania. Starting out as a game revolving around resource management and strategic unit combat, since the series hit the PS2 an RPG element has been added, allowing the player to take up other roles within the kingdom, rather than just being the ruler. As far back as the NES, gamers have been taking part in the battles that actually took place in the turbulent years of early AD feudal China. They are, however, best known for their historically accurate simulations the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (or RotTKXI, from now on, due to me being a lazy journalist), based on the tome of the same name. Quite literally one of the world’s greatest game developers, bringing us such delights as the Dynasty Warriors series, the glorious Gitaroo Man, and even publishing the Nippon Ichi back-catalogue and P ersona 3 here in Europe.
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