Romance of the Three Kingdoms III - SNES

A couple of retro-posts from here on. I want to say something about Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3. Not only is it the first RTK game I've ever played, but it's the one that I played the most. I played it so much that I remember the songs, the menus, and most of the character's images. Heck, me and my buddies remembered a lot of the key characters' traits. It was sickening, yet it was a game that we loved. 

The game is simple, build a city, raise an army and reunify ancient China. How hard can that be? Well, according to Koei Games, that structure has led to the publishing of eleven games and counting. I never played the first two, but the this third one really introduced me to simulation gaming. 

The reason why I like this one is because the stuff you did in the "non-crucial" months actually work. Yes, sometimes spreading rumors did decrease your opponents' vassal's loyalty. Yes, you can recruit people from other towns, and if they are the only person in that town, you can take it! Yes, sometimes you can set arson to the enemies' cities, and this does help in a long drawn out war. 

I even remember the slew of fictional characters I put into the game. Insane how the simplest games are the ones you remember. Maybe it's also because I'm Chinese-American that I feel especially connected to this one. 

Completion: Beat the game multiple times in multiple settings
Hours Spent: approx. 150 hrs

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI - PC

Yet another year passes and another Romance of the Three Kingdoms is released, this time for the PC. I finally got a copy of this last week and I started playing with a fury. I must have been deprived of it since the big skip from RTK6. 

The game is about 1.2 gigabites and runs quite smooth on my old computer. As I turn it on and select my character I realize the interface has changed a lot. I owned RTK10 for awhile but didn't like it much. I don't like playing officers in another person's army. This one goes back to the idea of being a warlord in the warring states of China. I picked Sun Jian, my usual pick for my first go around. Of the three big warlords, I usually pick him because he has so much room to expand and you basically can just take empty cities in the south and south east. 

Now during the city months there is much to do. They have Action Points for every action and Technique Points that are rewarded to you once you complete a deed. For every 1000 TP you can upgrade your weapons on the tech-tree. Development of farms and markets are similar to development of land plots in Civilization 4. I totally like the new idea. It's different, but you can actually see the farms next to your cities. Additionally, you can destroy enemy farms and barracks before ever attacking the main city itself. Another thing you do besides raise troops, build infrastructure, and employ new officers is that you have to perserve "order" in the city. This needs to be done by inspecting the town, a new feature. Cities with low order will lose moral and troops will leave monthly.

The battles are not on a different screen but happening on the world map. I hesitate, but it's one of the most enjoyable battle systems so far. All the old tricks are put into play: attacks, tactics, and strategy. Some tactics from Dynasty Warriors: Tactics (PS2) are used here as you can do  class-specific attacks like Rake and Onslaught. You can confuse armies with your advisors and also do co-ordinated attacks by adjacent armies with the "surround" command. 

The Emperial ranking system is still in play. This limits your use of huge armies. It also makes use for characters with lower stats like Yuan Shu and Liu Biao - if it weren't for their ranks, I would have sent them to my rear towns long ago. I haven't dealt much with the system as of yet, but the "auto-set" feature is quite handy. I'll trust it for now.

Lastly, and most hilarious of the game is the intellect duals that have been added on. Characters sometimes enter "debates" where they battle each other with facts and ponderings which seems like life or death verbal volleys. I think it's just so funny! Here's a screenshot:

I have much more work to do in this game, but for now it's eaten about 10 hours of my time.

Civilization I, II, & III (PC)

Sid Meier's Civilization definitely made an impact on my studies when I was in high school. It was two folded: on the one hand it got me interested in history, on the other hand it distracted me from my studies big time. Yes, the game of battling other historical figures. The thing was, I was never good at battling.

The first one started it all. It had the turn-based building, the cities, and a tech-tree that lasts up into today's games. I spent a lot reading about the Wonders and really was aspired to read about history and travel through the world. Then there was another part of me that just wanted to work for Sid Meiers.

The second CIV featured the space colonization, hence the Antares subtitle. I really didn't play this much, but I got the gist of it. It kind of sucked that my computer wasn't powerful enough to play this. I do remember trade routes, and how annoying they were.

My attention for CIV3 came a lot later, long after it was published. I was in Japan and I had my powerbook G4 with me. There weren't many games available to Mac, and one in particular was CIV3. Now studying abroad is a fun and exciting thing, but if you ask anybody that's done it, there's a lot of down-time. During those hours of self-discovery, I played CIV. And yes, I'd get aggravated at it. The computer doesn't necessarily cheat, but they do plot together. Not only that, but they didn't have the fog of war, so they knew where your cities were. Not cool. I was able to beat the fourth difficulty against eight players once, but only through space race. For conquest, it'd be unimaginable.

Completion: completed all three, but not at highest difficulty.
Civilization = 40 Hours
Civilization 2 = 10 Hours
Civilization 3 = 60 Hours
Hours = 110 Hours