Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The story of the Three Kingdoms has spawned many different games, including the ones I talked about above. My personal favorites are the ones that bring strategy to the table and a chance to change the story. There are many games that cover this era but which ones are the best to play? The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series has 12 games in its series alone and the Dynasty Warriors series has over 10 titles as well. Personally if your interested in learning the story line, then I would stick with the basic Dynasty Warriors 5 or 6. KOEI is large contributor to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in terms of bringing the story alive onto gaming platforms.

The Empires series of Dynasty Warriors gives you control of an officer or kingdom and allows you to live the story as you want. Dynasty Warriors is a hack n' slash representation of the Three Kingdoms. A single warrior fighting off thousands of enemies sounds awesome but gets tedious after so many times. I love the series but I have way overplayed it, most games in the series barely change their formula from game to game and has gotten repetitious for me. Still a fun game to pick up once in a while, but lacking in the strategy and thinking department compared to the others. Even with the Empires edition out, it adds new flavor to the system and lets you think a little more, but it's still hack n' slash again at the end of the day.

The Dynasty Tactics series is another game based on the Three Kingdoms. It is much lesser known then the other games. This is a tactics game kinda like final fantasy tactics, but instead of moving characters, your moving armies with officers from the story across a grid based battlefield. I'm a huge fan of tactics based games and this game felt right at home when I picked it up. So, for people that love tactics games like me, I highly recommend playing this. Your officers gain levels and learn new tactics as they get stronger, and the game offers a huge variety of cut scene effects so that you can really see the damage your doing. The campaign offers a variety of story branches, where your decisions effect the story line. As an example, Sun Ce dies on the trek to Xu Chang when he is trying to surprise attack Cao Cao in the story and you are presented with this dilemma of attacking or not in the game. If you attack then Sun Ce ultimately dies, if not then you save his life and thus you are creating a parallel universe. This game is awesome, but also it is also frustrating to get your officers lined up perfectly for chaining and linking. With the branching story lines, awesome cut scenes, and the awesome tactics feel, this would be my third favorite of the strategy games that are available.

Kessen II is another less known game, some might have heard of the first Kessen since it was one of the first launch titles for the ps2. Kessen II is a fictionalized account of the Three Kingdoms era. This is NOT the Three Kingdoms story at all, so if your looking to learn the story through a game then don't play this first, this will only confuse you. Some say they hate it for that but I thought it was very creative and it was a breathe of fresh air for something that I love. Pretty much this game has few branching story paths and they all eventually meet back for the original story path. It's a very linear game as opposed to the other games that represent the Three Kingdoms. So why do I like this? Your probably wondering, since I've stated that I love strategy and non linear games. Well, I love the game for the story it tells and also it lets me just sit back and watch the fighting sometimes. When a battle begins between two units, you get to watch all the soldiers fight each other and occasionally you get to mix things up by using a tactic or attempting to out flank the opposing enemy with another unit. This game is in Real Time as well, which is also a plus. This is my second favorite, almost my favorite of the Three Kingdoms games.

Now... The best of all the Three Kingdoms strategy games would be, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. Here you can take control of an officer or force at different time periods during the story. Depending on what version you get, will determine what starting points you can choose and whether or not you play as a single officer or control an entire force. I recommend versions 9 and 10, 9 allows you to control a force and is the least glitchy of all the games and also the most realistic. In 10 you control a single officer and you get to explore the social dynamics of the story and can eventually become a ruler but you are not all knowing or controlling like in 9. 10 has a glitched auto battle system, which is my only gripe with it, it almost always give victory to the attacker like 80% of the time. This is my favorite series just because of the sheer number of things you can do and the open sandbox style of play. You truly MUST play this series if your into the Three Kingdoms era.