Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII

Purchased twice. Koei did an excellent job in this series. Played several games through to the end. Have to say the Japanese emissaries is by far my favorite ending. The cheat codes and family blood lines were a joy to create and play !

The best chess game ever created.

It just wasn't my style of gaming.

I'm a fan of the RoTK Books, and a major supporter of Koei for it's exemplary games. This is by far their most innovative, and engaging game. Obviously considering it's spanned 9 games since the old days of the NES(8 is currently out in Japan, and I'm not sure about 9 yet). Stratgy and mangement are the fundmentals of the game. It doesn't bog you down with micromanaging, or limit your control, rather it has a nice median. If you don't wanna worry bout a kingdom, fine go off and be a prefect of a city, or a general/tactician on the battle front. Even better is you can have up to 8 players, and get a big game of hot seat going like in the good old days of all those older strategy games.Story/Plot is obviously good, considering it's taken from historical(and fictional) accounts. Whats better is if you've read the books you can see how you sort of alter history, and create your own story of the Three Kingdoms(in my cas eit's more of the 5 kingdoms ^_^). I took over the riverlands, had my providences split when He Jin sneakily captured my supply route, killed Dong Zhou, made a 3 pronged attack on the province He Jin stole, had one of my prefects defect over to He Jin, Took out Han Sui who was threating my northern provinces, allied with Zhang Bao and cut off He Jin from half his kingdom and his warlord Cao Cao, took over He Jin's southern Territories, then decided to turn on Zhang Bao because I noticed he had my Warlord's(Liu Bei) Swords, and currently am on a campaign to reclaim his swords, and grab the Emperor from He Jin. Now thats what I call ownage. Story totally gets a 5.Graphics tend to be where the major downfall is. I for one don't mind, most Next-Gen games spend their entire budgets and resources to make games graphically incredible for about 5 hours of gameplay. I would say the graphics could be better, but I still get excited about battles and duels even with it's less than par visuals. I say if you looking for graphics, play Dynasty Warriors. Graphics earn a 2, although true startegy players will tell you great graphics don't make for great strategy games *cough War Craft 3 cough*.Gameplay as I've already said is totally excellent. You can be a Liege, a Prefect, a Ronin, a Common, or a Warlord. I got beef about the Warlord though, your liege asks you inane questions about his generals, and you pretty much have to memorize everyoens stats otherwise he won't let you do ne thing. Aside from that the game has foriegn, demostic, military, politcal, diplomatic, and interpersonal aspects. There are skills to learn, stats to improve, countries to conquer, and an emporer to kiss [butt] to for a title. You can make friends allies, enemies, and even coup your own lord. Combat is excellent, forcing you to watch out for terrain, traps, guard your rear, and complete strategies. Even with a 110 war you can still get wasted in battle if you charge without thinking(bad memories). Gameplay totally gets a 5.Sound is basic. The msuic is authentic, can kinda get repetive. Theres clanking in duels and battle etc. Nothing spectacualr, or terrible about it. Basically a solid 3.Replay, 10 different time periods, 500+ characters, create your own, multiplayer, changes every time you play. Nuff said. Another 5.It's good to see a game like this not dpendent on Graphics, but on the Gameplay. If you like Diablo, or Dark Ages of Camelot, chances are you won't care for this game. If you enjoy Civilization, Age of Empires, or Masters of Orion you'll feel right at home. Hopefully the 8th installment will be coming out soon.Also, forgive the numerous typos, I'm a terible typist. ^_^

When I was 10 years old or so I stumbled upon a strange game for the NES called Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. Granted, I was horrible at the game, but something about it sucked me in. A few years later I got the 2nd version for the SNES(I still play that version even today) and I knew I was hooked on strategy games. RO3K7 was the first of the series to be released on the ps2, and also the first time the series allowed you the choice of being something else besides the ruler. You could be a ronin wandering the land simply talking to people and training yourself. You could be a vassal to a ruler and work up the ranks and earn fame and reward. Or of course you could be the ruler of a force still if you so desired. There have been 2 other games in the series that have rpg elements as well (8,10) and I will stress that 7 is the weakest of all in that regard. However 7 still wins a few areas overall in my opinion. 1. The aggressive AI. Rulers are constantly at war with each other much more than other versions. 2. The speed of the game. This is by far the fastest moving Romance game for the ps2, and perhaps the series.( Romance 2 for SNES the only close one 3. The Battles are fun and usually fairly quick. 4. The music in this game is one of my favorite in series. Most of the Romance games tend to be enjoyable. I have all but Romance 9 in the series, and the only one that I play more than 7 is 10. If you like a good strategy game, check this out. Especially since this is the cheapest of all the ps2 games in the series I believe.

First, let me just say that I'm glad there are other reviewers/players out there that are enjoying this game.Secondly, I didn't know there was a multiplayer option so I thank all those that have clued us in on that.Thirdly, my impressions on the game. I bought this game when it first came out and enjoyed it from the start. It seems daunting at first, but if you give it time(and refer to the manual if you're a newbie), the options/controls become second nature soon enough. The graphics could be better, but anyone who puts gameplay above graphics will be richly rewarded. The game has a good mix of strategy(turn-based battles/diplomacy), simulation(simplistic resource management), and rpg(character development) elements. The best part of the game is probably the role-playing aspect of the game. Pick (or create) any character...and do whatever you want to him/her. Whether it's improving their abilities, interacting with other characters, or trying to rise through the ranks; you can do it in this game. It gives you the freedom to do all that. This allows for massive replay value. The worst aspect of the game is the slightly tedious nature of the actual battles. They can be engrossing at times...downright boring at others. Still, the game is very involving, addictive, complex(at first), interactive and enjoyable. The objective may be to unify China, but the journey in getting there with your character(s) is the true reason for experiencing this game.An example of why: when i first bought it, i just booted it up and started playing(not much for reading manuals). I picked a character i didn't care much about, so i thought "just play it for an hour to get the hang of it...then start a real scenario". More than 10 hrs later and I was still playing my "throw-away" scenario(which is still saved on one of the six allotted save options). During this time my ruler character: died, his son took over, Sun Ce demanded I surrendered, I did and became one of his officers, became a ronin, snuck into an empty province, set up my own kingdom again, got beaten and recruited(by Sun Ce again!), decided to be a loyal officer this time and rise in the ranks, got caught in battle against Cao Cao's forces, joined him, etc. Again, all this in my first "gonna play for just an hour" scenario! So if you want that "what's gonna happen next to my character" type of game, this is for you. Whether you are the type that knows you can control your own fate, or enjoy the unpredictability of events around you controlling your fate; I highly recommend you give this game a try/rental for its high replay value. For die-hard fans of the series, you should already have bought it long ago :)

This is one of my favorite games of all time! you can play as a any character in the Three Kingsoms novels. You can also start out as a liege, prefect, common soldier, warlord, or ronin. You can improve your cities economy and technology. You can give new weapons to yourself and your fellow comrades. You can wage war offensively and defensively. You can hire, release, or execute officers. Why it's the only thing!