Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake Review

Romance of the Three Kingdoms might not be a common name in the ears of a Western gamer, but it is almost mythical in the East. It is a series of turn-based tactical role-playing grand strategy games first developed by Koei, the folks who brought out games such as Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. Of course, their most renowned titles were the historical simulation games based on the novel of the same name.

The first game was released way back in 1989, and the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII was released in 2001. So, it has been over twenty years since the game was released, and with its remake, ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE, the title has natural comparisons with not only the original but also other games in the series.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE offers more than 50 different historical scenarios, 8 of which are main-line scenarios. Each scenario gives you different starting time points and has three main characters relevant to the story. After completing your first historical campaign, you'll have access to a myriad of fictional scenarios.

In this strategy role-playing game, you take on the role of anyone, ranging from a ruler to a vassal to a bandit. You play as these people in the form of officers, with the game offering over a thousand different officers from the Three Kingdoms era.

As an officer, you don't lose when, let's say, as the officer of an army, you get attacked and your army destroyed. In the revolving politics of the era, you can always join one of the other factions or even choose the ones that destroyed you as your new lords.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE takes place between 184 and 263 AD, covering many factions, leaders, and side characters from the era. Your characters mentioned above, the officers, and a few stats and numbers to keep track of. These include the five main stats as well as stats like Preferred Strategy, Honor, Preference, Personality, Traits, and Greed. You can always make your own character, customizing all of these and adding abilities and a biography.

In ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE, your ultimate mission is to achieve complete dominion over China. In this turn-based game, you'll have three distinct gameplay phases. Each phase is very different from one another and often changes the specifics based on the rank of the officer. A lot of this is pretty tedious, but the enjoyable stuff evens things out.

The game lets you go about this in your own way. It gives you access to different tools and actions, and you will find yourself doing a lot in each phase. Having to do a lot, you will also find that the games take way longer than the average grand strategy game. With so much to do, you should definitely try out the game's tutorial, which lets you grasp the very basics.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE can get pretty hard to play in the late game. As one of the many warlords starts to gain traction, it'll almost feel impossible to stop them or really deal with them in any way. Once you realize this, it is probably too late, and you will find yourself unable to make much headway into conquest.

The first phase you play will have you going around the different areas of the city, talking to other officers, improving the city themselves, or having private meetings with them. You can only do so much in this phase, and you'll have limited actions called Action Points. Once you do all your actions, you will move to the next turn. Each turn encompasses roughly one month, and every three months, your parliament will convene.

In the parliament, you are either tasked to do something specific, or you can make the big grand-strategy decisions. These include recruiting new officers, doing some logistics, assigning battles, and using underhanded tactics for battles. Again, you have a limited number of actions here. As someone of lower rank, you can only propose such actions, adding a lot of realism based on your rank.

In the final phase, where you commit to actual battles, you can control entire armies, but as one of lower rank, you will only be able to control your own troops. This is somewhat annoying, as the AI is terrible in this game. Half the time, it doesn't know the S in Strategy; the other half, it doesn't care. They seem oblivious to traps, unresponsive to abilities, and disregarding their safety.

In each of the phases, your actions will increase a certain skill, and when you are not in a war or doing something major, you will find yourself spending most of your time here to increase your stats. A lot of the mechanics and things you need to do can be automated. From debates to the battles themselves, if you wish to skip something, you can do it.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE gives you several things to do, so while the main gameplay loop is boring overall, you have a lot to do, with a lot of variations. You have a rival that will be a thorn in your side. You have access to many side quests that act as events. You can get married and really do almost anything you can imagine.

The whole relationship system is one of the game's strong points. You have to slowly build up trust, offer them items, and become core friends. The randomness is almost gone, and it now gives you a lot of free reign over how you want to go about with allied and enemy officers.

For example, Synergy is tied to reputation and even has some randomness to it. The game seems to be an RPG first and a grand strategy second. The RPG elements are somewhat bogged down by being repetitive. You also have way too many things relating to another thing.

Once you finish the game, you'll be disappointed to learn that there are no real differences in the endings. The same generic ending is presented to you, whether you are Lu Bu or Yuan Shao. This is incredibly disappointing when you consider the game always tends to lean towards its RPG and story elements.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE improves upon much of the failings of the original. Characters are expanded, and there is a lot more going for them now. The relationship systems are incredibly dynamic, and all the time you spend on gruel grinding will pay off. Your rivalries and friendships matter, and there aren't just one or two things affecting them.

The battles are lackluster and boring, and the AI will be your worst enemy at lower ranks and greatest asset at higher ranks. This is mostly because of how terrible they are. So, it's surprising to hear that the AI actually improved from the original game, having much more roundedness to it.

This is not the same when you talk about the grand strategy of AI, where it seemed to have regressed. Gone are the good invasions and civil buildup. Now you have an AI that makes you micromanage almost everything, somewhat devaluing the automation.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE also introduces a few new elements, such as attrition and chokepoints, and adds some layer of depth to the strategy. This, however, falls flat as you'll often see a few of the warlords painting the map in their colors, snowballing out of control and meeting very little resistance.

This would be fine if you could actually deal with it, but with the restrictions placed by the turn-based system, your only way to deal with them is through the reinforcements system. Overall, though, it is much less of a numbers game.

Much of the new systems, along with the old ones, are broken. The most prominent are the duels and debates. You'll have characters auto-win or just stacked to win, not really playing by the same rule. Narrative purposes aside, in a grand-strategy game, no matter how toned down it is, this is a cardinal sin.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE looks and sounds great.  The visual cues, the dialogue, and the world itself, from the cities to the various backgrounds, all look great. It immerses you into the perfect vibe for a story of this caliber. The visuals are really what sets this game apart now; the graphics overhaul is phenomenal. It somehow retains the charm of the original game while giving the perfect touch-ups to everything. The UI is much cleaner, and everything is kept nice and compact.

The music is great, with very thematic music that meshes well with the game. The greatest part about the sound design is the voice acting. Almost all the voice acting is top-tier. As with the art, the music immerses you into the world, adding to the narrative experience.

Overall, this game is a step up from the original and is a nostalgia trip for those who have played the original. There are a lot of issues omnipresent in the game series as a whole, which makes this one suffer a lot. Ultimately, though, the game is an RPG first and strategy later, so it'll be a disappointment to Strategy fans.

The RPG elements, however, make it a top-tier game, so it's a shame the strategy elements aren't tied well together. Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake also lacks a few things present in the original, namely, multiplayer and many of the systems and mechanics from the original game. Be it weapon crafting or interactive province management, all of it is missed.

ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE feels more like a newer, better Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 rather than a remake of Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII. It is still playable and pretty fun, but with all its shortcomings, it's hardly recommended unless you're a fan or someone who's looking for an RPG with a bit more to it.