It’s popular because you’ve got some incredible personalities, such as the ruthlessly sexy Cao Cao, the intelligently sexy advisor to Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, and the feral-but-oh-so-awesome Incredible Hulk… I mean Lu Bu. Obviously I’m overly simplifying a ridiculously long book there, but the point is that RotTK has a lot of material to tap into, and is popular with armchair historians and companies like Koei Tecmo that like to make games with lots of heroes beating up on one another. A three way hate triangle kept boarders relatively stable and population numbers down through endless fighting for a while… but good things need to come to an end, and the three kingdoms are eventually replaced when one family, the Jin, is able to march into battle fresh and take everything over. Those two managed to carve out empires of their own… and I’m sure you can figure out where this is going. Cao Cao, who was rapidly turning out to be the era’s Napoleon, managed to manipulate basically everyone in opposing Zhuo and ends up fracturing China to the point where he was able to take a bunch of territories. They did the right thing, and Trump, sorry, Zhang Jue, was crushed, but in the power vacuum a nasty fellow called Dong Zhuo took power. Those stars were Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian (who would die soon enough, and after his first son was assassinated, the second, Sun Quan, became the third in this happy little trio). This Yellow Turban rebellion, led by Donald Trump… sorry, Zhang Jue, was bad news for China, so a couple of rising stars came together to put them down. Honestly, with thousands of years of proof against letting this happen, you would think that politicians wouldn’t keep doing the same things, but no. It started when a hugely corrupt government (the Han) had, over decades of hubris, had the legitimacy of its rule eroded to the point where a populist leader was able to mobilise a small army and openly rebel against the establishment. What we do know, however, was that this was a chaotic period that makes Brexit look like a utopic vision of calm political debate. when a book of historical fiction is the bulk of what you have to go on, you’re in a bit of trouble in trying to piece together fantasy from fact. Based on one of the greatest works of historical fiction ever written (also titled Romance of the Three Kingdoms), RotTK is based on an era of history that has absolutely captivated people for hundreds of years, despite the specifics of the era having been largely lost. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is set well before that, and over in China. Nobunaga’s Ambition is set during Japan’s medieval Sengoku era. The game plays differently in some ways, and is set in a different location, but otherwise, people who got along with the last title should find a whole lot to appreciate about this one. It must have been enough of a success, because now the publisher is back with the thematically-similar Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Then, out of the blue, Koei Tecmo took a chance with Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence, on the PlayStation 4. Related reading: Nick's review of the other hardcore strategy game that Koei Tecmo has released on PlayStation 4: Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence. Both the Nobunaga’s Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchises, which have been around for almost as long as games have been, stopped being localised around the time of the PlayStation 2, and as someone who loved those games back on the old consoles, this was distressing. A couple of years ago I had all but given up on playing newer editions of Koei Tecmo’s serious strategy games.
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