Romance of the Three Kingdoms II Review by: thenumberone - 9.8/10
romance of the three kingdomsFirst off, this game does not have nearly as many plays as it deserves. I have played many total war games and conquest games, the fact I enjoy playing this is tribute to the fact it is so good.
So its for the snes, and its pretty much now my favourite retro game.
Overall, 9.8, it has problems but the overall awesomeness just destroys them.
The graphics are a little pixely at times but not overly so, so its all good. You get a campaign map with pictures of all the province leaders, and in battle you get little images from a top down view. The battlefield is split into grids and the movement is very much like chess, only with some catches. Flat areas can be crossed with 3 moves for each unit, whereas things like forts and heavy forests take all your 3 moves for one square.
Sound: Its really just the themetune over and over but its ok. If a leader dies, you get a dramatic tune and picture, and in battle you get something a little faster and more intense.
Addictiveness: Im going back to it after i finish this review, good enough?i only did a review because 1, it dosent have one, and 2, it totally deserves more plays. This game is very addictive.
The story: I put as not existant but I suppose it does. Basically, everyone starts with one chinese province. You have to unify china by gaining all the provinces through various means.
Depth: This is going to take a while.
soooooooo, here goes. The game is pretty big and complex considering the age of it and its system, and id love a remake. So you start as a ruler and get a max loyalty general. From there in, you can do many things. Each general has loyalty (can be improved by gifts etc), intelligence, war, skill, charm, arms, soldiers and an age bar. Most can be increased.
So, you can improve your farmland. Once every year you collect part of your peasants farm yield, which is all rice. Rice can be used to feed troops, give away (to your civilians) or sell.
Additionally, once a year, you also tax your peasants gold. I dont think I need to explain what thats for.
So you can upgrade land to 100, but what if there is a flood? I spent ages upgrading my land then a flood damaged all my fields and i had to do it again. Well you can also build flood defenses up to a maximum of 100, which i am doing. Both these things require a general to carry them out, the higher the inteligence said general has, the better results.
You can give your peasants rice which increases there loyalty, particularly effective during a hard winter. If they get disloyal, a revolt will start. At the opposite end, you can do an unscheduled tax, that gets there loyalty down unsurprisingly.
You can buy horses and weapons for your generals, which improves them on the battlefield. You can also buy and sell rice. This depends on if the province has any merchants though. If you buy rice, its far cheaper in the summer than in the winter, a nice tactic is to stockpile rice in summer then flog it in winter for huge profits.
Equally, you can systematically increase your provinces loyalty.
What i like to do is wait for the auto tax. Then a month or 2 later, i do another tax. Lets say i get 300 rice each time. In winter, i get a decent charm level general to distribute food to the populace, maybe about 100. This generaly works out increasing there loyalty higher than the first 2 taxes yet you have more rice. You can then sell the extra, or all of, the rice, or even give it all away to try and maxemise loyalty.
You can hire soldiers, train them (a general with high war skill is best), and of course, make war.
You can use diplomacy across the map, by allying, by proposing joint invasions, by marrying (hetro only though, =p), giving gifts, or threatening people. Sometimes your general is captured going through the foreign territories, if this happens, they will behead them, release them, or force him/her to work for them. I saw an enemy leaders faction break up when he was beheaded making an alliance, pretty funny.
You can also instigate trouble in enemy territorys. You can get the generals to join you, to start a rebellion in the territory, or get the province leader to declare independence(which is why you should make loyal generals the leaders).
The difficuly is 5 because it depends, at the easiest difficulty, its still pretty challenging. You can increase the difficulty too, so it can be as hard as you want.
So yeh, great game, play it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please? =p
Graphics
8 Sound
6 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Difficulty
5
User Notice 
