Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV (Virtual Console) Review

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV is a tactical simulation game in which the player takes the role of a ruler seeking to unite China in the era of the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu and Shu. The role of the ruler is to command a range of officers with differing characteristics ~~some cunning strategists, others brave warriors~~ and strengthen the military might of his or her kingdom.

Foreign policy, involving forming alliances with certain kingdoms and hatching plans to weaken others, will play a major role in this process. Once players have developed a powerful enough military, it will be time to expand their borders through military conquest. Ultimate victory will only be achieved once all 43 cities in China lie within a player's control.

By Damo

First things first - this fourth edition of Koei's long running 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' series is not going to be for everyone. The franchise, based on actual events in China's history, has evolved and developed considerably over the past few years and it's encouraging that VC users are getting one of the better console editions first, rather than one of the earlier, less complex entries.

RoTK is astonishingly deep. In fact it's probably a little too deep for most players. The utlimate goal of the game is to unite a broken and conflict-ridden China and the player can create alliances with other rulers to take out stubborn enemies. A neat twist is that your allies can turn against you at any point, so the game becomes a finely balanced exercise in tactics as you constantly try to second-guess when the tide will turn against you and making plans before it happens.

It's hard to really compare RoTK to anything else on the VC at the moment. It is undeniably unique, but I doubt many people will get the full value out of it. It requires a lot of time and effort and much of the game is spent simply keeping check of resources and indulging in diplomacy. If you're after something action packed then steer well clear, however if you feel that the current drop of VC releases fail to tax your grey matter, then you could do a lot worse than download this.

3/5

Average reader rating: 3.40 (10 ratings)

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Metal Marines (Super Nintendo)
Shining Force (Sega Megadrive)
Military Madness (TurboGrafx-16)
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1. DanMan7 06 Mar 2007, 05:57 GMT

I loved KOEI games, ESPECIALLY the Uncharted Waters series (original and New Horizons for SNES), and hope they all come out on the VC! Thatd be SWEET!

2. Jonno 26 Mar 2007, 05:46 GMT

NO. I have played Romance of the Three Kingdoms III before. Its way to random for anyone really. 2 stars at most.

3. RoninDennis 26 Mar 2007, 16:00 GMT

This reminds me of another game I played to death, both single and in multiplayer: Nobunaga's Ambition (SNES). Hopefully they'll release that one as well, I'll download it immediately!

4. Nicky Wan 26 Mar 2007, 17:35 GMT

Is this version single or multi player?

5. Brian 26 Mar 2007, 18:13 GMT

It's 1-8 players

6. Scrappy 26 Mar 2007, 21:49 GMT

This game is AWESOME. If you have never played it do yourself a favor and download it... trust me.

7. Billy 27 Mar 2007, 05:06 GMT

How is the multiplayer mode?

8. Will 27 Mar 2007, 19:29 GMT

I don't understand all the griping on the boards, sounds like a Nintendo's finally releasing something that serves the point of the VC in my opinion. A game that I won't get tired of because I've played it a gazillion times. Why do people want games they already own? I want games like this one that were hard to find or had a limited run. Sounds like Civilizations. If so, this game will be highly addictive.

9. Jonno 27 Mar 2007, 19:40 GMT

Ugh, I downloaded this. I was wron about this game. I love it! RoTKIII is still as dull as hell though.

10. Eric 02 Apr 2007, 14:51 GMT

I like multiplayer games, and it seems that N is putting out VC titles that are great for 2+ players. Especially 5-8!! Dungeon Explorer and this are examples.

11. ROGUE_DMG (LYNN) 05 Apr 2007, 16:13 GMT

This game is fun for those who loke the 10 hr long sit on the chair while your wife screams at you and all you can do is have wars with this game, its awsome love it and you might like it just remember that just because they say its not good dont mean you might not like it. try it you might.

12. wildsnail 06 Apr 2007, 23:55 GMT

I've never tried a Koei game but I would love to try this if Nintendo would release it in Europe! Does anyone know if any Koei games were released on the VC supported consoles in Europe?

13. Jadelouise 10 Apr 2007, 19:50 GMT

If I remember right this game got no European release at the time. I remember this as I brought from my local import shop and a friend loved it and he wanted it but everywhere he went told him it was not comming out over here and he didnt have a convertor. I like it but its one of those games some will hate not for the modern need for speed crowd.

14. SMBSS 25 Apr 2007, 02:21 GMT

I'd take Ogre Battle over this anyday.

15. azykial 04 Jun 2007, 20:06 GMT

This game is sweet but I'm crossing my fingers that we'll get some sweet Gemfire action soon. Has a much more intuitive UI and the fifth units were sweet!

16. poop 09 Jun 2007, 09:14 GMT

If they release gemfire, I WILL poop myself. Also buy the game, but after the pooping.

17. Jonno 26 Jun 2007, 05:55 GMT

A sweet loooong game of RoTKIV is awesome (not every day but still)

18. KorrMuraan 29 Jul 2007, 07:40 GMT

Excellent game! One of the best ever released for SNES. I spent many a sleepless night playing it and now get to do it all over again... except this time I'm married and have a job lol

I got myself a classic controller, downloaded ROTK4, and printed out all my strategy guides and officer lists today. I'm off to create some loyal minions...

19. Mendez 23 Aug 2007, 20:41 GMT

Shouldn't this game come off EU's coming soon list now?

It's pretty clear we're not going to get it seeing as it didn't come out in Europe and it's been so long since it came out on America's VC..

The game looks alright, but not anything I'd download, so the lack of it here doesn't affect me.

20. Jogurt the Yogurt 04 Dec 2007, 05:28 GMT

Unfortunately, this is the worst of Koei's SNES Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. Both II and III are more fun. This one is just kind of slow and depressing. Still a great game, and especially a treat for those VC gamers who enjoy empire-building turn-based strategy, but it would be phenomenal if they would go back and give us the previous games in the series.

21. Unimpressed 04 Feb 2008, 15:38 GMT

Nombungas Ambition was the bomb. I loved these types of games growing up (I have a ROTTK for my old PS2 I might hook up and play.

I got this game, but it hasn't pulled me in enough to play it much. Plus, i just sold my gamecube controller. Now I have to get a VC controller.

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