Romance of the Three Kingdoms (series)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國志) is a computer and video game that originated from Japan. It is a series of turn-based computerized wargames by Koei. Eleven editions of the series have been published in Japan and Chinese-speaking countries in East Asia. The Japanese title of the game is Sangokushi.

The games are based on the events of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Records of Three Kingdoms in China during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Gameplay mainly revolves around managing numerical statistics, each representing an attribute of a city or character. For example, a city will have statistics indicating the amount of food stored within its walls, its vulnerability to disasters such as floods and earthquakes, how content the people are, and so forth. Characters have statistics to reflect his/her fighting prowess, intelligence and loyalty to his/her ruler among other attributes. Most players will spend more time on improving these statistics than waging war against neighboring territories, as the artificial intelligence of the other rulers tends to be peaceful unless the player attacks them first, or unless they have reached a point of the story where war must break out. Even during such situations, rampant warfare is discouraged, particularly during winter.

Editions VII, VIII and X were compounded with RPG aspects, allowing the player to play as a ruler, an adviser, a prefect, a general or a vassal, whereas the player can only control the ruler in other editions. In addition, different characters have various skills to aid them in combat, such as the ability to lure a group of enemy soldiers away from the others or to trick them into retreating.

There are also several spin-offs based on this series, including the more combat oriented Dynasty Warriors and Dynasty Tactics, which is a combination of Dynasty Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Koei also published three biographical tactical role-playing games based on three characters in the series. They are Sangokushi Eiketsuden (Liu Bei), Sangokushi Koumeiden (Zhuge Liang) and Sangokushi Sousouden (Cao Cao).

Games in the series
Release dates given are for original Japanese releases.

Amiga
 * Romance of Three Kingdoms
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms II

MSX
 * Romance of Three Kingdoms

MSX2
 * Romance of Three Kingdoms (different from MSX1 version)
 * Romance of Three Kingdoms II

NES
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms II

SNES
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms III: Dragon of Destiny
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire

Genesis
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms III: Dragon of Destiny

Sega 32X
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire

Sega Saturn
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire

Dreamcast
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI: Awakening of the Dragon

PlayStation
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI: Awakening of the Dragon

PlayStation 2
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms X
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI

PC
 * Sangokushi (1985)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (1989)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms III: Dragon of Destiny (1992)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (1994)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms V (1995)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI: Awakening of the Dragon (1998)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII (2000)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII (2001)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX (2003)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms X (2004)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (2006)
 * Sangokushi Internet (1999)
 * Sangokushi Battlefield (2002)
 * Sangokushi Online (2007)

Wii
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (2007)

Portable gaming systems
 * Sangokushi Game Boy (1992)
 * Sangokushi Game Boy Color (1999)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms II WonderSwan (2000)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire Game Boy Advance (2001)
 * Sangokushi VI PlayStation Portable (2005)
 * Sangokushi VII PlayStation Portable (2006)
 * Sangokushi VIII PlayStation Portable (2007)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms DS (2007)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms DS 2 (2007)
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms DS 3 (2010)

Mobile phones
 * Sangokushi
 * Sangokushi 2
 * Sangokushi Mobile
 * Sangokushi Mobile 2
 * Sangokushi Mobile 3