Romance of the Three Kingdoms X E3 2005 Preshow Report

Old-time strategy game grognards may have literally grown up with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, which first appeared more than 15 years ago on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It's undergone a lot of changes since then, obviously, and RTKX appears to be offering some brand-new features and some significant gameplay changes.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms X, the plot kicks off with the Chinese Empire falling victim to a rebellion, and the game continues through 100 years of civil war. It brings back the officer system from previous games, but KOEI says that the system has been deepened, with in-game effects affecting each officer in different ways and with approximately 25 percent more drama. Well, we made that up. It'll be interesting to see how KOEI can allow for individual emotion with more than 650 playable characters in the game. In addition to officer status, players will also be able to choose from five social classes: sovereign, viceroy, prefect, vassal, or free officers. Details on how these classes change gameplay are presumably forthcoming.

One of the other new additions to the series is the inclusion of political debates. If you want to try to talk to your enemies at the bargaining table, then you'll have to rely on some of your officer's stats, including logic, profit, and awe. Other commands include argue, incite, refute, and think. We don't have many details on how this will affect the course of a game, but presumably you'll be able to outwit your enemies to gain advantages in the military simulation.

Speaking of military simulations, RTKX features, as always, an in-depth re-creation of ancient Chinese war. Combat here is going to be divided into two sizes, with regional battles erupting between individual cities and sieges, and small-scale battles being faithful models. Regional conflicts can snowball, however, and erupt into full-scale war between nations. Once you have a sufficiently large army ready to go, you can suck all of the cities in a given region into war and start knockin' heads by invading enemy regions.

All in all, Romance of the Three Kingdoms X looks like it has some significant new features that should appeal to experienced players of the series and hopefully bring in some new ones as well. Check GameSpot for more details on the game in the future.