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PS2 | RPG | Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII

Boxart for Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII
Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII 33 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 3.0
  • SOUND: 3.5
  • CONTROL: 4.0
  • FUN FACTOR 3.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.5
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.9

Review: Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII

Review by FOUREYEDDRAGON | 08/11/2003 | 14:26:15 PM PST

We will conquer our foes, and the entire land will run red?with math!

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms games never cease to promote challenging arithmetic that centers on the trade, commerce, and warfare of ancient China. Number-eight in this long-standing series continues the tradition with even more rigorous computations for the spreadsheet enthusiast.

Can?t We All Just Get Along?
Romance of the Three Kingdoms thrusts you directly in the middle of the ongoing feuds between warlords, bandits, and soldiers-for-hire in second-century China. But if you?re new to this story, don?t expect fast, furious action. Instead, you take control of up to eight officers of the land, managing most of your time with food production, policy making, and alliance building through menu-heavy button presses. Periodically, you?ll wage war against a province, but even then, the fighting on the battlefield is as slow as your primary duties in the game. Ultimately, you must unify China by fudging numbers upon numbers to your advantage.

Chief Financial Officer in the Making
This latest installment of Romance offers plenty of new features to make veterans of the series excited. You can create bonds between characters, such as marriage and sworn brother oaths, and play as over 600(!) officers based on actual people. The soundtrack is also a notch up from past versions', soothing the ears as you sweat the math. The visuals, however, remain the same mundane menu frames with little or no animation to liven the already slow gameplay.

For Romance followers, this addition to the series is the best yet. An unlimited number of accounting practices combined with more depth to the lives that you control can be an overwhelming if not humbling experience for wannabe rulers of the land. Just make sure you?re up for a long lesson in advanced bookkeeping.


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