Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII

With a comprehensive tutorial system, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the best fit game for people new to the genre to wrap their minds around it. Equally, for more experienced strategy fans, the superb balance that made the historical events the game is based on so fascinating also make for the near-perfect strategy game.

There isn't much competition, but this is still the best strategy game on the PS4.

Perhaps Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII's most lasting achievement will be once again proving that strategy games can work on consoles. And though it doesn't quite make the case for console strategy ever really being as good as PC-based efforts, the game is worth trying for anyone who can let their historical curiosity overcome their need for visual and interface flair.

Strategy aficionados will look on approvingly as fans of the series rejoice. It’s certainly not a game for everyone, yet those who find themselves hooked by Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII will struggle to break free of its hold. The fact that it plays so well on console as well as on PC shows that Koei is capable of more than mindless button bashers.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII brings historical authenticity to life with real world locations, figures, and events.

ROTK13 lacks any of the basic macro and combat strategy fundamentals of previous titles, making this a sequel in name only. If you liked Sphere of Influence then you’ll enjoy this title too. But for those who waited for an ROTK game, keep waiting.

I went into Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII hopeful that it might be the game to help me break through my difficulty with the strategy genre. Unfortunately, I was only met with an interface poorly optimized for consoles and a “tutorial” that made me more confused than informed.

This game is great, I sat down for ten hours straight the first day.This is my first romance game, i struggled grasping the controls and mechanics,but after some grinding in hero mode it felt very fluent.

Solid strategy game. Loads of micromanaging menu's you'll have to click through which makes it seem the game is very "deep", though actually its rather shallow, with not too great graphics. This doesn't make the game bad at all though, instead it's a very addicting fun strategy game. Hope Koei keeps making these for years to come.

AI is so exploitable that I can conquer China with the worst character you can possibly create. For example I gave my guy 1 stat all around with no abilities whatsoever. No followers, families or affinities either. Threw him in hard difficulty mode as a free officers. It was ridiculous how easy it was for me to beat the game. It didn't even take that long. Worst offender is that you can abuse diplomacy to a point where you can expand as aggressive as you want without any fear of retaliation. Officers also just love you in general and you can recruit just about any random character that's not loyal bound by history without an issue. Basically you can just let them do your bidding so your own stats become nearly irrelevant. Combat, I don't even know where to begin. It's so ridiculously exploitable that I can send a small force against a force triple my size and still beat the crap out of it under manual control. Foreign policy options took a real beating. You can't get countries to fight each other (i.e. rivalry/rival tigers,), no marriage option between forces, "Hide", "Gossip", "Arson", "Snoop", joint invasion option, coalition is random and you can't form your own while they dog pile on top of you early in the game unless you maintain truce/alliance against them. The game is also missing many subtle additions that used to make the series great, such as traps, natural disasters, in-depth terrain advantages, wanderers, unique places, changing economy (i.e. varying prices of supplies and arms), ability to self impose an exile, etc. I can go on and on but it's so riddled with AI holes that I can't enjoy the game anymore. While there have been many improvements by adding visuals and audio, and I do love the new battle system minus the AI, this game has lost so much from its predecessors.

Worst RTK game I've ever played. They should honestly just call it a friendship simulator instead. I spent more time giving away cheap wine just to get officers to join me, than I actually spent building up my cities, invading enemy territories, etc. There is little to no strategy involved with combat anymore. It's just spam your top general's skill as often as you can. Also it seems high intelligence officers are largely useless in combat, when compared to older titles like RTK 9 for the ps2. I have no idea how they could've gone so backwards with the development of this game. If you want to have more of a RPGish style of game, 7,8 and 10 fit the bill. If you want to focus more on being a ruler, 11 is good for that. If you want a really tough strategy challenge, 9 would be best. That game actually makes intelligent officers useful in combat, as opposed to what they've done to them here in 13.

I bought this game this afternoon I played for about 2-3 hours and I was not happy at all. The controls are atrocious, the in game graphics are about the same as an 8 bit Nintendo game and the AI is very easy to play against.