Honestly, this isn't a day I was expecting to come anytime soon. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a series I've been an avid follower of for a very long time now. It's also been quite painful, being a fan of the series and completely lacking any knowledge of Japanese. Why? Because either the games have taken an age to release or they simply haven't been released in English.
You can count an eight-year gap between the English releases of Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, 2008, to the 2016 release of Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII. XII decided to simply remain in Japan and Taiwan. Colour me incredibly surprised, and happy, that there will be a brand new release next year and it's looking like Koei Tecmo have learned from the average-at-best outing that was Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII (read my review here).
While there has been a teaser trailer released today, that's all it really is, a teaser. Nothing much is shown bar going through the history of the series. Do I still love that? Hell yeah I do, I still play some of the older games to this day.
What we can do, to at least get an idea of what Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV will play like, is through the reveal by Koei Tecmo and also the official website, which has three screenshots that highlight what the game will look like. While I can't see anything of the battles in these images, the map is already looking like what I love from Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI. It seems to be a map where you aren't rigidly sticking to lines, where you have some tactical freedom.
Specifically, Koei Tecmo had this to say regarding the game:
RTK14 will adopt the ruler-based system from RTK9 and RTK11 in order to help return classic gameplay to the series. This means that all actions – from domestic, to political, to battle – will now take place on a single map. Greater individuality among characters will also be on display; with officers from the Three Kingdoms, like Liu Bei and Guan Yu, asserting themselves at various situations in order to fully immerse players into the game’s rich history. But that’s not all, as a new Evolved Artificial Intelligence system is also being implemented to challenge players across repeated playthroughs. With organizations now determined through each ruler’s ideals, different game experiences are now possible via different rulers. Even within the same faction; different policies now bring with them different strategies for expansion, making the wise use of various officers a cornerstone of advanced gameplay.
Already it's a good sign, looking to remedy a number of the issues I had with the previous game. All I can do is hope that this brings me back to such as XI, which it is bringing the system from, and is a game that I will spend hundreds of hours on. Yes, hundreds.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV is scheduled to launch sometime this year in Japan, with a western release in early 2020. It will launch on the PC and PlayStation 4.
