Romance of the Three Kingdoms II


Romance of the Three Kingdoms II is the second in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series of turn-based strategy games produced by Koei and based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
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Gameplay

Upon starting the game, players choose from one of six scenarios that determine the initial layout of power in ancient China. The scenarios loosely depict allegiances and territories controlled by the warlords as according to the novel, although gameplay does not follow events in the novel after the game begins.
The six scenarios are listed as follows:
  1. Dong Zhuo seizes control of Luoyang
  2. Warlords struggle for power
  3. Liu Bei seeks shelter in Jing Province
  4. Cao Cao covets supremacy over China
  5. The empire divides into three
  6. Rise of Wei, Wu and Shu
After choosing the scenario, players determine which warlord they will control. Custom characters may be inserted into territories unoccupied by other forces, as well. A total of 41 different provinces exist, as well as over 200 unique characters. Each character has three statistics, which range from 10 to 100. A warlord's Intelligence, War Ability and Charm influence how successful he or she will be when performing certain tasks, such as dueling or increasing land value in a province.
The player wins the game by conquering all territories in China. This is accomplished by being in control of every province on the map.

New features

  • A reputation system that affects the rate of officers' loyalties towards their lords
  • Added treasures and special items that can increase an officer's stats
  • Advisers can help their lords predict the chances of success in executing a plan. An adviser with Intelligence stat of 100 will always accurately predict the result.
  • Intercepting messengers
  • Ability to create new lords on the map based on custom characters created by players

Reception

Computer Gaming World stated that Romance of the Three Kingdoms II "did a better job of simulating the chaos of" second-century China than the game's predecessor. In a 1993 survey of pre 20th-century strategy games the magazine gave the game four stars out of five. On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Famicom version of the game a 30 out of 40.