ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE Review Summary

Generally enjoyable and engaging experience: The game is generally enjoyable, engaging, and addictive, especially for fans of the series. Many reviewers highlight that it's easy to pick up and play, with a simple and user-friendly interface. Some reviewers note that the game is enjoyable despite its flaws.

Evokes nostalgia, faithful to original: The game successfully evokes nostalgia for previous Romance of the Three Kingdoms titles, particularly Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8. It retains the core gameplay and feel of the original while incorporating modern updates and improvements, making it a worthwhile experience for long-time fans.

Many scenarios and flexible endings: The game offers a wide variety of scenarios based on historical events, providing players with numerous options for experiencing the Three Kingdoms era. The game also offers multiple endings, allowing for quicker conclusions based on fame, infamy, or regional control.

Focus on character role-playing: The game allows players to experience the game from the perspective of a chosen officer, with a focus on character development, relationship building, and role-playing. The game offers a high degree of freedom in character development and allows for unique and engaging activities.

Improved and enjoyable combat system: The game features an improved and enjoyable combat system with faster-paced battles, strategic elements, and satisfying abilities. The battles are more balanced and require strategic thinking, with the importance of unit coordination being a positive aspect.

Inferior to previous titles: The game fails to capture the essence of the series, with many reviewers finding it worse than previous installments. It is criticized for simplifying mechanics, lacking depth, and not incorporating elements from older titles. The game also struggles to follow historical events, undermining a core appeal of the series.

Unfinished, lacking content and features: The game feels unfinished and lacks content, with many missing features and elements from previous installments. Reviewers describe it as a half-finished product, released prematurely with noticeable flaws, and not worth the asking price. Many point to the lack of editing functions, multiplayer, and siege warfare as key omissions.

Poor, unintelligent, passive AI: The AI is frequently criticized for being passive, unintelligent, and making illogical decisions both in and out of battle. This leads to stagnant gameplay, easy victories, and a lack of strategic depth, with the AI often failing to capitalize on advantageous positions or coordinate attacks effectively. Some reviewers note that increasing the difficulty only handicaps the player instead of improving the AI.

Repetitive, monotonous gameplay loop: The gameplay loop becomes repetitive and monotonous, with reviewers citing repetitive quests, events, and dialogues. This leads to boredom and a lack of long-term engagement, with many feeling that the game lacks replayability and becomes a grind after a short period.

Shallow, unengaging social systems: The game's character relationships and social systems are shallow and unengaging, with reviewers finding them repetitive and lacking depth. NPCs do not develop relationships with each other, and the friendship system feels forced and arbitrary, leading to a sense of emptiness and a lack of meaningful interaction.

Focus on character relationships: The game emphasizes character relationships through interactions, gift-giving, and alliances, leading to bonds like sworn siblings, spouses, or rivals. These relationships influence gameplay, character development, and even combat through synergy bonuses. The focus on relationships differentiates this title from grand strategy games, leaning more towards an RPG experience.

Experience and alter historical events: The game features numerous historical scenarios and events from the Three Kingdoms period, allowing players to experience and alter key moments. Players can role-play as various officers, influencing the game's progression and outcome, and even create alternate history scenarios by intervening in historical events.

Varied roles, strategic gameplay loop: Players can choose from multiple roles, such as Ruler, Governor, or unaffiliated officer, each offering different gameplay perspectives and responsibilities. The core gameplay loop involves managing internal affairs, building relationships, and engaging in strategic battles to expand territory and achieve unification.

Modernized remake of original: The game mechanics are reminiscent of older Romance of the Three Kingdoms titles, with simplified and easy-to-understand tutorials. Core gameplay is largely the same as the original, with modern conveniences added to smooth the experience.

Turn-based system, limited diplomacy: The game uses a turn-based system with battles occurring every three months, and includes a diplomacy system for forming alliances. However, on higher difficulty, diplomacy is less effective, and the AI may prioritize occupying empty cities over engaging in conflict.

Inconsistent technical performance, bugs: The game's technical performance is inconsistent. While some players report smooth performance and only minor bugs, others experience frequent freezes, crashes, and black screen issues, even on modern hardware. Autosaving mitigates some progress loss.

Good Steam Deck compatibility: The game is generally well-suited for the Steam Deck. However, the game locks at 30 FPS by default, but this can be bypassed by adding 'SteamDeck=0 %command%' to the Steam launch options, allowing for 60 FPS and other graphics settings.

Unnatural character animations: Some character animations, particularly facial animations, are considered unnatural or of questionable quality, with some reviewers suspecting AI generation. These animations can often be disabled.

Inconsistent frame rates: The game's frame rate is inconsistent, with some areas running at 60 FPS and others locked at 30 FPS, which some players find uncomfortable. Frame drops occur during transitions.

Save data corruption issues: Save data issues exist, including disappearing save files and city troop numbers reverting to incorrect values after loading, which can lead to significant loss of progress and frustration.

Recommended for series' fans: The game is primarily recommended for existing fans of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, particularly those with nostalgia for older titles like ROTK VIII. Newcomers or those unfamiliar with the series may not find it as appealing, and are often directed to other games in the series. Some reviewers suggest that the game is a good entry point for new players, but only if they are already interested in the series.

Wait for sale; overpriced currently: Many reviewers suggest waiting for a sale before purchasing due to the perceived lack of content, high price, and the expectation of future updates or a 'Power-Up Kit' that may improve the overall experience. Some reviewers even express regret for purchasing at full price. Some reviewers mention that the game is only worth it at a 50% or greater discount.

Feels incomplete; lacks polish: Several reviewers feel the game is incomplete, unpolished, or rushed, with missing features and a lack of depth. Some reviewers describe the game as feeling like an early access title or a debugging process rather than a finished product. Some reviewers mention that the game feels outdated or not up to modern standards.

Disappointing remake; not faithful: Some reviewers express disappointment with the remake, stating that it is a shadow of the original game or that it removes features from the original. Some reviewers feel that the remake is not a faithful adaptation of the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII. Some reviewers suggest that the original game should have been optimized instead of remade.

Inferior to other ROTK titles: Many reviewers compare this game unfavorably to other titles in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, particularly ROTK XIII and XIV. Some reviewers suggest that players who enjoy those games should avoid this one, while others recommend sticking with the older titles instead. Some reviewers feel that this game is a step backward for the series.

Hopes for future updates/DLC: Reviewers express hope for future updates, DLC, and continued support from Koei Tecmo to improve the game. Koei Tecmo has been releasing minor free content and patches since release. Some reviewers speculate that Koei will release more content and fixes over the next two years.

AI issues and stagnant gameplay: Reviewers report that the game's AI can negatively impact the experience, leading to uninteresting gameplay scenarios. Some speculate that content was intentionally omitted for future DLC, and that the development team was aware of the game's shortcomings. Alliances with the CPU can lead to stagnant situations.

Many officers and scenarios: The game includes a large number of officers (over 1000) and 50+ historical scenarios. A DLC was released that includes 8 original portraits and the classic scenarios 'Loyal Retainers of the Han' and 'War of the Women'. The game has unlockable bonuses, including unreleased scripts, avatars, and special features.

Lacks Chinese voice acting: The game features Japanese voice acting, but lacks a Chinese voice-over option, which some reviewers find disappointing. The initial sales in China were high, but the game received mixed reviews. The game is played in Chinese, so some text may not match the English version.

Officer relationships and roles: The game features officer relationships represented by intimacy levels, leading to effects like sworn brotherhoods or rivalries. Players can choose from various roles such as ruler, governor, general, strategist, or freelancer, each with different responsibilities and progression paths. Unlike the original, female officers who are not already married in historical records can now be married by the player.