Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 - Why the Negative Review

As a long time fan of Koei's RTK series since RTK 2, I was naturally hyped when I heard that RTK 13 was launching. But when I saw Steam's review on the game, it was so depressing that I held back from buying. 

Finally I decided to buy during the promotion, just to support Koei because if not they probably won't be doing any more RTK games in the future. I was pleasantly surprised by the game and the feeling of being immersed in the beauty of China's history came back once more.

I'll start by addressing the bad feedbacks from Steam which I think are valid. Some of the bad feedbacks are really rhetorical and easily answered with simple common sense.

(Just a side note. My last RTK was 11 and I have played from RTK 2 to 11. The only RTK I didn't play was RTK 12 because it was kinda of an online game and I couldn't get the sign up to work. And since the review was bad too I didn’t bother to sign up. Thus I might share some features which I think was awesome but probably already in 12)

1.   Limited slots to assign for jobs even if you have 50 officers

Let’s start from the basic. You have 2 slots for yourself. 6 more if you appoint a War Minister, Domestic Minister and Military Minister that has a corresponding attribute that is 90. If not there will be only 1 slot. There is an additional slot for random officers who will propose random jobs. 

Here’s how it work.

As a ruler, you will have 6 to 9 slots for orders. If you are appointing a viceroy, that viceroy will have another 6 to 9 slots for orders. And if you appoint governors in cities under that viceroy (or he will do it automatically), individual cities will have their own slots for orders.

Thus you should always appoint a governor in your own city even though you have only one city and a viceroy later on. Spread out your non important officers and limit to 6-9 officers per city.

Relating to gameplay

Previously we could send out as many orders to each officer or to group them as 3 for one job. I would say this makes more sense.

For me, limiting assignments in RTK 13 has it’s pros and cons. I cannot control what my ministers/officers propose. But this relieves me of decisions I need to make manually.

 Eg. How would I know which of my 20 towns I need to investigate to find new officers? How about which of my 100 officers in my 3 districts and 30 cities can convince Zhou Yu to join me?

Hey, my war minister would know and propose to me but probably my viceroy’s minister has already sent someone down to have a chat with him.

I will still prefer to make some more manual decisions by myself as sometimes I get stuck with both manual slots for a long time like placating a village or setting a target of 100 for training horses.

Well it’s a love hate relationship for this but to me this doesn’t break the game.

2.   No manual duels. Only random duels.

Duels are only for military officer to duel with military officers,  

Who doesn’t love poking the guy and make him get a -10 morale hit when he rejects you. But in reality, I don’t think a civil officer would want to get this penalty every time some brute comes along and ask for a duel. Participating in the duel may get you killed or captured and risk your entire troop.

Non-battle duels are a plenty in the game. Either fighting with your would be new best friend or some bandit king, players still get to choose and accept duels. But after a few rounds of battle, you will know the simple tactic that the AI uses and guess correctly.

3.   Prefixed Roads. Only one way to the city. Cannot build choke points like RTK 11. You cannot build fortications.

What’s the difference between prefixed roads and prefixed hexagons (RTK 11)?

Siege warfare has been missing in RTK 11. And to tell you the truth I missed it. I want to go banging on the door of Xu Chang and tell Cao Cao that I’m here.

My new city now comes with walls and Cho-Ku-Nu and Cannons. What’s not to love?

Now there are 2 different strategies that you need to employ. One is for the normal battles and the other for the siege battles. This tests your mind as well. It is not just some senseless game that you are getting.

The choke point? The bridge. Just like how Zhang Fei vs Cao Cao at Chang Ban Bo. Sounds more realistic than hexagons now right?

And btw you know that you can place your siege equipment in field battle too right? Placing it at a gate or bridge will require the enemy to destroy it before they can move on.

4.   No way to resupply your army.

You only have 150 days for food for your army. This makes it realistic because if you are at Yong Chang attacking Yue Sui you will understand. The distance is so far that you are forced to make your battles end fast.

If you have friendly cities, you can easily resupply them on the way to your destination. Just use REFORM when your troops reach a friendly city.

However there is no way add more troops as this will cause the whole troop management mechanic haywire.

5.   RPG element is sucky.

I agree. But if you want to play RPG go find a RPG to play. This only means that you can play as an officer instead of a ruler.

6.   Lack of missions

Do you want to visit the 7 wonders of China or do you want to conquer it?

7.   Taking control of the whole army even if you are only a rank 9.

There was feedback of bad AI in previous series so now KOEI allow the users to take control. If you want the AI to take over you can too.

If you see more feedback, players are complaining about the Ruler AI WAR decisions. Oh come on!

In reality that’s true too. You would question the decision of your ruler and call him names. Not happy? Take over!

8.   Price is way too high

I bought at a discount so I’m ok. And honestly no one pays for games more than $60. Btw RTK 3 cost me $99 back then. This is the normal price for RTKs and if you ask me, considering inflation, RTK 13 is cheaper than RTK 3.

Summary

All games are not perfect. New features are thrown in time and time again to give players new experience. And for RTK they have been reinventing their gameplay almost every series. Tell me which games does that? They are almost building the game from ground up every time. Learn to appreciate.

Because of the new features in place, this is one of the most realistic RTK series which I’ve ever played. It got me addicted once more and the movie animations and storytelling are awesome!

So should you invest in RTK 13?

If you are a fan, it is a resounding YES!

If you are not a fan, it is a YES too! This is the best time for you to get in and start! Learn why this is called the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and be the ultimate ruler.

For more players who know about the history of this war torn history of China, I’ve dedicated another post to discuss on the new gameplay and how this is realistic when comparing to history.

Read on here.