The larger your territory gets the more you’ll end up relying on their suggestions. Who you place as Minister can affect what sort of suggestions you’ll get.
However, you cannot dictate these yourself, and can merely approve or not approve suggestions from your ministers, setting the amount of resources to give to the task if you allow it. You yourself can only dish out a couple of orders at a time, but by setting Ministers you unlock more slots for orders to go. These “hints” now largely take the form of suggestions from the Ministers you appoint - for War, Military, and Domestic. The hint system from Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence, which had your officers make suggestions in the UI of what you should do next, has been given an overhaul and a fresh coat of character-based paint. In battles they can boost your officer’s special abilities, and enhance your special bar in one on one fights (be they duels or debates). Both strategy and role-playing slot together marvellously in this instalment in the series.Īlong with having a greater sense of character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, relationships and interactions are more important than ever. Need to get hands on to make sure that difficult battle goes your way? Well you better make damn sure you’re actually at that battle, then. Need to make sure your city upgrades happen as fast as possible? Make sure you’re in the right city and you can assist yourself, speeding up the time it will take. Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII makes an awareness of who you are, where you are, and what you’re actually doing yourself more important than ever, and it adds a whole new dynamic to the way grand strategy is handled. Sure, in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence you had one main officer you were playing as, but it often didn’t feel like you had all that much real presence over what was happening. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII who you’re playing as is more important than ever. Romance of the Three Kingdoms doesn’t just centre around one guy, but a tumultuous time for a whole nation, largely revolving around three faction in particular. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a lot more broad than the fairly specific Nobunaga’s Ambition. Which brings us to another difference - the name. These are also the same events that Dynasty Warriors covers (another Koei Tecmo property), so Warriors fans should already be well aware of what’s going on over this period of history, and you even play as some of the officers Warriors fans already know and love. Romance of the Three Kingdoms explores Ancient Chinese history as opposed to Japanese, and is based on the historical work of the same name. But, what’s actually different in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII compared to Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence? Well, for starters the location and the history it covers.
As you’d expect, given the 3 year gap, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII has improved on what we loved.