PlayStation 4 Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV

Take land, lose it, and take it back: whoever controls the land rules the realm

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical simulation game recreating the Three Kingdoms story, a culmination of human drama set in ancient China.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV, the vast Chinese continent is represented as a collection of small land areas. Domestic administration, warfare, diplomacy and stratagems all revolve around managing and competing for land.

The basic system puts you in control of a ruler on a single map. A simultaneous-planning system advances the game through alternating strategy and progression phases.

Building on Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX, which remains firmly popular with series fans, this entry develops and deepens its approach. Simple yet profound gameplay lets you shape strategies throughout China as you wish.

On a vast, beautifully depicted map, read the intricately intertwined battle situation and draw the best front line to seize enemy territory.

More than one thousand Three Kingdoms heroes appear, including famous generals, strategists, military figures and the remarkable women who bloom amid a turbulent age.

Compete for territory without borders

Draw the front lines and paint the entire continent in your own color.

The single map is divided into small land areas. Each is a strategic unit that provides both a basis for income and a supply line. Competing for these areas—building and destroying front lines—is the heart of strategy.

Every faction can freely expand its front lines beyond city-controlled areas and borders. Use every available means to protect your own land while breaking into enemy territory and strengthening your faction.

Competition for land is represented by competing colors on the map. This simplifies seemingly complex strategic elements into a contest of colors: how to spread your own color is the game's basic idea.

The pleasure of expanding your territory is portrayed with greater precision, freedom and immediacy.

In earlier games, expanding a faction depended on capturing cities, so the focus was on attacking and defending points around those cities.

Here, expansion depends on securing land. Deciding where to establish the front and how far to penetrate enemy territory turns the focus toward attack and defense across areas, with front lines pushing against one another.

Officers whose words and actions express their personalities

The officers display the strongest sense of individuality in the series.

Both military affairs and domestic administration use simultaneous planning and assigned officers. Officers carry out your instructions in ways that show their distinctive character.

Each officer has characteristic traits, demonstrating a unique presence and bringing varied changes to the battle situation.

Unite these individual officers and place the right person in the right position as you plan your strategy.

Officers in cities, as well as those deployed in the field, actively make proposals and express their views. Their suggestions concern military affairs, domestic administration and many other elements, influencing your strategy and sometimes completely changing the course of a battle.

A different experience with every ruler

Administration broadens your strategic options. Each faction establishes an administrative organization that determines its direction.

This is represented by an organizational chart. Assigning officers to that chart grants a faction its own effects and commands.

The chart's structure differs according to the ruler's doctrine, so the experience varies greatly from ruler to ruler.

Even within the same faction, the strategies available can vary enormously according to the administration you establish.

Make full use of your officers to customize a faction to the strategies you envision, chart your own course and win victory. This is one of the game's central pleasures.