What is Robunaga Anyway? Why You Should Be Checking Out Romance of the Three Kingdom’s Latest Expansion

We already reviewed the latest Romance of the Three Kingdoms (XIII) and Nobunaga’s Ambition (Ascension) so check those out! Romance’s new expansion takes sprinkles from both, and is a great starting point for those interested in Robunaga‘ing — which is what I’m now dubbing the dual-series.

 

So what is Robunaga? Both series allow you to play through actual historical events as part of a grand strategy game — 169 AD – 280 AD China in Romance of the Three Kingdoms; and about 1560-1600 AD Japan in Nobunaga’s Ambition. You can choose different scenarios to play based on different events in those periods. If you start early, the big landmark events will play out anyway.

 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack

 

They’re really great for those interested in the history, and if you have a particular preference in Chinese history or Japanese history you may as well use that to decide which series to check out. As both have gone along, they’ve come a bit closer to one another in terms of gameplay, though they both still have their differences, and one is always going to be newer than the other. It’s actually pretty interesting how both series learn from one another.

 

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack

 

Generally speaking Romance of the Three Kingdoms tends to put you in control more as an individual, and Nobunaga’s Ambition has you playing more as a clan, though in Nobunaga’s Ambition Sphere of Influence — Ascension they added the option to play as someone progressing through the ranks of a clan. Because of this, battles in Romance can only be controlled if you, the player, are involved in the combat, whereas in Nobunaga you can generally be in there whenever your clan is fighting, which does allow for some more control in battles.

 

Obviously, based on the history and locations, they have some very different scenarios and the maps are vastly different. It tends to be in Romance you end up with huge factions vying for power (after all, the history mainly revolved around three kingdoms), whereas in Nobunaga it usually involves a lot of smaller clans, and it’s on you to make sure you’re teaming up assimilating without creating too many enemies.

 

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack

 

Ultimately, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack is the latest release, and expands the base game pretty significantly (you can buy it all as one pack too). It’s got all the bells and whistles added to the series so far, and it’s the first time we’ve gotten one of the Power Up Kits in English. It adds a lot more depth to most of the systems, especially the concept of just playing one character. You can now specialise your prestige to work towards speccing your character into either the kind of chap you want to be, or the one you want to roleplay.

 

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack

 

There are also more officers to choose from than ever, and you can even marry and have kids now. It’s going full role play, and I kind of love it. You can really feel like one person struggling to meet the demands of your lord via regular councils, and battle councils have also been added to allow you to reach for grander strategies even in battle. Fame & Strategy also adds some extra scenarios, expanding on some later history that prove to be some of my favourites as they let you jump in with some pretty high stakes right off the bat, so you don’t have to worry about building up from a small start if you don’t want to.

 

But most of all you might want to check it out just for Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII‘s Hero Mode (in the base game), a feature that desperately needs picking up in Nobunaga. This takes you through the main historical events in a stage based structure, while slowly introducing you to the game’s features. This sort of makes it a super long tutorial, and while it’s not always super challenging (only the last couple of stages are), it really helps get you started with both the setting and mechanics, ready to jump into a fresh scenario.

 

The main game can get very complicated, especially at a glance (really you can neglect the systems you don’t care for as long as you’re aware of them to some extent). A little bit like fighting games, strategy games can live and die by their friendliness to newcomers, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII really does a great job with that.

 

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy Pack

 

Robunaga is a great series that provides a unique historical look that focuses on just these two eras. They’re not the only games to cover them, but, having been around since 1983, it’s one of the oldest, and one that does it best. Whether you choose to jump in with Romance or Nobunaga, it might be best to stick with one of the more recent ones on pure ease of use.

 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Fame & Strategy has a wealth of great new features that build on the already great-for-newcomers features of the original release of XIII. If you like grand strategy, make sure to give these a shot, as they have their own flavour you can’t get elsewhere. They’re both fascinating periods of history, and there’s not many better ways to take it in than to just let it wash over you, Robunaga style.

 

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