Sangoku Hime 4: Giving up in Exasperation
Entry posted by Clephas
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Like some others, I got tricked into playing yet another gameplay-hybrid in the series of games by Gesen known as the Sangoku Hime series. To be honest... I couldn't imagine how they could have screwed things up worse.
First of all, they used their 'restructuring' of the game as a big draw for those who were disappointed with a lot of the aspects of 3. They basically redid all the character designs (without exception) with completely new characterization, art, and voices... and I'll be honest, I couldn't imagine how they could have screwed things up worse.
It isn't just that the style has regressed in some ways (the male character designs, which were actually pretty awesomely detailed in previous games, are now unbelievably crappy by any standard, probably to bring them in line with the new, moe-moe character designs for the female characters)... if it were just that, I would have shrugged and let it go. Unfortunately, it pretty much eliminated the best part of 3, which was the glorious atmosphere that enveloped you at key historical moments, such as the confrontation with the Yellow Turbans or the Alliance against Dong Zhuo... and especially when you defeated one of the Three Kingdoms or reached another historical turning points. Sun Ce, who was a warrior-queen type in the previous games, has turned into a moe-airhead with a war-addiction in this one. Cao Cao, who always put her ambition first and had the immense strength of will to follow through on her plans at all costs, while possessing a surprising sense of mercy and compassion to those who followed her or surrendered to her... has become a kuudere with a love of sweets. Even worse, her appearance in 3, which was kind of demonic, was changed drastically to make her into 'just another leader-heroine'. The only ones that hadn't changed were the Liu Bei followers, whose drive and personality hadn't essentially changed (though their visuals had changed significantly... oddly the only positive visual change I saw in the game).
Now, setting aside the characterization and visual changes in other characters, we'll come to the change I found the most unbelievably annoying. Ginga, for all that he was a straight-out womanizing soldier-type in the previous games, nonetheless had a distinct personality. He was a powerful individual who knew the battlefield like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, he was replaced in the new game by Akito, your typical 'nice-guy' VN protagonist who happens to have an ability to see the future in dreams (and yet he can't seem to figure out how to use it... until late in various paths). Oh, there were other big issues throughout what I played... such as the lack of serious character development and the retaining of pointless slice of life scenes for side-characters that feels out of place in an otherwise serious game. However, the writing/story side just basically lost ALL of its luster... leaving you with the drudgery of the Sangoku Hime series (yes, the actual game-progression hadn't changed a bit from the previous games).
There were some changes to the gameplay... such as the contraction of the soldier-types into a mere six different ones (light infantry, destroyers, barbarians, cavalry, archers, and tacticians (female or male)) versus the twelve or so that existed in previous games. This was actually an improvement in some ways, as it clearly redefined the classes according to their abilities and role. The character-building system is also simplified into three trees (war, learning, and astrology) and is expanded to cover all generals, not just the unique ones. Unfortunately, that simplification means that it is hard to impossible to overcome weaknesses in vital characters such as the ruler of your country (Liu Bei and Sun Ce both have weak political abilities compared to Cao Cao, whose abilities in this area are among the highest in the game). This can be a huge handicap, as your leader's political ability determines how much you can do in a single turn. You also lose most of the skills that were most useful in the previous games, such as the ones that let you massively increase your attack power in certain situations (thus giving you more strategic options).
In the end, I just had to drop the game after I conquered half of China with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and the Sun family... all three had exactly the same problems. Not to mention that the detailed story scenes that recreated certain minor but vital historical events were gone entirely (I particularly missed the events from Cao Cao's rise to power, which were fascinating and as true to the base material as anything I've seen in a game like this).
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