''Destiny of an Emperor'', known in Japan as , is a strategy role-playing game by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', ''Mega Man'', ''De ...

for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

based on the ''

Tenchi wo Kurau is a Japanese manga series by Hiroshi Motomiya. The storyline is set in the Three Kingdoms period, when Western Shu, Northern Wei and Eastern Wu battled to conquer all of China. Plot Liu Bei is a descendant of Liu Sheng, prince Jing of Zhon ...

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

by Hiroshi Motomiya. It was originally released in Japan in 1989, with an English language localization released for the North American market in 1990.

Story

Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu form a small

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

to defend their village from Yellow Turban rebels, followers of the sorcerer Zhang Jiao. Liu Bei gathers peasants and farmers from nearby villages and camps, eventually defeating Zhang Jiao and his people. Tao Qian, the governor of

Xu Province Xuzhou as a historical toponym refers to varied area in different eras. Ordinarily, it was a reference to the one of the Nine Provinces (China), Nine Provinces which modern Xuzhou inherited. History Pre-Qin era Xuzhou or Xu Province was one ...

, falls ill and requests that Liu Bei assume his position. Liu Bei hesitantly agrees, thus beginning the events depicted in the novel, albeit with significant alterations. Upon successfully completing the game, the player successfully unites China under the

Shu Han Han (; 221–263), known in historiography as Shu Han ( ) or Ji Han ( "Junior Han"), or often shortened to Shu (; pinyin: ''shŭ'' <

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

s of the period. Most of the deviations occur later in the game, particularly involving the invasions of the other ruling powers, the Kingdom of Sun Wu and the Kingdom of Cao Wei. The branching storyline allows the player the option of choosing alternate paths, which generally do not affect the plot in any significant manner.

Gameplay

Unlike virtually every other RPG released at the time or since, the non-boss battles of ''Destiny of an Emperor'' do not consist solely of encounters with generic units. While generic enemy units do appear in the game, most random battles are fought against one or more generals randomly selected from those roaming the lands the player's party is traveling through at the time. Additionally, most of these unique units can be recruited. After being defeated in battle, there is a random chance that the general will offer to join the party, usually under the condition that the player character pays him a bribe of either money or horses (which can be purchased at item shops). Once recruited, the general will no longer be encountered in random battles. Because of this system, the game has an exceptionally large number of playable characters, 150 in all. However, many of these characters do not increase in power even when they accumulate experience points, making them useful only for a limited time. Also, the player may only have up to 70 characters in his party. After reaching this limit, the player can only recruit new characters if he ejects characters from his party to free up the slots. After being removed from the party, generals are again the player's enemies and can once more be encountered in random battles. The player's active party consists of up to seven members, five of which can actively participate in combat at any single time, one who serves as a replacement for characters killed in combat, and one to serve as both a reinforcement member and party

tactician A tactic is a conceptual action or short series of actions with the aim of achieving a short-term goal. This action can be implemented as one or more specific tasks. The term is commonly used in business, protest and military contexts, as well as ...

. The tactician provides magic-like effects, which all members involved in combat are able to use. In addition to standard attack and tactics options available in most games of the type, there is an option called "All-Out". When chosen, the computer AI takes control of the battle, which proceeds at an extremely fast rate. This is solely a way of speeding up the easier battles and has no tactical advantage, as the player is unable to coordinate attacks or employ tactics, while the AI-controlled enemy can.

Release

''Destiny of an Emperor'' is based on Hiroshi Motomiya's

, ''

'', which follows the story of Chinese historical figure

Liu Bei Liu Bei (, ; ; 161 – 10 June 223), courtesy name Xuande (), was a warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who founded the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period and became its first ruler. Although he was a distant relative of the ...

and his

sworn brothers Blood brother can refer to two or more men not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is in modern times usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where each person makes a small cut, usually on a finger, hand or ...

, Zhang Fei and

Guan Yu Guan Yu (; ), courtesy name Yunchang, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on ...

. This story is loosely based upon the events in the 14th-century historical novel ''

Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD ...

'' by

Luo Guanzhong Luo Ben (c. 1330–1400, or c.1280–1360), better known by his courtesy name Guanzhong (Mandarin pronunciation: ), was a Chinese writer who lived during the Ming dynasty. He was also known by his pseudonym Huhai Sanren (). Luo was attri ...

, which itself was based on historical events and battles which occurred before and during the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the West ...

period of

ancient China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapt ...

. ''Destiny of an Emperor'' was included in the "Nintendo Classic Mini: Family Computer Weekly Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary Commemoration Version," a console created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the weekly Japanese manga magazine '' Shōnen Jump''. A sequel to ''Destiny of an Emperor'', '' Tenchi wo Kurau II'', was released exclusively for the Japanese Family Computer.

Reception

Jeremy Parish praised it as "interesting" and "adorable," suggesting people check it out while noting that it is not an "oft-mentioned classic." 9dragons of ''RPGamer'' discussed how the game was fun, but the story did not interest them when they were younger. When they tried the game at a later age, they felt more invested in the game, now knowing that it is based on historical events, which made them feel like they were "living the history." Ethan Gach of ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. Histor ...

'' expressed hope that ''Destiny of an Emperor'' would be released for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

's NES library. Joshua Jankiewicz of ''Hardcore Gaming 101'' felt it odd that it was released in the United States due to the reticence of publishers to release role-playing games, particularly those with "Eastern" themes, in the United States. They lamented the lack of press coverage at the time for the game, praising it for being challenging without being unfair in a way that other games often fail to do. They also praised the auto-battle function, feeling it a good way to keep battles with weaker enemies from feeling tedious. However, they found the exploration limited and monotonous and felt that problems with the game, such as money and food being too abundant and the high number of characters being useless due to the proficiency of the five main characters, pop up in the latter part of it. Despite this, they felt these flaws were not significant due to it being Capcom's first attempt at a role-playing game. Author Andy Slaven felt it was "all too often overlooked," calling its gameplay unique, challenging, and fun. In 2007, a hacking tool was created called ''Destiny of an Editor''. This tool was originally meant to alter stats, but over time gained additional functionality, including the ability to edit maps, text, enemy encounters, and graphics. The hacking community went on to create the Huan Ho awards, celebrating the best ''Destiny of an Emperor'' hacks.

References

External links