is a hybrid physical and

digital collectible card game A digital collectible card game (DCCG) or online collectible card game (OCCG) is a computer or video game that emulates collectible card games (CCG) and is typically played online or occasionally as a standalone video game. Many DCCGs are types ...

for the

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

, on the Chihiro arcade board. It is a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to p ...

-based game set in 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 Chinese history and the 14th century Chinese 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. It uses the same housing as '' World Club Champion Football,'' with a sensitive playing area that can detect the position of the physical cards. Over 500 million trading cards have been shipped. It is the sixth trading card arcade game by Sega, following '' World Club Champion Football,'' '' Mushiking: The King of Beetles, The Key of Avalon,'' ''Love and Berry: Dress up and Dance!'' and '' Quest of D''.

Gameplay system

Two opponents are on the opposite ends of a battlefield, with the goal of attacking the enemy's castle until the timer runs out. The game ends if the castle is destroyed or if the time runs out. The player that has more health wins. Before the match, the player builds a deck that can vary heavily in playstyle, depending which troops and factions are chosen. Up to 8 points are allotted to the team, and one card can take up to 3 points.

Version history

The first version of ''Sangokushi Taisen'' was launched 2005 with a 2.0 version following in 2006 and the 3.0 version releasing in 2007. The 3.0 version was released on the Lindbergh arcade platform, and in addition to being available in Japan, it was also released in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. A version called 3.59 ''WAR BEGINS'' launched 2010 and also was a wider Asian release. A completely new game, ''Sengoku Taisen'', also was launched 2010, only in Japan. It had a different scenario set in

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inve ...

and the arcade platform switched to RingEdge. ''Sangokushi Taisen 4'' launched 2016 on the Nu2 arcade platform, available in Japan &

. ''Eiketsu Taisen'', combining both the feudal Japan and Three Kingdoms scenarios, released 2022 on the ALLS UX platform. Outside of the arcade, ''Sangokushi Taisen DS'' was published by Sega in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. It was based on version 2.0 of the arcade game. ''Sangokushi Taisen Ten'' was based on version 3.0 and released on the following year also for the Nintendo DS. ''Sangokushi Taisen INFINITY ONLINE'' was a PC Windows version launched in 2011 by GameCyber Technology Limited in

. The Sangokushi Taisen Trading Card Game - based on the game, released in 2012. The CCG was localized as ''War of Three Kingdoms: The Card Game''. A blockchain-based version of the game was announced in September 2022, in partnership with developer Double Jump Tokyo.

Development

The producer wanted to develop a game based on the ''Romance of the Three Kingdom''s ever since he joined Sega. By 2003, the situation of arcades changed dramatically with internet connection and IC cards that save progress, and with the addition of flat panel reader of ''World Club Champion Football'', it was decided that now was the right time to launch a game based on the ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms''. Rather than being a grand strategy game like the

Koei Tecmo is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games ...

series ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' or Sega's own ''Total War'', the game's producer compared the game to ''Virtua Fighter'', in the sense that it is competetive fighting game between two players.

Reception

NintendoLife Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and othe ...

reviewed the Nintendo DS version of the game positively, lamenting the fact that despite the game continued success in arcades, no versions for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS followed. The game was cited one of the influences for the battle system of '' Final Fantasy XIII''.

References

External links

* {{Romance of the Three Kingdoms Card games introduced in 2005 Video games based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms Real-time tactics video games Sega Games franchises Arcade video games Collectible card games