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 of ...

for the

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

, on the Chihiro arcade board. It is a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

-based game set in the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...

period of

Chinese history The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

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 and ...

'' by

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

. It uses the same housing as ''

World Club Champion Football ' is a Japanese football/soccer sports arcade video game and digital collectible card game released by Sega. The game is officially abbreviated as WCCF. It is the first arcade game to combine trading cards with a video game, establishing a new ...

'', 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 ''

'', '' Mushiking: The King of Beetles'', '' The Key of Avalon'', '' Love and Berry: Dress Up and Dance!'' and ''

Quest of D ' is an arcade game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega on the Chihiro arcade board. It is the fifth trading card arcade game by Sega, following ''World Club Champion Football'', ''Mushiking: The King of Beetles'', ''Avalon no Kagi, The Ke ...

''.

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 Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, it was also released in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. A version called 3.59 ''WAR BEGINS'' launched 2010 and was also a wider Asian release. A completely new game, ''Sengoku Taisen'', 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 the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

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

. ''Eiketsu Taisen'', combining both the feudal Japan and Three Kingdoms scenarios, was released in 2022 on the ALLS UX platform. Outside of the arcade, ''Sangokushi Taisen DS'' was published by Sega in 2007 for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

. 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, was released in 2012. The CCG was localized as ''War of Three Kingdoms: The Card Game''. A

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

-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 A grand strategy wargame or simply grand strategy game (GSG) is a wargame that places focus on grand strategy: military strategy at the level of movement and use of a nation state or empire's resources. The genre has considerable overlap with 4 ...

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 video game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo ...

series ''

'' or Sega's own ''

Total War Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all (including civilian-associated) resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilises all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare ov ...

'', the game's producer compared the game to ''Virtua Fighter'', in the sense that it is competitive fighting game between two players.

Reception

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

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 as one of the influences for the battle system of ''

Final Fantasy XIII is a 2009 role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles and later for Windows (in 2014). Released in Japan in December 2009 and international in March 2010, it is the thirteenth titl ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Romance of the Three Kingdoms Arcade video games Card games introduced in 2005 Collectible card games Real-time tactics video games Sega video game franchises Video games based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Tomonori Sawada