Among the four great classics of Chinese literature, two novels in particular have inspired countless action-packed video games: Journey to the West, with its Monkey King protagonist, and Romance of The Three Kingdoms, a sprawling historical epic about warlords, generals, and strategists trying to save, destroy, or conquer the collapsing Han Dynasty of ancient China. With fresh excitement brewing about the Empires update for Dynasty Warriors 9, now's a good time to take a look back at the more noteworthy "Three Kingdoms" games and how they capture the spirit of the original "三国志".
An aside concerning the historical record. In ancient China around 200 A.D., the decaying Han Dynasty was brought to its knees by the Yellow Turban rebellion, a peasant's uprising led by Daoist mystics. In the wake of the rebellion's collapse, numerous canny Warlords raised armies and made grabs for power. Through alliance, strategy, and skullduggery, the breakaway nations consolidated themselves into the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu, each of them claiming to be the true successor to the Han Dynasty, each willing to wage war to prove it.
The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, a novel dramatizing the conflicts between these successor states, lionizes the warlords of the state of Shu (the chivalrous Liu Bei, his generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, plus his peerless strategist Zhuge Liang) and vilifies Cao Cao, chancellor of the state of Wei and "loyal servant" of a puppet emperor. The dramatic high-points of this book – Liu Bei and his followers swearing the Oath of the Peach Garden, the rampages of Lu Bu, the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhuge Liang playing a zither outside the castle gates – have inspired numerous plays, tv dramas, movies like John Woo's Red Cliff, and the video games mentioned below:
Dynasty Warriors
The long-running Dynasty Warriors franchise, published by Koei and Koei Tecmo since 1997, is a hack'n'slash action series where players control different heroes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, using special martial abilities and attack combos to carve their way through ranks of foot soldiers and defeat enemy generals. In the core gameplay mode of the Dynasty Warriors titles, "Musou," a player chooses a hero character and plays through a campaign depicting the events of Romance of the Three Kingdoms from their hero's perspective.
2013's Dynasty Warriors 8 introduced an intriguing "If" mode, where players who met certain conditions could unlock new campaign routes and alternate history scenarios where different states/heroes win the day. Dynasty Warriors 9, released in 2018, introduced open world roaming mechanics, while the 2021 Empires update will add diplomacy and strategy systems to supplement the tried-and-true mechanic of scything through the Wei army with Guan Yu and his Green Dragon Halberd.
On a side note, the Dynasty Warriors games are where the memetic warning "Do Not Pursue Lu Bu" comes from.
Total War: Three Kingdoms
An installment of Creative Assembly's Total War franchise released in 2019, Total War: Three Kingdoms combined turn-based tactics, resources acquisition, and alliance building with real-time tactical battles where soldier units modeled after period Chinese armies maneuver for advantage while powerful "General Units" such as Guan Yu, Lu Bu, Zheng Jiang, and Zhuge Liang turn the tide of battles through combat prowess, unique powers, and one-on-on duels with their rivals on the field.
There are two campaign modes in Total War: Three Kingdoms – a "Romance Mode" that homages the over-the-top deeds and characters from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, while the "Records Mode" presents a more historically accurate version of the war between Shu, Wei, and Wu. Both campaigns open with the different warlords teaming up against the cruel, tyrannical usurper Dong Zhuo; after Dong Zhuo is inevitably backstabbed by Lu Bu, his own general, battle lines are drawn and the fight to control China begins.
DLCs for Total War: Three Kingdoms introduced a number of new factions drawn from the many side characters of the Three Kingdoms novel. The Eight Princes DLC introduced general units from the Jin Dynasty which came after the Han Dynasty, while the Yellow Turban Rebellion DLC introduces factions and characters from the Yellow Turban uprising that triggered the collapse of the Han.
Battle of Red Cliffs VR
A more obscure but innovative title, Battle of Red Cliffs VR is a very linear VR action game which takes place during the Battle of Red Cliffs, where Liu Bei and Sun Quan joined forced to defeat the armies of Cao Cao in a massive naval battle along the Yangtze river. The player takes on the roll of a general in the Liu Bei/Sun Quan alliance, boarding Cao-Cao's burning river barges and defeating enemy soldiers in first-person VR combat similar to that of the Blade and Sorcery VR, wielding weapons ranging from sword and shield to spears, twin swords, bows, and throwing axes.