My steam id: http://steamcommunity.com/id/fantasyheaven/

The game that I am requesting: http://store.steampowered.com/app/278080/

It is a hack-and-slash action game based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The historical novel was written in the 14th century and is regarded as one of the top four of China's classical literature. It covers the century-long conflict during the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdom period following it in China.

The overview of the plot is that due to the nefarious machinations of the eunuchs in the imperial court, corruption became widespread in the government at all levels of office. This eventually led to the Yellow Turban rebellion, led by Zhang Jiao (a playable character). In the novel, he was portrayed as a mystical Taoist - this is reflected in the game by him being a sorcerer with a staff. While the uprising was popular amongst the people, its lack of talented generals became evident after the empire's vassals were called upon to assist in dealing with the rebellion and the threat posed by the Yellow Turbans was contained with Zhang Jiao's death in 184 AD. Still, the Yellow Turbans had dealt a crippling blow to both the imperial army and the emperor's authority. With the emperor's death soon after in 189 AD, the empire quickly fell apart with the vassals acting autonomously - becoming warlords.

The game has a cast of 82 playable characters, with the male characters being the warlords and generals that were given focus in the novel. The majority of the male characters are historical - they actually did exist in real life during said time period.

The core gameplay is simple: choose a character, and then and go through levels that represent the battles that the chosen character had participated in (according to the novel). In addition to the aforementioned "historical" (which is actually a fallacious description as the author had taken liberties with regard to the specifics of several battles) missions, the game also have "hypothetical" scenarios where the factions that were defeated historically ends up winning instead.

As a hack-and-slash game, the playable characters are portrayed as superhuman - the higher you are on the chain of military command the more capable you are at fighting. The playable characters can cut through waves of enemy soldiers and their actions alone can turn the tide of battle.

I have never played a Dynasty Warriors game before, but from what I can tell from gameplay videos, the formula hasn't really changed much throughout the franchise and its spin-offs. I did enjoy playing games from the spin-off franchises (Warriors Orochi and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam) though.

The main reason that I want to play this game is because I am a fan of the historical novel. Not only have I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I have also played several of Koei's grand strategy games with the same name (installments 3, 5, 8, and 11).

I am interested in both reenacting the notable battles in the novel (especially the battle of Hefei, as Zhang Liao's feats in that battle were actually toned down in the novel to make him less impressive) and seeing the hypothetical scenarios. Given that both the Shu and Wu factions were destined to fall (a simple matter of geography and population size that their land can sustain), I am curious to see if Koei is able to create a (chain of) believable scenarios where they don't get wiped out. I am under the impression that the hypothetical scenarios exist to let certain playable characters outlive their historical selves. The most egregious case would be Guo Jia, whose cause of death in the novel was illness - how is completing certain battle objectives going to change that? That said, in the novel Cao Cao did lament after his loss at the battle of Red Cliffs that it would not have happened if Guo Jia was still with him - having him there would be a valid justification for any changes in the battle's outcome.