Yo-kai Sangokushi is a turn-based tactical role-playing game developed by Koei Tecmo and published by Level-5. It's a crossover between the Yo-kai Watch and Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.
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I really didn't know what to expect going into this game, given that it was a Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Youkai Watch crossover developed between Level 5 and Koei Tecmo. I really only bought it because I love Youkai Watch, but I was blown away by what I got. It was a game I could just not put down. This is up there with Rocket Slime 3 as one of my favorite ever games on 3DS.
The concept of Youkai Watch Sangokushi is that Jibanyan, Komasan, and Usapyon are sucked into a magical Romance of the Three Kingdoms book and must work to unite the kingdom and collect the 8 (not 7, but 8 ) magical orbs of power in order to have their wish to return back to the real world granted. The story is very light-hearted and funny in a usual Youkai Watch fare. Although I must say, perhaps it's because of the Three Kingdoms influence, this is one of the most tightly plotted and consistently funny Youkai Watch games I've played. All the youkai are dressed up as their corresponding Three Kingdoms counterpart, with the counterpart's name tacked on to the end of their normal Youkai Watch name (e.g. Jibanyan Liu Bei). This makes the parody more clear for people who know their Three Kingdoms stuff. The presentation is excellent, with a lot of attention to detail given to the costumes, maps, and jokes ranging from topics to Dragon Ball (hence the 8, not 7, orbs that grant wishes) to general jokes about Three Kingdoms and how the youkai's Youkai Watch personalities clash with whom they're supposed to be representing from Three Kingdoms.
The gameplay is a little like Fire Emblem, but more like Dynasty Warriors Tactics. Although I have not played DWT, it's another game by Koei Tecmo, and the most similar looking thing of theirs that I could compare to this (it even uses some of the same art assets for the Three Kingdoms portraits). The over-world consists of different territories, some of which you control and some of which you don't. Each day, there are a certain number of time units that pass before the next day, and doing things like training up your troops, taking/turning in a quest, or doing a conquest will take up a time unit. When the day ends and the next day begins, the enemy soldiers get their turn, which really just consists of picking one of your bordering territories to invade. If you don't have anyone defending it, you can't fight back against them! This relates to the Youkai Watch aspect of the game.
Being Youkai Watch, as you finish a battle, one of the defeated youkai might approach you and ask to join your ranks. They will then go to an empty space in a territory (armies are only 6 youkai big, so each territory only holds 6). You can only defend as much territory as troops you have to defend it. Given that some youkai are better suited to some roles than others (tank, attacker, healer, buffer/debuffer), this led to some really tough decisions for me during certain points as I had to decide where it was best to focus the concentrations of my best troops in anticipation of the enemy's next move. Even though a day can have up to 6 turn units, a particular troop can only do one training or invasion a day, so you can't just sweep around all the time with one uber-army. You are encouraged very much to diversify, especially later when you need to defeat two quite difficult boss missions within the same day cycle (that was the hardest part of the game for me by far). You can do as many generic training battle missions as you want (or at least as many time-cycles you an afford) to try and recruit new youkai though, so it's not so bad.
The battles themselves are very well designed, albeit not perfect. First off I'll start with what I did not like. Given that this IS a Youkai Watch game, there by law needs to be an inadequate amount of information provided to the player. You can't actually see individual enemy's move ranges or attack ranges. You can't even see your own troop's move ranges or attack ranges until it's their turn to go. You can however turn on a toggle that lets you see the entire enemy team's movement range, but not the corresponding attack ranges. That's really my only major complaint with the combat though.
The combat takes place on a grid of squares Fire Emblem-style, and your guys move around them. These battles are fairly small scale compared to FE though: Armies of both allied and enemies can only contain a maximum of 6 troops, and as a result the maps tend to be fairly small. /Every/ unit has a normal attack they can do infinitely, a magic attack they can do only a limited number of times, and a buff or debuff they can do only a limited number of times. Those limited number of times can be replenished with stamina potions scattered around the battlefield. Each youkai also has a super move that builds up as you take damage and collect youkai power scattered around the stage, and these, as in the normal game, can do anything from massive damage over an area, to healing debuffs of your guys, to dealing big debuffs to an area of enemies. There is NO friendly fire ever, which can take some getting used to, as that includes environmental hazards you can activate. Another very interesting mechanic is only ONE buff OR debuff can be active on any troop at any time. Ally have a nasty debuff? Give him any buff to make him better!
Aside from the recruiting missions, quest missions, and story invasions and repelling invasions, there are also side modes you can do. There are not only missions with certain conditions in which to fight them (start with just 1 HP, kill only the enemy leader, use only Pretty-family youkai, etc.) and boss challenges, but also co-op challenges that can be played with a friend who also has the game. There are also pre-set mini-campaign missions you can embark on outside of the story with pre-set youkai where none of the ones you recruit will follow you back to the main story. The aforementioned mode can also be played in a competitive multiplayer mode against 1 to 3 other people. All of the multiplayer features, including youkai trading, can all be done either locally or online. However, as I have no friends who are into niche Japan-only 3DS SRPG's, I was never able to test any of those multiplayer modes.
This also has the privilege of being by far the best paced Youkai Watch game I've ever played. A problem all of the other games in the series, mainline and spin-off, have up to this points is a brutally difficult end-game and a monstrously difficult post-game to the point where you'd need to spend dozens and dozens of hours grinding to see any of it. Sangokushi has a very low difficulty curve the whole game through. It was still hard at points, but it was never something I felt I wasn't equipped to handle or could figure out how to get past reasonably quickly. Big props to it for actually having all the content not be locked behind dozens of hours of grinding for a change.
Verdict: Highly recommended. This is probably, if not my favorite, one of my favorite SRPG's I've ever played. It's one of my favorite 3DS games I've ever played. The whole thing is just so clever and designed so tightly and fits so well in handheld bursts or longer play sessions that this is one I cannot recommend enough if it even sounds a little appealing. This may very well be my favorite Youkai Watch game, period, although we'll see what Youkai Watch 3 does to combat that! X3
The concept of Youkai Watch Sangokushi is that Jibanyan, Komasan, and Usapyon are sucked into a magical Romance of the Three Kingdoms book and must work to unite the kingdom and collect the 8 (not 7, but 8 ) magical orbs of power in order to have their wish to return back to the real world granted. The story is very light-hearted and funny in a usual Youkai Watch fare. Although I must say, perhaps it's because of the Three Kingdoms influence, this is one of the most tightly plotted and consistently funny Youkai Watch games I've played. All the youkai are dressed up as their corresponding Three Kingdoms counterpart, with the counterpart's name tacked on to the end of their normal Youkai Watch name (e.g. Jibanyan Liu Bei). This makes the parody more clear for people who know their Three Kingdoms stuff. The presentation is excellent, with a lot of attention to detail given to the costumes, maps, and jokes ranging from topics to Dragon Ball (hence the 8, not 7, orbs that grant wishes) to general jokes about Three Kingdoms and how the youkai's Youkai Watch personalities clash with whom they're supposed to be representing from Three Kingdoms.
The gameplay is a little like Fire Emblem, but more like Dynasty Warriors Tactics. Although I have not played DWT, it's another game by Koei Tecmo, and the most similar looking thing of theirs that I could compare to this (it even uses some of the same art assets for the Three Kingdoms portraits). The over-world consists of different territories, some of which you control and some of which you don't. Each day, there are a certain number of time units that pass before the next day, and doing things like training up your troops, taking/turning in a quest, or doing a conquest will take up a time unit. When the day ends and the next day begins, the enemy soldiers get their turn, which really just consists of picking one of your bordering territories to invade. If you don't have anyone defending it, you can't fight back against them! This relates to the Youkai Watch aspect of the game.
Being Youkai Watch, as you finish a battle, one of the defeated youkai might approach you and ask to join your ranks. They will then go to an empty space in a territory (armies are only 6 youkai big, so each territory only holds 6). You can only defend as much territory as troops you have to defend it. Given that some youkai are better suited to some roles than others (tank, attacker, healer, buffer/debuffer), this led to some really tough decisions for me during certain points as I had to decide where it was best to focus the concentrations of my best troops in anticipation of the enemy's next move. Even though a day can have up to 6 turn units, a particular troop can only do one training or invasion a day, so you can't just sweep around all the time with one uber-army. You are encouraged very much to diversify, especially later when you need to defeat two quite difficult boss missions within the same day cycle (that was the hardest part of the game for me by far). You can do as many generic training battle missions as you want (or at least as many time-cycles you an afford) to try and recruit new youkai though, so it's not so bad.
The battles themselves are very well designed, albeit not perfect. First off I'll start with what I did not like. Given that this IS a Youkai Watch game, there by law needs to be an inadequate amount of information provided to the player. You can't actually see individual enemy's move ranges or attack ranges. You can't even see your own troop's move ranges or attack ranges until it's their turn to go. You can however turn on a toggle that lets you see the entire enemy team's movement range, but not the corresponding attack ranges. That's really my only major complaint with the combat though.
The combat takes place on a grid of squares Fire Emblem-style, and your guys move around them. These battles are fairly small scale compared to FE though: Armies of both allied and enemies can only contain a maximum of 6 troops, and as a result the maps tend to be fairly small. /Every/ unit has a normal attack they can do infinitely, a magic attack they can do only a limited number of times, and a buff or debuff they can do only a limited number of times. Those limited number of times can be replenished with stamina potions scattered around the battlefield. Each youkai also has a super move that builds up as you take damage and collect youkai power scattered around the stage, and these, as in the normal game, can do anything from massive damage over an area, to healing debuffs of your guys, to dealing big debuffs to an area of enemies. There is NO friendly fire ever, which can take some getting used to, as that includes environmental hazards you can activate. Another very interesting mechanic is only ONE buff OR debuff can be active on any troop at any time. Ally have a nasty debuff? Give him any buff to make him better!
Aside from the recruiting missions, quest missions, and story invasions and repelling invasions, there are also side modes you can do. There are not only missions with certain conditions in which to fight them (start with just 1 HP, kill only the enemy leader, use only Pretty-family youkai, etc.) and boss challenges, but also co-op challenges that can be played with a friend who also has the game. There are also pre-set mini-campaign missions you can embark on outside of the story with pre-set youkai where none of the ones you recruit will follow you back to the main story. The aforementioned mode can also be played in a competitive multiplayer mode against 1 to 3 other people. All of the multiplayer features, including youkai trading, can all be done either locally or online. However, as I have no friends who are into niche Japan-only 3DS SRPG's, I was never able to test any of those multiplayer modes.
This also has the privilege of being by far the best paced Youkai Watch game I've ever played. A problem all of the other games in the series, mainline and spin-off, have up to this points is a brutally difficult end-game and a monstrously difficult post-game to the point where you'd need to spend dozens and dozens of hours grinding to see any of it. Sangokushi has a very low difficulty curve the whole game through. It was still hard at points, but it was never something I felt I wasn't equipped to handle or could figure out how to get past reasonably quickly. Big props to it for actually having all the content not be locked behind dozens of hours of grinding for a change.
Verdict: Highly recommended. This is probably, if not my favorite, one of my favorite SRPG's I've ever played. It's one of my favorite 3DS games I've ever played. The whole thing is just so clever and designed so tightly and fits so well in handheld bursts or longer play sessions that this is one I cannot recommend enough if it even sounds a little appealing. This may very well be my favorite Youkai Watch game, period, although we'll see what Youkai Watch 3 does to combat that! X3
This game feels good at first, but is insanely easy- I only found myself struggling on two fights in the whole game. I didn’t enjoy it all that much.
a strategy game so simple i could play through it despite it only being in japanese with my extremely rudimentary japanese skills at the time. It's a pretty rudimentary strategy game, there's not really a whole lot goin on with this one. It do be yo kai watch meets romance of the three kingdoms though so if that sounds like your jam then go for it. I should probably replay this now that I can actually read japanese a lot better than I could when I first played this.