Game Review - originally written by (wraith)
(editor's note: this review is for the Game Boy version)
This is just classic Destiny of an Emperor fare. The game for the most part plays just like any other 8- or 16-bit era RPG. You wander around in an overhead tile-based map, talk to people, use items, and buy stuff. When you walk around outside of a town, you get randomly attacked.
And, this is where Destiny of an Emperor's presentation deviates somewhat from the RPG norm. Instead of each person being an individual, each person is actually the head of an army. Instead of HP, you have troops, and the encounters aren't with monsters, they're usually with brigands, rebels, or opposing armies. Instead of magic spells, you learn tactics. You can plan carefully, or tell all your generals to just plunge their armies into an all-out battle. Sure, it plays out the same way as any other typical “small band of heroes vs. the supreme evil in the world” kind of RPG, but it's the little injection of realism that makes the DoaE games shine. That, and the setting, which is in China during the Three Kingdoms Era, rather than your typical fancy high-fantasy western medieval type thing. Yeah.
(editor's note: this review is for the Game Boy version)
This is just classic Destiny of an Emperor fare. The game for the most part plays just like any other 8- or 16-bit era RPG. You wander around in an overhead tile-based map, talk to people, use items, and buy stuff. When you walk around outside of a town, you get randomly attacked.
And, this is where Destiny of an Emperor's presentation deviates somewhat from the RPG norm. Instead of each person being an individual, each person is actually the head of an army. Instead of HP, you have troops, and the encounters aren't with monsters, they're usually with brigands, rebels, or opposing armies. Instead of magic spells, you learn tactics. You can plan carefully, or tell all your generals to just plunge their armies into an all-out battle. Sure, it plays out the same way as any other typical “small band of heroes vs. the supreme evil in the world” kind of RPG, but it's the little injection of realism that makes the DoaE games shine. That, and the setting, which is in China during the Three Kingdoms Era, rather than your typical fancy high-fantasy western medieval type thing. Yeah.