The PC is where it's at for strategy games.  That's what they say.  "They" being the primary buyers of strategy games.  Most strategy games are developed for the PC, and most console strategy games are ports.  Does this mean that the PC should be the #1 place for strategy games?  Only in a world where KOEI does not exist.

One of the longest-running console strategy games, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, has had so many sequels that even casual gamers have heard the name.  I've heard the name and seen screenshots of the series for as long as I can remember.  But it wasn't until last year when a certain Game Boy Advance strategy game arrived that I realized just how entertaining the genre could be.  That game was Advance Wars 2.

Since that time I've been searching for the console equivalent of Advance Wars.  And with Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX (yes -- the 9th game in the series), I have finally found it.

Although there is a decent story here (and a great soundtrack to soothe your ears during long missions), RTK is a pure, complex, and sometimes puzzling strategy game.  You'll forget the characters, ignore the dialogue and become completely immersed in the tasks and objectives.  Character dialogue is important because it reveals all of the important mission details.  You'll also receive hints from your comrades from time to time.  But that's not the reason for playing.

Raise gold, increase food supply, select attack units.  Those three commands should sound familiar to anyone who's played a strategy game before.  These commands, however, may not: draft men, mislead the enemy, and spread rumors to damage their relationship with allies.  These are just a few of the many options this game gives you.  Commands are easy to execute, and there's an excellent tutorial that carefully explains the most important actions.  Still, the game felt very overwhelming at first.  But in a good way.

When you're not doing Sim City-type actions that involve the quality of your cities, you'll likely be getting ready to battle.  If the enemy is making the first move, it's possible to use that to your advantage by increasing the number of troops to send.  Or by decreasing them.  You don't necessarily need more troops than your enemy has to win.  However, if you have too few, you could get slaughtered, and then you've attempted to fight for nothing.

While your troops are sent into battle, you might notice that your city is under attack.  Now you see that you should've left some troops home!  It's never-ending battle that involves a lot of planning.  You must carefully think about each move before taking action.  Otherwise you'll be the one who's left lying on the battlefield.

If you want to be diplomatic leader, you have the option to send a gift to another force, attempting to improve your relations with it.  Once you're on good terms with that force, you may then ask them to attack a facility for you.  It's nice how that works, isn't it?  You send a gift to be "nice," and then avoid bloodshed by having them do the dirty work for you.  Of course, you'll likely have to join them in battle if you want to complete the mission.

If that doesn't work out you might find yourself in a battle with the force you hoped would be your ally.  At this point you might want to take a look your strength and how high your repute is.  If it's high, stop playing games and demand that the other force surrenders or face battle.  If they surrender, their forces will be handed over to you.  They'll obey your commands (to an extent – obedience depends on the individual's statistics), and make it that much easier to take over the world.  (Ahem), I mean save the world from all that is evil.

As you can see, this is a game of many IFs – if this happens, the following will occur.  If it doesn't happen, something else will.

Outside of battle, Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX is not the prettiest of games.  Backgrounds are plain and look somewhat flat.  The buildings have texture but are small due to the number of cities that must be crammed into one world.

Inside of battle the game looks nice.  The effects aren't exactly next-generation (or even current generation), but the animation is pretty cool.  The troops look as though they were drawn by hand.  White flashes (from clashing swords) and picture overlays (still pictures of various battles) cover up most of the detail.  It's not a bad effect, but it feels dated, and makes me wonder how incredible the game could have looked if every battle played out in real-time.

Besides fans of the series, who should Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX belong to?  If you haven't played the series before but had enough interest in it to read this review, that's a good sign that this game is for you.  Like any strategy game, this is a slow, drawn-out quest that will take more hours of your life than you may have wanted to part with.  You're not going to finish this in a day, and you probably won't finish it in a week, unless you devote yourself to it and only it for the next seven days.  The Advance Wars series looks like a cakewalk in comparison!  When you're screaming and yelling at the game, wishing that the enemy will fall, you'll find it nearly impossible to put the controller down and walk away.  Death may follow several times in a row, but you'll still come back.  It's a scary addiction.

Gameplay: 8.8
Before heading into this epic quest, I just have one thing to say: think!  Think before every move, after every move, and in between each move.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX is a turn-based strategy game with a lot of bite.  Clicking on menus to issue commands may not sound like much, and that's what I thought before I gave the genre a shot.  But when done as well as it is here, the simplistic task of point-and-clicking becomes so much more.

You could spend hours preparing your cities for the worst, raising their gold, trust, population, and other statistics.  Or you could spend that time preparing a sneak attack against someone who isn't even a threat.  It could backfire, or it could payoff by adding more territory to your list.  That would make you even stronger for when the enemy decides to attack.

Graphics: 6

Sound: 7.5
A great, epic soundtrack.  It becomes repetitive after a while (there's a limited number of songs), but when your mind is set on winning a battle you won't even notice the background noise.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Master the enemy’s strategy to win with ease.  Doing that should take you about…oh, I don’t know, a millennium or two.

Concept: 7
Turn-based strategizing from the developer of Dynasty Warriors.  This is the ninth game in the series, but there are some new additions that keep it from being a rehash.

Multiplayer: 6
This isn't really a "multiplayer" game.  Up to eight players can take turns, but who wants to sit and wait that long for their friends to strategize?  It could take all day just to get through one war!  Online play would make a lot more sense (hint, hint, KOEI).

Overall: 8.5
Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX will satisfy your turn-based strategy game needs.  Only one side effect has been discovered: after playing the game for long periods of time, you may not be able to remember what time or what day it is.