Sangokushi Taisen (Japanese: 三国志大戦) is a hybrid physical and digital collectible card game for the arcade, on the Chihiro arcade board. It is a real-time strategy-based game set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history and the 14th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. It uses the same housing as World Club Champion Football, with a sensitive playing area that can detect the position of the physical cards.[1] Over 500 million trading cards have been shipped.[2] It is the sixth trading card arcade game by Sega, following World Club Champion Football, Mushiking: The King of Beetles, The Key of Avalon, Love and Berry: Dress up and Dance! and Quest of D.[3]

Sangokushi Taisen
Developer(s)Sega AM1
Gamecyber Technology Limited (PC)
Publisher(s)Sega
Gamecyber Technology Limited (PC)
Producer(s)Yasuhiro Nishiyama
Atsushi Seimiya
Composer(s)Susumu Tsugakoshi
Tomonori Sawada
Platform(s)Arcade, Nintendo DS, PC
ReleaseArcade
2005 (1.0)
2006 (2.0)
2007 (3.0)
2010 (3.59 WAR BEGINS, Sengoku Taisen)
2016 (Sangokushi Taisen 4)
2022 (Eiketsu Taisen)
Nintendo DS
2007
2008 (Ten)
PC
2011
Genre(s)Real-time strategy,
Collectible card game
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemSega Nu2, Sega RingEdge, Sega Lindbergh, Sega Chihiro

Gameplay system edit

Two opponents are on the opposite ends of a battlefield, with the goal of attacking the enemy's castle until the timer runs out. The game ends if the castle is destroyed or if the time runs out. The player that has more health wins. Before the match, the player builds a deck that can vary heavily in playstyle, depending which troops and factions are chosen. Up to 8 points are allotted to the team, and one card can take up to 3 points.[4]

Version history edit

The first version of Sangokushi Taisen was launched 2005 with a 2.0 version following in 2006 and the 3.0 version releasing in 2007. The 3.0 version was released on the Lindbergh arcade platform, and in addition to being available in Japan, it was also released in Shanghai, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. A version called 3.59 WAR BEGINS launched 2010 and also was a wider Asian release. A completely new game, Sengoku Taisen, also was launched 2010, only in Japan. It had a different scenario set in feudal Japan and the arcade platform switched to RingEdge. Sangokushi Taisen 4 launched 2016 on the Nu2 arcade platform, available in Japan & Hong Kong. Eiketsu Taisen, combining both the feudal Japan and Three Kingdoms scenarios, released 2022 on the ALLS UX platform.

Outside of the arcade, Sangokushi Taisen DS was published by Sega in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. It was based on version 2.0 of the arcade game. Sangokushi Taisen Ten was based on version 3.0 and released on the following year also for the Nintendo DS. Sangokushi Taisen INFINITY ONLINE was a PC Windows version launched in 2011 by GameCyber Technology Limited in Hong Kong. The Sangokushi Taisen Trading Card Game - based on the game, released in 2012. The CCG was localized as War of Three Kingdoms: The Card Game.[5]

A blockchain-based version of the game was announced in September 2022, in partnership with developer Double Jump Tokyo.[6]

Development edit

The producer wanted to develop a game based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms ever since he joined Sega. By 2003, the situation of arcades changed dramatically with internet connection and IC cards that save progress, and with the addition of flat panel reader of World Club Champion Football, it was decided that now was the right time to launch a game based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Rather than being a grand strategy game like the Koei Tecmo series Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Sega's own Total War, the game's producer compared the game to Virtua Fighter, in the sense that it is competitive fighting game between two players.[7]

Reception edit

NintendoLife reviewed the Nintendo DS version of the game positively, lamenting the fact that despite the game continued success in arcades, no versions for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS followed.[8] The game was cited one of the influences for the battle system of Final Fantasy XIII.[9]

References edit

  1. ^ "三国志大戦 – 株式会社セガ". セガ・アーケードゲームヒストリー|株式会社セガ (in Japanese). Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  2. ^ "Sega Develops New Sangokushi Taisen Game". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  3. ^ 「セガい共通テスト」公式対策オンライン講座「セガゼミ」 第3回 アーケード 西村先生, retrieved 2022-10-16
  4. ^ "Matters Of Import: Conflict Is Always On The Cards In Sega's Sangokushi Taisen Ten". Nintendo Life. 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  5. ^ "War of Three Kingdoms: The Card Game". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  6. ^ "「三国志大戦」のIPを使用したブロックチェーンゲームの開発をdouble jump.tokyoが発表。ゲームに特化したブロックチェーン"Oasys"を採用". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2022-09-28.
  7. ^ "『三国志大戦』見参!(前編) | セガボイス | SEGA". 2008-04-01. Archived from the original on 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  8. ^ "Matters Of Import: Conflict Is Always On The Cards In Sega's Sangokushi Taisen Ten". Nintendo Life. 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  9. ^ "Final Fantasy XIII Creators On The Influence of Call of Duty, Card Games & The Toyota Prius". Kotaku. 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2022-08-21.

External links edit