The Three Kingdoms of Shadows: Xuzhou

The Three Kingdoms of Shadows: Xuzhou takes the familiar Three Kingdoms setting and gives it a more suspicious, politically charged interpretation. Rather than portraying Liu Bei primarily as an established hero destined for greatness, the game begins with him in a vulnerable position after becoming Tao Qian's successor in Xuzhou. The central idea is that influential local families associated with Chen Deng and Mi Zhu supported Liu Bei because they considered him inexperienced enough to manipulate. This immediately establishes an interesting objective: Liu Bei may technically govern Xuzhou, but the player must gradually turn ceremonial authority into genuine political power. Developed and published by 鹏砚, the game combines strategy, simulation, role-playing and adventure concepts around political decision-making and resource management. Governing Xuzhou requires balancing laws, policies, available resources and military demands while responding to problems affecting the city and its population. External warlords also remain a constant concern. This creates a potentially engaging situation in which domestic politics cannot be separated from diplomacy and warfare. Resources spent st…

A strategy management game that places a lot of focus on story, but since it deals with Chinese history, you won’t get much out of it if you’re not familiar with the characters. After the prologue, you’re free to complete tasks to the best of your abilities. Everything is done by clicking on locations and options, and each location is just a static screen with occasional character images that you can click on to talk to them. There’s quite a lot of text, and it’s nicely translated. If you’re not sure about your current task, you can go home and check what needs to be done. Actions require stamina, and after a while, you will need to rest. There’s not much time pressure because you can rest to earn some money and support. Even if you think an option might be dangerous, you can save your game at any time and erase any mistakes or bad outcomes. Once the task is done, you can move on to the next part of the story and the next task. At certain points, you have to proclaim laws and issue commands. Each law affects something, such as honest trade, which brings higher store prices, or you can focus on farming and gain coins. Another important factor is the two factions, which are more wi…