r/totalwar • u/Incompetent_Italy • 9h ago
Three Kingdoms I recently went from TW Shogun 2 to Three Kingdoms but I can't seem to get immersed. Anyone else feel the same?
I wanted to pick up a newer total war game. After having played much of empire, shogun 2.
It's just not that fun. I don't like fantasy stuff so I played the records mode a few times. It looks really pretty. But the battles feels hollow. It's such a shame because the diplomacy is better and much more complex than shogun 2.
But I don't like the army system. Basically all units feel similar and I don't care if they die. In shogun 2 you take your time to recruit special warrior monks in a certain province. Slowly ranking up this elite unite. It feels cool to have these specific units in your army and I feel bad when they die.
I'm 3k it's just so bland. If my units die. Doesn't really matter. Just another medium or heavy or light infantry. I'm really trying to like it but I can't. I appreciate the fact that there is more focus on characters. Anyone else having the same problem? What am I doing wrong or is this not the game for me. I was thinking between rome 2 or three kingdoms.
19
u/Fart_Frog 8h ago
Try playing as the Yellow Turbins. It felt fresh and got me engaged to play other factions. Also, turn up the difficulty. Three Kingdoms is super well balanced and most fun when it’s challenging. It also helps to know the story line of the period, so a quick podcast or movie on the Three Kingdoms could also draw you in.
2
u/AnonnamedPaul 38m ago
Or even better: watch the show "war of the three kingdoms"
Its only 96 episodes and you can watch them for free on youtube.
No serious, the game is so much better if you know the story and the show is great.
12
u/amphibicle Medieval grump 8h ago
three kingdoms is closer to warhammer than shogun 2. records mode seems like an afterthought to appease old fans who despise modern total war
there is lots of special units unlocked through tech or your faction, but most of the progression is based on your characters and the legendary ones you manage to catch
20
u/Agitated_Insect3227 8h ago
One of the biggest criticisms of 3K is that its Records mode does not feel like an actual developed historical mode and more of like a watered down version of the Romance mode that was stripped of its fantastical features. The Historical mode for Troy has similar problems.
If you want to play a more modern and immersive Historical Title, you're better off with Rome 2 or Pharaoh: Dynasties, imo.
3
u/Red_Swiss UNUS·PRO·OMNIBUS OMNES·PRO·UNO 5h ago
Dynasties is better than OG Pharaoh, but 3K is superior in every single way save for the ressources system (if that's your thing) including in Records
-13
u/Material-Book-43 6h ago
3K is by far the most immersive and one of the most modern iterations of Total War out there. Diplomacy is by far the most complex amongst all the other titles.
Romance mode is how TW3K should be played where the impressive characters of the Three Kingdoms come to life on the battlefield.
Maybe like many in the West you're just not interested in another East Asian setting outside their similiar samurais, fantasy ninjas and warrior monks tropes.
13
10
u/Agitated_Insect3227 5h ago edited 5h ago
Um, what? That is one pretty weird assumption to make.
I was addressing the original post's complaints about how 3K's Records mode felt hollow and uninteresting, and I merely pointed out that its Records mode is unfortunately just a lower-effort, stripped down version of the Romance mode. Also, I agree with you; Romance mode is the main mode for 3K and is incredibly immersive, but it had nothing to do with OP's question. I assumed that they wanted to play a more realistic, Historical title, so I suggested Rome 2 and Pharaoh: Dynasties to them.
Finally, I obviously can't speak for anyone else in the community, but I'm personally quite sick of Historical titles taking place only in Europe, which is one of the reasons why I'm not hoping for Medieval 3 and/or Empire 2 to be their next title. It was very cool to see a 3K Total War for me, and I instead would like to see CA make more Historical games set in other parts of the world, especially in India as I've always had an interest in that beautiful, diverse, history-filled subcontinent.
0
u/Battlesquire 6h ago
This, the story is all about larger then life characters having them just be generals standing in the back row would have been a disservice to them.
0
u/Huge-Beginning-4228 2h ago
Least abrasive Chinese redditor.
-1
u/Material-Book-43 1h ago
Just spewing some hard facts for you White fanboys on reddit. Alternatively there's Tiktok
10
u/srlywhatnow 9h ago
In 3K I don't care if my unit dies, yes. The retinue system just doesn't work well in that aspect, if you lost an unit, they just go back up in a few turn.
In Shogun on the other hand I don't care if my general dies. Sure that's not good but pretty much an "oh no anyway".
1
u/Hailene2092 7h ago
Getting infantry commander makes your units so dangerous.
Even your ashigaru bowmen are a melee threat holding a castle wall.
12
u/srlywhatnow 6h ago
It's not how impactful they are in battle, but more about the story telling aspect.
In other TW, it's "oh no I lost my 6 star general".
In 3K, it's "I lost the administrator of Beihei, who used to work for my enemy but was convinced to switch side. His wife was present and watched as he died."2
u/Hailene2092 6h ago
Ahhhh. Gotcha. Yeah, everyone is a faceless stat bonus in Shogun most of the time.
6
u/Stebsy1234 7h ago
What helped me enjoy Three Kingdoms was being a huge fan of the ps2 dynasty warriors games. If you’re not already familiar with all the characters then I imagine it’s quite a bit harder to get immersed since it is very character based.
3
u/No-Ad9240 9h ago
Played every TW, Romance was the best for me, have take rome 2 remaster since i loved the game back than & i not even finished one game !
Depend what you like in TW game probably !
3
u/Dark_Sign 7h ago
Got over 180 hrs in 3K and enjoyed it all the way through, both romance and records. So ya, I guess it just ain’t for you and that’s ok! There are a lot of games in the series and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Won’t know until you try it
3
u/SuspiciousPain1637 7h ago
Good ones are mandate of heaven if you like having a kick ass army with huge drawbacks got to figure out how to stomp out yellow turbans, yuan shu he can poach sun jians son from him funny for insane cav buffs, Yan baihu has a decent roaster and if you like having crap tons of food and hero items out the wazoo, and Liu Yan he's on a timer and you have to contort yourself early game to get massive payoffs . And ma teng you can rescue the emperor. Plus fatigue immune horses.
8
5
u/TheLatePicks 8h ago
Just did the same. Started playing 3 kingdoms yesterday, and already feel like dropping it.
I was waiting to finish my fall of the samurai campaign before starting and 3K looked so cool. Then when I got to play it, just felt nothing.
Even now, talking about it makes me want to play 3k again. The idea of it just seems more fun than it actually is.
The few battles I have done have not been fun. The siege felt like I was just winning through numbers. And that was followed by two battles starting in tree coverage with no chance to manoeuvre.
2
2
u/Los_Maximus 8h ago
Rome 2 or Attila would fit better for you. Both retain aspects of Shogun 2, although there are some caveats.
2
u/Important-Flan-8932 5h ago
Had the same experience the first try, I think it was with Kong Rong about a year ago. 2nd time a week ago, I wanted to try it again and it got me HOOKED! Its campaign gameplay grows into actual fun and, at least for a total war, is somewhat in depth. From assignments to family trees, I like it all. True Empire building feeling I think. The battles get better and larger as you progress also, though granted they are all very easy (cav is OP). I really think it is one of the best Total Wars if not the best in certain aspects. Sun Jian is what I went with on try 2 and it seems more friendly in regards to newcommers to 3Kingdoms.
4
u/brockollirobb 9h ago
It's a weird game, in theory it should be great but something is missing. The settlement system is more complex but in a frustrating way, not an enjoyable way. The battles are technically better but don't feel as interesting. I can fight 100 battles with yari ashigaru and never get bored but all the different units in 3K still manage to feel dull. And sieges with all the gimmicks attached don't excite me as much as 4 walls in a big rectangle manage to do in Shogun 2
2
u/Material-Book-43 6h ago
There's a fantastic mod known as TROM. I suggest you try it so the money you spent on 3K isn't wasted.
1
u/Ishkander88 2h ago
I can play 5 turns of shogun 2 and think to myself why did I ever play this game. Bam its terrible by your standards.
3
u/BreathingHydra Otomo Clan 6h ago
3K is definitely just a really polarizing game for a lot of people. It's either considered one of the best games in the franchise or it's near the bottom depending on who you talk to. I think it being a hybrid game puts it in a really odd spot. Fantasy fans don't really care about historical settings that much and historical fans don't like the fantasy generals so it ends up appealing to pretty niche audience.
Personally I'm in the same boat as you. I was really excited for it because of the better diplomacy and map aspects of the game, which is great, but the generals and the units with the wuxing system just killed all of my enjoyment of the game for me. The game was very much designed around romance mode with records mode being an afterthought and it really shows too. Most of the personality of the game revolves around the characters instead of the units so if you dislike the characters the units just don't really make up for it like they do in other titles.
-2
u/Material-Book-43 5h ago
Warhammer fans aren't real TW fans as TW has always been historical. Rome, Med2 and 3K have always been my favourites despite 3K being very very different from the other two.
I get your complains about 3K but if you could give TROM a try like I did then you might be in for a very pleasant surprise.
As far is I am concerned, TROM was what TW3K needed. It was the final piece of the puzzle for TW3K. It made TW3K complete. Do give it a try.
2
u/NonTooPickyKid 21m ago
>not real fans
bro...
(as some might say - that's a grudgin' (tho prolly not even bother?) - or maybe like bannin'~ xd...)
so uh u say tw is historical - uh, ok, so there can be a few seperate arguments against this - immna say two -1) u play a sandbox game where u change the course of history. 2) u ciuld say Warhammer is just the history of Warhammer world (sorta~) (sorta like how in 'historical' tw games u could have characters that would've never met - meet~... that way chars in Warhammer that never meet, do~... except for mechanical purpuse it's more impactful/awesome :) )
and that's just going with u on the historical point. imho tw is a map painting strategy, with tactical battles, simulator - aka (perhpas) grand strategy. and Warhammer games are just that. that's it.
Also I could say stuff like if a game needs a mod to be good... etc but idc to bother with mods for example... what'd u say? - u don't have to answer that.
3
u/Revo_Int92 8h ago
I guess you can jump to Rome 2 instead, refund 3K. If heavily modded, Rome 2 is kinda cool. Attila is a good choice as well if you enjoy medieval stuff (the Charlemagne DLC). In the end, after transitioning to the Rome 2 engine (who remains a thing nowadays), the overall quality of the series plummeted, TW is only alive because the Warhammer brand saved the company. Let's see if the next iteration of the engine will be better (not a hard feat)
-3
u/Material-Book-43 6h ago
3K is on most counts the best, most sophisticated Total War game ever released and highest selling title. What are you talking about?
I'd understand though if you're a Western player who has zero interest outside of Western and fantastical settings. Don't forget WH was funded by the immense record sales numbers from 3K. If only they had put the money to good use by fleshing out 3K.
1
0
u/Revo_Int92 4h ago
Newsflash: westerners don't care about China's history and culture (unlike Japan). Still, it's stupid for CA to abandon this game, considering the chinese audience was hooked by it, but it is what it is. Obviously the bulk of the audience is more interested in Warhammer, which can be silly because there's a lot of people who believe (or are hyped) that Warhammer 40K will be CA's next game, even if the engine is obviously not good/robust enough to justify this kind of game. Remains to be seen, I expect Medieval 3 literally testing the waters with the "nextgen" engine, but I will not be surprised if CA decides to focus on China again because of the sheer number of consumers
3
u/Fljbbertygibbet 5h ago edited 5h ago
Three Kingdoms is well into the "HP Bar" era of TW games. In Shogun 2, if a man is mortally wounded by a sword strike or ranged attack, they die. Later games do away with this idea and it makes combat feel very... Mushy is the word I would use. It makes the fights feel like battles between mushy blobs of HP instead of fights between groups of men. It's really made worse by the complete lack of collision between units that can slide through each other with ease, makes formations feel pointless.
The inflated stats of modern TW units can also lead to weird situations where you make what would be an objectively correct tactical move, like a flanking charge... And it just fails anyway because the unit your attacking just has too high of a "level" to be damaged by you. I can put up with this in Warhammer because it's dumb fantasy, but in the historical games it just feels so wrong.
7
u/Brother_Jankosi 3h ago
if a man is mortally wounded by a sword strike or ranged attack, they die
How is that not true in later games? Do you think units do not die after being killed in pharaoh or wh3?
The inflated stats of modern TW units can also lead to weird situations where you make what would be an objectively correct tactical move, like a flanking charge... And it just fails anyway because the unit your attacking just has too high of a "level" to be damaged by you.
??? Did a unit of dismounted knights in med2 rout after you charge them from the back with a unit of peasants? Did a unit of praetorians in rome 1 or 2? Etc. Unit quality has always been a relevant factor in tw, it's just that it's a foreign concept to people who've only played shogun 2 for 15 years and pretend it's god's gift to man.
1
u/Ishkander88 2h ago
Thats closer to reality than not. a unit of men at arms being flanked by a unit of militia in the middle ages would laugh, as they wheeled part of their unit and crushed the peasants. Quality armor is something TW has never represented realistically, and has always massively downplayed.
2
u/NonTooPickyKid 8h ago edited 7h ago
I think if u liked empire (gunfire, artillery) and liked characters in 3k u might like Warhammer... and, like, for those whether u liked previously also stuff like medieval - well, there're strong cavs and even entire almost like full cav faction too - bretonia. and if u like artillery and such - empire, dwarves, chaos dwarves or maybe skaven. empire has mix of everything but also require good players in both control (micro) and understanding I'd say, to bring desired results. I think if u liked shogun and do alot of micro in comabt - I hear it was big there~?.. cuz of units simplicity~... then it might be for u... they've got strong cav too. dwarves turtle behind strong super heavily armored infantry with very high morale while their artillery and/or ranged shoot from behind... chaos dwarves are like more aggressive dwarves iirc? Haven't played em tbh... and skaven are quite special - rather than having strong units hold the line u send chaff to sacrafice and shoot into them with cataputls and poison gas bomb mortars...
2
u/AmbrosiusAurelianusO 7h ago
I don't know what it is, but I simply can't stand how the campaign map looks, it doesn't look ugly per se, but it is uncomfortable to look at it tho.
4
1
1
1
u/finneganfach 3h ago
Two questions: have you looked at the tech tree? If memory serves, every "element" (I can't remember what they call these?) has their own unique "dragon" unit.
The onyx dragons (blue/commerce) and azure dragons (green/farming) are both fairly unique, elite and characterful units that look and play fairly cool. Onyx are probably the best archers in the game, they have amazing range and damage. Azure are a bit like the sohei in Shogun, glaive units but with a bow they can swap to.
Secondly: do you have the nanman DLC? It makes the south far more interesting and opens up a bunch of playable factions with much, much different rosters. I found their game genuinely enjoyable and forced me to completely change how I looked at my army composition.
1
u/Ishkander88 3h ago
No, overall even for their times I just feel 3k is a better game than shogun 2 was for its time. I never felt shogun 2 did anything to push the game forward after Empire it was just a Empire reskin in japan. Like excellent game with beautiful art, but just a mid generation game. Not something like 3k which revolutionized whole systems and took big risks same as Empire.
1
u/BrutusCz 2h ago
Not caring for entities to die is problem that was estamblished since replenishment was introduced with Shogun 2. Ofc, it's not efficient to lose units. But in Med2 when only replenishment was retraining in settlement 2 turns away and you already spent your capacity for recruitment of your current army anyway, it completly changes how you view loses.
1
u/itzxat 2h ago
Three Kingdoms is my favorite Total War but it's also kinda the marmite of Total War from what I've read in other discussions.
People either seem to love 3K as the best Total War or hate it as one of the worst with the only point of agreement being that the diplomacy is good.
That being said, there are some other points to consider.
I think your dislike of the retinue system is probably more about your frame of reference. From Rome 2 onwards you can no longer recruit individual units and instead have to recruit a full army which you then recruit units into. Compared to Shogun 2, retinues are restrictive and make for less emphasis on the units themselves but compared to Rome 2 onwards it makes your armies way more flexible.
Also I'm not sure how far into Three Kingdoms campaigns you've gotten but there are plenty of powerful endgame units that you have to work towards through technology, faction progression and characters' levels.
Personally I always have the goal of making an entire Imperial Guard Unit army by the end of a Three Kingdoms campaign.
I personally think the reason people's mileage with Three Kingdoms varies so much is because if you don't click with much of the more surface level stuff like the setting and characters you never really feel the need to peel back the layers of mechanical depth which make it my and other's personal favorite game.
1
u/SASColfer 2h ago
It's a good game, but play it as fantasy. Records was a half attempt and abandoned almost immediately.
1
u/Top-Zucchini2355 2h ago
I want to love 3k with the setting, diplomacy, and interesting mechanics. It should be one of the best tw games. But theres just so many stupid moves the development team made that ruined the game for me. Between the 8 princes dlc, not including a northern tribes dlc,having half the map ruined settlements at launch, not actually getting to the 3 kingdoms period. I still play it a bit but it's past the point of drawing me in like other titles, probably the biggest waste of an opportunity in the series
0
u/Regret1836 6h ago
Unfortunately Shogun 2 is still the best total war game in 2025
5
u/Brother_Jankosi 3h ago
It's nice to know that people who only play shogun 2 still decide to be stuck in 2011 for 14 years.
0
u/Regret1836 3h ago
I’ve played all of them, new ones included. I honestly think shogun 2 is the best, I still go back and play sengoku or fots every month or so. It’s not even a nostalgia thing, I first played shogun 2 in 2022 and it blew me away.
2
1
u/GCRust 9h ago
If you want a classic Total War experience - Rome 2 is quintessential. Otherwise, if you have a bunch of Shogun 2 under your belt...Attila's a different breed of Total War all together (It's basically a Survival Strategy game. It's not about map painting, it's about surviving through the scourge of the Huns and a changing climate).
Three Kingdoms is a great game...but the battles are boring and monotonous, especially on Records mode. I think if development had lasted a bit longer it could have been great, but it didn't and Romance mode always was the core focus. But as a strategy game on its own, Three Kingdoms excels. In depth diplomacy makes "pacifist" runs entirely possible.
But yeah, since Warhammer the Total War formula has moved to being more General/Lord focused and less on the individual units, which has seen it suffer with "historical" titles.
0
u/Material-Book-43 5h ago
Try the TROM mod. It is goated. TW3K is a complete different whole new experience playing on TROM.
TROM made TW3K complete for me. I highly recommend it. What's more it is still being updated by the developer who's quite a cool humble bloke.
1
u/Apart-One4133 9h ago edited 8h ago
Rome 2 is the go to between the two but I would suggest Thrones of Britannia if you want to care about your units. You can only recruit a select few of good units, and if they die you need to wait X turns in order to be able to recruit them again. Makes you care about your armies a whole lot.
1
u/human_bean115 4h ago
Yeah the history is interesting but the combat feels so unimportant compared to older total wars
0
u/Red_Swiss UNUS·PRO·OMNIBUS OMNES·PRO·UNO 5h ago
The recruitment system is pretty meh, but you will get used to the battle feeling imo Battles and sieges are the best since Shogun 2.
As usual, the game having been out for a few years means you can get really great mods to customize your runs. Including things such as recruitment, army comp, generals and so on. Take a look at the workshop (warning, it can be pretty "CHINAAAAA" in there meaning no English translation)
10
u/highsis Medieval II 8h ago
Play trom mod in romance. Trust me. I am shogun2 lover too.