As a rule I don’t think it’s worth “reviewing” games that are locked behind subscription paywalls and “free” to those that are subscribers. If you’re a subscriber then you don’t need to spend however many minutes reading my review to just download and see the game for yourself. If you’re not a subscriber I’m not interested in “selling” these services to you. However, about 90% of Apple Arcade games eventually make their way to other platforms, and I can’t stop playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms Heroes, so I felt like writing about it.
Unlike the 4X strategy series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms Heroes doesn’t feature any empire management, diplomacy, or large strategic battles. Instead, it features a series of Chess-like battles featuring a small number of “pieces” on each side. However, it would be more accurate to call the base mechanics “Shogi-like”, because the tactics involved are closer to the “Japanese Chess” game. It’s just not as well known in the West as Chess, so it’ll be easier to visualise the flow of the game that way.
So, just like with Chess, you have a series of pieces, each have their own unique movement ranges. Some can only move forward or to the side a single space. Others can cover the whole board. On top of that, each turn you earn a couple of “morale” points, and these can be used to “awaken” pieces. An awakened piece has a greater range of movement options and some have additional abilities. The strategist piece, for example, will freeze opponents on certain squares around them.
This “awakening” ability is much closer to replicating how Shogi pieces move around the board. Chess allows you to promote pieces that reach the other end, but Shogi has a much more complicated system and I do actually feel like I’m learning a bit more about the tactics of playing that infamously challenging and complex board game from working through RoTK Heroes. The AI is very gentle at first, but does accelerate, and once you get to a certain point you’ll be able to play against other humans as well, which is obviously where the long-term value of the game lies.
Because this is an Apple Arcade title there are no microtransactions or gatcha mechanics. Some of the systems to keep you playing endlessly are there (i.e. you unlock characters in a drip-feed manner and then have to purchase them using currency that you acquire in-game), and that does make Heroes a bit of a grind, but that’s offset by the fact that it’s a board game and… that is an inherently “grindy” approach to take to game design (in that you repeat the same actions every time you play).
That’s all there really is to Romance of the Three Kingdoms Heroes. Like the best board games, it’s something that you could end up playing a lot over a period of years, but it is a “no frills” kind of production. Some lovely art and taut tactics make it an exceptional Apple Arcade release, however, and keep an eye out for its inevitable release elsewhere, too.
