Bandit Kings of Ancient China
System: NES
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Koei
Publisher: Koei
Genre: Strategy
Go to where Water Margin all began with Bandit Kings of Ancient China! Kou Shibusawa is back with another grand strategy game that is full of depth and a huge instruction manual. It’s the turn of the 12th century and the Song Dynasty is on the verge of collapse. Live the drama of the tyranny of Gao Qiu as he seeks to take the lands of China for his own. Can you stop him?
There are four scenarios to choose from, each with a number of Good Fellows to choose from as your player character. They all have different stat ranges for Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom, but set stats for Integrity, Mercy, and Charisma. These stats are all important for doing many actions, fighting, and recruiting heroes. I tried a number of different characters in scenario 1, but wasn’t really able to make much of a dent.
The first order of business is finding a province to settle in. They all have differing heroes that come in and out as the seasons pass. Next, it’s a good idea to build up your province so you can collect something from taxes in January of the next year. You can do this by building flood protection, increasing your farm output, or building the province infrastructure up. If you can get your support up to 40 before the year ends, you can get a whole lot of gold and food. Getting a good hunt in with a high dexterity hero will allow you to get a bunch of food that you can then gift to your citizens to get over the hump if need be.
You can also get fur, which can be sold in the marketplace. How much you get depends on the current rate statistic. Higher rates mean better prices. This also equates to hiring men for your army and arming them with weapons. You’re going to need to get an army set up, especially if your province is up next to one of Gao Qiu’s, because he will send his heroes in to invade if you take too long. If you’re light on heroes or men in your army, you’re dead.
When you get thrust into battle, you have to choose who will defend and place them where you want. Terrain presents different bonuses and penalties to defense and movement. Every time I got attacked, I was severely outnumbered. I hoped to hold them off by sitting in a castle and hoping they’d run out of food, but no such luck. In the several tries I gave this game, I made it a few years once.
Graphics: 1.5
Portraits are nice, but the rest of everything else is lousy.
Sound: 3.0
The music is good enough to keep you company on those lonely months building up the wealth of your Chinese countryside.
Gameplay: 2.0
There are a lot of commands. Who knows when the best time to do anything is, but here comes the evil Gao Qiu to end your game!
Difficulty: 2.0
I’m certain there are ways to thwart the computer adversaries, but good luck.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I would still be playing this if I didn’t have so much else on my plate.
Overall Rating: 2.3
Bandit Kings of Ancient China earns a C+. This is probably my favorite of the Koei strategy games that I have come across on the NES so far.