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Dynasty Warriors

I have been playing Dynasty Warriors 5 , a beat-'em-up PS2 game about the Three Kingdoms, created by the legendary Japanese game-maker Koei. Now I can barely type this post because my thumb hurt from smashing the buttons. Due to its heavy references to Chinese history, literature and culture, this game received a relatively low rating in US. (Probably the same reason that I could never understand why Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was hailed as "the greatest video game ever" by US gamers.) I had to order it online because it wasn't available in most stores.

"Three Kingdoms" is one of the most turbulent periods in the history of China. Partly due to its incomplete historical documentation, it sparked a great amount of imagination among story-tellers and novelists of the latter day. Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became the most famous of all. In the Asian gaming world, games based on this novel have such a great cult following that they almost form a sub-category.

Before I played this game, my favorites are "Warriors of Fate", an arcade beat-'em-up by CAPCOM, and 三国志英杰传, a strategic role-playing game by Koei again. If you read Chinese, here is a good reference of Three Kingdoms games.

Comments

@wordnomad said…
Really like the name of your blog, very cool. I love red wine and green tea.

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