The Story of the Three Kingdoms is one of the most famous legends in Chinese history. It has been retold and adapted numerous times in various media. Most gamers may know the story from the images in the Dynasty Warriors franchise and Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy game series.
This real-life epic of clashing empires wasn’t unlike gangs battling for territory and dominance in any blue city. Sure, you had a lot of bloody and brutal fights and double (sometimes triple) crosses, but you could always count on big guys trying to prove who had the biggest balls.
Combining the Kunio a well-worn franchise with a historical retelling of the three kingdoms makes a lot of sense. Why settle for River City when you can have the whole kingdom? Who will reign victorious over the Battle of Wuzhang Plains? Discover it in our River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next judgement!
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next
Developer: Arc System Works, APLUS Co., Ltd, R-FORCE ENTERTAINMENT, Technōs Japan
Publisher: Arc system works
Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release date: November 6, 2024
Price: $29.99
The story of the three kingdoms was an orgy of war. Wei, Shu and Wu – all vying for the throne and Cao Cao, the Machevallian mastermind.
Liu Bei was righteous and aimed to restore the Han Dynasty and Sun Quan, playing on both sides. The kingdoms were engaged in a constant game of cat and cat, forming alliances, breaking them, and abandoning each other.
Battles rage across the land, cities rise and fall, and heroes and villains emerge from the chaos. Now imagine all this being retold by arrogant Japanese delinquents with no direction in life playing the roles of important historical figures and portraying the battles as street fights. That is River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next.
The gangs from the Kunio games reenacting an elaborate larp of the Three Kingdoms wars make sense and are a great setup for comedy gags.
However, unless you’re already familiar with the basics, most of the plot will come across as a generic war story. The most interesting aspect of the history was how much technology advanced in China as a result of the war. Unfortunately, this is not investigated River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next.
Like most Kunio games, River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next is a beat ’em up RPG hybrid. Kunio as Guan Yu has punches, kicks, and grabs, and as a general serving under Liu Bei, he can summon armies to help. Guan Yu’s horse, the Red Hare, is reimagined as Kunio’s signature motorcycle, which is useful in breaking through goons’ monsters.
At first the battles are simple. Kunio doesn’t have access to more complex attacks until he levels up and earns some points in his skill trees. There are an impressive number of attacks to equip. There’s a move for almost every occasion: air kicks, air punches, various grabs, ultimate attacks and much more. There are enough choices that make multiple loadouts necessary.
There’s no shortage of ways to customize Kunio and map his stats to specialize in his preferred playstyle. Players can also equip him with equipment and items, and even his motorcycle can be customized. There is always a palpable sense of progress and Kunio is constantly on the move to battle Cao Cao’s horde.
The only problem players will face is the absurd stun lock that leads to cheap deaths. Kunio is often outnumbered by dozens of enemies and attacked from all sides. Sometimes a little luck is involved. Other times, players have to resort to cheap tactics.
It’s a shame that the game’s flow undermines its decent playability and crunchy action. Typically, Kunio is forced to run to an area on a huge map, fight some guys, and then return to the home castle, bookending the journeys with long dialogue scenes. It feels like Kunio is retrieving the ball.
The dialogue and cutscenes are very intrusive and annoying. Players are eager to fight, but will sift through minutes of text, only to find themselves in a scrapheap with weak enemies and then have to read some more. It won’t be long before gamers will lose interest in the fast and loose version of the Three Kingdoms drama and skip it.
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next is a long game by beat-em-up standards and feels grossly padded thanks to the way missions waste players’ time. The side missions won’t impress and usually require players to return materials they’ve probably already collected on the main path.
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next‘The graphics are charming. It does the HD-2D thing with Technos’ signature style.
The sprites have changed little since the NES days and have only been given a small amount of depth. The particle and lighting effects make the characters feel like living cutouts running around punching each other in the jaw.
This is a beautiful game and is very well optimized for the Nintendo Switch. It runs very stably and loads quickly between areas. The sprite art, while simple, is expressive and has a wide range of poses when performing special attacks. It’s a Kunio game through and through.
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next was almost fun. The tiring and repetitive structure that has players running back and forth between the same areas across a huge map becomes very boring. There’s too much teasing the player with a challenge and when it finally comes, it’s too little too late.
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch using a code from Arc System Works. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next is now available for PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.