River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next Review
A Whirlwind Romance
The Kunio-kun brawler series, currently under the stewardship of Arc System Works, has a long history dating back to the late 1980s. The series primarily focuses on rival high school delinquents finding various ways of expressing that rivalry, branching out early with football and dodgeball titles. Its appeal in the west is niche despite its longevity, yet Arc System Works has plugged away with a steady cadence of releases. Among those is River City Saga: Three Kingdoms, a 2021 title that transplants its cast into a very loose version of The Romance of Three Kingdoms Chinese historical novel, with players controlling Kunio in the role of Han general Guan Yu. Picking up where that title left off, River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next, follows the tale to its off-the-rails conclusion, creating an amusing take on the story even if the brawler gameplay never really does that much to impress.
While the previous game followed events from the Yellow Turban Rebellion up until the Battle of Red Cliffs, it’s to River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next’s mild advantage that players don’t need to have gone through the previous game to leap right in with the current state of affairs given a quick once over. Some familiarity with The Romance of Three Kingdoms and the Kunio-kun series is advantageous to help correlate the characters to their historical or novel counterparts and realise the relevance of certain events, but really not at all necessary and even newcomers to both will still get some enjoyment out of the chaotic series of events. Much of the plot is finding excuses to advance from battle to battle, but a lot of the fun in the game is seeing the characters manage to shoehorn their own quirks into the series of events, or how the game finds different ways to non-fatally remove its cast members from the stage as opposed to their historical exits. The choice in protagonist also necessitates an entirely different conclusion to the actual source material, but given the other changes and chaos the cast causes, it certainly isn’t out of place.
A lot of the fun comes from the cast swiftly putting their own characters into the roles.
Structurally the game is divided into six story chapters, though these primarily play out the same way: Kunio travels back and forth between various 2D locations in ancient China encountering an assortment of events and battles. Once unlocked, players can freely leap between chapters, keeping Kunio’s progress intact. Each chapter comes with a route selection option, which basically acts as a challenge selection. There are initially only two options to start with, and it’s very clear the a first playthrough should take the default selection, though up to four choices can be unlocked once previous options are completed.
While players are given free reign to wander around its version of China, there’s very little to do in it other than move back-and-forth between story events, beat up foes, and occasionally stop at the inn or shops for healing. There are some side quests that require Kunio to find some resources or beat up some specific enemies, but these are few and far between. Money and equipment upgrades can be quite hard to come by early on, but this changes soon enough, and players will end up with more than they know what to do with.
A reasonable assessment of the game’s balancing.
The brawling combat doesn’t offer any particular surprises. Kunio-kun and often some AI allies will face off against an array of regular enemies, who are joined by some tougher named foes in various event battles. There are dedicated buttons to punch, kick, and throw enemies. By building up two different meters, Kunio has access to a customisable motorbike for a brief period of invulnerability or a selection of special attacks that can be assigned from the menu. It’s a perfectly functional system that does the job it needs to without standing out.
The biggest issue River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next faces with its combat is its balancing; it’s incredibly easy for players to get Kunio in a state where he can simply wipe all enemies off the floor. While an initial strong challenge was observed in one boss fight early on, this largely turned out to be due to forgetting to utilise the stat upgrade system. As things go on, the game’s special moves become incredibly overpowered. It can therefore be tempting to try and leave Kunio a bit underpowered to try and bring some challenge in, but the other side is that given enemies can hit incredibly hard and the hit boxes are incredibly dubious, particularly on the Z-axis, so it’s a great struggle to find a good point where the game doesn’t feel ridiculously stacked in favour of one side of the other.
Guan Yu on his trusty *checks notes* steed.
There are a few growth systems at play, but they require less involvement than at first appearance and the UI menu isn’t the best at using them. Players can unlock different moves for Kunio, but given that he can only have one move assigned to each action, all players really have to do is figure out a setup that works for them and just stick with it; there’s little to no reason to experiment further. There are no enemies that warrant a change in tack when it comes to dealing with them, so as long as players upgrade their stats and equipment every now and then, they’ll suffer no difficulties in getting through.
While the gameplay leaves quite a bit to be desired, the presentation is at least solid and aids the overall enjoyment of the title. The character art is pleasing, and the classic sprites manage to blend very well with the 3D scenery. There is no voice acting, but the game’s music is decently catchy and fits in with the setting and the game’s general level of chaos. It all does the job perfectly well, while fitting in with the series’ identity.
Despite the issues, River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next will appeal to and satisfy the right people. Its chaotic take on The Romance of Three Kingdoms offers some good amusement as its larger-than-life cast threatens to push it off the rails, and there is some small satisfaction in being able to just blow away all comers at times. However, those looking for some more finely-tuned combat and challenge, or any real in-depth gameplay, will need to search elsewhere.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Amusingly chaotic take on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Enjoyable presentation
Not a whole lot to its gameplay
Ineffective balancing
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