Yo-kai Sangokushi

Yo-kai Sangokushi[lower-alpha 1] is a turn-based tactical role-playing game developed by Koei Tecmo and published by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 exclusively in Japan. The game is a collaboration between Koei Tecmo's video game series Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Level-5's multi-media franchise Yo-kai Watch and sees the player controlling military commanders who aim to unify the world.[1]

Yo-kai Sangokushi
Official artwork for the game depicting some of its characters
Developer(s)Koei Tecmo
Publisher(s)Level-5
Producer(s)Yoichi Erikawa
Hisashi Koinuma
SeriesYo-kai Watch, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Platform(s)Nintendo 3DS
Release
  • JP: April 2, 2016
Genre(s)Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Plot

While exploring the library of the Springdale Elementary School, Jibanyan, Komasan, and Usapyon find a book titled Yo-kai Sangokushi, which they are teleported into.[2] During the beginning of the game, the player chooses either Jibanyan, Komasan, or Usapyon, and the plot of the game centers around the Yo-kai the player picked.[2] Inside the book, the three Yo-kai are separated and turned into military leaders.[2] They later find out that they need to find eight jewels to return to the real world,[2] which becomes the focus of the game.

Gameplay
See also: Gameplay in Yo-kai Watch
The battles in Yo-kai Sangokushi takes place on two screens. On the top screen, the battle is held, and on the bottom screen, the player controls what attacks or actions the playable characters will perform.

Yo-kai Sangokushi sees the player battling enemies in multiple different areas in a turn-based format.[2] The player navigates areas in-battle by moving the characters through squared tiles,[2] however, characters have a limited amount of tiles they can travel during their turn. The player controls a team of up to six Yo-kai during one battle, with the Yo-kai being dependent on the player's team.

During battles, Yo-kai have 6 different actions they can perform: attack (which only be performed when close to an enemy), inspirit (which will affect another Yo-kai, which can be positive or negative depending on if the inspirited is a teammate or not), end turn (which will end the Yo-kai's turn), item (which will allow the player to use an item on the playing Yo-kai), and an elemental attack option (which will make the playing Yo-kai use an elemental attack on enemies). Each Yo-kai also has a unique "Soultimate", a more powerful move that, depending on the user, can either be offensive or give positive effects to teammates.[2] Unlike other moves, the Soultimate can only be performed once a Yo-kai's "soul gage" is full, which is increased when a Yo-kai attacks an enemy.[2] All performable actions can vary on the Yo-kai, with each Yo-kai having a unique set of attacks. When two enemies of the same team have a Yo-kai of the other team in between them, a more powerful attack can be performed on the middle Yo-kai.[2] When a Yo-kai attacks an enemy, a "warlord attachment battle" minigame may occur in which the player must press the A button at the same time they collide with their enemy.[2] Enemies, who are controlled by the AI, have the same general actions as playable characters.

Alike traditional Yo-kai Watch games, the player has a chance to "befriend" (recruit) battled Yo-kai after battles.[2] Yo-kai are divided into different tribes. The Crank-a-kai, a gacha-like mechanic where the player inserts coins to receive Yo-kai or items, returns from previous Yo-kai Watch entries.[2]

Yo-kai Sangokushi is divided into chapters, with each chapter typically ending with a boss battle.[2]

Development and release

Yo-kai Sangokushi was supposedly developed by a team of fans of the Yo-kai Watch series.[3] Prior to when the development of Yo-kai Sangokushi began, Akihiro Hino, the CEO of Level-5, and Yoichi Erikawa, the founder of Koei Tecmo, had a "close relationship as game creators" and had talked about working together at some point. At an unknown time, Erikawa had sent a letter to Hino praising the Yo-kai Watch series and its ability to expand into multimedia. Hino, who had learned Japanese history through Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition, respected Erikasawa, and called him his history teacher. Due to the two's respect for each other, the collaboration was "realized."[3] During development, over 400 Yo-kai had to be turned into military commanders, something Hino described as "a really difficult problem."[3]

Yo-kai Sangokushi was first announced by Level-5 on April 7, 2015, through a presentation held at the Tokyo Dome City Hall.[4] The announcement was in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.[5] A playable demo of the game was available during the World Hobby Fair Winter 2016.[6] On January 14, 2016, CoroCoro Comics, the serializers of the Yo-kai Watch manga, published an announcement for the game on YouTube.[7] A debut trailer for the game was published by Level-5 on February 14, 2016.[8]

For a limited time in 2016, Lawson HMV Entertainment released an official pencil board featuring the main characters from Yo-kai Sangokushi.[9] A 12-page volume focused on Yo-kai Sangokushi was included in the April 14, 2016, issue of Famitsu (which released on March 31, 2016) to commemorate the game's release. The volume included an interview with Hino and Erikawa.[10] A limited-time event was held in Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble in Japan to promote Yo-kai Sangokushi's release.[11] The event saw players picking one out of three teams and attempting to collect jewels for their chosen team, with the team with the most jewels winning.[11] The event was held from April 16, 2016, to April 28, 2016.[11]

On March 16, 2016, pre-orders for the game were made available.[12] Yo-kai Sangokushi released in Japan on April 2, 2016. The retail version of the game included a physical Yo-kai Medal of Komasan Sun Ce. A figure strap of Komasan Sun Ce was also included in first-print copies of the game. If the player had downloaded the game digitally, they would receive the character Buchinyan Cho Un.[1]

Soundtrack

The game's ending theme, "Bling Bling Great Whirlwind" (ブリンブリン大旋風), was composed by Maiko, Gerapper, and ZZROCK of King Cream Soda.[3] The song is an uptempo version of the main theme from Romance of the Three Kingdoms mixed with rap.[3] The "bling"s in the title is hip-hop slang for glaring, which Gerapper, the namer of the song, stated was used due to "the glare of the warlord's way" in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.[3]

Reception and sales

Famitsu gave Yo-kai Sangokushi a score of 35 out of 40.[13] In February 2016, Chris Carter, writing for Destructoid, called the collaboration "rad" and described its plot as "wacky."[14] Later in March the same year, Carter, again writing for Destructoid, called the game "adorable" and said that it "looks amazing."[15] Akiru Miyashita of 4Gamer.net called Yo-kai Sangokushi "interesting".[16] Shinichi Yamoto, also writing for 4Gamer.net, described the game's ending theme as "combin[ing] the energy of Yo-kai Watch with the history of the [Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.]"[3]

In May 2016, Yo-kai Sangokushi was the fifth best-selling video game, having sold over 498,000 copies.[17] Yo-kai Sangokushi, as well as other games, helped increase play activity from younger Nintendo 3DS players.[18]

Sequel

Another game set in the same universe as Yo-kai Sangokushi, titled Yo-kai Sangokushi: Kunitori Wars, was released for mobile devices in January 2018.[19] The game takes place in China, and features 3 different groups of players who all fight each other in a free-for-all.[19] The sequel has the same general gameplay as Yo-kai Sangokushi, but was free-to-play and included microtransactions.[19]

Notes
  1. Japanese: 妖怪三国志 Hepburn: Yōkai Sangokushi

References
  1. Arai, Yosuke (January 16, 2016). "3DS「妖怪三国志」の発売日が2016年4月2日に決定。購入特典や「妖怪ウォッチ2」「「妖怪ウォッチバスターズ」との連動で登場する妖怪も明らかに". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  2. "本日発売「妖怪三国志」プレイレポート。400体以上の武将妖怪が登場する戦略的シミュレーションバトルの魅力に迫る". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. April 2, 2016. Archived from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  3. Yamoto, Shinichi (March 28, 2016). "シブサワ・コウと日野晃博氏が制作秘話を明かした「妖怪三国志」完成発表会をレポート". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. Archived from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  4. Sato, Kazuya (April 8, 2015). "商品市場規模2000億円「妖怪ウォッチ」の次の一手--海外進出やアニメ、ゲーム新展開も". CNET Japan (in Japanese). CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  5. "レベルファイブの新作タイトル「妖怪三国志」が発表。プロデュースを手掛けるのはコーエーテクモゲームスのシブサワ・コウ氏に". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. April 7, 2015. Archived from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  6. Romano, Sal (December 15, 2015). "Yo-kai Sangokushi launches 2016 in Japan, playable at World Hobby Fair Winter 2016". Gematsu. Archived from the original on February 23, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  7. Romano, Sal (January 15, 2016). "Yo-kai Sangokushi launches April 2 in Japan". Gematsu. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  8. Hannley, Steve (February 14, 2016). "Yo-kai Sangokushi Debut Trailer Released". Hardcore Gamer. DoubleJump Publishing. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  9. "『妖怪三国志』コマさん孫策、ジバニャン劉備、フユニャン曹操のオリジナル下敷きがもらえるLoppi・HMV限定特典情報を公開！". Famitsu. Kadokawa. February 10, 2016. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  10. "【先出し週刊ファミ通】『妖怪三国志』発売直前巻頭特集！ コラボに対談に限定入手の"武将妖怪ぷに"DLC付録！（2016年3月31日発売号）". Famitsu. Kadokawa. March 29, 2016. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  11. "「妖怪ウォッチ ぷにぷに」，「妖怪三国志」との連動イベントを実施". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. April 15, 2016. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  12. "DL版「妖怪三国志」のあらかじめダウンロードが本日から可能に". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. March 16, 2016. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  13. Romano, Sal (March 29, 2016). "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1426". Gematsu. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  14. Carter, Chris (February 15, 2016). "Yo-Kai Sangokushi, that Three Kingdoms mashup, looks rad". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  15. Carter, Chris (March 28, 2016). "That Yo-Kai Watch Three Kingdoms spinoff is adorable". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  16. Miyashita, Akiru (December 15, 2016). "男色ディーノのゲイムヒヒョー ゼロ：第410回「男色ゲイム大賞2016＜前編＞」". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  17. Sato (May 11, 2016). "This Week In Sales: Kirby And Yo-kai Watch Take Golden Week". Siliconera. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  18. Sato (April 28, 2016). "Nintendo Recaps 3DS Software And Hardware Sales Data For The Fiscal Year Ended March 2016". Siliconera. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  19. Romano, Sal (January 11, 2018). "Yo-kai Sangokushi: Kunitori Wars now available in Japan". Gematsu. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
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