The manual is not the game's only shortcoming.  The game suffers a bit from the in-game typos and grammatical errors which seem to plague games developed in Asia.  This is more of a minor annoyance when the game is providing the player with historical background information, but causes bigger problems when it comes to the mission objectives.  These are often confusing and poorly stated, and will sometimes require the player to attempt the scenario a couple of times before it becomes entirely apparent as to what needs to be done.  The game's biggest flaw, though, is with its unit pathfinding.  It is impossible to keep troops in formation or even a cohesive group, as the fastest units will fly out in front and the slowest ones will lag hopelessly behind.  This problem is exacerbated by the fact that every unit seems to come up its own idea as to the best way to reach a destination.  If units are not watched closely as they cross the map, they will soon end up all over the place.  The game is already a bit heavy on the micromanagement side without having to worry about getting your troops from one place to another in one group.  The player must also be careful when sending troops into a city because if they start to spread out a bit, they will actually appear on the city map in different locations.  Needless to say, this can be disastrous to an assaulting force as it is picked off piecemeal on different parts of the map.

As for the game's graphics, they are of the 2D, 3/4 overhead perspective familiar to strategy gamers.  The maps and units look good, and there are a lot of nice graphical touches such as wind and rain effects.  The game's sounds are generally good, but all of the voiceovers are in Chinese.  It can be argued that this gives the game a more authentic feel, but it can be somewhat awkward at times to read the scrolling text while hearing it read loudly in Chinese.  Since disbelief was already put on hold when the leader units were given magic powers, English voiceovers would probably had been a better idea.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 68%.  The game has a lot of good ideas, but falls a little flat in the execution.  Strategy gamers looking for something a little different or those with an interest in the period should give the game a look, but will need to approach it with a bit of patience.

System Requirements:  Pentium II 266;  64 MB RAM;  4 MB Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM;  450 MB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.

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