Summary

The game is set in ancient China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 during the historically accurate Chu-Han Contention

Chu-Han contention

The Chu–Han Contention was a post-Qin Dynasty interregnum period in Chinese history. Following the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu split the former Qin Empire into the Eighteen Kingdoms. Two prominent contending powers, Western Chu and Han, emerged from these principalities and engaged in a...

 between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu

Xiang Yu

Xiang Yu was a prominent military leader and political figure during the late Qin Dynasty. His given name was Ji while his style name was Yu ....

.

The gameplay and control are one of a kind, quite unlike the similarly themed Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Nobunaga's Ambition

Nobunaga's Ambition

is a series of turn-based grand strategy role-playing simulation video games, first released in 1983 by the Japanese video game developer Koei.Games in the franchise have been released on a variety of gaming platforms, including the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Mega Drive,...

 series, and its controls were considered more inconvenient. The commands are set in four weeks during one month. The player must first choose the "planning" stage where they can decide to improve their cities or make allies. The next week is called the "Action" stage where the player choose where to move their armies.

The player chooses either to be Liu Bang or Xiang Yu

Xiang Yu

Xiang Yu was a prominent military leader and political figure during the late Qin Dynasty. His given name was Ji while his style name was Yu ....

. Liu Bang has below average stats for Politics and Skills however his Charisma is high and hence it is easy for him to make allies, while Xiang Yu has high personal stats while his Charisma is lower.

Although the story is set during a five-year span, as in actual history, where the war took 5 years, the player is not penalized if they don't finish the game under 5 years.

Oddly enough, this game's English version only came out for Super NES

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

 internationally (albeit in small quantity), as Koei has a long tradition of producing in the PC market first, before porting to other systems. However this game appeared in PC form and ported to the PlayStation

PlayStation

The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

(in 1998) in the East Asia market and is considered a rare game as a collectors item.