I spent half a day playing it yesterday, and was streaming it... this is the
first 4.5 hours that I spent purely in Create a Character, and then he's my
first 7.5 with my Custom Ruler main playthrough (starting in 184 AD).
For reference, I've been playing the series since the SNES, and my most played are IV and VI. Those are my two favorite because I like how smooth and streamlined the control of VI is, and some of the improved features (e.g. diplomacy, duels, my favorite character art in the series), and also IV because it has some features that I like in regards to combat -- also my favorite duels to watch. After that I probably like VIII the most for its RPG elements, though I never played IX which I know some people choose as their fave. I played a lot of RTK XI and NA SOI, too, which are rather representative of modern Koei strategy.
Disclaimer: This is all from a Custom Ruler perspective so in general it feels like Hero Mode or playing as historic Rulers have more events, cutscenes, voice acting.
First impression is that RTK XIII is really good.
++ It's well polished... great and intuitive UI, great HUD info too (and quick options to change what's most apparent like troop levels or current economic assignments).
++ Great production values too... the character art is probably the best in the series. It's very Dynasty Warriors which I dislike a bit (I prefer more historic/less romantic a la IV or VI) but every character has a large body picture (not just a portrait) and they're are well done. One post I saw on Steam said NA SOI had better character art because it has more, but most of NA SO only has portraits -- every single character in RTK XIII has an upper body painting. Missions and Assignments have real pretty 'mission complete' score boards; every Season has a score board ranking; there's a huge 'Sphere of Influence' that shows the different bonds, friendships etc between every character in the game that's really pretty; almost every event has a sort few screens event (just basic dialogue). And the music is superb so far.
++ The game has a sort of real time/interactive or reactive element to it that keeps you more engaged... people regularly give you assignments, ask for your help, etc, but these appear in real time and have a window to replay, so if you aren't paying attention or speed up game time you miss them. It's a small touch that I like.
++ Game has a lot of events, too.... getting attacked by bandits while traveling, most economic activities have events (help a merchant; showcase a duel for troops; chase bandits attacking a farm). Duels are used for more events too (e.g. local villages or vassals often require a Debate Duel to convince them to join you). People visit you a lot... your wife visits you; people ask for items; the 'real time events' happen to you, too -- what that means is that just like if someone is training, they may ask for help and you have a minute to assist them; similarly, if you're training, sometimes people randomly help you.
Disclaimer: These slow down however as you become richer and you can choose longer terms for each task so they spawn a lot less (there's a cap so basically they respawn a lot if you're choosing 1 period but now that I can afford to choose max they respawn less often.. I'm not sure yet which is best (e.g. is the +Bond bonus flat or scaled).
++ Chinese voice acting
// It's a more first person perspective and definitely a little RPG... Playing as a Ruler is not really much different than a Ruler in IV or VI, but in those games you're still sort of a 'God' figure controlling the ruler, where is in this one, you really are the ruler -- everything is seen from the perspective of your physical location; if you want to visit someone, you need to ride a horse to another city; if you hold an economic council, you need to be in that city and free; you never seen events between other character (non-story, I mean... things like bandit attacks) but just your activities. You have your own cash stash, all the 'Sphere of Influence' style relationships are about your bonds.
// huge skill system a la NA SOI...
// lots of unit types... that Steam review that shit on it for just having 3 troops was super simplified... there are just spearmen, bowmen, cavalry, but each one has a number of upgrades, and also siege towers, battering rams, and also naval stuff that I haven't seen it.
// duels are basically same as RTK 11... rock-paper-scissors where paper makes scissors not work, scissors costs 2 'Energy Points' and does double damage, and if rock vs rock than your 'WAR' (or Int for debates) determines who does more damage.
-- No English Voice Acting ... actually, I don't care about this but I mean even my small stream had someone complain about this so it is something missing.
-- Marriages cannot have children... a bit disappointing simple things like this cannot even be included. Probably an obvious DLC addition but especially for my Custom Ruler (and his family tree), I rather organically have my officers meet wives and have children in-game but instead I had to spend 4 hours in create a character making sure everyone had wives, sons, grandsons, and even great grandsons just in case my game lasts that long lol.
I made that mistake in NA SOI where I just assumed people would have kids/heirs, and I get 75 hours into the game and my Clan name basically died off ;/
-- cities are much inferior to NA SOI so far graphically and in terms of customization... NA SOI had an amazing upgrade system for plots of land that was simple at first but had tremendously deep min-max system for getting little extra bonuses because every town had unique buildings, and many builds gave bonuses to certain types nearby, so you could constantly try min-max placement of 'bonuses buildings' to try get just a little extra improvement...
but in RTK13, there's basically nothing... you just improve 'Farms' (by saying improve farms, a la most RTKs) and after it reaches 2000/2000 you just choose a new bonus from a list... much fewer choices, no real customization of the keep, no sort of min-max bonuses between different types. very linear. i haven't even noticed any visual improvements to towns yet... I loved how you could have sprawling blacksmith neighbours or customized keeps in NA SOI. so far I've had 5 upgrades I think to my starting city and haven't noticing any visual change.
but.... this 'negative' is somewhat offset because that's basically all you did in NA SOI's towns... RTK 13 has far more events and RPG stuff going on. (in that regard, NA SOI is like an improve RTK11 economic system but RTK13 is like RTK8).
// real-time battlefield (e.g. total war) style battles feel and control more... strategic I guess, than NA SOI... it's a bit more RTS and less Total War... NA SOI was very very heavy on direction, order, speed, charges, etc... it was like controlling, turning, placing rectangles. RTK 13 so far feels a bit more just basic RTS and simplified, but there are a bit more things that happen or to attack (bases, towers, better siege, more events like random duels, etc)
// overworld map combat seems very very similar to NA SOI... just send them to a base and they start fighting troops as they meet, numbers come off with no extra input... special abilities randomly trigger...
I feel like NA SOI may be better here though because it had more nodes/lanes, and.... I'm not sure. I just felt like there was still a lot of great 'real time control' in NA SOI
// which may be because in RTK XIII the AI is not aggressive at all... whereas the AI in NA SOI is insanely aggressive. even NA SOI 'low' aggression setting is more aggressive than 'normal/medium' in RTK XIII.
in NA SOI, the high aggression and respawn had a constant stream of attacks by the main 2 big armies in central Japan... every 6 months they were attacking. my own borders constantly had attacks. coincidentally, it also made the 'sandbox' very hard to stay Historic because even when set to Historic, the AI was far far more aggressive than History and won based on raw numbers (e.g Nobunaga would get his butt kicked).
but in RTK 13, there have been almost no attacks the first 5 years or so of the game, and the only made one was an especially Historically triggered alliance against the Yellow Turbans... one big attack where the alliance all attacked and won (just like history)... so... so far, the AI is very un-aggressive but actually behaving very Historically... I'm in 187 though and there's still a lot of Yellow Turbans though so I'm not sure if the alliance will really defeat them, split up, and go against Dong Zhou in the next 3 years... I'll be pretty disappointed if I'm basically just stuck with two main factions for the rest of the game lol so hopefully the historic triggers continue.
so, in sum?
so far it's great... very great production values, really impressed by the new systems, the constant events, menus, all the bonds/quests/assignments/etc that are constantly occurring. it feels interesting too because it's different (not sure if it's better)... different than RTK 11, NA SOI, and RTK IV-VIII. there are some obvious and disappointing small features that should be standard (your avatar in duels is very generic and looks nothing like your custom character, RTK11 at least let you customize that; no children from random marriages; etc) but there's a lot of new stuff too (the cool sphere of influence system) so the sum of parts so far is pretty good.
all that said, a lot of the cool stuff is fun because it's new.... once the flash wears off after 30-40 hours, i'm not sure if I'll prefer the raw combat and diplomacy over NA SOI... I don't see anything yet that I think will make it better (and it could end up being a bit inferior) so its superior events/RPG/relationship systems are what's going to carry it.
plus, this is all just the custom ruler 'raw sandbox' gameplay.
the game has a huge hero and scenario mode and I think RTK 13's strengths (vents/RPG/relationship systems) will be a huge boon to those.
i'd recommend it for sure to RTK fans or anyone that wants a new grand strategy right now, but if you're not in a hurry -- I wouldn't decide based on my impressions yet because I'm not sure if the game will end up being better to NA SOI.... NA SOI may end up being the better strategy/tactics game where as RTK the better character/rpg game.
sorry if it's a huge amount of text, too; just randomly trying to share thoughts and not forget anything because the game has a LOT of systems and i'm sure i'm forgetting things.
if you have any specific questions (or you want to see a video example of any specific thing I describe) I can try find a timestamp for you in that 7 hour video I posted at the top
