Destiny of an Emperor, Warriors of Fate & Chinese Warrio

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 1:59 am

Yesterday I found an old Superman comic (Issue March 91) in a forgotten cardboard box at my Mom's house.

The story was pretty cool (Assault of the Liner Man!) where Superman is sent 1000 years in the future to save Earth's Lunar colony.
But what I found interesting was an advert inside the comic, about an old 1990 Capcom RPG for the NES, called "Destiny of an Emperor"

Soon after, I fired VirtuaNes emu & played the Rom.
Even though I'm not a great fan of turned based RPGs (I prefer real-time action oriented RPGs like Zelda & Terranigma) I found this quite enjoyable.
The story line is based in medieval/feudal China & interestingly enough, the main characters seem to be the exact same ones starring in Dynasty Was & Warriors of Fate on the CPS-1 arcade hardware, also by Capcom.
These bad-ass looking Chinese Warriors also make an appearance in Funtech's Entertainment Super A'Can console, some time around 1995.

What I want to know is whether these specific characters are completely fictional or if they’re actually real historical figures?
In what other game systems / movies or comic books do they appear in?
Maybe in the old 1994/6 Beat Em Up: Sango Fighter 1 & 2 or in Dynasty Warriors on the PS-2?

Thanks in advance.

Destiny of an Emperor (NES)

Dynasty Wars (CPS-1)

Warriors of Fate (CPS-1)

Funtech's Entertainment Super A'Can

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 2:30 am

Was Koei involved at all with these Capcom games? At least one of those character names (and possibly more) can be found as playable characters in the Dynasty Warriors games on PS2 and XBox. Either that, or there just aren't a lot of ancient Chinese heroes to go around.

snap monkey · Post by **snap monkey** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 3:10 am

I remember playing this game years ago, Destiny of an Emperor, not Dynasty of an Emperor. Great RPG.

EDIT: perhaps that's the European title?

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 3:10 am

Actually, those names are just butchered pinyin versions of the Chinese names of the Shu kingdom warriors.

All these games related to Sangoku/Sanguo/Three Kingdoms deals with the novel adaptation of the real Three Kingdoms time period in China. The novel is known as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and is perhaps the most popular story in the Orient. Thus, there've been many games dealing with the period from Koei's RTK and Dynasty Warriors games, to Capcom's Destiny of an Emperor and Tenchi wo Kurau games, to plenty of Chinese and Taiwanese games such as Knights of Valour.

All these characters were real although the novel certainly modified the truth to some extent. The "hero" is Liu Bei, emperor of the Shu kingdom (one of the 3 kingdoms during that period). Accompanying him are generally his most trusted generals: his "brothers" Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Then you have the other Tiger Generals: Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong (which Warriors of Fate replaces with random names for whatever reason).

And that's why you always see the same guys in all these games based in China. Nobody's really copying anybody else.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 3:15 am

Destiny of the Emperor, Dynasty Wars, and Warriors of Fate were all Tenchi wo Kurai (sp?) games in Japan. That's why the art style is similar for those games. History isn't the only reason that those Capcom games share characters. There were also some SNES Tenchi wo Kurai games.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 3:21 am

There was only 1 SFC Tenchi wo Kurau (yes, it is "wo") and it was an RTK-esque strategy game but with the same art as in the other Capcom games.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:45 pm

Ok, so the “Three Kingdoms of China” period takes place 190 – 290 AD.
This is one of the bloodiest in Chinese history because of the constant wars waged during this period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms_Period

I love reading about the history of the Greco-Roman world, the Roman & Byzantine (Eastern Roman) empires, the European Middle Ages & the Crusades. But this link I posted, is a very interesting read indeed!

Now I will definitely have to read some stuff on Medieval Japan.
A very interesting time period, considering that it took place almost in parallel with European Middle Ages. The Japanese developed completely deferent style of castles, armours & weapons but served the same purpose & a similar feudal system, while they never came in contact with the Europeans of the said time periods.
If I’m not mistaken the Japanese equivalent to the European Knights & Byzantine Catafract heavy cavalry Knights, are the “Samurai”
And the “Shogun” were the like the European Barons / Land Lords to which the Samurai would swore legion to.

Almost like a parallel Universe.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:19 am

I love all these games/the history. East Asian equivalent of the Arthurian legends but with some actual historical verification.

Actually I really hate the Dynasty Warriors series, just doesn't grab me. Destiny of an Emperor, Koei's Romance series, wonderful stuff.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:04 am

Dynasty Warriors is the type of thing that's entertaining for about the first twenty minutes, then just turns into mindless hack-and-slash. Otogi handled a similar play mechanic a lot better overall. I'm also looking forward to Ninety-Nine Nights on the 360...

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 4:40 am

Otogi has got to be the most criminally underrated release of this generation. Fantastic game if you ask me.