5. Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (Series)
A few gamers may have heard of this classic series that came to an end on the PS2, even more might be familiar with what it evolved into, the arcade style button masher Dynasty Warriors. The story, based on the book of the same name tells the tale of the deep history of ancient China. While Dynasty Warriors focuses on uninspired, mindless (but fun) fighting Romance is about empire building in just about every way one could imagine. In its final form Romance was a deep and complex experience, so deep and complex that most gamers would prefer to do the unthinkable, actually go outside and find something else to do. The tutorial alone took about 8 hours to get through (no that is not a typo), so exhaustive doesnt begin to describe the sheer complexity of a game that promoted micromanagement as fun. The player is literally responsible for everything, including the games expansive economic system. Economy in Romance is represented as having the same level of importance as economy in real life. Therefore the players business acumen was a crucial asset in terms of strategy.