10 Video Games You Didn't Know Were Based On Books
5. Dynasty Warriors
Based on: Romance Of The Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong
Dynasty Warriors is loosely based upon the 14th Century Chinese novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, as it builds upon the ‘80s video game of the same name. Due to difficulties exactly translating Chinese to English, Records Of and Romance Of aren’t particularly different, and the novel is occasionally referred to as Records Of instead.
In fact, Records Of The Three Kingdoms is exactly that; a collection of records from that era role in a much drier and sterile fashion to the novel.
While Romance Of The Three Kingdoms in the 1980s was a turn-based tactical strategy roleplay game, Dynasty Warriors goes for the chaos of a hack and slash instead.
The novel is widely regarded as one of the greatest Chinese novels ever written; its influence in the East is comparable to Shakespeare’s in the West.
The Three Kingdoms in question are the Dynasties of the Wu, Shu or Wei, and initially players in Dynasty Warriors chose generals representing these houses, before future games offered a more diverse and developed backstory for the main protagonists.