Martial Kingdoms
Martial Kingdoms (simplified Chinese: 天下霸图; traditional Chinese: 天下霸圖; pinyin: Tiān Xià Bà Tú) is a Chinese single-player wuxia strategy video game developed by Taiwanese studio T-Time Technology Co., Ltd. The game was released in 2003.[1] It has a sequel, Martial Kingdoms 2, which was released in 2007.[1]
| Martial Kingdoms | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | T-Time Technology Co., Ltd. |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Genre(s) | Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Gameplay
The player chooses one from 13 martial arts sects to play as, and must conquer the other sects to rule the wulin (martial artists' community) and win the game. At the start of the game, each sect controls at least one duo (or base) out of 20 main ones, all located on a map of China. A sect is conquered when it loses all its bases or when its leader is killed.
There are different ways for a sect to increase its strength and power:
- Recruiting and training new members
- Taking control of unoccupied bases or conquering bases controlled by other sects, so as to acquire more resources such as gold, wood and iron ore.
- Upgrading its factories to produce weapons, equipment and medicine of better quality
- Discovering and learning more powerful skills through studying and gaining experience from battles
- Forming alliances with other sects
- Attracting special characters (seven of them) to join the sect
The player can manage the sect members and arrange their daily schedules to determine how much time each member spends on a certain task (e.g. collecting resources, making items, training) and what skill the member will be learning.
Plot
The game is set in the Ming dynasty during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor. The emperor is deceived by the treacherous chancellor Yan Song, and he fears that the wulin (martial artists' community) may pose a threat to him. He sends the Jinyiwei (secret police) to stir up conflict among the various sects in the hope that they will destroy each other.
There are four storylines that the player can choose from. In each storyline, the number of bases occupied by each sect at the beginning is different and some sects appear only in certain storylines. In addition, the player has the option of creating a new sect if he/she does not wish to play as any of the 12 default sects.
The 20 bases are:
The 12 default sects featured in the game are:
| Name | Storylines | Main base | Specialties in martial arts / others |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demonic Cult 魔教 | 1, 2, 3, 4 | Dian Lake | Palm, finger, sword and spear styles |
| Beggars' Sect 丐幫 | 1, 2, 3, 4 | Yingtian Prefecture | Palm and staff styles |
| Shaolin Monastery 少林寺 | 1, 2, 3, 4 | Mount Song | Fist, staff, palm and finger styles |
| Wudang Sect 武當派 | 1, 2, 3, 4 | Wudang Mountains | Sword, palm and fist styles |
| Emei Sect 峨嵋派 | 1, 2 | Mount Emei | Sword, palm, finger and kick styles |
| Mount Hua Sect 華山派 | 1, 2, 3 | Mount Hua, Mount Heng (only in storyline 3) | Sword and palm styles |
| Mount Wu Sect 巫山派 | 1, 2 | Wu Mountains | Saber, kick, sword and staff styles; poison-based secret weapon attacks |
| Dongting Sect 洞庭幫 | 2, 3 | Dongting Lake | Staff styles; qinggong |
| Taiyi Cult 太乙教 | 1, 2, 3 | Huangshan | Saber, sword and staff styles |
| Baoxiang Monastery 寶相寺 | 1, 2, 3 | Mount Tiantai | Finger styles |
| Heroes' Gate 英雄門 | 2, 3, 4 | Qilian Mountains | Spear, saber, sword and fist styles |
| Shennong Sect 神農幫 | 1, 2, 3 | Changbai Mountains | Saber styles; production of medicine and antidotes |
See also
References
- (in Chinese) Products page of T-Time website Archived 2010-07-01 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- (in Chinese) Martial Kingdoms official website