The game is set in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. It is loosely based on the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Luo Guanzhong.
The story follows the quest of Liu Bei, Zhang Fei,and Guan Yu as they work to unite China's 3 kingdoms together.
The game plays similar to a traditional RPG with players gaining experience and gold through random, turn-based encounters.
Players may not always face generic enemies in battle. Generals, which are unique enemies, can show up in combat and may be captured and be added to the players party. Excess party members are "stored" until the player swaps party members in a specific buildings throughout the games cities/towns.
There is also a battle option called "All-out" where all fighters rush to the middle and the battle is played out by the computer. This is a quick way to end the battle if the player's army is significantly stronger than the opposing army. This can be canceled at any time by pressing the "B" button.
Traditional magic users are replaced with "tacticians". These characters provide magic-like effects such as healing and elemental damage.
The term "hit points" is replaced with the term "Soldiers" when describing the health of a character.
Source: User summary