Koei is best known for their line of historically accurate and addictive war/strategy simulations. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sangokushi, Nobunaga Returns are all from Koei. For a little while, Koei strayed from war simulations and produced a couple of other sims such as Aerobiz and a rudimentary English tutorial for Japanese students called Emit which spanned three volumes.
	Koei strays a little bit farther this week. Sangoku Musou is their first fighting game and just as Square's Tobal No.1 caused a stir in the marketplace when they strayed from their usual staple of RPGs, Koei has attracted a great deal of attention with Sangoku. Koei remains true to their strategy game roots by bringing in the characters from Romance of the 3 Kingdoms to do the fighting. Just about all of the fighters are armed with swords, axes and other weapons that will cleave and hack.
	Whereas these commanders and generals from Romance guided their troops into war against hordes of armies, Sangoku Musou gives these venerable leaders a chance to arm themselves and head into one on one war. This is a far cry from sitting on horseback and directing your troops into battle. The game is a high quality product with a wide mix of offensive and defensive moves and countermoves at your fighter's disposal. Koei joins Square in the late rush to join in on the fighting game craze and comes out with a winner.