Heroes' Vow: Three Kingdoms

From the Devs

Write your own legend in the Three Kingdoms! ‘Hero's Ambition: Three Kingdoms’ is a single-player RPG where you take on the role of a hero in the tumultuous late Han and Three Kingdoms era to forge your own path. Play as a loyal general aiding a wise lord to unite the realm, carve out your own domain as a ruler, or roam as a free officer raising private troops to tip the scales of history. Forge sworn brotherhoods, fall in love, marry, and raise heirs. Grow your family, manage properties, or retreat into sacred mountains and great rivers to cultivate martial arts and eloquence alongside your kin. Drill elite legions, experience and rewrite history from diverse perspectives, weave grand diplomatic alliances, or sweep across the land with iron and blood until all under heaven bow before you.

1. Three-Tiered World Structure:

Explore a meticulously crafted three-tier world spanning the strategic world map, bustling city interfaces, and intimate local scenes. From grand territorial conquests and military maneuvers to vibrant urban architecture and detailed life scenes and dramatic events, immerse yourself in an extraordinarily rich and dynamic Three Kingdoms world.

World Map:

City:

Local Scenes:

2. A Grand Stage Across Time:

The game features over 20 starting scenarios, spanning pivotal historical milestones from ‘The Yellow Turban Rebellion’ at the era's beginning to ‘The Battle of Xiling’ at its twilight.

It builds an expansive world featuring over 1,300 historical officers, brought to life with more than 2,000 full-body animated portraits. You can create your own officers before starting the game, while randomly generated officers will also continuously emerge across the Three Kingdoms as gameplay unfolds.

3. Rich Gameplay:

Master multiple core combat modes: Legion Battles, Combat, and Debates.

Command in real-time strategy Legion Battles, where victory is achieved by annihilating enemy forces and capturing enemy buildings. Navigate intricate battlefield terrain across more than 100 unique maps divided into five distinct types: Field Battles, Siege Battles, County Battles, Naval Battles, and Pass Battles.

Take the field as supreme commander or fight as an officer in the ranks. Direct vast armies with tactical precision, unleash devastating officer skills, deploy battle formations and siege engines, and exploit the unique tactics and counters of over 30 distinct troop types to crush enemy forces, seize vital buildings, and secure decisive victory.

Combat and Debates adopt turn-based card battle mechanics. To enhance your prowess across all three combat modes, cultivate each officer's Command Spirit, Martial Spirit, and Mind Spirit, accumulate Three Spirit Points, and master unique spirits and skills. Freely combine thousands of distinct spirits and skills to build your ultimate officer. With teammates and rivals wielding diverse builds—Assault, Defense, Crit, Counter, Evasion, Damage Reflect, and more—adapt your tactics to counter every foe and remain invincible.

4. Multi-Role Experience:

Ruler: Command every city under your banner or delegate governance to Governors. Manage domestics to improve each city's economic balance, invest surplus funds into raising armies and recruiting troops, develop technology, or execute specific strategies to expand your power. Once your forces are battle-ready, launch campaigns to conquer enemy cities and unite the realm. Should the burdens of rule weigh heavy, temporarily entrust your faction to a trusted confidant and travel the land to embark on new adventures.

Officer: Serve with diligence, excel at quarterly assessments, and accumulate merit and influence to earn appointment as a Governor in command of a city. Rise even further by amassing greater merit to become a Viceroy commanding an entire region. Experience the sweeping historical events of the Three Kingdoms era through the eyes of an officer—watch history unfold as a detached observer, or step forward with crucial advice and turn the tide in pivotal campaign battles to rewrite the destiny of your lord and faction.

Free Officer: Build your fortune through trade convoys and estate management, construct Private Barracks within cities, raise your own Private Troops, and sign Mercenary Agreements with various factions to fight across the land. Forge mutual trust with powerful warlords amid the flames of war and sign Pacts of Faith to participate in historical events across multiple factions, rising as the shadow overlord of the late Han era.

5. Over 2 Million Words of Historical Events:

Experience History Across Diverse Roles and Factions: Continuously expanded throughout Early Access, the game now encompasses nearly every legendary—and obscure—chronicle of the Three Kingdoms era. Spanning nearly a century from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the fall of Eastern Wu, over a hundred scenarios and more than 2 million words of narrative faithfully recreate every classic battle and turning point. In each scenario, experience and reshape history through unique role and faction perspectives. At the Battle of Chibi, play as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, or an officer serving in their ranks. Within Cao Cao's camp, win a Debate to spare Cai Mao and Zhang Yun from execution and recruit them to your banner, or defeat the Sun-Liu coalition in the decisive naval clash to rewrite the course of history.

Alter the Course of History: Rely on your tactical brilliance, martial prowess, or silver tongue to overturn historical outcomes. Help Yuan Shao triumph at the Battle of Guandu, lead Liu Bei to a dramatic comeback over Wu at the Battle of Yiling, or assist the Prime Minister in his Northern Expeditions to achieve the grand ambition of restoring the Han Dynasty. Rescue those doomed by fate: lesser figures such as Pan Feng slain yet again by Hua Xiong, Xing Daorong captured and slain by Zhao Yun, Gao Shun going stoically to his death after the Battle of Xiapi, or Tian Feng and Ju Shou swallowed by the tides of Guandu. Save household legends as well: Lu Zhi persecuted by eunuchs, the prodigy Guo Jia who died young, Sun Ce claimed by the curse of Yu Ji, Zhou Yu consumed by frustration, Pang Tong slain at Fallen Phoenix Slope, Xiahou Yuan outwitted and cut down at Mt. Dingjun, Guan Yu meeting his tragic end at Maicheng, Zhang Fei murdered by traitors, Zhang He struck by arrows at Mumen Pass, and Prime Minister Zhuge Liang at Wuzhangyuan—reverse their fatal destinies and redeem history's greatest regrets.

Rewrite history as you see fit, even if it leaves certain historical figures with bitter regrets of their own. Save Diaochan from sacrificing herself in the Ensnare plot, stop Cao Pi from forcibly taking Zhen Mi, pit your wits against Zhuge Liang to win Huang Yueying, or take the place of Sun Ce and Zhou Yu to wed the Two Qiaos. Fulfill the unrealized ambitions of Prime Minister Cao and Jiang Wei.

A great many of these figures you rescue or ‘spirit away’ will become members of your family, serving as powerful pillars in your conquest of the realm.

6. Diverse Social Interactions:

Befriend any officer in the game through conversation, discussing Topics, sharing drinks, giving gifts, cockfighting, sparring, traveling together, mutual tutoring, assisting with tasks, and undertaking unique officer quests. Deepen your ties to become Friends and Best Friends, forging special bonds. Take mentors or disciples to learn and grow together. Become Sworn siblings to achieve greatness side by side. Fall in love, marry, share intimate moments, have children, build a Family, and nurture talented heirs. Even married women can be won over through special means, capturing their hearts to welcome them into your inner court.

7. Other Features:

1. City Commissions: Undertake engaging commissions across every City to reap formidable rewards. The ‘Resurrection’ commission can bring a fallen Officer back to life. The ‘Five Sacred Mountains Pilgrimage’ substantially enhances your abilities. The ‘Martial Arts Marriage Contest’ allows you to win an exceptional bride. The ‘Like Father, Like Daughter’ commission even lets you entice your Good friend's daughter to serve your cause, and much more.

2. The Grand Tournament: Test your mettle in the Grand Tournament held annually in the capital. Compete in martial duels, battles of wits in Debate, or trials of tactical command as elite contenders from across the land vie for lavish rewards.

3. A Living, Dynamic World: Immerse yourself in a living world where NPC Officers act on their own ambitions—resigning or even choosing to Rebel when dissatisfied with their liege. Free Officers will organize Private Troops to entrench themselves in counties, seizing vulnerable or abandoned Cities to declare themselves Ruler. Officers form bonds, forge vendettas, and have a chance each year to welcome newborn children.

4，Party System: Every hero needs allies. Form a party of up to five members to accompany you across the realm. Invite officers to join your party, tour scenic vistas with your spouses, hire mercenaries for protection, or hire Wagon teams to run trade routes and amass wealth. Your companions stand with you during story events and fight by your side in Combat—for reshaping history is never a solitary quest.

5. Dynamic World Map Events: Discover unexpected encounters across the World Map. As you journey across the realm, you may clash with robbers, bandits, barbarian warbands, and ferocious beasts—or cross paths with traveling Peddlers, master blacksmiths, and even an elusive Immortal.

6. Family System: Beyond your own Family, powerful aristocratic clans pursue their own interests. They compete with you to purchase property, vie for dominance over the Market, form temporary pacts of mutual aid, or conspire against you in the shadows.

7. Trade & Commerce: Recruit a Wagon caravan into your ranks and trade goods across different Cities to turn a swift profit. Establish your own Trading House, dispatch Family members to manage it, and enjoy an automated stream of wealth.

8. Private Troops: Command Family Officers to manage your Private Troops, oversee Property purchased in cities, or research Family Technology, which directly bolsters the combat prowess of your Private Troops.

9. Vertical and Horizontal Alliances: Factions will periodically form a Vertical Alliance to besiege the strongest faction, while the targeted faction forms a Horizontal Alliance to counter the threat. As a Ruler, freely choose which alliance to join and savor the thrilling intrigue of high-stakes grand strategy.

10. Building Events: Officers will no longer simply wait for you to call upon them—Wine-loving officers invite you to share drinks, playful ones challenge you to Cockfighting, and those with Wanderlust ask you to travel together. Long-unseen Lovers, Beloveds, and spouses will visit your door, while unfamiliar Officers may seek you out in admiration. If skilled in Medicine, visit the Clinic to assist in treating ailing Officers. Yet peril also brews: when Order is poor, theft at your Residence, assassin ambushes, or rival Officers plotting to Assassinate can all strike. Capture the culprits to cast them into prison. The world is unpredictable, and unexpected twists await at every turn.

11. Festival Events: As seasons turn, specific festivals will trigger unique events. Celebrate New Year's Eve banquets, Spring Festival gatherings, Shangsi springtime excursions, and Dragon Boat Festival dumpling feasts; during the Qixi and Double Ninth Festivals, enjoy an increased Success Rate for their corresponding interactions.

12. Disaster System: Every City has a Chance to suffer six types of disasters—Earthquake, Flood, Drought, Locust Swarm, Plague, and Snowstorm—inflicting varying degrees of destruction and loss upon Commerce, Agriculture, Population, and Buildings.

13. Scenic Area and Pet Systems: Journey across the realm's iconic mountains and rivers with companions to undertake Training. Tame fearsome beasts like bears and tigers, and deploy them to fight alongside you in Combat.

14. Create Officer and Historical Officer Editing Systems

Create completely custom Officers or introduce a New Faction at the start of your journey. You can also import custom portraits by placing your artwork in the Portraits folder. Every historical figure can be reconfigured in the Historical Officer Editor—adjusting their portraits, 3D models, poses, and full array of attributes.

15. Beyond these features, the game offers a rich array of systems including forging, weaving, identification, and much more. Step into the realm and discover them all for yourself.

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A Final Word: We are a small independent team from China with fewer than ten members, and, above all, die-hard fans who grew up playing the Taikou Risshiden and Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. Unfortunately, a proper sequel to Taikou Risshiden never came. Rather than waiting passively, we thought: why not take matters into our own hands to fulfill this long-held dream? That was the starting point of everything.

Starting completely from scratch, it took us five and a half years of dedicated development before we finally launched the Simplified Chinese Early Access (EA) version in March 2025. Over the past year and a half, guided by invaluable feedback from a vast number of Chinese players, we have continuously updated and refined the game. Today, we are thrilled to officially release Version 1.0, complete with English, Japanese, and Korean localization.

Of course, the game is far from perfect. Due to its high degree of freedom, complex systems, and intricate character-specific storylines, there may still be rough edges. We sincerely hope you will share your feedback with us so we can keep improving. As for the art and visual elements, while they have undergone multiple overhauls, there are still areas that need polish. Rest assured, we will continue to refine them.

The official 1.0 release is a major milestone, but it is by no means the end of our journey. We will continue to push updates and commit our full passion toward creating an exceptional historical sandbox RPG.