I tried again with Records mode and had a better time with it, it was closer to the Total War experience I love from previous entries in the series, with a focus on units and traditional military tactics and strategy. Some of the innovations were good, though - I did like the way your generals can engage in one-on-one duels with their enemy counterparts, which was a nice way of making them more significant elements of the battlefield and the game generally. I opted for Romance first - because who doesn’t love a good historical epic? - but quickly found myself getting lost in character development side of things the change from the faction-focused nature of previous games wasn’t entirely my cup of jasmine tea.
The Romance mode focuses on your generals as individual heroes who can do impressive feats, develop skills and engage in single combat with other heroic individuals, while the Records mode is more like a traditional Total War game. There are two ways to play Three Kingdoms - ‘Romance’ or ‘Records’.