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[Borodin]

Probably KOEI's most interesting title, from a point of view of non-linear progression. Strong AI, lots of choices every turn. Certainly one of their best, but never caught on because the company dropped their PC line (and closed their California offices) abruptly shortly after its release. They evidently decided they'd lost enough money trying to build an American PC-based market.

I think part of their problem was a typical unwillingness to understand American culture. All their titles (aside from this one) were developed in Japan, even their rather laughable attempt at a pirate game. Instead of focusing on adding features to new releases of older titles, they tried to fob off American audiences with awkward efforts at non-Oriental games, such as one about Napoleon and his times. So the US had to adapt to KOEI, not the other way around. And it didn't work out.

Too bad, because I still treasure titles like Romance of the Three Kingdoms III, Nobunaga's Ambition II, and Genghis Khan II.