Culture

Localization is Far More than Translation — Why Total War: Three Kingdoms Got So Big in China

“Most boys in China grew up reading or watching content based on the Three Kingdoms. It's more or less a complex towards these heroic characters of warring times,” A Chinese fanatic of the newly released Total War: Three Kingdoms, a strategy game developed by British studio Creative Assembly, told me. “Every Chinese boy has a dream of the Three Kingdoms. You would wonder how you would have organized your armies if you were the army leader.”

Romance of The Three Kingdoms Might as Well be China’s Game of Thrones

When I first thought of comparing Game of Thrones to the Three Kingdoms, it seemed pretty ridiculous. One story takes place in the fictional land of Westeros, an imaginary world where dragons, sorcerers and walking dead exist. Another is a romantic version of real Chinese history, with rivalry, reunions and scheming between three ancient kingdoms at a time when the rule of Han dynasty was at its lowest around 220 A.D.