To think the Romance of the Three Kingdoms tale has been receiving digitized installments since the pre-NES days is something of a wonder. But even for a franchise that’s seen as many sequels as Final Fantasy, Sangokushi (as it's originally known) doesn’t look to be cooling off anytime soon. For that, you can thank Producer Kou Shibusawa, as the guy must have some vision to be bringing back his famed historical simulation for an eleventh edition (though we’ve only seen nine in the States).

With that, we present Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, the latest testament to ancient Chinese history that’s looking awfully lustrous these days, due in no small part to its newly-achieved gold status.

Yep, it’ll be out soon, which means you should be in full preparation for a crash course in Asian civilization, namely, China during its near-collapse towards the end of the Han Dynasty (that’d be the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.) With the intent of uniting China under a single rule, players will have to prove as politically able as they are effective with their military. Govern cities, command officers, and watch it all come to life with the lush new art direction, a quasi-cel-shaded look inspired by classical Chinese ink paintings. Your rise to glory will be rounded out with more than 780 officers and supporting characters to interact with, English and Chinese voice options, a create-an-officer mode, a revamped debate system and more. Could this be Shibusawa’s historical simulation masterpiece? Time will tell!

Actually, about two and a half weeks time will tell, with Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI expanding its rule to retail on February 6. A wealth of screenshots await your inspection until then.