| Teitoku no Ketsudan III | |
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| Developer(s): | Koei |
| Publisher(s): | Koei |
| Release Date: | Japan: 1996 March 28, 1997 (PS) June 27, 1997 (SS) |
| Genre: | War simulation |
| Game Modes: | Single Player, multiplayer |
| Ratings: | CERO: 
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| Platform(s): | PC-9801, Windows (3.1, 95~Me), PlayStation, Sega Saturn |
Teitoku no Ketsudan III (提督の決断III, translated as "The Admiral's Decision III") is the third and only unlocalized title of the P.T.O. series. Kou Shibusawa is the general producer and Bob Sakuma is this entry's music composer. Noriyoshi Ourai illustrated the cover image.
Teitoku no Ketsudan III's finishing touches for development and distribution were initially sent to Koei's Tianjin based subsidiary company. At the same time disapproval for Japan in China was at a high due to renewed Senkaku Islands disputes and the Prime Minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, issues which stem from Japan's hectic WWII occupation. Four Tianjin subsidiary employees (Liang Guangming, Gao Yuan, Guo Jing, and Qi Wei) cited their protest to the glorified "misrepresentations" of Japanese armed forces and politicians in the game to the Chinese mass media. An investigation began July 1996, and the Tianjin branch violated the Electronic Publications Management Act by allegedly failing to file a legal license to develop the title. The confiscation of 11,500 copies and a 479,000 yuan fine was conducted by local authorities in December. Chinese mass media heralded the four Tianjin employees as heroes and dubbed them "the four gentleman of Koei", a pun of "four honorable gentleman".
Koei responded with a public apology for offending the Chinese public and the cancellation of overseas distribution.
Gameplay
At the start of each game, the player selects a scenario and their naval forces of choice: North America (blue) or Japan (red). After the difficulty for the scenario is selected, the player must select their Admiral and Vice Admiral for their navy. Campaign or short scenario victory conditions are noted within the options menu.
Turns change from monthly to four daily intervals and are condensed into a single Plan Phase. Monthly conferences from P.T.O. II have been removed, lessening the player's influence in politics. Naval Staff committee meetings offer NPC opinions of a selected base or unit's condition to assist with the player's judgment. Diplomacy is mainly conducted by sending funds or supplies to a base using ally fleets. If a third-party or ally base has high friendship ratings, the player can invest in their technological research for advanced units. Even if the player conquers a base with high tech, they will be unable to exploit their spoils until they win the base's friendship. A technological officer and/or new inventions will be reported every Sunday at 14:00. Adjustments to fleet formations and so forth remain relatively the same as its predecessor with a text intensive GUI.
Intelligence and espionage has been omitted in favor of a fatigue parameter, a stat which affects unit performance and production rates. The longer the player fights, the smaller their outputs. A base suffering from maximum fatigue will be unable to send or make warships, air strikes, or infantry defenses. Fatigue can be reduced by docking units or halting production. However, if the player neglects to build defenses before resting, the base will be open prey to enemy ground or air forces until the next Plan Phase.
Weather conditions continue to play a part in deciding strategy and often coincide with the time of day. Sunny conditions in midday, for example, is ideal for every unit type. Aerial night raids can decimate bases. The player can regularly check in-game time at the top of the screen, and the world map movement icon lists weather conditions at its current coordinates. Weather has a tendency to change every two~eight in-game hours.
Once the player chooses to end the Plan Phase, bases and forces will proceed according to their decisions. A prompt to intercept enemy units during their procedures will occur if they are in sight. Armies can be ordered during battle but cannot be moved away from their base. Fleets can choose to send air units they may have, bombard an enemy with cannons or other long ranged artillery, or ignore the enemy ship if they are within range. Darkened hexagons on the world map shows the range of effectiveness for either action.
Like other titles, combat proceeds on a hexagonal grid. Actions now proceed in a psudo-real time fashion, as procrastinating too long automatically skips the player's turn. Air forces are required to navigate around clouds for their hexagonal grid, which may limit their usefulness on cloudy days. Their current altitude in the sky changes their effectiveness against land or sea forces for each turn. Sea battles can occur above surface against air strikes or submerged for submarine conflicts; movement for any of the three battle conditions occurs in a separate grid parallel to the main map.
Combat length is still decided by a unit's maximum turn count, but the turn count varies on the unit's size and quality. This means that while fatigue plays a key part in a unit's performance, battles are often won by numbers. A single high performance fleet with no fatigue stands no chance against multiple air strikes from tired pilots.
The player can choose to skip battle animations, save or load their game, or view character biographies within the settings option of the main menu at any time.
Modes
New Game
Self-explanatory.
Load
Load from a previous save.
Biographies
View profile information and stats for any figure earned from current save data. Japanese commanders are available by default. The player can randomly reset their stats and alter them by 10 points in any parameter. These changes will be in effect for the next new game.
Scenarios
Default
The first one is a Campaign (multiple victory conditions) scenario; the rest are Short (one victory condition).
- Brink of War
- Attack on Pearl Harbor
- Battle of Midway
- Battle of Solomon
- Great Marianas Turkey Shoot
- Battle of Leyte Gulf
- Operation Ten-Go
Fictional
Power Up Kit only. Every scenario is Campaign type.
- Blank War Plan - there are no warships.
- High Tech Advance - advanced technology is available at the start.
- Rommel Conquers the East - Germans wins the African front and have occupied India
- Second Anglo-Japanese Alliance - Anglo–Japanese Alliance never broke leading to a Japan-UK versus US-Germany war.
- 1941 Soviet War - Soviets declare war on Japan.
- Failed Surprise - Attack on Pearl Harbor has failed. Admiral Chūichi Nagumo has perished and the US loses four warships at the Battle of Midway.
- Victory for the East - Japan wins the Battle of Midway and gains leverage on the pacific front with its submarines.
Additional
Power Up Kit only. Every scenario is Short.
- Battle of the Java Sea
- Sea Battle of Ceylon
- Battle of the Coral Sea
- Second Battle of the Solomon Sea
- Battle of the South Pacific
- Third Battle of the Solomon Sea
- Sea Battle off Bougainville Island
Differences between ports
- Opening movies for the PS version are fully animated and include live documentary footage from historical archives. Narration is provided by Jyurohta Kosugi.
- GUI, graphics, and portraits are different between the PC and home console versions.
- Battle animations are rendered in fullscreen with 3D models for the home console versions.
- The Win 95/PS versions omits tanks and suicide weapons.
- PS version is single player only.
Power Up Kit Changes
The Power Up Kit expansion has the following alterations:
- Fixes saving bug from vanilla version.
- Unit strength and durability has been altered to match historical accounts.
- New weapons, technological additions and scenarios (listed above) were added.
- Range for particular weaponry has been altered.
- Historical events have been added in Campaign Scenarios.
- Transport between supply lines becomes instantaneous during Plan Phase.
Related Media
Koei published several guidebooks and one soundtrack CD. It was one of the titles included in Koei's 2002 Summer Chance shopping campaign.