History YMMV / TotalWarRomeII

* AdoredByTheNetwork: CA loves ''Rome II''. If one is not convinced by the herculean efforts to patch the game as seen in AuthorsSavingThrow below, consider the fact that the fourth and fifth expansion [=DLCs=] came ''four and five years'' after initial release respectively; ''Empire Divided'' even has the sanitation mechanic from ''Attila'', and its setting can be seen as a prequel to ''Attila'''s grand campaign.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The ''Emperor Edition's'' changes to the gameplay, and also fixing a large number of the bugs that had plagued the game since release.
** The Ancestral Update is this. It not only overhauls the graphics completely, fixes a host of bugs, rebalances a score of units, gets rid of the much reviled "spaghetti" lines, overhauls the family interactions and intrigue systems, overhauls Agents, it ''finally'' adds '''Family Trees''', a feature that's been requested by fans since the game's release. This, alongside the last two meaty updates, have ''really'' turned people's opinion on the game, and it's now being heralded as the thing it should have been at release: a worthy successor to the first game.

** The Ancestral Update is this ''[[UpToEleven in spades]]''. It not only overhauls the graphics completely, fixes a host of bugs, rebalances a score of units, gets rid of the much reviled "spaghetti" lines, overhauls the family interactions and intrigue systems, overhauls Agents, it ''finally'' adds '''Family Trees''', a feature that's been requested by fans since the game's release. This, alongside the last two meaty updates, have ''really'' turned people's opinion on the game, and it's now being heralded as the thing it should have been at release: a worthy successor to the first game.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: The Realm Divide ScriptedEvent introduced in ''Shogun 2'' as the endgame event has been tweaked into a much less penalizing Civil War mechanic. Gain enough political power in your faction, and the other political factions will rebel against you, instead of having every other faction in the game become hostile.
** In a sense, the [[UpToEleven entire game]] can be considered this, as numerous bugfixes, balance patches, and free DLC has gone a long way in redeeming the game for some fans. (It doesn't hurt that an optimization bugbear plagued its successor ''Attila'' and was never fixed.)

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: One of the largest complaints about the game is due to the rather long time it takes when cycling through a turn. This is probably due in large part to the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Loads and Loads of Factions]] that exist in this game, far in excess of any previous ''Total War'' game. Patch 2 speeds this up quite a bit, especially early on.

** In a sense, the [[UpToEleven entire game]] can be considered this, as numerous bugfixes, balance patches, and free DLC has gone a long way in redeeming the game for some fans (along with the optimization bugbear which plagued its successor ''Attila'' and was never fixed).

** [[https://i.imgur.com/HIt091h.jpg "I don't want to play as Pontus!"]], referring to a very disproportionate outcry prior to the game's release when the last faction revealed was Pontus rather than another fan-favorite, such as the Seleucids...especially since the Seleucids were the first new faction released for free after launch. [[AscendedMeme This picture is actually framed within Creative Assembly's office]].

* MemeticMutation: [[https://i.imgur.com/HIt091h.jpg "I don't want to play as Pontus!"]], referring to a very disproportionate outcry prior to the game's release when the last faction revealed was Pontus rather than another fan-favorite, such as the Seleucids...especially since the Seleucids were the first new faction released for free after launch. [[AscendedMeme This picture is actually framed within Creative Assembly's office]].

* MemeticMutation: It did not take long for people to refer to the Desert Kingdoms pack as the "[[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-wuz-kings KANGZ]]-Pack".
** [[https://i.imgur.com/HIt091h.jpg "I don't want to play as Pontus!"]], referring to a very disproportionate outcry prior to the game's release when the last faction revealed was Pontus rather than another fan-favorite, such as the Seleucids...especially since the Seleucids were the first new faction released for free after launch. [[AscendedMeme This picture is actually framed within Creative Assembly's office]].

** The fact that there's only one turn per year, rather than two like in ''Rome'' or even four as in ''Shogun 2'' [[note]]In this regard, ''Rome II'' was not the worst offender; that will be ''Medieval II'', where one turn represented '' two years''. However, ''Medieval II'' was more lenient in character aging, as characters over there age at a slower rate (the same rate as the original ''Rome'')[[/note]]. A common complaint was that it meant agents and generals expired from old age long before they were able to gain a useful level of skill, as well as making high-end structures take a comically long time to upgrade. Tellingly, ''none'' of ''Rome II'''s expansion campaigns had "a turn representing a year".

** The fact that there's only one turn per year, rather than two like in ''Rome'' or even four as in ''Shogun 2'' [[note]]In this regard, ''Rome II'' was not the worst offender; that will be ''Medieval II'', where one turn represented '' two years''.[[/note]]. A common complaint was that it meant agents and generals expired from old age long before they were able to gain a useful level of skill, as well as making high-end structures take a comically long time to upgrade. Tellingly, ''none'' of ''Rome II'''s expansion campaigns had "a turn representing a year".

* AdoredByTheNetwork: CA loves ''Rome II''. If one is not convinced by the herculean efforts to patch the game as seen in AuthorsSavingThrow below, consider the fact that the fourth and fifth expansion [=DLCs=] came ''four and five years'' after initial release respectively; ''Empire Divided'' even has the sanitation mechanic from ''Attila'', and its setting can be seen as aprequel to ''Attila'''s grand campaign.

** The fact that there's only one turn per year, rather than two like in ''Rome'' or even four as in ''Shogun 2''. A common complaint was that it meant agents and generals expired from old age long before they were able to gain a useful level of skill, as well as making high-end structures take a comically long time to upgrade.