With Great reluctance I give it a thumbs down, at least until KOEI fixes this nonsense.
TLDR:
If you don't care about creating custom officers or messing with options, and also don't might manually installing mods to get English (i.e. you don't want to customize in-game, but don't mind HAVING to customize prior to playing) then pick up this game on discount. ROTKXI is the greatest ROTK game ever made!

Long Version:
Fortunately, I bought the original ROTKXI (without power up kit, PUK) a long time ago, before it was scrubbed off the internet. It had a built in English translation. You could customize officer names up to 12 characters (distributed how you want, vs. PUK version restricting each part of the name to 4 characters). Even after simple mod installs in the PUK version (steam version), I still can't name new officers using English Characters (probably have to tweak additional options, which I'm not willing to learn how to do, since I don't like this version).

-The start menu song is retarded. Not that it's a bad song. But it is a definite downgrade from the original menu song. And the new song just feels so out of place to the game. As does the in-game music, which I also consider a downgrade (except the winter song. I liked that one).
-The in-game menus are so hard on my eyes, as opposed to the original which had a much softer color tone and a more defined font.
-The character art is supposed to look more flashy, but I just honestly prefer the original character art. I don't suppose that part is a down-grade so much as personal preference.
-I much dislike the new maps vs the old maps. However, the new maps bring some new innovative ideas i do like, such as an actual water city. That was cool. But i think the new city and resource placements in general are...let's say this nicely... not as much fun.
-The combat isn't much different, though I feel it is designed for a bit more strategy than the original (mostly how numbers are calculated), but not much. The new upgraded resource buildings and the upgrades for officers sounds interesting. And I would like to play around with them. But given all the other issues, it's really not all that tempting to me.

As with many games, the "upgraded" version is a serious downgrade to the original, the GOAT, IMHO. If you can find the original somewhere, get that instead and forget this version ever existed. This game is the Mulan II of video games. I, personally, will uninstall this game and never touch it again. The original is WAY more fun (and much easier on the eyes. Goodness sake, I've got a headache after playing this PUK version).

Best of the series