Developer: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO, LTD.

Publisher: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO, LTD.

Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2 (Reviewed), PS5, Steam

Review code provided by Publisher

The latest entry of the grand strategy series Nobunaga’s Ambition has recently been released. This long lasting series has seen over 15 entries and with Awakening Complete Edition we have access to all of the newest content in one game. With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, Nobunaga’s Ambition is now more closely realized but with the depth and complexity required from the series there are a few issues that hold back this otherwise fantastic entry.

Let me start by talking about the tutorial, or lack thereof. Awakening has a very steep learning curve, and while there is a concept of a tutorial, the best way to learn the game is to get destroyed over and over again. Your first campaign which is set around the birth of Nobunaga acts as a baseline campaign which also has a page that will assist you with the overall flow and structure of the game. After prompting you for the next step there is a series of screenshot tutorials to help you navigate the rather complex controls to proceed with those next steps. It is as light of a tutorial as they come and is made even more complicated by the sheer number of systems and sub-systems the game has to offer. Everything from managing the battlefield to assigning officers and lords to rule over individual regions under your control is managed from many in-depth menu systems that are mostly all accessed by a command wheel. Expect to get overwhelmed but if you continue and aren’t afraid of starting over campaigns there is a diamond worth digging for here with Awakening.

You start each campaign by choosing your starting Daimyo who controls their own individual portion of Japan. There are a few recommended Daimyos that will make certain campaigns a tad bit easier due to positioning and difficulty, but you are free to select any you would like to choose. As you begin, you are able to designate certain progression of the regions by selecting specific structures for your towns that will increase production of currency or troops. As time progresses through the months and years you will steadily increase the generation of these regions which will allow you to do several other aspects of upgrading your territories. There are many different upgrades that you can choose from which is one of my favorite aspects because you are able to customize for your playstyle. I typically liked to increase my troops totals to help defend my territory and also to launch assaults on my neighboring enemies.

Speaking of taking over these territories, attacking targets can happen a few different ways. During these takeover events you can simply overrun the enemies with sheer number of troops, but sometimes there are siege events and battlefield events that can break up the gameplay. During one of the attacks on a more defensive heavy region, the enemy can force you to attack in a more specific way. Enemy troops can take control of certain control points and you can direct troops to attack specific points of entry trying to minimize your risk of losing troops due to careless strategy. The nice aspect of this is that you can allow the game’s AI to control your troops but this can lead to the death of more units because you may have a better strategy than the AI. Outside of this, with a more 1 on 1 attack, units can meet each other on the open battlefield and attack each other in a similar way but with less areas of structural defense than you would find in towns and must rely on specific areas of the terrain to provide benefits to either side.

Other aspects of gameplay include more diplomatic relationships with both other Daimyos or even sometimes negotiating with officers that want to join your army. This can include sending them treasures, supplies, or even allowing them to become the ruler of a region or town for a specified number of years. The beginning of the negotiations you have a balancing act of what they are offering, and you can increase the benefits of your gifts to overcome the base of what they are looking for. For instance, if their wants have a value of 80, you need to give enough resources or benefits to surpass the value of 80. Let’s say that you are going to allow them to own a region of your territory, 1 year may have a value of 60, 5 years may have a value of 80. You can supplement the 1 year with treasure that has a value of 20, or just give them 5 years of ruling the land to balance the negotiating scales.

You may choose a diplomatic route or a domination route to winning the campaigns. Either way are perfectly valid and have their own strategies and methods for playing which can suit many different players and lovers of strategy games in their own right. A campaign can easily take several hours to complete and multiple attempts to fully learn the path that will lead to your victory. The first campaign is the best route to learn what works for you and don’t feel bad if it takes several attempts to start to get the hang of things. 

In the middle of the campaigns, a nice aspect of story-telling which I enjoyed was hearing the latest gossip and news of Japan at different intervals based on the activities of your neighbors. These are more visual novel style interludes that tell you what major changes and conflicts happened with different Daimyos and the conclusion of those events. It’s a nice change of pace but I wasn’t so familiar with all of the individuals in those events but it provided good context for the regions and the history of Japan.

When it comes to negative aspects of the game there are a few that hold the title back. First off, the control scheme is as convoluted as they come. There are so many different menus and submenus and different buttons to access those menus that it took a while to get comfortable with even finding what I was looking for within the system. On the Switch 2, we have a bit of an easier time with controls if you are able to use the mouse mode with the controllers. I have to say this is one of my favorite aspects of the Switch 2 as a whole, the mouse mode makes interaction with the game much easier and more familiar. Graphically, the game is serviceable but I was hoping for a bit more with a stronger console. 

Overall, I am having a great time with Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition. There is so much content in terms of sheer number of campaigns. I can see endless amounts of hours of gameplay if you want to invest the time initially to get a fair understanding of the gameplay itself. Fans of grand strategy games will find a lot to love here. While It’s not as intuitive as Civilization by any means, the sheer depth of systems and aspects to growing your kingdom as you strive to unify Japan can be a welcome addition for lovers of grand strategy games. Nobunaga’s Ambition is a great edition to your Switch 2 library!