NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Awakening Preview for Steam

NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Awakening is an intense strategy game, by KOEI TECMO GAMES, where you will attempt to conquer all of Japan. You will play through scenarios of wartime in an effort to conquer all foes and unite all forces, assign retainers to oversee lands, upgrade facilities to improve development, seize resources from nearby towns, and much more. Each scenario is unique and features many clans to choose from, each offering their own advantages and disadvantages. Will you be able to unite Japan under one banner or will you crumble under stronger foes?

The starting cutscene you are dropped into is very cinematic and well made, it just brings you though a little trailer of sorts showing the concept and story of the game. The default difficulty is set to easy probably because of all the mechanics in the game that you have to keep track of. That being said, there is a surprisingly wide array of customization options provided for the difficulty and gameplay. There are preset options of easy, normal, hard, and extra hard, but on top of that there are settings to change specific gameplay options such as coin and crop yield and AI aggressiveness and level. The game is very in depth with many different things to keep track of at all times and much like other games like this it can be a lot to take in at first. The tutorial is overall pretty good at explaining the gameplay and walking you through everything if not a little fast paced. Your goal is to develop and expand your lands to gather forces and conquer other clans in order to win the war. You can upgrade your towns, assign retainers, send out diplomatic parties, negotiate, bargain, and much more. There are many strategic approaches to take in order to not only strengthen your standing but to also hinder your opponents progression, in the end though all wars end in some kind of battle. Lead your armies into battle or defend your own castle with everything you have and hope it’s enough to win the war.

As I mentioned there is quite a lot to this game, from managing your lands and council to negotiation with other clans and much more it is really easy to get overwhelmed, especially when it always feels like time is against you and one wrong move can greatly hurt your chances. That only gets worse in the battle phases, there are objectives given to you but things move so fast that it’s hard to grasp the concepts easily. It will definitely take some time for you to fully understand and get the hang of this game. The game definitely feels a lot larger scale than what would be easy to manage in a game like this with so many micro tasks to manage. Other than that the game feels well put together and very aesthetically pleasing.

NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Awakening is a wartime strategy game placing you in scenarios of warring clans in Japan. You will choose a clan to manage and lead into war, if you are successful at micromanaging your many tasks you might even be successful in the end. There are many little tasks and moving parts in this game that can be overwhelming at first and it may take some time to get used to. This is an overall smooth well put together game that has some issues with beginner complexity but, other than that, is a fun wartime management game.

To pre-purchase the game, visit Steam.

Related: Reviews by Brianna Keller