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Forum - View topicGAME: Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2668 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Quick correction, but Koei Tecmo owns Nobunaga's Ambition, not Bandai Namco. Too many companies with double names nowadays, I guess... |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 641 |
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Thanks for pointing it out, it has since been corrected! |
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 537 Location: PA / USA |
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The Koei strategy games tend to get released faster than numbered Civilisation games, alternating between Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition. Every now & again, they release one that is so over-the-top amazing that the next few versions of the game are overshadowed by the newer ones (Awakening is being released in such a period). More recently, Koei has (in error) been trying to makes things a bit more mobile-friendly with their interface and presentation, and I'm not a fan of it in the spots where it's most obvious.
Always make sure to try and catch these on sale, as they are horrendously over-expensive at full price. Nobunaga Sphere of Influence is currently the gold standard for Nobunaga's Ambition - Awakening is now 2 versions post- Sphere, and if you are thinking Awakening looks fancy, you may have a better time with Sphere. New players who have never seen Nobunaga before can play Nobunaga's story campaign on SOI from start to finish and it is an amazingly well-read story with a good presentation & cutscene viewer. If you just want to experience the story and immerse yourself in the history, this is an AMAZING campaign for the cinematic immersion, especially if you are new. Nobunaga SOI Ascension is a version of Sphere that was released later and allows you to create your own original character and play as them as they rise up the ranks from nameless soldier to ruler of the country. If you are semi-familiar with the Warring States era and are really big into roleplaying, Ascension is the one you want to hit because it includes all of the aspects of SOI and more. Vet players will note however, that the Ai players aren't as sharp on Ascension as they are on base game SOI, and the cutscene viewer is gone for some arbitrary reason - all of the cinematics are still there from base game SOI, but it's harder to access them freely on Ascension without replaying the full scenario. A funny side effect of starting as a nameless soldier, is that Ascension's gameplay systems are slowly rolled out for you, the more influence and power you gain, so if big cinematics and story aren't why you're playing and you just want strategy, playing Ascension from the bottom is actually a great way to be eased in gradually to how a Koei strategy game works. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 641 |
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Wow, thanks for sharing this! This is very helpful! Would you say Sphere of Influence was in any way a good starting point for Civ-strategy newcomers? Nobunaga's Ambition definitely whetted my appetite, but it definitely left me feeling like I didn't have enough brain cells to play it right. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 1020 |
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I started with SOI and found it a great introduction to the series,mthough since then I've only played a few of the older games. Learning curve is kinda steep, but not too bad if you've played a lot of other 4X/GS games. If your only frame of reference is Civ, it might take a bit longer to get a hang of things.
Hah, that's good to hear. Got in with SOI and loved it, but every time I see the other games I think maaaaybe it's time to move on, but I just haven't yet (so many great strategy games out there right now!) and from what you've said, I'm thinking now it's probably better I don't. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 537 Location: PA / USA |
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I originally used to do Civ 1 & II with my dad back in the day, and I was personally a big fan of Civ 5. After trying to get into Nobunaga Iron Triangle on PS2 (which is usually regarded as one of the BIG Nobunaga games prior to Sphere), it ultimately was really difficult to start cold with no prior experience. Sphere of Influence and its base game is where I finally started getting a feel for stuff, particularly as someone that was pretty solid in understanding Civ II and 5. Sphere of Influence is usually suggested as a good place to start, I also agree with this. I think it's mainly because the base game is SUCH a complete package as-is that everything ties in really well together within the game - the tutorial gives you a good look into how the menus work and introduces some of the setting/characters, then playing Nobunaga's main campaign (Birth of Nobunaga as the Oda clan) eases you in to your monthly responsibilities through the various objectives you're given, and then the reward and goal for completing these are some pretty beautiful/engaging story sequences. In a Civ game, there are moments where you can make changes or alter your moment-to-moment strategy and rather quickly see its results reflected, but on any Nobunaga title, you are likely going to have a majority of situations where something you are planning has been being built up for several months/seasons at a time, only to all suddenly explode in a massive chain of events much much later. The ebb and flow of how Sphere presents this in its main campaigns - assuming you pick a major clan to play as - usually do a good job of setting the pace and most importantly, exampling the longterm consequences of planning. Sphere felt (compared to Iron Triangle prior to it) like it was the first time Koei was leaning a lot heavier into the idea of onboarding new players, and I think Sphere accomplishes this perfectly. You can compare Sphere of Influence to Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13: Fame and Strategy where the onboarding process there is still better than it had been in the past, but is a lot more obtuse to a new player since the game's systems are much more complex. That's not to say that Sphere is easy, but that everything is quite concise and interconnected to the point where learning one concept usually allows you to understand the next one with minimal resistance. There's still lots of reading and critical thinking required, but unlike Nobunaga Ascension (the expac version of Sphere), there's nothing in Sphere of Influence's base game that a new player can royally mess up during the configuration of your difficulty settings that ruins the game for you. Ascension requires lots more micromanaging at points. Taishi, the sequel to Sphere of Influence is the one that looks like a mobile game and is generally reviled as being every sense of a downgrade to Sphere. Awakening, the newest Nobunaga title, looks like Koei caught on and returned to a more Sphere of Influence sort of look & layout, though I notice at a glance that things are a lot more complex on Awakening's UI than they are on Sphere - whether this is "complex, giving you MORE control" or "complex, as in needlessly so where what used to be 1 click is now 3" is something that I'll have to wait for the PC release of Awakening in English to find out for myself. TLDR: There are a few folks that have posted tutorial Let's Plays of Sphere of Influence from the last seven years on YouTube, I'd say most of them do a good job of illustrating how the onboarding process looks in action. New players can run the tutorial, then move into the Birth of Nobunaga campaign, playing as the Oda clan. So long as you didn't set the difficulty too high, there's an in-game Help> encyclopedia menu that elaborates on what gameplay systems can affect. By running the campaign and experimenting a little, it should hopefully 'click' within the first two chapters of the story. Don't immediately buy any of the Sphere of Influence DLC, it's included in Ascension if you intend to move there for the roleplaying aspect later. Hopefully all of that helps, the series in general is really fun, and Iron Triangle is similar enough to Sphere that if you get good at it, learning RotK or older Nobunaga stuff can hopefully come a bit easier. |
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