It's been a while since Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension. Great game, but damn! So confusing. When we got wind that we could expect a new game this year - Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening - we couldn't wait to get our hands on it.
Awakening is surely an upgrade, having much more of a focus on Japan's unification via war and alliances, dropping the need to be so detailed in making sure to build rice paddies next to sources of water in your main province. Although that was very enjoyable in Ascension - to build each element of your province with such detail (we could play a version just with this and no war) - the transition between completing your province and then seeking total Japanese county domination was too much of a shock (for us). Calm to complex shit storm WAY too quickly. Awakening keeps you focused on war, simplifying province and county management (yes, these menu options are simpler than the others!), and my my my, how FUN that is!
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is like the board game Risk, but the world map is solely Japan, zoomed in, split into territories called counties. You must occupy all counties by defeating an army through force or using that political silver tongue of yours to create alliances, vassal states or allegiances through marriages. Unify all of Japan under your clan and you win. We put every setting on easy mode and tilted what we could in our favour. We unified a quarter of the map. It's not easy! But man, it is fun.
Finally understanding ALL the mechanics, we could likely dominate our next attempt (with easy mode still active, of course), but we really want to overpower the Date clan and steam roll toward Kyoto on our current save. In time, in time.
Overall, our favourite Nobunaga's Ambition yet. Bravo KOEI TECMO!
A bonus to history buffs and Samurai fans. There is a series on Netflix called Age of Samurai that explains the history of Oda Nobunaga (he is a man, the Alexander the Great of Japanese history) and others within this game. You'll learn the history of the Sengoku period through either channel. So fascinating! Ieyasu is our boy!