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Koei Tecmo announced that Ibrahim, a Nijisanji VTuber, will appear in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening as free DLC. Players have until November 20, 2023 to him.

In Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening, Ibrahim will be “Ib Rahim,” who is an officer living in the Sengoku Era of Japan. Not only is he playable, but he’ll also be a star in a new event. This event focuses on the Honnoji Incident. Ibrahim (or Ib Rahim) will look different from his usual avatar. There is a partial mask over his right eye, and he has much longer hair, complete with a more Chinese-inspired outfit.

This is not the first time that Koei Tecmo has collaborated with Anycolor to put a Nijisanji VTuber in one of its games. In 2021, Kuzuha, Sister Claire, and Debidebi Debiru appeared as playable units in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV. This was also a free .

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is a strategy and simulation game. In it, players try to unite the lands of Japan under a single flag. As one can imagine from the title, it mostly takes place during the Sengoku Era, which took place during the 15th and 16th centuries. You can read our review for it here.

Ibrahim will appear as Ib Rahim in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening, and you have until November 20, 2023 to him for free. Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is readily available on the PS4, Windows PC, and Nintendo Switch.

The post Nijisanji VTuber Ibrahim Appears in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening appeared first on Siliconera.

As the thirteenth game in a series with 40 years of history, there can be some high expectations for Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening. It definitely delivers on a lot of fronts, providing an enjoyable yet challenging strategy game experience. There are tons of options for how to start a playthrough, and even more options for how you go about unifying Japan. It’s a great way to put your strategizing skills to the test, and there’s a lot of fun to be had. Even the overarching story elements are interesting and change depending on which clan you're playing as. But it comes with a handful of not-so-great elements.

To start off with, you’re put through a rather information-heavy tutorial. But for as much as you’re taught in such a short time, much of it is straightforward enough to feel easy to get the hang of. It’s mostly the political stuff, such as retainers’ traits and alliances, that gets confusing, especially if you’re new to strategy games. Much of that is stuff you only really start to figure out by playing, though, and it does start to make more sense over time.

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Where the Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening tutorial really feels odd is that there’s a fair few things that feel glossed over or not touched on at all. Sadly, most of these are the political aspects—which is part of why they take a bit to learn. Things like the intricacies of alliances and how political marriages work are left for you to figure out all on your own, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given the nature of the game, but getting some sort of explanation of how these things work would have been very helpful. Excluding simple things like the shop from the tutorial is fine, they don’t need explainers, but leaving out some of the elements that make the game so complex strikes me as odd.

Once you’re let loose, Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is a very fun game. Its three major systems all work in conjunction while also requiring their own style of management. First, there’s maintaining your territory, which includes things like supplementing your monthly income and bolstering your defenses. Then, there’s politicking through things like alliances, everything involving your retainers such as promoting them and bestowing land, and establishing policies for how your territory is governed. Lastly, there’s battle, where you take over other daimyo’s counties and storm their castles. All of it is very well connected, with each element affecting the other two in ways that make sense and don’t feel forced. The need to stay on top of everything instead of just being able to focus on one or two aspects is perfect for a strategy game like this.

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In the early game especially, you really need to flex your strategy chops. This is when your territory is at its smallest, so you have to take extra care in how you build things up and who you make friends with—and enemies of. In order to expand, you need to amass your army and attack other castles, but one wrong move and you could find yourself on the bad side of a daimyo with an army ten times the size of yours. Your resources are also at their most limited and your options at their most extensive, so taking the time to ensure you’re making the best moves is paramount.

As a result, however, Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening can feel like you’re doing a lot of waiting. At the start, it’s difficult to do much beyond building up your territory, and nothing you do is done instantly. Every time you build something or covertly sabotage an enemy or even start to form an alliance, it all takes time to complete. Which makes sense! But when all you can feasibly do is develop your (small) territory, there’s a lot of thumb twiddling to be done before you’re ready to do any expansion.

The other major issue I ran into was that it sometimes felt like there was too much going on all at once. Trying to keep up with all the territory improvements and political goings-on while also preparing (and attempting) to take over new territories is no simple task. It all more than fits the context of the game so it’s not bad that there’s so much, but it can very quickly become disorienting. That goes double for when you’re playing on a controller. There are so many menus to move between and options to pick from that it’s all but impossible to map the buttons in a way that doesn’t pose a challenge all its own. It feels like the game was designed for use with a keyboard and mouse, which I’m certain would have vastly improved playability.

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There’s a lot to like about Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening. It’s an overall solid strategy game where all your tactical decisions really feel like they have an impact, good or bad. The systems feel smooth and the connections between them feel natural. It really makes you feel like you have to stretch your brain, especially in the early stages. But there’s almost too much going on, which can get very confusing, especially when more urgent matters come up. And with so much to do, a controller is a suboptimal input device. Fortunately, there’s no real punishment for taking some time to get to the menu you want to be in, but figuring out how to get there can be frustrating.

Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam.

The post Review: Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Gets Slightly Too Ambitious appeared first on Siliconera.

Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is the 16th game in the series, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. A lot of care was put into making it feel fresh and innovative while also keeping the core elements that have given the series such longevity. To get some insight into what sorts of changes were made and the work behind making them, Siliconera spoke to Michi Ryu, the game’s producer.

Adam Haffen: How long after the 2017 release of Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi did development on Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening begin?

Michi Ryu: Soon after the release of Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi, we had started working on it behind the scenes. This project officially began in 2020.

What is the most impactful change made to Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening and how does it set the game apart from previous entries in the series?

Ryu: The concept of this title, "living officers who think and act on their own", is the most impactful change. In the previous entries in the Nobunaga's Ambition series, officers acted only when the player gave them orders. In this title, officers are able to think and act on their own in various situations without orders.

In fact, we humans think and act on our own, don't we? The people in Japan's Warring States period would have acted without orders from daimyos as well, and we have tried to show that in the game.

As a result, the game has become a very lively creation, with various officers saying various things, and I think it has become a new Nobunaga's Ambition in which players work together with their officers rather than alone, to unify the country.

[caption id="attachment_974217" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Koei Tecmo[/caption]

How much research was done about Japan’s Warring States period in preparation for Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening? Was anything learned about the period that affected initial plans for the game?

Ryu: There was nothing new about the production process. However, as historical studies are made and new discoveries come out, we constantly check documents and books. and improved the expressions in the game based on the latest theories.

In addition, we planned the game based on not only new historical theories, but also around the evolution of game consoles. Thanks to the evolved hardware, we can have more approaches to create an original and realistic Warring States Japan in which each retainer thinks and acts on their own.

Which of the game’s three major systems (Dominion, War Tactics, and Battle) was most difficult to get working just right and why?

Michi Ryu: We had a lot of struggles with the "unification of daimyo and retainers". In Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening, we aim to show the theme of "living officers who think and act on their own", but it was difficult to decide to what extent retainers should act on their own. In fact, up until the middle of the development process, the retainers were too smart and they would expand their territory even if the player left them alone. That would be boring because there would be nothing for the players to do, right? It's not good to have officers who are too smart, but on the other hand, the player will be very stressed if we make officers stupid as well. It was very hard to balance (laughs). In the end, we thought out a solution, which is not to indicate what is right to do but to let the players decide.

[caption id="attachment_974215" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Koei Tecmo[/caption]

Did any major hurdles arise during the development of Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening? If so, how were they dealt with?

Ryu: One thing was that since the COVID pandemic happened right after the project launched, it was very hard for us to develop the game with an unfamiliar work style and structure. Not being able to casually exchange information with the team brought much more difficulty than I had imagined, and I was reminded of the importance of communication (laughs). Chat tools became important in a flash, and we were able to move forward with more communication via video calls, which we didn't normally use before. Now I'm used to it and I think we've also returned to [our] way of working before the pandemic.

And the other thing is the realization of the unification of daimyo and retainers, which I answered in the previous question. Please read that one for more details (laughs).

Conversely, did anything come together easier than initially expected? In what way did it differ from how it was planned to go?

Ryu: Hmmm ... I'm not sure. I don't think anything came together easily (laugh). With all the parts, we made a prototype, reviewed it with the team, and made adjustments several times.

Are there any plans for the future of Awakening or the Nobunaga's Ambition series that you can talk about?

Michi Ryu: Unfortunately, there is nothing I can say at this moment. The Nobunaga's Ambition series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and I believe it will continue to grow. On the other hand, to be honest, this title is still not well-known outside of Japan. I would like to develop it into a title that can be enjoyed globally, so I really hope that everyone would help to boost this title through the power of the media (laughs).

NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Awakening is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam.

The post Interview: How Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Builds on the Past Entries appeared first on Siliconera.

From tip to tail, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening requires strategy. Every aspect of the game was mine to control however I wished in an early preview build, including the time period I started in and the clan I played as. And every aspect requires you to think ahead and plan for all sorts of possibilities. It’s a game that really makes you flex your brainpower, which is fantastic for a strategy game, but it can also be a bit tough to get the hang of and follow.

To start off with, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening gives you a very information-heavy tutorial. You’re run through everything and shown text explaining how each new element works, so you’re definitely given plenty to help you out, but there is a lot to learn. There is a lot of info to absorb in a short period of time, and it almost felt overwhelming to keep track of it all. That said, it was nice to get everything I needed right up front, especially since much of the game feels like something you really need to play and figure out for yourself. The explainers help, but learning by doing is by far the best way to pick things up.

[caption id="attachment_969160" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Siliconera[/caption]

The reason for this is that Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening has three major gameplay systems: Dominion, War Tactics, and Battle. Each one has a lot of depth, and they require you to be tactical because they’re all interconnected. A great job was done with these systems both on an individual level and as a whole, but it does make for a lot to learn. The more I played, though in this early build, the easier it got. It took a while, but I eventually got things mostly figured out, and by then I found myself getting very engrossed in the game.

For example, the Dominion system has you managing all the territories under your control. By taking over a castle, which is done through the Battle system, you gain command over each of the several counties under that castle. Counties each have farms and fairs to take over, which increase your monthly crop and gold yields. Crops are your soldiers’ provisions and are necessary for when you march to battle against other daimyo, and gold helps with everything from taking over these farms and fairs to instituting Policies as part of the War Tactics system. Each county also needs to be assigned a land holder, and each of the many options will provide different benefits to their county as well as the castle it serves under.

[caption id="attachment_969161" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Siliconera[/caption]

What I found to be the most enjoyable part of my initial Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening experience was the Battle system. You control your army as you attempt to siege castles and fight against enemy regiments, and you really feel like you’re in the driver’s seat. Each of your battalions moves independently and at your discretion, with skirmishes taking place in real time. This gives you plenty of ways to approach a siege, with options like executing pincer attacks to give your side the upper hand and taking out important equipment and units to keep your company’s morale high. There are lots of ways to go about each battle, and everything happening in real time makes it feel like one of the most strategy-necessary parts of the game. You even get to take part in historical battles that actually took place during Japan’s Sengoku period, also known as the Warring States period, which is just plain neat.

One of my favorite little features in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is the Proposal button. Trying to get the hang of things can be confusing, and since all you really get to work with is that your end goal is to take over all of Japan, you’re mostly left to your own devices. If that becomes a little too much, clicking the Proposal button will have one of your officers tell you what they believe to be the best course of action. The lack of direction otherwise provided is great for a strategy game like this, but having a completely optional way to get an idea of how best to move toward victory can be a massive help.

[caption id="attachment_969163" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Siliconera[/caption]

There’s a ton to like about Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening in its early hours. I felt like it started to offer me the freedom to play however you want, the multiple deep game elements that all tie together very well, and everything happening in real time make this game a fun and challenging experience. Learning the ropes is a bit difficult in the first few hours and takes some time to get a firm grasp of, but the more I played, the easier it got. You might even learn a little something about Japan’s history along the way.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening releases for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam on July 20, 2023. Pre-orders are open.

The post Preview: Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Puts Your Skills to the Test appeared first on Siliconera.