Nobunaga’s Ambition has come a long way in 42 years. What started with a solo developer’s passion project in 1983 helped establish the historical strategy genre and set Koei (now Koei Tecmo) on the path to establish one of the biggest video game empires in Japan. From those humble beginnings we’ve seen numerous sequels that all push boundaries in one way or another, a bunch of remakes, ports, and spinoffs, and even a collaboration with Pokemon in the excellent Pokemon Conquest for Nintendo DS. Nobunaga’s Ambition might not be a household name in the West, but its impact and influence can’t be overstated. With Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition, the series stakes its claim among the Switch 2 launch line-up.
What’s new for Complete Edition
As the “Complete Edition” title implies, this is an updated re-release of Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening (originally released in 2022), so let’s jump straight into what’s new. Most previously-released DLC is included, including six additional scenarios (Battle of Komaki-Nagakute, Brotherly Revolt, Battle of Nagashino, Battle of Tetorigawa, Tensho Monkey Show, and Muskets Arrive), an assortment of new officers and officer portraits, and additional BGMs from earlier games in celebration of the series’ 40th anniversary. Some collaborations with other media are not included, nor are some digital artbooks and soundtracks included with certain versions of previous releases, but otherwise, it’s all here.
But it’s not just old DLC—this release has a decent array of new additions, too. Chief among them are six brand new scenarios, three historical and three hypothetical:
- Birth of Nobunaga
- Fateful Clash
- Kyushu Conquest
- Absence of Great Conflict
- Tenbun Upheaval
- Widespread Might
Complete Edition’s other big addition is the Decisive Battle mechanic. These take the skirmishes already present in the base game to new extremes, as large clans face off with squads of up to 12 officers and tens of thousands of soldiers. The conditions to trigger a Decisive Battle can be tricky to meet, but victory means the immediate conquest of all the opposing clan’s territories. These battles add a welcome new strategic dynamic to utilise, without altering the fundamental flow of the game too drastically.
Lastly, the new version comes with graphical enhancements and added mouse support. For the Switch 2 version, said mouse support comes in the form of the Joy Con 2’s mouse mode, and it’s one of the more practical demonstrations of that feature. By design and necessity, strategy games tend to have complex user interfaces that don’t always translate well to gamepad controls; with the Joy Con 2 mouse, Nobunaga’s Awakening players on Switch 2 can easily switch between handheld play and something more akin to a PC control scheme.
That said, Awakening’s gamepad controls are decent, with clever use of context-sensitive commands and radial menus to access key elements quickly and intuitively. This isn’t a new thing for the Complete Edition, mind—it was the case for the original release, too—but it’s worth mentioning because while the mouse controls are welcome, the game can be played just fine without them.
This all makes for a rich, feature-filled “Complete Edition” that certainly lives up to its name. Existing Awakening players may not feel a need to double dip, especially when the new scenarios are also available as a DLC bundle for the original game. This is a good thing. But for anyone new to Awakening, or new to the series in general, the fullness of this Complete Edition makes it the obvious choice.
Shogun
Beneath those new additions, this is still the same Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening that came out a few years ago. For the unfamiliar, it’s a historical grand strategy game set in Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era. While the goal of each campaign is to ultimately unify the entire country under your rule, through a mix of diplomacy and warfare, the varied conditions of each scenario means the path to that end can vary greatly from game to game. An assortment of different scenarios provide different starting conditions and scripted events throughout the course of the game, and how each game unfolds will depend on a mix of those predetermined settings, which clan you choose to roll with, and your own strategic decisions.
Most campaigns are based on historical record, but there are some hypotheticals in the mix as well. In either case, narrative elements are woven through simple but effective cutscenes that trigger when certain conditions are met. This isn’t a linear, story-driven game, but these events add a welcome touch of narrative context and some light characterisation, just enough to make key players more than mere pieces on a chessboard.
Once you’re in the thick of it, Awakening largely revolves around a balance of building up your own domain’s economic and military prowess, negotiating alliances with at least some of your neighbouring clans, and going to war in an effort to expand your own territory’s borders. That’s a severe oversimplification, given the array of different tools at your disposal for each of those ends: high-level policy management, development priorities for each castle and county, appointment of officers to oversee different areas, how you approach diplomatic relations, subterfuge to weaken enemy bases before attacking, and the resource management that underpins all of the above.
That’s all before you get into combat itself, which combines high-level troop management—as in, which officers are stationed where, how many soldiers they each command, and the time and resources it takes to move them around—and the battlefield tactics when you engage an enemy. You don’t always have to fight each battle directly; it’s often sufficient to just sic a sufficiently large force on a target base and let the math play out. But choosing to command those skirmishes directly is a chance to overcome more powerful foes through tactical prowess, benefit from officers’ individual skills, and demoralise an entire enemy force when you emerge victorious.
Strategy for newcomers?
In other words, there’s a lot going on. Strategy games are inherently complex, designed as they are around how all these different systems interact with one another, and Nobunaga’s Ambition is no exception. That being the case, Awakening can be daunting for newcomers, and while it’s got a serviceable tutorial, it’s not as comprehensive as it could be—an issue made worse by some explanations being written in a way that isn’t all that clear. This is a game that you really have to invest a bit of time into before things start clicking into place.
And yet, as a strategy rookie myself, I’d still call Awakening one of the better places to jump in. Yes, there’s a lot to learn, and yes, the tutorial could be better, but once you’ve got a grasp of the basics, it’s good at letting you ease into the more complex nuances at your own pace. Playing an easy-ish scenario, you can get far by mostly just relying on suggestions from your officers about what to do next. You don’t need to worry about the intricacies of officer stats until you’re ready to really get down in the weeds; just assigning whoever’s at the top of a list to available domains is usually good enough.
There are more beginner-friendly strategy games out there—Civilization being the obvious one, or even Koei Tecmo’s own Romance of the Kingdoms XIV for something closer in style to Nobunaga’s Ambition. But Awakening isn’t a bad entry point by any means, especially with the Complete Edition and its smooth transition to Switch 2.
The Verdict
With most previous DLC included, a handful of new scenarios on top of that, and the addition of Joy Con 2 mouse controls, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition is one of the biggest, most feature-rich games in the series’ long history. That completeness, along with its place in the Switch 2 launch line-up, also make this a decent place for newcomers to dive into Nobunaga’s Ambition—just be prepared to feel a bit lost for the first hour or two, until things start clicking into place.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 with a review code provided by the publisher.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening makes a smooth transition to Switch 2, chock full of additional scenarios and new features.
