Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension

I will start this short review with the obvious things: Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is the latest game from Koei, which is continuing the Sphere of Influence series from where they have remained. Although the new game is built on the same platform with Sphere of Influence, it seems to be a game totally new and not like an expansion or a remake (even if Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension uses the same music, profile pictures and a part of dialogues).

All these things can be seen by how the game shows. Unlike other games in the series, in which you look at it from an ivory tower and take all decisions, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension lets you start at the bottom and advance. Instead of starting out as a, let’s say Daimyo, and have under your leadership various cities, fortresses and alliances, you can start as a simple laborer building your own city, trying to make it one of the most prosperous in Japan. As you advance, it not only increases the influence, but it also offers the chance to learn about the mechanics and the interface of the game.

The way you advance in Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is different from, let’s say Romance of the Three Kingdoms XII. Even if your lord in both games has different tasks to go through, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XII the vast majority of missions were limited to only capturing the city and developing it to a certain number.

In Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension you have missions that you can accomplish only if you meet certain requirements which usually lead to massive battles if you manage to finish them. This can range from having to build a sufficient population to create a certain number of soldiers, to gathering a certain number of resource to send them to daimyo. By doing all these missions you gain honor and with its help you can advance to the next level, but don’t you worry if you can’t do them all at once, you have the time and also you can make vassals to do them. Instead, the building of your new territory can be the smart choice, which thankfully is much easier to achieve than in Sphere of Influence.

Like any other strategy game, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension allows you to gather resources and territories by building facilities in your field. However, how you do these things is a little different compared to previous games. In Sphere of Influence you were obliged to build certain buildings next to each other depending on the type of construction, and some special building could only be built only if they were near certain facilities. In Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence: Ascension building facilities are affected by the land, making this a little more logical. You have to build the armor building near areas rich in iron, trading posts near the main roads and farms near irrigated areas or rich in water.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is a game pretty good, built on a frame already solid and is above the Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII, thus becoming a must have for all fans of strategy games or for those who are interested in the history of Japan.