Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Reviews
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is a worthy entry in the forty-year-old franchise.
Despite the graphical issues and the most bare-bones of tutorials you'll find in a historical simulation sandbox, Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening offers plenty of great moments. We loved the historical vignettes that played out as events unfolded and certain conditions were unlocked. Even on Easy mode, the game will make you surrender and start over multiple times before you can achieve Nobunaga's dream of a united Japan. The Switch version is far from perfect, but if you're willing to work with it, there's a rich, deep, addictive strategy sim to get lost in here.
There's a satisfying strategy sim here, running behind design choices that try to streamline the experience, but don't necessarily make it more accessible. Awakening feels like a reshuffling of ideas without necessarily evolving the Nobunaga's Ambition formula or pushing it forward. We're hoping the next instalment is a little braver, or at least cherrypicks the best elements from past games, refining them into the ultimate Sengoku strategy game.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition adds even more scenarios and depth to Koei Tecmo's already-winning strategy game.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening streamlines the many complex systems and mechanics that have built up over the series' 40-year history, refining the strategic experience that is more approachable and all the better for it. While UI elements and precise control issues can frustrate at times, Awakening is a wonderful sandbox for samurai enthusiasts to play in.
Nobunaga's Ambition Awakening is perhaps the most concrete effort of the Japanese software house for 40 years to expand its audience. The innovations in terms of accessibility related to the decision-making freedom of their subordinates are certainly spot on, because they spare the player some of the most tedious management tasks.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition is still a game that will push strategy fans to (and beyond) their limits. You'll spend more time learning than playing. But the Joy-Con mouse functionality in this Switch 2-only release removes a major obstacle to the long-serving rewards awaiting those able to stick with it.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is a unique take on the strategy genre that chooses to focus more on the administration aspects of war rather than the battles. Coupled with in-depth mechanics for managing your economy, as well as a surprisingly deep political system where you have to pay attention to how well your officers are doing, you get a unique management-styled strategy game that is absolutely worth your time.
Nobunaga's Ambition Awakening is a interesting way to live the Feudal Japan era, but the various and rich gameplay leaves room for a lot of confusion during the battles.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The latest game in the Nobunaga's Ambition series, Awakening puts a fresh coat of paint onto the Warring States Period of Japanese history and again asks you to quell the chaos and unify the nation. Though some of the changes may be as divisive as Nobunaga's own ideology at the time, this is a game well worth checking out for strategy fans and enjoyers of Japanese history.
The best way to play NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Awakening
Despite the rather steep learning curve, Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition is a good title for strategy game fans and brings good content additions even for those who have already devoured the original game.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition is a titan of a game to get to grips with on Switch 2, in both overall complexity and controls. That scale is both a blessing and a curse. For fans of the genre it has everything expected, and the historical depth of the Sengoku period means it brings a wealth of fun for those invested in this point in history. The strategic chops it boasts are well designed and do the job expected of putting the player into the shoes of developing and expanding their land. With that depth, however, the learning curve can be overwhelming, and frankly if this was released on the original Switch it would be hard to recommend simply due to the difficulty of actually navigating the controls. While not all those complications are inherently solved by mouse controls on Switch 2, the addition of them transforms this tricky console adaptation into something that at least rivals its PC counterpart and thus becomes a much more enticing proposition.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is a fun game to sink a day, week, or lifetime into, but suffers from slightly confusing menus, odd AI, and "helpful" advisors. Regardless, the game kept me coming back time after time, trying to find my own Awakening.
With any 4X strategy title, there’s a learning curve, and Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is no different in that regard. There’s so much depth to the strategies, stats, and nation management that it will take some hours to learn your way around. However, an efficient interface and an excellent approach to the historical storytelling make this the most accessible Nobunaga’s Ambition we’ve seen in the series’ 40-year history. What’s more, it’s a genuinely excellent alternative to a textbook for anyone that wants to learn something about a period of warfare every bit as fascinating as the Napoleonic Wars, the Three Kingdoms era of China, the civil war in America, the Roman campaigns or the Mongol conquests.
Even though it demands a lot from the player right from the start and it doesn't have the nicest interface, especially for console players, Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening is a legitimate representative of the genre. The title appropriates everything that has done best in the past decades, rewarding the dedicated and studious with fascinating stories, complex management systems and great options for achieving glory.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
"The way of the samurai is found in death."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Nobunaga’s Ambition Awakening Complete Edition is the best edition of arguably the best instalment in the series to date. With Switch 2’s JoyCon Mouse 2 support and the extra processing power and visual output, you now have the best way to play a very deep and complex strategy classic. If you want a really challenging, intricate and involved scenario based campaign, this is definitely one of the most interesting games for Switch 2 out there.
“A polished and revitalized tactical masterpiece” Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition represents the most mature and refined incarnation in the series’ history, blending strategic depth and historical immersion into a single, comprehensive package. While its complex nature may confuse new players, it offers a thoughtful and content-packed experience for strategy enthusiasts. Its stable performance, balanced gameplay, and artistic touches make it a definitive edition worth appreciating and one of the best grand strategy games on modern platforms.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition is “at home” on the Nintendo Switch 2. With more than enough content to rack up three digits on the video game counter, the title is aimed at those who want to manage territories and track the progression of the experience automatically, based on their own choices, requiring a meticulous strategy in the simple act of allocating resources. There is, however, a complexity that may scare off certain players, highlighted by the shallow explanations in the tutorials.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review