Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension Reviews
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is an excellent grand strategy title which will provide countless hours of enjoyment for fans of the genre. It’s a complex game, and most newcomers will probably bash their heads against a virtual wall for hours before fully mastering its systems, but climbing the social ladder and conquering Japan feels incredibly rewarding.
While the original Sphere of Influence was dubbed a great yet somewhat basic strategy game, Ascension goes a step further to ensure fans of the series have a greater depth of gameplay and can get truly involved in the lore of Sengoku Japan.
What happens when you take an already excellent strategy title, tweaking the little things while adding a new layer of depth? You wind up with an outstanding game that is more of an enhanced game than a true sequel, but no matter what you call it Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension is an excellent strategy game that once again proves that they can exist on consoles as well as PC's.
A great strategy title that hides itself behind some pretty inaccessible beginnings. What it lacks in visual flair it more than makes up for in strategic depth. The political system especially gives a great simulation of the trials of leadership. For strategy fans, this should definitely be on your radar. For anyone new to the genre, give it a go but be prepared to exercise patience while you learn how the game works.
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is a hell of a game built upon an already solid framework. This blows the already great Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII out of the water, and is an essential purchase for anyone who enjoys complex strategy games, or has a passing interest in Japanese history.
A massive, hard strategy game, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is a hard sell for anyone other than the devoted strategy fan
This game, like its predecessor, is very niche and very serious, but it’s a very worthy and very intelligent complement to last year’s Nobunaga’s Ambition.
Unifying Japan has never felt so personal. Ascension is as much about your own story as it is about Japan's, and what will be best for your clan is not always necessarily what will be best for you.
Despite largely being a repackaging of last year's game, 'Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension' makes smart changes to the formula that immediately pay off. The new game still controls a bit wonky using a controller, but the revamped user interface does make the strategy title more accessible. The future looks bright for Tecmo Koei's strategy series, and its new focus on individual officers is definitely the way to go.
Ascension is at its best when you allow it to wow you, let it win you over… It requires as much patience as the developers had, but it rewards you. With that, Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension is a staggering accomplishment, and a pretty darn good game, too.
The attention to detail is absolutely insane. The graphics are really good. It’s hard to believe it only took Tecmo Koei just two years to develop a game with this level of detail. There is also dual audio available, for those of you that prefer to play with the original Japanese voices. You can customize the game’s difficulty to your liking or you can use the pre-set difficulties for each scenario. There is a ton of content in this one, and after writing my Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension Review, I can easily recommend that you get the game today. If you’re looking for a complex and robust strategy game, this is the one you need!
Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension offers a more accessible approach than its predecessor, while bringing its historical chops and in-depth 4X mechanics to the forefront to make for an engaging experience.
Nobunaga's Ambition is a turn-based strategy sim that does it's best to impress. Although it may not be my cup of tea, it will currently come as a welcome entry to fans of the genre.
Koei went out of their way to listen to fan concerns and criticism of the vanilla game and provide the player with an amazing, worthwhile experience; which is why I am completely comfortable with recommending this game to anyone who’s fan of strategy games or Japanese history. On top of everything else, Koei continues to show that strategy games work on consoles, and my PS4 version is my preferred way to play.
Fans of understatement would describe Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension as sprawling.
A great Sengoku period strategy game with thousands of unique historical figures that sadly doesn't offer much beyond the previous release in the series.
Ascension is a fantastic stand-alone that is a superior game in every way to its predecessor. It’s perfect for both new players and veterans and both with have plenty of content to get their teeth into.
Sphere of Influence - Ascension takes you on a more personal journey through the Sengoku Jidai period of Japan. Take control, rise through the ranks and explore an even more detailed game than the original. This standalone expansion improves on the original in almost every way.
That being said, you probably already know if you’re going to like Ascension or not because the changes aren’t significant enough to attract strategy fans that were put off with the previous release.
I find myself in an odd situation where I felt miserable playing Nobunaga’s Ambition, mostly because it’s just not the kind of game that I enjoy. However, at the same time, I couldn’t help but be impressed at the level of depth and polish in the overall experience. Still, it remains that this game did nothing to make me want to delve deeper into the genre of Grand Strategy.