Japan is Finally in Age of Empires 4 - My Thoughts

[@MiddleSpoon3461]

Just got done with my first Skirmish as Japan, loved how they handled the progreesion of the units. they are alot of fun. Sorely disappointed in the lack of a campaign though.

[@Usammityduzntafraidofanythin]

Dark Age - Yamato Period Feudal Age - Heian Period (samurai cavalry first appear) Castle Age - Kamakura Period (first castles, banner men first appear) Imperial Age - Sengoku Period (gunpowder, ashigaru pikemen, samurai infantry, better castles, etc.) It'd be nice to see an age of empires game that doesn't just rely on the "core gameplay" concept where every civ just gets trebuchets and rams, and relies on a certain style of combat that revolves around european-style siege units. That would make it feel more different from AoE2. If the japanese lack artillery apart from those catapults that sling gunpowder bags, like in Shogun 2, they could still have ninja, earlier good cavalry (in the form of samurai), ashigaru, foot samurai (which replace the higher tier infantry of other civs), and unique castle mechanics. The best siege unit might be the ninja instead of the battering ram, which makes for a very weird type of game, but nonetheless useful. Perhaps the ninja could "debuff" a castle so that infantry can do more damage to it. There'd be some sort of mechanic for allowing a ninja to debuff the castle. Sure "core gameplay" makes for easier balancing, but the approach should be to broaden the idea of what "core gameplay" is. Maybe the only true "core gameplay" shared by everyone is the attritional harvest/build/destroy aspect of age of empires 2, where economy tends to win out in the absense of intense raiding. I think Japan would have poor siege options in the Castle Age, but in the Imperial Age, they get a lot of gunpowder oriented options such as fire bomb thrower infantry, catapults that shoot fire bombs, chinese-style bombard cannons, probably suicide bomber "petards" like in AoE2 (but only because it seems like common sense that you should be able to explode a wall just by putting lots of gunpowder pots, boxes, barrels or whatever next to it), etc.

[@benedeknagy8497]

I think they get their castles later because of their ability to turn town centers into castles from the first age. The starting town center has like 13k hit points 3x arrows and a rocket launcher if upgraded into a Shogunate castle.

[@The_Custos]

I do miss my nun army in Shogun 2. Was very fun.

[@Desmond17]

Sorry to ask you a question on a subject which wasn't the focus of the video but : Do you plan to do a review of the recent Netflix Japan-focused anime series ? I'm talking about Onimusha and ESPECIALLY Blue Eye Samurai. I loved the latter and i'm super curious to hear your knowledgeable opinion about it. That said, great video ! Even if i'm not a RTS player, it was very informative.

[@TheShogunate]

I'm not sure if I will or not.

[@poepoe5311]

Excellent!! I'm very excited to see more content on this! Thank you so much for the video Shogunate! 🏯

[@JohnMiller-zr8pl]

9:04 if you need to ask why, you haven't paid attention to the last decade.

[@Nyx_2142]

Man whining about historical accuracy in a series that includes the Fountain of Youth and regularly wanders into myth and ahistorical shit. Just admit you are complaining about women and own up to it, incels.

[@tiborcsendes5269]

@@Nyx_2142 Defend the brand in any cost! Even against logic and reasons. Good simp you are.

[@TripleZHacker]

Enjoyed playing Japan so far really powerful units in the later ages and lots of more samurai weapon variety :D glad to see you cover this game on the channel but agreed I prefer Japan in AOE3

[@-RONNIE]

Thank you for the video and review

[@eddymonies8302]

Played the Byzantines tonight man and it was my fav civ so far but playing Japan next!

[@premierfong]

To be honest I think AOE 3 need an new east / southeast asia DLC.

[@bitterblossom19]

They could've atleast made a Mongol v China v Japan story line (more so if they somehow add korea in which is highly unlikely)

[@zalop.]

looks like i'm going to by age of empires

[@deadby15]

Historically, Clans such as Kouga and Fuma were known for their guerrilla warfare tactics beyond the front line. Also, when Japanese pirates/mercenaries were rampantly invading Chinese coastal cities during the Ming dynasty, contemporary Chinese did wonder if they possessed some mysterious power (because japanese seemed to appear out of nowhere... The truth is, they often used elaborate surprise atracks.) So, having a Ninja unit may be more or less justified. 😺

[@tomvhresvelg9286]

Quite funny that Ming soldiers have suffered by Katana of Japanese pirates before Nobunaga's time, which is the most fragile sword ever for being made of Pigsteel in close quarter so that they are forced to make a harsh formation which is 1 guy killed=all executed. despite Ming soldiers use monosteel arms and armor which are durable.

[@hanchiman]

I wonder if Photon Man and Big Berta still exist...

[@radoslavkosil7450]

Yeah, exactly same thought from me when I seen the release. Handheld shilds, females, fantasy ninjas... just not worth playing.

[@TheShogunate]

Yeah, going to be still on AoE3 haha

[@Perceval777]

I'm disappointed there's no Japanese campaign. And yeah, having to choose between Buddhism and Shinto is very unnatural...

[@TRH.KARASU]

Damn they did Iga dirty w the shinobi unit

[@-Zevin-]

It would actually be brilliant to see a shinobi type unit that dressed as a enemy villager, in their color scheme, could make for a interesting mechanic as a actual scout / saboteur, and would much more accurately portray the shinobi. Plus I'm just thinking of the hilarious hijinks you could pull off with a unit like that in multiplayer.

[@Quincy_Morris]

Ah like the Spy from the Red Alert games.

[@mathology5710]

Putting Japan in the Sultan DLC almost feels like they're trying to hide Japan in order to sell it to the Chinese market. On the other hand, Japan and Turkey (Byzantine?) have an interesting history between them so kind of a missed opportunity there too. From what I hear, this DLC should have been free, maybe $20US max.

[@Noah-ws8ho]

It is in fact 15 USD. It also comes with 4 "Variant civs" that do actually introduce very different gameplay, and the mentionned campaign, so overall I do think that's fair pricing.

[@dannygreenland4853]

I have never actually played any of the Age of Empires games not even sure if they are out for the PS4 that would explain why I've never seen them in any game store

[@TheShogunate]

Only PC and Xbox sadly

[@dannygreenland4853]

other then Ages of Empires 2 which was on the ps2@@TheShogunate

[@Magetastic69]

AoE2 is the goated game of the series. Even comparing to AoE4 lol

[@royasturias1784]

If you like cookie-cutter civs provided by Ensemble Studios, later World's Edge and Forgotten Empires

[@Magetastic69]

@royasturias1784 it is by far the best AoE it isn't even a debate. Yes, its old. No, it's not balanced. Don't get mad when the drive by car goes brrr

[@MyTardisGoWhoosh]

​@@Magetastic69AOE 4 is objectively better... cope more.

[@Magetastic69]

@MyTardisGoWhoosh That's objectively wrong. Aoe4 is less played than aoe2 even right now lmfao look @ steam analytics. It's just bad 👎

[@andrewramadhanar]

I can list so much of developer mistakes to the introduction of the Japanese and the units. 1. The Sultan Ascends DLC, it's heavily focuses on middle east conflict of Crusader Era. Why dont focus on Middle East factions then? 2. Japanese isn't based on Sultan or so whatever. It is very half baked marketing eventhough we knew Japanese is one of the most requested Civz in AOE4. 3. Don't get me started with that variant civz, it was very lazy developers work. They can instead add new civz focuses on Crusader themes. They even make Teutonic Knight and Templars for the DLC Campaign why they not release them full as civzs? 4. I agree with you regarding The Mounted Samurai civz, it turns me off so much looking at that round shield. They can make it right with Uma Bannerman, why that Uma Bannerman become standard unit of The Mounted Samurai. And yes, The Hand Cannoneer should use matchlock instead of weird looking spear with gun at the tip. I only bought the DLC because i wanted badly so much for Japanese civz. The rest is turning me off. I am big fan of AOE 2, but AOE 3 is far superior than this AOE4. AOE4 was such a backward, look at that canon, the sound canon effect, and and the bullet or canon particularly itself. They should have the ragdoll effect like AOE3 when they hit by the canon

[@atomixfang]

I might try to install it again. It felt so empty.

[@newname7055]

I was expecting them to make use of the Chinese dynasty system with a mix of the Mongols/Jeanne D'Arc France of having a unique leader (or few - e.g. replace the bannerets with samurai lords) - Japan is not bad to play, I find them fairly good but yeah there's too many faults there along with plenty of missed potential. I did like the Oda callout with the ashigaru spearmen, but there was no Oda buff for the handcannoneers which is a shame. Again, a dynasty choice with unique unit buffs would've been great, such as Oda having great spear + riflemen, whereas a Takeda choice has better cav etc.

[@thomasc6574]

theres a aoe4????

[@royasturias1784]

Buy the base game now for 12 bucks US (while the sale is still up), and you won't regret it!

[@dansmith4077]

For the algorithm

[@jimmyorgenkaccrow4961]

Lol. The onabugesha and onamashu were just here because the developers wanted to include more female units for the sake of "inclusion" and "diversity". 😂

[@royasturias1784]

You probs weren't born when Tanya debuted in the first Red Alert game. Total War Shogun 2 vanilla had Onna Bushi, Warrior Nuns and special Gozen's Hime Heroines as trainable units. Where was your rage, nanban? Many Mongol units in this game are of both genders, given their rough nomadic lifestyles, and the women couldn't leave their spouses alone and demoralized. Your rage towards Viking Shieldmaidens will be so public, I guarantee it!

[@Nyx_2142]

Incels when women exist in anything

[@jimmyorgenkaccrow4961]

@@royasturias1784 We're talking about the historical games, not fictional or fantasy games.

[@jimmyorgenkaccrow4961]

​@@Nyx_2142OK media parasite.

[@Knoloaify]

​​@@royasturias1784The Onna Bugeisha is mainly a unit that spawned as garrison for high level castles. You can play an entire campaign without even seeing one. So it's as rare as it should be. Warrior nuns and Hime hero are DLC units, the nuns required a high level temple and a specific imported ressource, the second one is a hero unit, so unique by definition. Again, you'd usually never even see one in the campaign. Even in multi-player it was very rare to see them. Shieldmaidens were similarly quite rare, and as for females Mongols, they followed the army yes, but not into battle. The same happened with European Christian armies in fact, there were women in the camps, and some did fight, but it was very rare and doesn't justify them being a big part of Japanese, Scandinavian or Western and Southern European armies in a game that wants to be HISTORICAL (which is the case with AoE, it straight up has history lessons). The Shogun 2 TW approach where female units are hero units only seen in the campaign would have been much better and closer to reality.

[@yamikami13]

In defense for the design decision of... I suppose ill go one by one. The Buddhist shinto divide i think is a good choice while your are right that the line is blur, religious conflict between the two does exist and does play the large part in the over all political faction with in japanese court. Basically the way they treat it is. There's is no division between religion untill an divided is required for political gain. The asset of certain units... The knight & handcannoer is just wrong. Straight up wrong. There's no defensive of that. The over romanticized uses of onna-bushua... Ya. But AoE was always a series of historial indulgence, the dev had always find a neat cool historial thing and make it a thing in their game so im not too bother by these. It gives faction a bit more personality.

[@yamikami13]

The way I see this is expansion in particular with the Japanese. They have been kinda lazy with it, I notice there's a lot of overlap with the total war shogun. Existence of onna busha, the otsuzu reminded me of Shimatsu heavy gunner. The heavy emphasis of rockets as a late game gunpowder uses. I can't help but think the dev heavy "inspiration" from total war and didn't do as much research as they did for other factions. PS. IDK If you ever check out the AoE 3 Japanese that game is arguably the most historical actuate Japan of all the AoE game.

[@jimmyorgenkaccrow4961]

Lol. They were just here because the developers wanted to include more female units for the sake of "inclusion" and "diversity". 😂

[@TigerPantsRocks]

I bought the game because Japan was added and the developers fixed a lot of bugs. A lot of their units aren't historically accurate but the Japanese are a versatile and powerful faction. I wish the Shinobi were the scouts of Japan instead of horsemen.

[@martinhg98]

whel the japanese were far later in building lare fortifications yhan erope or china

[@TheShogunate]

If you are referring to the later period castles influenced by azuchi then absolutely. But Japan definitely had fortifications prior to that.

[@poloshirtsamurai]

5:13 Yuck. Might as well call it Temple of DEI.

[@yakuzafan99]

"mali felt a bit random" bro the game launched without any african civs

[@TheShogunate]

I guess that's sort of true, although the Abbasids at their height did control a large portion of North Africa. I think I found it a bit more random based on the fact that I don't recall many people asking for them.

[@mattc2431]

yeah its unpowered infantry i was disappointed

[@royasturias1784]

Underpowered if you didn't build Armories close your Barracks, didn't invest on upgrades and didn't train certain support units

[@mattc2431]

@@royasturias1784 black smiths i tired that but i didnt notice a buff i maxed out on upgrades mailians gunner melts them

[@royasturias1784]

​@@mattc2431More troops, especially hard counters to those units

[@mattc2431]

@@royasturias1784 mangonels i would expect if they are bunched together

[@martinhg98]

mari was not random it was to add a true african nation.

[@surgeonsergio6839]

I don't like aoe 4. It doesn't look visually appealing like the others.

[@Pwneriffic_One]

Just so you know, Mali is not that random, the "richest person of all time" came from Mali...

[@TheShogunate]

True but I don't think anyone was really asking for Mali to be added to the game

[@royasturias1784]

The Moroccans (Amazigh peoples and dynasties, or Berbers if you're an uninformed layman) and the Ethiopians/Abyssinians are other noteworthy African powers of the Middle Ages.

[@poloshirtsamurai]

What's the "richest person of all time" got to do with the game?

[@AboveAno]

Too much crying about campaign. AOE 4 is held up by it's pvp scene. Always has. The main target are the AOE 2 players.

[@TheShogunate]

That's fine but a game is more than just it's hardcore scene. I play casually and with friends most of the time. A lack of campaign is something to definitely be bummed about.

[@royasturias1784]

or AoE3 players, or Dawn of War players