No fief, no life: Nobunaga's Ambition | NES Works 135

Another one of those monster-sized games with a massive legacy lands on NES. There really was something in the water in summer 1989, huh? I guess that's what they mean when they say the NES had The Juice. The Juice was the mysterious thing in the water.
In this case, we have a console adaptation of a groundbreaking Japanese computer game-their own take on the hex-based war simulations that the American grognards loved so much. Unlike Dragon Warrior, Nobunaga's Ambition was not built from the ground-up for consoles; this is a computer game through and through, and it makes few concessions for play on a two-button controller on a system marketed to kids. Nobunaga tosses you into the deep end and expects you to swim, and it isn't afraid to stick you with a game over before you make your first move. It's confusing, overwhelming, and opaque, and it makes no apologies for any of those things.
Naturally, it became a long-running series and transformed Koei into one of the most powerful and sustainable game publishers in the world.
Production notes:
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NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 4K with RetroTink 4X and 720p with xRGB Mini Framemeister.

[@Tony-Bell]

I played a ton of this as a kid - and went into a career with extensive spreadsheet use - who'd have guessed?!?

[@rchassereau2]

Hah same here, this, ROT3K, PTO, Liberty or Death, Genghis Khan, funny how that worked out

[@RabbitEarsCh]

It is fascinating to me how Koei just kept putting out niche games like this in the US with the utmost care, all the way through the SNES era too. I don't know how they managed to sell enough to keep up, but as you say there must clearly have been an audience! My uncle owned a SNES with exactly one game: Aerobiz Supersonic. He was never much for video games otherwise, but he *adored* Aerobiz Supersonic and the 4 player mode was to him and his kids what Monopoly or other board games are to most. Unsurprisingly he's a big time CEO who loves planes, so the game was a perfect match. Koei had a strange market, but they had a market alright.

[@EvanCWaters]

Yeah I guess by this point NES was big enough that publishers could start focusing on niches like strategy.

[@eol6632]

Yeah I used to play the hell out of koei's sims. Still dip into operation Europe sometimes lol.

[@ScaryGarrySG1]

Awesome story!

[@Marzimus]

Aerobiz is great - discovered 7th grade summer alongside a buddy. We biked home imagining crashing planes into one another and ended up awed by the depth...

[@bba935]

This is the most underrated NES game IMO. My brothers, some friends and I use to rent this from Blockbuster and played it for hours. We would strategically pick fiefs around Japan so we could gang up and progress by taking turns attacking targets. Then it was all out war for which one of us would win it. It's a game that does a lot with the limited hardware. The graphics aren't the best, but your imagination goes wild in i's place. This is a must own IMO.

[@ScaryGarrySG1]

This game created a vast world, using almost nothing. One small graphic repeating showed the "fighting."

[@bba935]

@@goatbone We discovered it in the summer of 1990, so I was 15.

[@MCastleberry1980]

As far as I'm concerned, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is canonically the sequel to "Seduction of the Condominium Wife"

[@sofia.eris.bauhaus]

not to forget "The Chancellor Has Sex"!

[@LordChozo]

The highest compliment I can give this retrospective is that it was so well researched, so well presented, and delivered with such supreme (and deserved) confidence that it actually made me double check whether I've spent my entire life mispronouncing the word "fief".

[@crimsonharvest]

Nintendo Power's coverage was a little wild, because they'd constantly have the writers from the Counselors section reference this game as their favorite game on the system but out in the audience we had no clue at all what the game even was.

[@Leahi84]

I just discovered your channel recently and have been binging your videos. Absolutely loving your work. I've been super nostalgic for the the old systems like the NES since turning 40 in March, so your stuff has been especially great. Thank you!

[@Ratralsis]

I like how your deliberate pause in the sentence "Nobunaga's ambition holds the prize for the single largest and most expansive game......... yet to appear on the NES" built up a lot of suspense about just how huge this game might be. Sounds like it's pretty big!

[@retronemesis7064]

Congratulation! You now have the most comprehensive NA review on KZbin. I've been waiting for this one.

[@cerberus144]

the term "Hit points" aka HP was invented by the United States Military for use in war games. "Hit points" are how many hits with a 14-inch shell before a piece of equipment is destroyed. This means that every living thing on Earth has ONE hit point each.

[@JeremyParish]

The only option is to max your THAC0

[@ScaryGarrySG1]

I came across a potion in a local tavern that boosted my HP up to 2. However, the shop seller and the entire town cannot really give me any solid info on it and they just speak to me in riddles. There's a fella named Error that just keeps telling me his name over and over

[@dialest]

Yes, we all have 1 HP.

[@heavymetalelf]

​@@JeremyParishYour THAC0 would only increase your ability to vaporize others with the shells. You'd need a better armor class

[@owlyus]

Can't wait for the Liberty or Death retrospective on SNES Works

[@daviddalrymple2284]

Oh nice, the "1989 Peak NES" video debuts in my birthday week. This is very appropriate, since I got my NES as a birthday gift in 1989.

[@Dwedit]

I've heard that a lot of kids misread the title as "Nobunga". Probably from watching too much Ninja Turtles.

[@demgreens]

Haha I was one of them

[@jeffkiska]

That's what I thought it was until this video!

[@dreamlandnightmare]

That was the way I read it and pronounced until I was an adult and read the name more closely.

[@littleterr0r]

I was listening to the NEStalgia podcast recently and that's what they called it at first too.

[@ScaryGarrySG1]

Nobunga DUDE!

[@absolutezeronow7928]

Definitely looking forward to Turbo Works later this summer. Alien Crush definitely sounds like that will be an interesting episode for various reasons. I've played Nobunaga's Ambition on the SNES, I definitely enjoyed it.

[@RogerPyoko]

Koei's focus at the start and the invention of the Musou genre is funny in how the company has abbreviated it and romanticized it. The focus on simulation being due to Kou's love of video games but also his own lack of reflexes to cash in on the more arcade like Invaders style play at the time... and then Koei's invention of Omega Force to develop action games, because they felt their heavy historic sim focus made them appear to be an "old man" sort of company and they needed some sort of title to attract younger audiences. At least, that's the way it sounds when one sums it up in two sentences, and it's omitting a lot of details to make things more interesting to read... ah, they truly do capture that Historic Fiction angle so well!

[@bluespaceman7937]

The Empire series of Musou spin-offs is worth mentioning in light of your comment, because it represents a continuing attempt to marry both sides of Koei and the results can be pretty good.

[@skykid]

As a Paradox map gamer, I never forget my roots 🙏

[@FuzzyLogic20x6]

Your videos are one of the highlights of my week.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

6:22 Arino-kacho being a treasure once again.

[@sassydog5399]

Nobunaga's Ambition 2 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 would go on to use some of the most advanced mapper chips the NES had, making even more technically complex and impressive games in the process. Since Koei had such a small but loyal following, they could get away with such things by producing the right amount of cartridges and pricing them accordingly.

[@jordankelsey4501]

Genghis Kahn was a jam at a friend's house all summer in the 90s. We'd stay up all night playing it or starcraft running on combos

[@cpdreyer]

Nice synergy to have an add for Shogun come on right before the review. Well played, algorithm. Well played.

[@ellipticalsoul]

The market is crying out for another entry in the beloved "Seduction of Condominium Wives" series

[@JeremyParish]

Tantalization of the Townhouse Twink Sins of the Split-Level Ranch Spinster Moral Failings of the Midtown MILF

[@ginormousaurus8394]

Debasement of Basement Suite Beauties

[@jeremyjamesdewitt]

Damn, man! You’re on it lately! Loving the steady drop of NES games! Love this channel, man.

[@bluespaceman7937]

Nobunaga's Ambition looks like a spreadsheet, but there was a genuine spark to the combination of war simulation, RPG aspects and political/economic management that future games in the series have built upon. In retrospect, I'd readily argue that Nobunaga's core gameplay has been interestingly mixed with other historical settings, intellectual properties and genres over the decades (both family friendly and otherwise. If you know, you know).

[@eol6632]

I beat this one a couple of times. Once in two player with a friend and then a solo replay. As long as you start off well it's not too hard. I Started as Takada Shingen, so I focused conquering north & south then focusing on the east. Saving western expansion for last. The key is keeping your battle front as small & manageable as possible. An the back line fiefs producing food and replacement soldiers. Def not a game for everyone but I enjoyed it

[@larryb5677]

Hard to believe that Nobunaga's Ambition isn't a staple at AGDQ

[@JeremyParish]

True, I got a game over in zero turns while recording this material. Hard to go faster than that

[@mjrleaguesweetie]

I had two instances growing up in the 80s and 90s where my mom took me to our neighborhood video store, I rented an NES game, and then I had us go back before the game was due for return, so I could trade it in for something else. One was Ghostbusters, the other was this

[@fixurheartVODs]

Happy fief, happy life 🙂

[@hisham_hm]

happy fief, happy beef!

[@WhiskeyNixon]

KOEI games were a big hit with my friends and me, back in the day. I think 'Bandit Kings of Ancient China' on NES was our most frequently played. Good times.

[@ThomasMHead]

Around the start of highschool, I was quite fascinated by samurai and Japanese history. I faithfully tuned in every weekend to watch a year-long NHK series about Nobunaga. Then I bought Nobunaga's Ambition on SNES; and I soon realized "This ain't for me."

[@iwanttoseemrshow]

Just learned that I've been erroneously calling this game Nobunga's Ambition for about the last 35 years now

[@XX-lt6ky]

That harsh beep around 8:39 damn near killed me with my AirPods in.

[@TheLastLineLive]

Strategy games are a dime a hundred by today’s standards, but back then and especially on video game consoles, they were quite rare and special. The old Koei games certainly have some rough edges and a high learning curve compared to most games from that era, but it was an open concept game with hundreds of hours of play in an era where many games could be beaten in under an hour. Perhaps a precursor to the open world games that dominant the market today.😊

[@danielespeziari5545]

Yeah, as adults we already have far too many things to manage in our real lives to bother managing Japanese fiefs.

[@Gernam12]

I would have never known this game series came to North America this early at all if not for you. Its so cool how nuanced NES localization history is that just doesnt get talked about.

[@mcsteee]

I view Koei's games less as spreadsheet simulators and more like uber complex board games (think twilight imperium or twilight struggle) without the unsavory bits like setting up, forgetting rules, finding someone else to play with, leaving a table unusable because of board game errata for an entire weekend, or a five year old upending the board because he wanted to play with the meeples.

[@Absolute_white]

there is something so 2005 about your content that I love so much with all my heart... wow good channel.

[@unsinkable_battleship]

I played a campaign of the one on PS4 where I started with just one piece of land and eventually conquered all of Japan. It dominated my life for about 3 weeks but it was such an immersive and fun experience. Koei really sucked my brain into Eastern history. I’m grateful for it!

[@stopmikeandjim3196]

Didn't expect to see Baldur's Gate 3 on here today. I'd argue that's the first game to really pull off the tabletop experience in video game form

[@RaifSeverence]

Unlimited SaGa and Crimsonshroud would likely have a few things to say about that.

[@Obscusion2]

It'll be neat when Jeremy eventually reaches 1990 & has to cover Hot-B USA's release of the similarly-styled Shingen the Ruler, which was apparently so complex that Hot-B put a key for all of the various menu abbreviations on the cartridge label itself, despite players not being able to actually use said key during gameplay, because the top-loader NES wouldn't come out for another three years.

[@GreatistheWorld]

FWIW for North American analogues, there are a couple mesoamerican kings that have been equated to Nobunaga (having similar Ambitions)

[@JeremyParish]

Oh, I was thinking in terms of a figure establishing present-day society’s underpinnings, but a precolonial sim would be pretty cool.

[@NucleaRaptor]

>gotta get my Human Sacrifice stat up for this turn

[@baileywatts1304]

@@JeremyParish We've got Andrew Jackson conquering Florida, annexing Texas, using the military to ensure individual states enforced federal trade tarrifs at their ports but also was a horrifying racist with blood soaked legacy of genocide and personal brutality. edit: and slavery. I don't want to diminish the horrors of slavery and the enormous extent which he was personally responsible for the exploitation of slaves, just that it's often overshadowed by the Trail of Tears. Andrew Jackson is absolutely the worst.

[@ascfde]

Nobunaga's Ambien

[@ScaryGarrySG1]

Out of all the NES games I had...I ended up playing this one the most. To this day I love anything feudal Japan, and it all started here. I kept the manual through all these years containing all the Daiymo info and the stories ..

[@BigBangBlitz]

I love how Kou outright demanded that Koei should make a game with the Fate IP and turned it into one of the best musou titles out there. aa true geek even all these years later.

[@anactualmotherbear]

Koei's games were insanely expensive in japan due to just how big the cartridges were. At a time when most other companies were releasing 2 megabit carts, they released 4, 5, and 6 megabit carts with fancy mappers including the MMC5 later down the tine. In the US, I've never been able to find out what the price was for these games on the NES. The largest of which was Uncharted Waters, which was the same size as Kirby's Adventure. I cannot imagine they were more than $60 though, as a US NES owner, even an adult in this niche market, would not want to spend $70-80 on these games for their aging system. I'd like to know for sure though!

[@TheLabecki]

I love spreadsheet games. I never played the NES version of this, but did play it on Genesis.

[@EvanCWaters]

Is this the first use of the term "grognards" in this series? It is really surprising to see something this dense and complex not only on the Famicom but translated for the North American audience. And apparently doing all right! I guess by this point the NES was well saturated enough that you could start pitching more games to niches like this. A good pitch to dads who bought the thing for their kids to play Mario. Avalon Hill was still doing brisk business in tabletop wargames back around this period.

[@madspunky]

I'm always happy to see PLATO games being referenced : D

[@IffyJottere]

For a blurb I also would have suggested "More than one fief-u will ruin your laifu". I mean, look at what happened to Nobunaga in history. It's not wrong. :) I remember renting Genghis Khan as a wee thing from the local store, once. ONCE. 11 yo me was utterly baffled by what I was experiencing. 45 yo me would still be. LOL And lastly, this year's Unicorn Overlord is a great game to forge an alliance between granstrat and RPGs. It leans more on the RPG sides of things, but it has a similar hybrid vibe to Ogre Battle, but it also has the idiosyncratic and melodramatic cast of an average Fire Emblem game in addition to legions of virtually anonymous hires filling your 3-5 strong squads.

[@mendez704]

I remember playing the very similar Romance of the 3 kingdoms, also from KOEI...i. really enjoyed it

[@ZeusTheIrritable]

Ive been playing this game a few times a year, every year, since 1989 or so, and I have never lasted longer than 15 turns. 10/10

[@benkizer9509]

One of those games as a kid that I had absolutely no idea how to play, but now as an adult, I've grown to quite like it.

[@DefendYoungstown]

I remember feeling a sense of conflict. I _wanted_ to play this game, because, as noted, it appeared to have similarities to Ultima Exodus. The problem was that 10 year old me had zero context for the Warring States Period... a thing that wouldn't be even remotely remedied until years later with the PS2 launch of Kessen. The stats management would have driven me to madness in NEEDING to puzzle together how everything worked. Essentially, it would have been more of an obsession about learning how to play than actually playing it. Pride of "figuring out" rpg systems from Ultima or Final Fantasy or solving outcomes for the MacVenture ports or Maniac Mansion was a major appeal for me. I might have liked this game... eventually. But I never got to try it out when I would have been most receptive.

[@pennsworth996]

Don't take my fief, please!

[@lifestream_real]

Proof that even a system like the NES can handle something as complex as a strategy game. This is a fascinating game, and I love the ambition of it! (EDIT: No pun intended. 😅)

[@jackill2611]

Hello sir, as usual - your work is outstanding!

[@goranisacson2502]

Youchi Erikawa's life is the stuff of nerd-gold. This massive stat-geek found a way to not only make a carreer out of his fixation, he also married a rich girl with similar interest who went on to pretty much solidify and pioneer the dating sim-genre for girls. I don't know what he did in a past life, but tit must've been GOOD.

[@tommylakindasorta3068]

This game is utterly inscrutable to me -- I just don't have the right kind of brain. But I still respect its significance in gaming history.

[@starlightwitch12]

The game (and the franchise) that made my love for strategy gaming and grand strategy games as well.

[@chutton988]

10:11 Jeremy deserves a Notion sponsorship deal.

[@JeremyParish]

I do in fact use Notion because of a sponsorship deal for the Retronauts podcast.

[@gullpayne]

Great video again love listening to these

[@jamesmoss3424]

Nobunaga's Ambition looks impressive. 😀👍🎮

[@ocpmovie]

Someone said that all video games are either Menus or Parkour. I don't think that's true, but it's true here, and in most NES games.

[@d.b.gaston665]

Most Nintendo Power readers were probably not looking for a precursor to Paradox's Grand Strategy titles like the Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis series.

[@tancar2004]

Koei was one of the last 3rd parties to keep publish games on the NES even as the SNES was taking over. They had a small but reliable fanbase so they knew how many copies they'd sell.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Definitely not my cup 'o tea, but I am glad it exists. Seems pretty ambitious for the era.

[@crithon]

good one

[@tec5x5]

Cant wait for Gemfire to roll around

[@RaifSeverence]

The game that introduced me to the name Kou Shibusawa

[@pragmax]

This is timely. The 2024 (remake) of Shogun recently concluded its run, which is heavily inspired by the history and events surrounding Oda Nobunaga.

[@billcook4768]

How come we never got an English translation of Seduction of a Condominium Wife?

[@JeremyParish]

Some experiences transcend language

[@stevebogdaniec3677]

Great review, and completely fair. I fell in love with the game in 89 for reasons I still don't get. It's not my kind of game either, but I've been returning to it for 35 years now. It turns out I've been mispronouncing "Nobunaga" since then...

[@gaminglakitu]

Just the video I need to relax after finishing my Precalc final, a game focused on more math

[@dreamlandnightmare]

I thought it was "no-bung-uh's" ambition until I was an adult and read the name more closely. 6:09 - He looks like a Japanese Neil Breen.

[@thewizardexploded8924]

I've barely played this one, but I love this series and the related titles. As a kid I played the crap out of the sequel (Lord of Darkness) on SNES, as well as Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 and Gemfire (which applies a simplified version of the format to a fantasy version of the Wars of the Roses)

[@rottenparts]

Yeah, I definitely did not know how to pronounce the name of this game when I was a kid.

[@acsound]

Oda's closest analogue in the West would be the USA's first PotUS. To pivot from Oda's SENGOKU BASARA depiction: imagine if the alluded-to *George Washington* were depicted as an incarnation of Satan. Also: skipped over Toyotomi (Hashiba) before Tokugawa, and no mention of Pokemon Conquest (JP: Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition), where Oda chose to forgo all of this management sim stuff in favor of battling other warlords w/his RAYQUAZA. :D

[@darktetsuya]

I think I rented one of these, (it was either this or shingen the ruler) but man I was in *way* over my head!

[@dannyjingu]

I rented this in Jr. High, and was really bummed out I spent $5 of my hard earned lawn mowing money. I did enjoy sending ninjas to assassinate other daimyos. The animation when they succeeded was hilarious!

[@kennethchia4194]

BASEBALL STARS NEXT WEEK HELL YEAH

[@PrincessOzaline]

Bandit Kings of Ancient China gave enough control and streamlined things enough that I had fun with it any of the other NES era Koei games I tried were too overwhelming.

[@SadSackGaming]

I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was supposed to do. It was like SimCity to me. Oh, you want me to get power everywhere? Sorry, no idea what you want. Hey look, RBI baseball!

[@luisguillermojg]

10:01 Woo Baseball Stars!

[@Retrokid1998]

This is one of those weird nes games that you see but you don’t know what the game is

[@cliffjumper1984]

i love the random pop culture stuff at the beginning of these vids haha

[@AVUltra]

Hyper PikMin.

[@dreamlandnightmare]

7:09 - Sounds exactly like Vlad Dracula.

[@XanthinZarda]

Unfortunately, I have no ambition for these types of sims, but I will take the time to appreciate their historical value. I like my spreadsheet games to have the spreadsheets as more of a statistical overview, not something where I have to punch in the numbers exactomundo.

[@jonoverman4625]

"the ladder was formed from the ground up"

[@fangjokerLS]

"The Juice" was, you guessed it-- Ecto Cooler.

[@roguerifter9724]

I love the old Koei strategy/sim games though I didn't play this one much. I think I played Romance of the Three Kingdoms first but my memory is hazy. I adore the Gameboy Nobunaga's Ambition though because it was the first game I got on the long, long road to building my Gameboy collection after all my Gameboy games besides one new game, aka my least favorite video game of all time, got thrown out by mistake during a move.

[@jasonblalock4429]

My pet theory for how/why Koei was willing to keep publishing in the US: Dads. These are some of the first "dad games." And so if a family had a NES, and older family members wanted a fairly mature game to play, there are all these deep wargames for them to get into. And very little else. Koei kind of cornered the market.

[@randy7894]

This game was perfect for extremely long vacation trips (the gameboy version) Tons of batteries died for this game.

[@thomasham130]

Romance and the three kingdoms and nobunaga's ambition 2 sucked up a lot of time in the late 80's and early 90's on the nes.

[@BossDD3]

HE HAS THE SPICY GAMECUBE

[@hiroantag]

didn't realize that Paradox like games existed in the 80s

[@robertlauncher]

I always forget Ogre Battle is a series and not just Person of Lordly Caliber

[@AnAverageGoblin]

I've always wanted to get into games like these but they are incredibly intimidating while I am very dumb

[@victoriansword]

When my friends popped this game into the NES, I’d usually head home. I didn’t understand it as a kid, and it was boring to watch someone play it.

[@Mansini77]

Well, definitely better than Super Monkey Daibouken.

[@billcook4768]

Jeremy dressed up for us