Here we go with putting down some basics.
If you’re not interested in character creation at all you can feel free to skip this post, but I’d still suggest giving it a read seeing as you’ll get the general idea of what constitutes a character in Nobunaga’s Ambition. I don’t think I’ll do much screen cropping like I am in this case purely to keep focus on what matters.
Still, do share what you think about it so far and please excuse my questionable English. I’m working on it.
[details=HQ - Character Creation]After a cavalcade of, well, just two logos to be honest intro starts playing.
Ah, good old reassuring theme and a somewhat uneven intro to be perfectly honest with you. Great beginning and end, though. All Nobunaga’s Ambition games share that Kou Shibusawa part.
We move on to the main screen.
It is worth noting the background is dynamic and changes when you start the game anew. This is also where we get out second whiff of traditional strong soundtracks these games have. Let’s break down the main menu while we’re at it.
- New Game – pretty self explanatory and I’ll return to it later for some brief info.
- Load Game – ditto.
- Edit Historical Officers – there is where we can change the existing officers, ranging from their portrait to more tangible things like abilities and tactics… neither of which I will be doing.
- Edit Created Officers – meat of the game with Ascension, so to speak, and something I’ll dedicate majority of this post to.
- Create Events – pretty robust tool for creating your own events in the game and also not something I’ll be tackling seeing as it’ll be busy regardless, but this IS a valid way to essentially “script” your custom clan into the game so it feels more legit.
- Officer Directory – where you get to look at officers and see what their art looked like in earlier games, etc.
- Feats – basically just a version of achievements that might return you some old unlockable portraits and such.
- Settings – your regular options menu.
- Exit – evacuate the premises.
Before I get to New Game I’d like to just share what Officer Directory looks like because I think it’s very neat and nostalgic that such an option exists in the game. Particularly if you’ve been with Nobunaga’s Ambition series from the very beginning.
Now onto mode proper.
There’s plenty of starting here, even more so if you bought the DLC, that will affect what current game will be like at that specific snippet of time. These things are called scenarios. Aside from tutorial itself, which is highly recommended if you’re a newcomer, there are historical and fictional scenarios present but I’ll go with Birth of Nobunaga for simplicity’s sake as things have not yet spiraled out of control.
Among the daimyo of the Sengoku era were many who held the rank of Shugo, regional leaders of the Muromachi Bakufu. Serving under the Owari Shugo was his deputy, and serving under the deputy was Nobuhide Oda. That this man’s child would one day climb to greater heights than either Shugo or daimyo was yet unbeknownst to all.
Now we swing back to the meat of this update – created officers and how to create them. When we click on the button we get this
so I’ll deal with each category in succession. And first in line are the faces Oh god, the faces. They’re spread over couple of pages which I’ve compiled into more manageable batches. Use letters and numbers for orientation within individual batch.
MEN
WOMEN
Moving onto the next category we have the character’s name.
Not much to add here except it would be great if you could go for actual Japanese names so characters fit into the setting. If in doubt go some sites like THIS, THIS or even THIS for some easily generated or even adapted ones.
More of your usual stuff. Male or female is simple and binary, but voice has a lot more options. Sadly I cannot really give you a preview of each one so I’ll list them instead just so you know what your options are. If anyone cares about it I’m rolling with Japanese voices.
Youth: Pure
Youth: Earnest
Youth: Bold
Youth: Planner
Youth: Patient
Youth: Friendly
Youth: Brave
Middle-Age: Earnest
Middle-Age: Bold
Middle-Age: Zealous
Middle-Age: Friendly
Middle-Age: Fierce
Middle-Age: Patient
Middle-Age: Planner
Middle-Age: Stern
Middle-Age: Clever
Middle-Age: Official
Old: Veteran
Female: Brave
Female: Wise
Female: Cheerful
Female: Tender
Father and Relative are entirely optional and if you really feel like getting into that feel free to coordinate with other interested users. Just keep in mind your age as character becomes an active part of the game at the age of 16.
Now we’re starting to add some spice to the mix.
Tenet defines the person’s feelings about innovation and affects how compatible you are with other people to certain extent. If your character is daimyo of a clan this tenet will also become the clan’s tenet. Tenets encompass quite a bit and matter for adopting technology, but that’s something only the daimyo has to worry about so I’ll leave that out.
There are three options to choose from:
- Neutral (NTRL)
- Conservative (CNSV) – opposes progressive
- Progressive (PRGS) – opposes conservative
Simply put Ideal is what officer cares about. This can also lead to higher or lower compatibility with others, but is not a game changer unless you specifically set out to min-max. Here are the options you have:
Fame
Clan
Talent
Profit
Justice
Ambition
Mastery
Spirit
REQ Loyalty is, well, Required Loyalty and is in fact a figure you want to be as low as possible if you’re looking to recruit the officer seeing as it means A) he’s very easy to recruit and B) it’s very easy to maintain his loyalty afterwards. Don’t take this as gospel and give the number you deem appropriate for your character based on his personality, backstory, sense of duty, etc. Go crazy.
Tier classification cover C, B, A and S category and doesn’t really stand for much. It’s more of a tool for locating individuals through groups faster and has no real mechanical impact on the game. Go with whatever you feel fits.
Now we get to Tactics and lord have mercy there’s a lot to go through here. Tactics is your combat skill independent of abilities and everything else. Have fun.
Lifespan follows up.
Most of this is self-evident, but I would like to remind you characters become active as playable pieces at the age of 16 and childhood is off-limits. Also take into account your lifespan even if we’re highly unlikely to play for any extended period of time. I do appreciate the scenario listing so you just how old your creation will be able in every one of the, by the way.
We’re going with Birth of Nobunaga if it slipped your mind.
Condition is something you can perhaps skip over for this particular game. Something worth noting is that Ronin cannot be hired by clans so unless that’s something you’re specifically going for some reason I’d suggest avoiding it. Maybe there’s a story reason why your character would only look to join something ten years after game begins? Who knows.
Now we move page of the character creation.
And it’s time for panic.
We start off simple enough with abilities aka commonly known as stats.
LEA = Leadership
The higher this attribute the less damage units lead by this officer take in battle. Also their morale while under siege drops slower.
VAL = Valor
The higher this attribute the more damage your troops do in battle. Also if your Valor is higher then the enemy Leadership their morale will drop faster in sieges.
INT = Intelligence
This attribute is useful for all diplomacy options. Raising trust with other clans, appeasing tribes, spying on enemy fortresses, finding new resources in your territory and so on.
POL = Politic
This attribute is for all the development tasks. Developing your land, constructing new buildings, constructing better roads and so on. The higher the attribute the faster a construction task gets completed and the higher the rise in development points for crops and so on are.
Pretty clear, right? 50 is average and they can go up to 100. Please don’t go for OP characters, alright? 
This is where we get into real problems – growth type and traits. Why problems? Well… just look at the lot of em!
And that’s just a brief snippet of what’s offered. I would have very much liked to have ALL of this listed for you, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere online and there’s too much for me to comprehensively edit into some semblance of order so I’ll have to take the coward’s way out and ask you to describe your character’s nature, talents, profession, etc, so I can choose growth type and traits based on those. I do apologize to all the min-maxers out there.
And lastly we move to the third page of the officer creator.
Where there’s a bio window to fill if you’re up to it.
192 symbols max, spaces count. 48 symbols per line - must skip because of window limits.
I realize all this seems like it’s a bit too much, but here we go, courtesy of @Fefnir :
Face:
Name:
Gender:
Voice:
Father/relative:
Tenet:
Ideals:
Loyalty:
Tactics:
Born:
Lifespan:
Condition:
LEA:
VAL:
INT:
POL:
Growth rate/Traits:
Bio:
Or if you appreciate your time you can just tell me basic information:
- Face (batch, letter + number)
- Name (appropriate)
- Birth information (year and lifespan)
- General gist of the character (concept, goals, stats, etc)[/details]
Now it’s up to you… and me if I don’t ditch on the updates. Good luck, everyone. 