Most of you may know of the Koei series "Romance of the three Kingdoms", but less of you may have heard of "Nobunaga's Ambition", since fewer of the games in that series was ever released outside of Japan (Only 6 of 14 games to be specific).
This post is more about the series as a whole than any specific game, although the latest game being released in 2013 doesn't exactly make it "retro".
The premise for the games is to achieve Oda Nobunaga's ambition, which was to unite Japan during the warring states period (ca 1600). You are however free to play any Daimyo (warlord) of the time.
The first game in the series was only released in Japan and had the title Nobunaga No Yabō (信長の野望) and was written entirely in BASIC. It was released in 1983 and was one of the very first turn-based grand strategy role-playing simulation games (the more widely known ROTK was first released in 1985).
Although the title of the first game translates into Nobunaga's Ambition, since the second game was the first to be released outside of Japan, it got the title Nobunaga's Ambition. although the original Japanese title; Nobunaga No Yabō: Zenkokuban (信長の野望・全国版) actually translates to Nobunaga's Ambition: Country-wide edition.
It was released 1986 for the Japanese computer PC-88SR and later ported to NES, and later SNES, and Mega Drive.
Admittedly a bit overly simplistic by today's standard; just carefully beef up your army and invade when your army is significantly stronger than the opponent while still leaving behind a strong defending force. It is rather fun to finally achieve the goal of unifying Japan.
In 1988 Nobunaga's Ambition II, the original title being Nobunaga No Yabō: Sengoku Gun'yūden (信長の野望・戦国群雄伝) literary meaning Nobunaga's Ambition: Tales of the Sengoku Warlords, was released for the PC-88SR, and then ported to the NES.
The fourth game was titled Nobunaga's Ambition: Lord of Darkness outside Japan and was originally created in 1990 for the Japanese computer PC-98 and later ported to SNES, Mega Drive and PlayStation, among others.
Its Japanese title was Nobunaga no Yabō: Bushō Fūunroku (信長の野望・武将風雲録), which translates to Nobunaga's Ambition: Records of the Generals.
At this point the games where in many ways quite similar to the ROTK series, but they would develop into very distinct games as the respective series continued to evolve.
The six subsequent games where not released outside of Japan.
The fifth game in the series was titled Nobunaga No Yabō: Haōden (信長の野望・覇王伝) which translates into Nobunaga's Ambition: Tales of the Conquerors and was released 1992 for the PC-98, and later ported to the Super Famicom (the Japanese SNES), Mega Drive and Mac OS, among others.
The sixth game was titled Nobunaga No Yabō: Tenshōki (信長の野望・天翔記) which translates into Nobunaga's Ambition: Chronicles of Ascension released 1994 for the PC-98 and later ported to the Super Famicom, PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
The seventh game was titled Nobunaga No Yabō: Shōseiroku (信長の野望・将星録) which translates into Nobunaga's Ambition: Records of the Star Generals released in 1997 for Windows 95 and later ported to Mac, PlayStation and Sega Saturn and Dreamcast.
The eight game was titled Nobunaga No Yabō: Reppūden (信長の野望・烈風伝) which translates into Nobunaga's Ambition: Tales of the Storms released in 1999 for Windows 95 and later ported to Mac, PlayStation and Dreamcast.
The tenth game was titled Nobunaga No Yabō: Sōtensoku (信長の野望・蒼天録) which translates into Nobunaga's Ambition: Records of The Blue Skies and was released in 2002 for Windows 98 and later ported to PlayStation 2.
The eleventh game in the series, and the fourth to be released outside of Japan was originally titled Nobunaga No Yabō: Tenka Sōsei (信長の野望・天下創世) which translates to Nobunaga's Ambition: The Creation of the World was released in 2003 for Windows 98, it was renamed Nobunaga's Ambition: Rise to Power in the U.S. and ported to PlayStation 2 in 2008.
This was the first release outside of Japan for 17 years.
The twelfth game in the series, and the fifth to be released outside of Japan was originally titled Nobunaga no Yabō: Kakushin (信長の野望・革新) which translates to Nobunaga's Ambition: Innovation and released for Windows 98 in 2005, and later released in the U.S. in 2009 for the PlayStation 2 under the title Nobunaga's Ambition: Iron Triangle.
Nobunaga no Yabō: Tendō (信長の野望・天道) which translates to Nobunaga's Ambition: Roads of the Heavens is the thirteenth game in the series and was only released in Japan.
It was released for Windows XP in 2009 and later ported to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The fourteenth and latest game in the series is also the sixth game to have been released outside of Japan. The original title was Nobunaga no Yabō: Sozou (信長の野望・創造) meaning Nobunaga's Ambition: Creation.
It was released in 2013 for PlayStation 3 and 4, and Windows, marking the 30th anniversary of the series.
It was released in the U.S. and Europe in 2015 for PlayStation 3 as a digital release, for PlayStation 4 as a physical release and for Windows as a steam release under the title Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence.
I highly recommend this game for anyone who likes historical strategical simulations. In particular those interested in the Sengoku period of Japanese history.
A new version of the game was released earlier this year (2016) entitled Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence: Ascension.
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