Part 6: Yoshihiro's Grand Day Out

We've got two more kingdoms to conquer today, but we don't need to do that right now, there's peeps to recruit!

Ravine



Last update was pretty packed, so this is the same month of us taking down Illusio, we've still got some stuff to do this month. Oh yeah, Baba Nobufusa was a samurai and one of the Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen. He fought in many battles without getting a single injury and was consulted by Shingen on important matters. He was entrusted Fukashi Castle and led the vanguard of Takeda Katsuyori's right-wing.



Ouch, Fury Cutter can be pretty deadly if you let it build up. Yamagata Masakage was another one of Shingen's Twenty-Four Generals and a samurai. After his brother, one of Shingen's red fire unit, committed seppuku, he equipped his cavalry with bright red armour and often charged first into battle, confusing and panicking the enemy. He fought in many battles and captured Yoshida Castle from the Tokugawa clan. His last campaign was the Battle of Nagashino, which he tried to pursuade Katsuyori to honorably withdraw from.

Threat to Ransei



Yum yum



Hey it's Ujihiro, let's actually recruit him this time.



Sekiguchi Ujihiro was Yoshimoto's nephew whose daughter was arranged to marry a then 15 year old Tokugawa Ieyasu. But when Ieyasu joined Nobunaga instead of Yoshimoto, he only saved his wife and children from the Imagawa clan and Sekiguchi's cousin, Imagawa Ujizane, not his stepparents.



I think we've recruited all of those that faced us in Chrysalia.



And that's all of them. Nezu Jinpachi was a part of Yukimura's Sanada Ten Braves and may not have even existed. The novel detailing their adventures was published in the Sanada Sandaiki, midway through the Edo period. Only a few of the Braves regularly appear in media, some of the ten are simply generic filler characters. All ten of them are definitely not in this game.

Threat to Ransei



Now we can go after new kingdoms. But we're gonna have a month to train and recollect. These new guys are some pretty tough customers.




Good shit. Nice to finally recruit Sōrin, feels so long ago when we took down Violight.

Ravine




Ah, it's great having our own Drilbur. Kirigakure Saizō was one of the Sanada Ten Braves and one of the few that actually appears regularly in media, being one of the most recognized. Apparently a master of Iga ninjutsu, he is said to have been sent by Ieyasu to assassinate Hideyoshi, but failed. Another version says that Saizō was caught through carelessness and inadvertently saved Hideyoshi from Yusuke Takiguchi, a double agent.



Ah finally, I was wondering when this would start happening.

Pokemon Evolved




Evolution is a big part of this game, but you won't really encounter it until you get above 40% link or so depending on the Pokemon. Since level doesn't exist and link evolution applies to Warlord evolution in most cases, Pokemon evolve when one of their stats reach a certain amount. There are also still stone and item evolutions, as well as "trade" evolutions, but we'll talk about them when they come up. Abra evolves into Kadabra when its Attack reaches 83.



Well this is a first, Kiyo has no historical counterpart that we've figured out. Not every Warrior has a 1 to 1 counterpart, some are pulled from fiction, as we've seen already. This does apply more to women, however, since while there were many Onna-bugeisha (or female martial artist that fought for Japanese mobility), there were still many men in positions of power that got the main focus. After all, even the thousands and thousands of male soldiers fighting in this era don't have their own wiki page, right? The women even less so, regardless of their stature. Gender politics, baby, you know you love it!

Ravine




We're just rolling in new recruits, aren't we? Now we've got Shingen's son!



What a great way to highlight the more frustrating strategy elements of this game. While Kenshin and Gallade are literally unstoppable, because all Pokemon have just the one move, they can't touch Dark types at all. Even though Gallade is part Fighting and doesn't give a shit about Dark types most of the time! Isn't it funny? Anyway, uh, Ichimada Akizane was a retainer of Ōtomo Sōrin, head of the Ōtomo clan.



Who gives a quote and when is usually pretty random, so see what happens when you mix and match! Let's see what Shingen can do.



Yeah that's about right... can't even recruit one of your own bloody generals.



There we go! Shingen is a bit tricky to use. Well, really I mean Rhyperior is tricky to use, you don't have to use Perfect Link Pokemon in the slightest if there are better options. Warlords tend to work well with any Pokemon of their speciality type and the 90% link cap in most cases won't matter since you'll have to a hard time reaching it anyway. But I'm sticking with them to make things more interesting. You will need to use their Perfect Link Pokemon to evolve the Warlord, but if you're not going for that, you don't need to bother.

Islands



Last one (of this month), so let's go to some floating crystal islands. Wasn't it fun the last time?



Like Illusio the Floating Rock locations are super annoying to recruit and link Pokemon on. It's a spiral rock that you might have to climb if the portals refuse to match up and it's not easy going back down either. The AI also loves jumping all over the place making them annoying to catch up with.



Due to the camera you wouldn't see this path normally but the whole area circles around. Saitō Tomonobu was an officer of the Uesugi clan, under both Kenshin and Kagekatsu. A skilled administrator, Kenshin placed him in a highly trusted position and was useful on the battlefield, thwarting attacks from the Oda clan and in expeditions into the Kantō region.

Threat to Ransei



Also in Illusio we have this new place to visit, so let's check it out.



Now, you know what these stats mean, don't you? The higher your Power, the more damage you do when you attack; the higher your Wisdom, the less damage you receive when you are attacked; and the higher your Charisma, the easier it is to hit enemies with your attack and dodge enemy attacks. Better stats mean you'll get more out of some locations, too. Oh, and one more thing: your Capacity indicates the number of Pokemon with which you can link. You can't go over this number, so if you're full up, you'll have to let one of them go...



...zzz... HM? Oh, uh, yeah, sure, whatever.



Neato. If we have a Warlord's turn to spare we'll use this, but otherwise it's whatever. These are temporary, obviously and don't make too much difference, but hey 5 points is 5 points.



Ah, new month. We'll be taking on Cragspur soon enough, but first, we have someone real interesting to recruit.



Ginchiyo has popped up. Let's go and recruit her!

Garden



Like that. Shingen is pretty great at recruiting, if nothing else.



Super worthwhile. What else we got?

Threat to Ransei



Oh yeah, we've ran out of space for Warriors. You can dismiss any Warrior if run out of room in the current kingdom you're in. You don't have to fill out literally every space in your kingdoms to get rid of people. You do have to max out your capacity to get rid of Pokemon, annoyingly, but oh well. When we do run out of space (since I'm gonna recruit everyone I see that we've never had before) I'll be getting rid of those who have Perfect Links and don't have a reason to be in our army. Takahisa's Perfect Link is with the Timburr line and we're never going to use him since we have Yoshihiro.



Good good. You're seeing a real cut up version of everything that I'm doing. I'm bringing Warriors and Pokemon that we haven't registered in battles where we recruit someone or get a Perfect Link. It's getting a bit tricky with so many in our army now that all of this prep before fighting a kingdom is taking around 30 mins of recording. I was worried this might make updates longer, but the amount of screenshots is actually less than earlier updates, so you're only missing out on a good chunk of self-inflicted tedium.

Ravine




Chikamasa is the only Warrior that has Wooper as a Perfect Link, so he can just bugger off. We've found Yukimura's wife but not, well, him.

Islands




Usami Sadamitsu was a samurai and retainer of Kenshin. Since there's not much know about him, let's talk about his Pokemon, Beedrill. Beedrill is the only Pokemon in the game to not have its evolutionary relatives in the game also. I'm glad Weedle and Kakuna aren't in the game, the less useless Pokemon the better. Also, as a little trivia for you, one Pokemon that was considered for this game was Growlithe and presumably Arcanine, as its models are in the game's code, though no other data accompanies it. It works out, since there's 300 Pokemon in this game exactly, so maybe they didn't want to mess up that number.



Hōjō Ujinao was Ujiyasu's grandson and Ujimasa's son. His mother was one of Shingen's daughters. Wait, we haven't even fought Ujiyasu and Ujimasa yet! Well anyway, he was a daimyō and final head of the Late Hōjō clan, as the clan and Odawara Castle fell to Hideyoshi. While his father and uncle were forced to commit suicide, as Ujinao's wife was the second daughter of Ieyasu, he was allowed to live in exile at Mount Kōya, where he passed away a year later. His adopted son became the first daimyō of the Sayama clan.



The Ralts line is pretty popular, with 5 Warriors having it as their Perfect Link. Well, Kenshin only has Gallade, but two more Warriors have a Perfect Link with Gallade, while the remaining two have a Perfect Link with Gardevoir. So make sure you evolve it into the right one! Other split evolutions are also the same, but usually just have the one Warrior. Kagekatsu's is Gallade, while Tomonobu's is Gardevoir.

Threat to Ransei



These guys can go since they have stone evolution Perfect Links and those items are annoyingly hard to come by in this game. But we're done for now, on with the conquering!



Water-type, Grass-type, and Fighting-type attacks are strong against Rock-type Pokemon... But Fire types and Bug types are pretty useless. Normal-type Pokemon's attacks aren't very effective either...



I think we'll be just fine.

Invasion



Half of Ransei is already yours. What are you gonna do next? Too much ambition can be pretty dangerous, you know...

This isn't ambition!



A friendly bunch. Let's go beat them up, I guess.

VS Cragspur




Let's rock.



So I'm sorry, but... I won't be holding back.



We start off in an enclosed area. Don't think you can hide here, the rocks sink automatically after a few turns. Also make sure whoever steps on the switch isn't weak to Rock.



We've got some rolling stones that deal Rock type damage. Rock types are immune to this, so try and not stand in their path.



That won't stop the Yoshihiro train.




Hōjō Ujiyasu was a daimyō of the Odawara Hōjō clan. His only known wife was Imagawa Yoshimoto's sister (who's not in this game). After his father's death, a number of the Hōjō's enemies saw an opportunity to take Hōjō territory, including the Uesugi clan. They attacked Kawagoye, but were completely defeated in a night attack led by Ujiyasu. Before he died, Ujiyasu made peace with Kenshin and Shingen and cemented a Takeda-Imagawa-Hōjō relationship through political marriage with his daughters, with his seventh son being adopted by Kenshin.



Kaihime, or Lady Kai as hime means lady, princess, etc, was the daughter of Narita Ujinaga, retainer to the Hōjō clan. A heroic woman, she helped her father during the Siege of Odawara and the Siege of Oshi against Hideyoshi's army. When Ishida Mitsuhide's army was devastated by a water attack, she volunteered to rout the remaining soldiers with 200 men on horseback. Despite Mitsuhide being reinforced, she slain the Sanada retainer and heavily damaged the Toyotami clan with another water attack.



Hōjō Tsunashige was an officer of the Hōjō clan and fought in various battles supporting the Hōjō and expanding their domain. His soldiers wore yellow uniforms and outstandingly creative banners. He was defeated by Takeda Katsuyori in the Siege of Kanbara.



Hōjō Ujimasa was the eldest son of Hōjō Ujiyasu and succeeded his father as daimyō. He was also the son-in-law of Shingen. His reign was short, however, as the castle of Odawara fell to Hideyoshi's forces and he was forced to commit seppuku along with his brother Hōjō Ujiteru.



So, uh, Hōjō Ujiteru was the second son of Hōjō Ujiyasu and was lord of Hachiōji Castle, which was destroyed by Uesugi Kagekatsu shortly after Ujiteru left for the Siege of Odawara. Hideyoshi commanded the castle be destroyed and it lays in ruins to this day. Ujiteru was also in the Battle of Mimasetoge, but was unsuccessful in preventing from Takeda Shingen from withdrawing back home after he besieged Odawara.



Hōjō Ujikuni was the third son of Hōjō Ujiyasu and like his brothers, fought in battles for the Hōjō clan. He was the lord of Hachigata Castle and participated in the Battle of Mimasetoge with Ujiteru. His castle was beseiged by Uesugi Kagekatsu and fell after a month. He also aided in the defense of Odawara, but the castle fell and the lands went to Ieyasu, who would use this as a stepping stone for other conquests.



Well one is definitely more impressive than the other. You might be wondering why I brought a Joltik to this battle and the answer is... i'unno, whatever man. I could've brought Kenshin and wrecked face, but we'll be fine. Probably.



We'll get rid of this boulder before it gets rid of us.



Nice, we can get some more free damage.



Unlike Doubleslap, Rock Blast can be pretty dangerous if you're weak to Rock. It's also just slightly stronger anyway.



Here's where I remembered that Rock types are immune to the boulders. You'd think I'd remember battlefield immunities since we just faced Terrera, but I just can't tear myself away from battlefield objects.




We'll just contend with this.



Hard hitting rock types.




Lot of misses so far, not annoying at all, no sir.



Those two kinda died a bit quickly, but being in these important battles is, uh, the only way to really catch them up to the level you need them to be in these battles. Sure, I could grind for a few months to get everyone up to speed, but where's the fun in that?




We're still winning in terms of numbers though, 4-3. That's not gonna last.




Yeah this Boldore is a problem. Do not leave your guys in a line, that's just asking for trouble.



That was pretty helpful. As you might think, the healthier Gurdurr is, the better position we'll be in.



Oh baby, only two more to go. Will the AI realise the threat?




Nope! I knew that Eevee and Jigglypuff wouldn't be very helpful in this battle, so I used them to their full potential: getting rid of Pansear and then distracting the Rock types while Gurdurr ripped them apart. I thought Snivy and Oshawott would do more damage to the Onix and maybe Roggenrola, but oh well.




If they'd been focused on Gurdurr the entire time then I would've lost, but fodder is always good to have around to keep your main hitters out of danger.



Damn straight, old man.

Long Day



Okay, it looks like I don't have a choice. The castle is yours, Azai.

But... What will you do?

We belong to Nobunaga's army. Now that our castle's gone, we've got to go back to him. I don't much like that Nobunaga, but I can't see any other way... See you, Azai. I hope one day you become strong enough to...

Intrigue



...!

Wait... Something's changed...

You're right! Lord Azai has transformed!

I knew it! Well, that's good news. Here, let me give you a little something to celebrate.



Oho! Now that's something we can use.



Each stone will lead to a different result, but your little Pokemon might just evolve. Think about it, and use them wisely. ...You know, you really are looking pretty impressive these days. I don't think you'll be needing any more advice from me. In fact, I'd better be off. See you around!

Threat to Ransei



One kingdom down, three to go. We now have the option to evolve our Eevee, if we so wish. This is something you guys should vote on, right? Well, not quite yet, there's more than 3 Eeveelutions after all, so when we have the ability to choose all of them we'll have our vote. We'll be just fine with Eevee as we are. So what exciting things are happening this month?




Oh hey it's Yukimura. Now he's ours. We've actually got a few Warlords in our army now and it won't be stopping just yet! We've also got room in our army again since we didn't recruit anyone at Cragspur. Since we couldn't!

Cave




That was an 12% chance of missing. Man I really should resume my XCOM lp one of these days...



Riolu's Force Palm pushes you back one tile. Between missing and paralysis, I was having a great time. Anyway, Hōjō Takahiro was a vassal of Kenshin and any info I could get from googling is smothered by the retired Kamen Rider Japanese actor Takahiro Hōjō. So yeah.



Sheesh, finally. Ideura Morikiyo was a vassal of the Sanada clan and clashed with Tokugawa Hidetada at Ueda Castle to defend Hideyoshi's territories from Ieyasu.




Kanetsugu has also shown up, so all we're missing for recruitable Warlords is Kunoichi.




And there she is. Yeah this month I guess they all decided to come say hi. Very nice. Ujiie Naotomo (or Ujiie Bokuzen as his priesthood name) was a samurai and general of the Saitō clan. Together with Inaba Ittetsu and Andō Morinari, they formed the Mino Triumvirate and later served under the command of Oda Nobunaga. Bokuden died fighting against the Ikkō-ikki at the First Siege of Nagashima.



That's it for this month. So which of the three kingdoms shall we go for now?

Threat to Ransei



Fighting-type and Bug-type attacks are effective against Dark-type Pokemon... But Psychic-type attacks are completely useless. Also, I don't really recommend taking a Ghost-type Pokemon with us...

Invasion



Cheery place.



Powerful enough to stand alongside Shingen and Kenshin, so they say. It will make it all the more satisfying to destroy you.

Wha-?!

Azai... You may be the source of great chaos in Ransei... But you are just a source of entertainment for me.

VS Yaksha




I hope you're ready for some genuine hospitality... I'll show you things you can't see anywhere else...



Already I'm super uninterested in what you have to show me.




Fūma Kotarō was the name adopted by the leader of the ninja Fūma clan, a clan that specialized in horseback guerrila warfare and naval espionage. He served under Hōjō Ujimasa and Hōjō Ujinao and his biggest achievement occured when a ninja slipped into the camp of Takeda Katsuyori and caused great chaos, resulting in the disoriented enemies killing each other. The Fūma clan was reduced to a band of brigands after the Hōjō clan was forced to surrender.



Kai Shimoyama was an Iga ninja. So, uh, don't be surprised when we don't have too much info on some of these guys.



Karasawa Genba was a samurai and retainer of the Sanada Clan, often depicted as a ninja, though it's unknown if he ever was one. While once an enemy to the Sanada, he defected to their side and helped to burn down Shiritaka Castle. He also participated in the Battle of Nagashino.



Katō Danzō was a ninja that also practised sorcery, apparently being able to fly, so was given the name Tobi Katō, flying Katō. He was sought out by Kenshin and tasked with infiltrating and stealing a prized naginata from Naoe Kanetsugu. He succeeded, while also capturing a young servant girl as well. However, Kanetsugu plotted to kill him and forced him to defect to Shingen. Shingen believed him to be a double agent and executed him.



Kido Yazaemon was an Iga ninja and an expert marksman, making two attempts on Oda Nobunaga's life. Unfortunately they failed, but he killed some of his top guards in the process. It's believed he harboured a hate for Nobunaga for destroying the Nagashima fortress.



Ninokuruwa Isuke was a ninja under Fūma Kotarō in the Fūma clan. He was thin and lean, making him an agile ninja. During the Siege of Kawagoe, he was able to move around inconspicuously to inform his side of the enemy's position. However, he was recognised by an enemy ninja, Ota Inunosuke and he was pursued. Despite his agility, Inunosuke was able to nearly catch up to him. So Isuke stole a horse nearby and escaped, but when word got out, he was marked as cowardly for not truly outrunning Inunosuke. In a rematch, Inunosuke dropped dead after 40km, vindicating Isuke as the true outpacer.



Oh god what's this?



No, not the only thing I brought that could win!



Oh goody, items. My favourite.



We need to get Gurdurr back into the fight and we need to get rid of Zubat, since Wing Attack kinda stings!



Stopping Nobunaga will not change the way of the world. It's all just a waste of time...



Ah that's not good, I thought that I could barely live that. Well farewell pinch healing.



You keep going back and forth, thanks.



Let's cause some chaos! We're in a good position due to Zoroark being stuck behind Pawniard. This is exactly what you want to be doing.



Good Oshawott sniping.



Pawniard has been a good meat shield, but we need to deal with Zoroark before it becomes a real problem.



Goddammit Eevee



The roulette keeps choosing me for some reason!




Let's just do as much damage as we can.



Alright good job distracting the enemies guys. Better you than Gurdurr.




Everything's a bit up and down right now, but I think we'll be alright.



Hmm, we need another meat shield so Gurdurr doesn't get hit.



While I would've preferred you to hit, you did what I needed you to do.



Ah shit, only Gurdurr is left.



Oh that's lucky! Now Gurdurr won't take damage next turn iiiiiiiiiffffffff...



Oh thank god. Two left.



A bit of manoeuvring around to try and minimize damage and now it's just 1v1 baby.



Now is NOT the time!



Okay, that's not too bad. But we need to move out of range of Scrafty so we can get the drop on it.



Oh my GOD



This is why I needed everyone else to take damage instead of Gurdurr, just in case of something like this. Missing an attack is pretty bad in this game, there's some gripes about it I'll get into later.



Second time's the charm. Hooooooooooooo boy.



I don't believe I coasted to victory by just using Gurdurr, everyone did their part in dealing damage and, yes, being punching bags so the strong guys can deal the real damage. Even though Eevee and Jigglypuff are at the level of Zoroark, they were doing hardly any damage. Super effective damage is king in this game. A high Attack helps too. Also bringing Yoshimoto wouldn't have been too too useful, since half of the Yaksha only takes neutral damage from Bug and I would prefer using other people instead, it's not a great idea letting Pineco get too strong.

Long Day



If only for a moment, you kept me entertained. Your impending battle with Nobunaga... The thought of it excites me... more than I expected. Farewell.

...That sounds pretty ominous. I guess Nobunaga's army is full of people like him...

Threat to Ransei



Ah finally, maybe now you can keep up with everyone.



Dewott... Now I feel an even greater power when I am with you... Do you feel it too? I will grow stronger if we remain together. And you will too, Dewott.

Finally Motochika has his Perfect Link, as Dewott appears with him to emote in cutscenes. I probably could've gone over it earlier, but Warlords have two Pokemon minimum they can Perfect Link with, usually the last two Pokemon in an evolutionary line, or the whole evolution line if there's only two stages. Up until Illusio and Terrera every Warlord we met had their Perfect Link with them in some form, though for a few you needed to evolve them first. However, some of the Warlords we've met now don't come with their Perfect Link, so we need to go find them. In due time, of course. Oshawott evolves when its Attack reaches 54.



Now there's only 2 more kingdoms left, feels a lot less intimidating now.



I-It's my Pokemon... Jigglypuff has been acting kind of funny ever since we started fighting against Nobunaga's army. And just now, she gave me this...



Ooh, interesting. While I don't think too highly of most items, there are some that are really good.



Now our healer is just immune to status effects. This is very useful and this is what Oichi will hold for the rest of the game.



Next time we'll be taking on Viperia and Avia.