Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so in all these pages all spoilers are unmarked. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
The first of the three campaigns in Age of Empires III's Expansion Pack The Asian Dynasties, Japan follows the story of Sakuma Kichiro, a general fighting for Tokugawa Ieyasu, a shogun that seeks to unify Japan under his leadership.Five levels comprise this campaign: "The Siege of Osaka", "Uprising!", "Clearing the Road", "Last Stand at Fushimi" and "The Battle of Sekigahara".
This campaign shows examples ofnote :
- Anti-Grinding:
- Due to it being a Timed Mission that ends as soon as the enemies are cleared off, "Uprising!" doesn't allow much XP grinding. Because this campaign doesn't have the problem that plagued the Blood and Ice campaigns, this isn't really a bad thing.
- "Last Stand at Fushimi" is a Hold the Line mission that ends as soon as 30 villagers make it out of the map. Because you'll spend more time churning out soldiers to cover the villagers' exit and defending your buildings than trying to complete the secondary missions, you don't get to grind a lot of XP either.
- Anyone Can Die: Among the named Daimyoes, Mototada and Ishida are among the named characters that bite the dust.
- Book Ends: The campaign begins and ends with Kichiro being part of a castle siege.
- Edutainment Game: The campaign takes place during the unification of Japan at the end of the Warring States Period and ends with the battle of Sekigahara.
- Escort Mission: "Last Stand at Fujimi" requires you to guide 30 villagers to safety once it's clear that Fushimi will fall to Ishida's forces.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The campaign allows the player to advance to the Industrial Age, which gives you access to your main anti-building artillery... and allows you to upgrade your Trade Routes to railroads. In 1600.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After being The Unfought for most of the campaign, Ishida Matsunari dies at the hand of Tokugawa's forces at the end of the campaign, to the point that his death is the objective of the very last mission of the campaign.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Halfway through the game, after the events of "Clearing the Road", Kichiro is faced with a stranger who tells him that Kichiro's actual loyalty should go to his actual clan, whom Tokugawa murdered, only sparing their son in order to raise him as his own. The opening cutscene for "Last Stand at Fushimi" has Kichiro confronting Daimyo Mototada about his past, leading to Mototada telling the Awful Truth to him. However, My Master, Right or Wrong applies, so Kichiro remains loyal to Tokugawa in spite of learning this truth until the battle of Sekigahara and the unification of Japan, after which, he departs from Tokugawa's army.
- Timed Mission: "Uprising!" gives you exactly 15 minutes to destroy as many bases as you can in order to prevent Ishida's forces from becoming so strong that they'll wipe your base. Afterwards, it's only a matter of destroying said force.
