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"Unleash Your Pokémon Ambition!"
Tagline, used on the official Pokémon website.

Announced in December 2011, released on March 17th, 2012 in Japan, June 18th, 2012 in North America, June 21st, 2012 in Australia and July 27th, 2012 in Europe, franchise giant Pokémon crosses over with, of all things, Koei Tecmo's Nobunaga's Ambition, a real-time strategy series known to Japan more than America—and yet, it still got a release there.

The game is set in the fictional region of Ransei, where Warriors fight alongside Pokémon. You play as a young person who befriends an Eevee and has recently become the Warlord (leader) of a kingdom named Aurora. Legend states that they who conquers all of Ransei will unleash the Legendary Pokémon that created it. You must race to conquer all the other kingdoms before a Warlord named Nobunaga can, or else he will destroy the region. After completing the main story you further unlock bonus side-stories where the supporting Warlords each get their turn as the protagonist of their own focused tale with varying plots, such as a competition between the ninja Warlords, a beauty contest between the female Warlords, or trying to conquer enemy nations and/or recruit a large army to prove their worth to doubting enemies.

As with Nobunaga's Ambition, the game is a Strategy RPG. You command an army of Warriors and higher-ranking Warlords to move about the world map invading enemy nations and conscripting defeated Warriors and Warlords to serve you. When you're not attacking enemies you can stay at home upgrading nation facilities for better efficiency, making and spending money at shops, and of course, going into the field to draft wandering Warriors and catch new Pokémon. In Ransei, no one uses Pokéballs; instead, Warriors have the ability to form empathic links with Pokémon, convincing them to come along with you on their own will. While gameplay otherwise works out to your standard Strategy RPG, it is supplemented with the typical Pokémon concepts of evolution, type advantages, and innate Pokémon abilities.

There is a six-chapter manga adaptation named Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition: ~ Ranse's Color Picture Scroll ~ that began on March 16, 2012 and is hosted on Niconico Seiga. In 2016, the game received a Japan-only Spiritual Successor Yo-kai Three Kingdoms, featuring rival franchises Yo-kai Watch and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Has a character sheet.


This game provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 
    Tropes A-D 
  • Action Bomb: While Self-Destruct and Explosion don't appear as moves due to the "one-move-per-Pokémon" system, the game does work these in through the "Explode" ability, which causes the Pokémon to explode when defeated and is given to several evolutionary lines that are known for using the aforementioned moves.
  • Adaptational Badass: Yoshimoto goes from Samurai Warriors' Joke Character and flat-out worst character to coming with a Pineco, the best unevolved Bug-type available at that point. Sadly this pairing doesn't last long, since while Yoshimoto gets slightly better after transforming (Grace is possibly worth using if you have a teammate with Shout, whereas Deep Breath is almost never worth using), Forretress is a Stone Wall in a game that focuses heavily on the offensive roles. Ultimately, however, Yoshimoto still ends up much better than he was in Samurai Warriors, since there's no rule saying that he has to use Forretress.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Mori Motonari was given green hair, fitting to the Grass theme he was also given.
  • Anachronism Stew: Is this Feudal Japan with things from the more modern Pokémon games, or modern times with an inexplicably Feudal culture? The game seems to imply the latter, but either way, it's a baffling mix.
    • Mewtwo's a genetic experiment. What's he doing in feudal Japan?
    • The clothing style of some of the Warriors and Warlords. Sun visors probably weren't a standard in Japanese fashion back then. Ditto Masanori with his Kamina Shades, and Gracia's top hat.
    • Violight and Valora. The former is essentially a feudal Japanese power plant, and the latter is a feudal Japanese factory with security cameras and automated cranes.
    • If you command a Warlord to move to a non-adjacent nation, they travel by blimp.
    • There are also several obvious computer monitors in the Bank, seen in the background when interacting with its shopkeeper.
    • When Keiji's Warrior Skill is activated his dialogue comes up 'Set your faces to stunned!' Pretty funny, but then you realise that this samurai warrior from Sengoku Period pre-unification Japan has just made a Star Trek reference.
  • Animal Motif: Several Warlords transform into wearing armor that resembles their Perfect Link (The only Pokémon they can reach 100% synchronization with), for example Kotaro's Zoroark claws and boa or Masamune's Braviary helmet.
  • Another Side, Another Story: Finishing the main storyline unlocks episodes from other warlords' points of view... all 37 of them.
  • Anti-Frustration Feature:
    • The game will never let a Pokémon flinch twice in a row, for any reason. As flinch effectively forces you to skip your turn completely, it's a welcome relief when it happens to you, and avoids breaking the fight's difficulty in half since you can't spam it on opponents.
    • Minor, but still present. Moves that require a recharge turn or have negative user effects, such as Rock Wrecker or Leaf Storm, will only apply said condition if you hit the opponent—particularly on the former, if you miss you're allowed to use it again on the next turn as if nothing happened. This mechanic carries over from the main series.
    • In the post-game episodes, the enemy AI will frequently attack other castles. However, as a rule this only starts after six months/turns, allowing some leeway for the player to build up a decent force, and potentially even convince powerful neighbors to join you.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Although just about every Warrior can form Links with multiple Pokémon, they each can only take one into battle at a time. Also, each kingdom only allows up to six Warriors/Warlords to reside within them—or attack other kingdoms—at once, though this is in completely line with Pokémon's setup.
  • Arbitrary Weapon Range: Moves do not have a minimum range per se but merely differing areas of effect. Nonetheless, moves which can only hit two or three tiles away do mean the user cannot defend against an enemy engaging them at point blank, and must take a step back first.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The AI can make some smart tactical moves, including going after weaker Pokémon first, exploiting super-effective elements, hitting multiple targets simultaneously (and/or avoiding friendly-fire), and good use of Warlord Powers. It also knows to utilize/avoid certain arena elements like warp portals, the wandering ghost flames in Spectra or the elemental nodes in Dragnor. But on the other hand....
  • Artificial Stupidity: Most of the time the AI is strategically incompetent. It doesn't seem able to plan out an overall battle strategy or combat formation (e.g. setting up defensive choke points to limit who can attack whom) or reposition its Mons if they become trapped in a cluster. In other words, it fails to keep its army acting as an organized, cohesive unit. Some specific examples:
    • You can issue commands to your team's Pokémon in any order you like, but the game will naturally cycle through them based on proximity, starting with the leading member of the current battle party. The AI will choose it first action, but otherwise follows this order, resulting in them skipping a Pokémon's turn if it can't move or attack. Even if it could move an ally out of the way to allow this, it will not do so because it's out of the automated turn order.
    • The AI never utilizes certain arena features, like the boulders in Cragspur. While in Valora, it seems stymied by the rotating gate switches (often doubling back down the narrow passageways to find an alternate route) and frequently falls victim to its roaming security cameras. The AI also has difficulty navigating across the Frictionless Ice in Nixtorm.
    • In banner battles, the AI prioritizes claiming/holding a banner over attacking your Pokémon—it will refuse to move away from a banner it has claimed, even if doing so can allow it to KO a nearby opponent with a super-effective move. Even if it's the only Pokémon remaining on the field, it will usually stay underneath the banner rather than try to move about and claim the rest (not that a lone Pokémon has much chance of that anyway, but still). Pugilis is easy to win for these reasons alone, as its banners are located on the corners of a small arena ring (where any attack knocks a Pokémon out of the ring, forcing them to spend several turns looping back to the ring's chokepoint entrances). To make matters worse, the AI won't split up to try to claim multiple banners, instead focusing all its troops on one banner at a time.
    • In spite of the above, if the AI's Pokémon can launch an attack from where it moves to, it will attack, unless its attack is nullified by the target's type. Even if they're standing on the banner and their attack causes their Pokémon to move. Even if the banner they're standing on hasn't been claimed yet, thus resulting in it going unclaimed because they haven't been on it at the end of their turn yet.
    • The wind that knocks Pokémon off of Terrera's high banner towers blows at intervals the AI seems completely unaware of. As a result, it often sends its Pokémon up the tower elevators only to see them blown off before they can actually claim the banner on top.
    • When the AI does launch an attack, it does so based on having an overall "strength" number greater than the defending nation's, rather than such factors as mobility or typing. This can lead to situations where a Kingdom defended by Steel types will be attack by a force of almost nothing but Poison Types (which cannot damage them), or a force of six mid-level mons attack your kingdom with two or three high-level defenders because their total strength is higher. They will also never bring a huge army to just swamp your Pokémon out of your kingdom, mostly because that isn't fun.
    • While the AI will recruit, power up, and potentially even evolve their Pokémon, they will always use their "strongest" Pokémon, which is usually just their Starter Mon which, ends up being the one that hogs all the link experience, creating an Unstable Equilibrium.
    • While the AI does acknowledge type advantages and immunities when attacking, it doesn't account for abilities that provide type immunities, resulting in the AI having a Pokémon with a Ground attack trying to hit a Pokémon with Levitate, using Fire attacks on something with Flash Fire, etc.
    • The AI doesn't seem aware that certain stage objects like rocks and bushes can be destroyed by attacking them. This results in them spending turns upon turns stuck behind them when they could just attack and remove them.
    • On banner maps, the AI will beeline towards the banner. If your Pokémon is blocking that, they will attack. If your Pokémon that is immune to their attack damage is blocking that and they can't just sidestep you, they will stand there not attacking or accomplishing anything for as long as you maintain it. Pugilis, with its natural chokepoints, is particularly susceptible to this.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Much like the main series, many powerful moves have lower accuracy or negative side effects when compared to weaker moves. For example, Rhyperior's "Rock Wrecker" can one-shot just about anything, but cannot be used two consecutive turns in a row if it hits.
    • Reaching a 100% link with a Pokémon (which is only possible with each Warrior's Perfect Link Pokémon) removes any negative effects of their Pokémon's move, but actually getting to 100% link requires an awful lot of level grinding, and unless you intentionally drag a campaign out for years, the enemy will never get strong enough to make your perfect Pokémon actually required to match them.
    • Many Warriors are more effective with certain Pokémon that are not their Perfect Link Pokémon (again, in most cases you'll never actually need the Pokémon to get that strong a Link). Take Yoshimoto—a Stone Wall with his Perfect Link (Forretress), but an effective front-liner if you give him a Scizor.
    • Trying to get any use out of Musharna ultimately ends up being this, since you also must bring Munna in order to reliably inflict sleep. In the end, you'll have used up two team slots just to disable and inflict mediocre damage against a single enemy.
  • Bag of Spilling: Your link level and finances are reset to a default level (usually around 10-20% and 1800 gold) in every post-game episode; likewise with any upgraded locations in your kingdoms. You do at least get to keep your actual Pokémon (including evolved Pokémon), provided that they've been saved to the gallery.
    • You actually lose any item that is not sold by the traveling merchant upon completing a campaign.
    • Note that in multiplayer mode, your Warlords are all at the highest Link you have raised them to for the purposes of multiplayer mode. This is a Pokémon game, after all.
  • Battle Couple: Note that none of the below couples are noted in-game (in the English version, at least), but rather can be logically assumed through historical fact.
    • Among the Warlords accompanying Nobunaga in the final battle is his wife No.
    • Ginchiyo and Muneshige Tachibana defend Violight much earlier.
    • Nene and Hideyoshi in Viperia too.
    • The male protagonist and Oichi, if you subscribe to the theory that he's Azai Nagamasa.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Despite being together, Ginchiyo and Muneshige have shown signs of this, especially during Ginchiyo's story.
    • To get either of them to promote to their higher rank, you need to have both of them in your army, but they can't even be in adjoining nations, much less the same nation. Make of this what you will.
  • Big Fun: Takeda Shingen and his Pokémon of choice, Rhyperior and later, Groudon.
  • Blessed with Suck:
    • Ranged attacks can hit multiple enemies at once and from far away, but inevitably the problem is going to come up that you can't attack because you'll hit someone you don't want to hit, like an enemy Warlord's Pokémon you want to knock out with your own Warlord's Pokémon to recruit them, or even one of your own team. There's also two types of moves, some hit all squares in front, some hit one square one or two tiles away. In the case of the latter, this can result in situations where the opponent is too close to be hit and the terrain won't allow you to move in such a way to get them in range, and also allows the possibility of being surrounded and dying by Death of a Thousand Cuts as they're unable to fight back against weaker enemies solely due to their range being too high.
  • Blown Across the Room: There are moves that knock a Pokémon back one square when hit with them. There's an ability, Thrust, which causes all moves to knock the target back a square. If you get both on the same Pokémon, this trope is often the result.
  • Boring, but Practical: Overlapping with one of the game's Disc-One Nuke options as described below, the unevolved Dragon-types all have Dragon Rage, which always does 40 damage, but is relatively inaccurate (missing about 30% of the time). Enter the many Warriors with Marksman or Eagle Eye as their ability, giving them 1-3 turns of boosted accuracy. Get such a Warrior a Dragon-type, and in any story where you're fortunate enough to be able to recruit them early on, they can obliterate a lot of the competition by just firing off their ability and attacking with 100%-accurate Dragon Rages.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: The hero's final form, Black Rayquaza, and Arceus can only be acquired in the 'Two Heroes of Ransei' episode, which is only playable once every other senior warlord story is completed note . Even if you get them by only completing all senior warlord stories (plus the handful of junior warlord stories that unlock them), you might barely get any use out of them in the remaining stories, and you certainly wouldn't have needed them to beat them anyway.
  • Brutal Bonus Level:
    • Some of the special episodes are significantly harder than the main game, and their official difficulty level doesn't always sync up. For example, the fact that Mitsunari starts out with a powerful Scizor makes his episode fairly easy ... but it also means Kiyomasa and Masanori's episodes (where Mitsunari is an opponent) are that much more difficult. The fact that their episodes utilize a 4-territory map (meaning that to conquer a new territory usually means splitting your forces 50-50, with little or no ability to recruit new Warriors until the next turn) where every nation can attack every other one does not help, either.
    • In the final episode, all enemy ruling Warlords appear at Rank II, with their Perfect Link Pokémon at a much higher level than the rest of their armies, and all lands are fully developed at the outset, giving them immediate access to wide resources. Because it's unlocked by clearing all the senior Warlords' stories, you're expected to have at least your starting army (your player character, Oichi, and Nobunaga) with ideal Pokémon and fully-transformed for yourself, thus providing a challenge worth the improved prowess.
  • But Thou Must!: The initial story has a few cases of these, though none of the post-game stories have them.
    • In a case of "But Thou Mustn't", it is impossible to recruit any of the Warriors during the initial attack on Ignis, nor Motonari and Motochika when you attack Greenleaf and Fontaine. In the former case, this is because you don't get the recruitment tutorial until the next month; in the latter, an unlockable event allows the two Warlords to join you automatically.
    • If you have a castle taken from you by the enemy army, you must reclaim that castle before you can launch another attack.
    • When you choose between attacking Illusio or Terrera, you are turned away at the gates and then attacked by the army you attempted to attack. At this point, the other army cannot be fought, because the Warlord of that army joins you automatically (have fun with getting the junior Warlords, though).
  • Can't Drop the Hero: Your player character and Oichi are required for all battles to claim kingdoms in the initial story, "The Legend of Ransei". Averted for post-game episodes, in which you attack as many kingdoms solo as you have Warriors if you think you can pull it off.
  • Cap: Damage caps at 999, though you'll usually only see numbers this high when hitting a double weakness on a dual-typed Pokémon (or with a grotesque amount of over-levelling).
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Yoshimoto. For one, he doesn't realize losing a battle means losing his castle until one of his retainers informs him. He also seems to think he's playing a ball game called "Pokémari" rather than actually battling. He's also quite the Manchild.
  • Color-Coded Armies:
    • Allied units have blue HP bars while enemy units have red.
    • Each Warlord has their own color on the map screen.
  • Color-Coded Elements: Each "element" is assigned a different color, and you can which Pokémon has which element(s) from a glance at their small status window. It also comes in handy identifying the element of the nodes in Dragnor.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Non-Fire-type Pokémon (particularly the Ice and Grass ones), and humans for that matter, seem perfectly fine with battling in the middle of a volcano. Lava itself is impassable on foot except by Fire-types (and Groudon), though Flying-type Pokémon have no problem hovering over it without getting burned up.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
    • Once you control a majority of territories on the map (e.g. nine of 17, five of eight, four of seven, etc.) the opposing warlords will jump the levels of its mons to match yours. Except it doesn't work correctly: the level jump is decided by your strongest nation (regardless of how many people are in there) and how many nations you have adjacent to their territories and how strong their allies get. Which means if say you have someone surrounded on all sides with 6 Warriors in your strongest nation with a strength of 1500 and they have 4 people their levels will jump up to match yours but because it's split between 4 instead of 6, they're a hell of a lot harder to beat. On the other hand, this can fail spectacularly if it messes up and instead they'll be at half your strength instead.
    • Enemies will normally not attack Mons they can't damage, i.e. Ground against Flying types or levitating mons. Yet they can tell a Zorua/Zoroark disguised by its Illusion ability and will attack it accordingly. This makes Illusion worse than useless, since it might confuse the player, especially if it's disguised as a Lilligant or Haxorus, who both have the same attack pattern as Zoroark. For a lesser example, warp tiles take effect after a Pokémon has moved to a square and their turn has ended, right? Not if a Pokémon is confused—a confused Pokémon can move onto one, warp around, then immediately attack on the same turn.
  • Costume Porn: The art team clearly had a lot of fun designing the outfits for the various characters—especially their upgraded forms, which run the gauntlet of every cool outfit trope you can think of, including Spikes of Villainy for Nobunaga, Badass Cape for the Hero, Pimped-Out Dress for Oichi, and more. At least one character in the game is bound to have you in awe at how badass their armor is.
  • Critical Status Buff:
    • Several abilities (Blaze, Overgrow, etc.) from the main series up attack power when the user is low on HP, but there are new abilities that do the same here, such as "Spirit" which restores HP and increases Attack when the user's HP runs low (but only once), and "Last Bastion" which increases Attack and Defense if the user is the last Mon standing.
    • The Guardian Charm item increases your stats by 250% and increase your move range by 1, provided the pokémon equipping the item is the last survivor of your army. Of course, this doesn't stop you from bringing only one pokémon to the battle and having that massive boost from the start.
  • Crossover: Between Pokémon and Nobunaga's Ambition. Additionally, the character designs are lifted from Samurai Warriors.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: This is the first DS Pokémon game (and one of very few DS games altogether) wherein the X button is not used to open the menu; it is instead used to advance to the next month (overworld turn). A player used to hitting X-Upx-A to save their game can very easily end up advancing a wasted month if they're not careful, especially if your text speed is set to anything less than fast.
  • Darker and Edgier: To the Pokémon side of the crossover, as the monsters which are usually used in friendly competitions become weapons of war in this game. The humans themselves don't actually fight each other personally, though; Pokémon battles decide everything as per Pokémon tradition.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Most of the Warlords get special episodes focusing on them after the main story is completed.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: To recruit new Warlords, you first have to defeat them in battle either within four turns, taking no damage before you beat them, or using a super-effective attack to 'earn their respect'. This even works on the Warlords' generic minions, but the Warlords themselves have one additional, hidden requirement: the final blow must be dealt by another Warlord. And even then, some leaders won't join unless the story specifies it.
  • Designated Girl Fight: The majority of the female Warriors' special episodes center around a contest to determine "Ransei's Greatest Beauty", where the only available Warriors (generic Warriors included) are females. And Ranmaru.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Every battle is a Timed Mission (10 turns for generic field battles, 15-25 turns for castle battles), and if the clock expires the "defender" wins by default. This may feel like The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard during the main story... until you have to defend a nation, where the time limit is imposed on your attackers. Even if you can't actually KO your opponents, you may be able to Hold the Line until the clock runs out and win by default (however, note that just as you always moved first when attacking a castle, when defending a castle, your opponents move first). And they knew people would screw up mid-battle and want to retry halfway through, so you can go straight to the title screen from the battle pause menu!
    • Yoshimoto's Pineco is a rather useful Pokémon to have on hand, since its Bug Bite can eat potions the enemy is holding, and can deal good damage against Dark and Psychic types. Once it evolves into Forretress, however, he becomes more of a Joke Character, since Forretress's Gyro Ball, which does damage based on speed, will almost always deal 1 point of damage. However, to make up for this, the needed link level to get Yoshimoto to Rank 2 is 55%note , meaning that once you get him to Rank 2, you can swap out his Forretress for a better Pokémon like Scizor if you don't want to use him as a Stone Wall.
    • When you enter the Infinite Tower near the end of The Legend of Ransei, the battle save feature is disabled to prevent you from getting locked into an Unintentionally Unwinnable situation during the encounter against Arceus and the final battle against Nobunaga's army. Also, if you try attacking Arceus instead of linking with it, its Omnipotent ability is rigged to always activate, causing your attacks to miss even if you have a Pokémon with the ability Mold Breaker.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • All unevolved Dragon-type Pokémon (Dratini, Gible, Axew, Deino) have "Dragon Rage", which like the main series always inflicts exactly 40 damage regardless of target, making it a One-Hit Kill for low level Pokémon. And with the high number of post-game chapters—many of which are only disc one in length—you will have a lot of chances to use it.
    • Nagayasu and his Bidoof. It has Simple, but his Warrior Ability boosts attack power. Combined, that Bidoof can hit for 60 HP easily for three turns.
    • Although your Link level with your Pokémon is reset when starting any of the postgame side stories, Pokémon/Warrior evolution is not, meaning that you typically start side stories with fully-evolved Pokémon at your disposal while your opponents must start from scratch. This is maintained with every Warrior you recruit in the side stories: They may be using one Pokémon on the field, but once you recruit them, all their old Pokémon are intact.
    • Beedrill comes pre-evolved on several wandering Warriors.note  It has Twinneedle, which hits two squares in front of it, does decent damage, might inflict poison, and they often have the Vanguard ability for a power boost if they move first on your turn. Once your other Pokémon start evolving, just like in the main series, Beedrill will quickly be outclassed and left at home, except in some instances where you're starved for options that don't use a Poison-type move.
    • Mitsuhide starts every story with his perfect link, Lapras: a very powerful non-evolving Ice/Water type Pokémon with its move being a 100% accurate Ice Beam that can hit 3 tiles at once. He also starts right next to Dragnor, which is very easy to conquer with Ice types, and provides a source of even more Disc-One Nukes.
  • The Dragon: Mitsuhide to Nobunaga, though he later becomes The Starscream.
  • Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Generation V makes this mandatory. Nobunaga introduces himself with Zekrom hanging off the top of your screen, and when you get to Dragnor he's ready to Bolt Strike your ass back to the Sengoku period. Though not as prominent, his ally Hideyoshi can pick up Reshiram—which initially needed the Wi-Fi event, but can now be unlocked by the right code and/or randomly found in Ignis during Hideyoshi's episode. Oh, and before you start protesting that those dragons aren't Eastern enough for you: "Come forth! Rayquaza, black as night!"
  • Dub Name Change: Aside from the Pokémon due to Grandfather Clause, the names of the kingdoms, and the title itself, this is the first localized Pokémon game to largely avert this, thanks to the basis on actual historical figures.

    Tropes E-L 
  • Elaborate Equals Effective: The Warlords get more-impressive outfits as they improve their link with their Pokémon.
  • Elegant Gothic Lolita: Gracia. It even shows in her choice of Pokémon!
  • Elemental Nation: Each nation represents one of the 17 types from the main series, excluding the yet-to-be-introduced Fairy.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: All 17 types from the main series (prior to the introduction of Fairy-types in Pokémon X and Y) and the interactions between them are faithfully reproduced here, including immunities (e.g. Electric vs. Ground) and double weaknesses/resistances (e.g. Grass vs. Water/Ground).
  • 11th-Hour Superpower:
    • You get to use Arceus for the final battle against Nobunaga.
    • The hero's ultimate form isn't available until all of the senior warlord episodes are complete, thus unlocking his/her own special episode; then while playing said episode, you have to get your link with the Eeveelution of your choice up to 80% to unlock it (and by doing so, unlock Arceus in Aurora for them to link with), making this more of a five minutes to midnight super power.
    • Choosing to evolve your Eevee into Glaceon. To do so, you need to use it in Nixtorm... one of the last three nations before the final battle. As a tradeoff, you'll be super-effective against all of Nobunaga's Dragon-type Pokémon. Unfortunately for you, that isn't the final battle, and you'll soon be staring down a powerful Dragon/Flying-type that you won't be allowed to use Glaceon against. Though that last point is neutered by the fact that you get to use Arceus for that fight instead.
  • Elite Four: During post-main game stories, once you have more than four Warlords aside from your leader in your army, there will be a cutscene where you appoint four of them as the Guardians of your army, assigning each of them a title from Power, Wisdom, Charisma, and Intelligence. As a bonus for this, the four will never abandon your army no matter what. This mechanic references the real Four Heavenly Kings of the Tokugawa clan, all of whom are in this game, but ironically they will never be appointed as such since only Tadakatsu ended up being a Warlord.
  • Empathy Pet: A Warlord's Perfect Link Pokémon will appear alongside them in cutscenes if it is their current active Pokémon, and will mimic their expressions.
  • Everything's Better with Samurai: The game seems to imply that Ransei happens to be a modern-day region that inexplicably has a Feudal Japan lifestyle, whose trainers theme themselves after samurai; if so, this trope is in full effect.
  • Excuse Plot: A rare in-universe example! There's an old legend in Ransei that a Legendary Pokémon will appear to whoever owns all 17 castles. Thus, all the nations have an excuse to invade each other...
  • Expressive Hair: Kai's hair almost literally explodes when she gets angry.
  • Extended Gameplay: Zigzagged. You're typically locked out of playing your hero again after finishing the main game because the episodes star other Warlords. Kanbei, Ieyasu, Keiji, Ujiyasu, and Yoshimoto all get episodes that take place after the main game; this allows you to recruit the player character and rain Judgment down on the difficulty curve.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Bug Bite will eat ANY consumable item in this game, not just Berries. This includes Potions, status healers and some headbands.
  • Fake Longevity: Once you complete the main quest, you unlock more, and there's 37 stories in total to play. However, fourteen of those have the objective to conquer Ransei, and another eleven require you to conquer seven or eight kingdoms. This results in you playing essentially the same story with the same objectives over and over, the only differences being your starting kingdom and Warriors.
  • Free-Range Children: Mitsunari, Kiyomasa and Masanori basically go where they like and do what they want. As a result, they're tell you where to go and snark at you for it for the first half of the game or so.
  • Frictionless Ice: Present in the Nixtorm castle battlefield, as well as any Level 3 Icy Mountain field. Any non-Ice Pokémon who steps onto it will slide clear across to the other side. note 
  • Friendly Enemy:
    • Shingen and Kenshin, just like in history. Especially noticeable in their postgame episodes.
    • It is implied all of Ransei has become this in the post-main quest episodes, if one assumes all the episodes occur in story canon. With the legend of the Legendary Pokémon disproven, it seems the Warlords of Ransei are happy to spend the rest of their days battling each other and conquering enemy nations for sport, with territories given back freely afterwards and being loaned out to other Warlords for various tournaments and contests being held.
  • Friendly Fireproof: Pokémon with the "Perception" ability are immune to damage from allies' attacks. Otherwise averted; you need to be careful how you position your Pokémon before using an attack that strikes multiple squares if you don't want to hit them. (On the flipside, this enables certain combos, like using an Electric-type move on a Pokémon with "Volt Absorb" to heal it.)
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: Recruiting a Warrior is normally just a matter of defeating them under one of three conditions, so long as they're in the last kingdom under that army's control, with Warlords having the added caveat of needing you to finish them with one of your Warlords. However, during the initial Legend of Ransei story, there are a few exceptions to the rule due to exact allegiances.
    • The first time you attack Ignis, Hideyoshi cannot be recruitednote . Hideyoshi himself is in Nobunaga's inner circle, and appears twice more during the story.
    • When you attack Illusio or Terrera, the ruling Warlord will join you regardless of how (or even if) you defeat them. This is because Shingen and Kenshin both join you for the coming war against Nobunaga.
    • Nobunaga and Ranmaru cannot be recruited when you finally take Dragnor as the last castle of Nobunaga's army. It's not just that it would be out of character for them to do so: this is because their loss in Dragnor is a feint; once you climb the Infinite Tower and link with Arceus, Nobunaga and his inner circle are waiting to strike down the Alpha Pokémon.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In Ransei, you never capture a Pokémon using Poké Balls or equivalent items, you form an empathic bond with them and convince them to come along with you willingly. This gets odd when the time comes to actually link with something; you play a mini-game that involves filling a link meter to 100%, at which point the Pokémon is yours. This link meter resets if you attack the Pokémon, but not if you fail linking to it, you can finish filling the meter next turn. Or, you can have a second Warrior finish the link a first Warrior started. The idea of linking to Pokémon emotionally is thus reduced to having an ally fill the link meter almost all the way full, then let them fail so the ally you want to actually have the Pokémon can finish the job.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: Any enemy Pokémon with a move that hits from exactly 2 or 3 squares away will always run away from a Pokémon whose move strikes adjacent tiles only in order to get them in its attack range—for example, Chimchar, Charmander, and Tepig can only strike from exactly 2 squares with "Ember", while Ralts and Gothita can only strike from exactly 3 squares with "Confusion". The early castle battle for Ignis, where you face Hideyoshi's Chimchar (and a Tepig) on a lava-filled arena, is your first experience of this: Hideyoshi is perfectly comfortable standing back in the lava and peppering you from a distance if you can't find some way to corner him on solid ground.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: And Hire 'em all. And match 'em all with a specific Pokémon for the highest level possible. And use 'em all in combat (they're not added to the gallery otherwise).
  • Graceful Loser: Just about everyone. Notably, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin will throw a party for you after defeating one or the other.
  • Gratuitous English: One of the generic classes speaks this way (with katakana) in the Japanese version.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • To recruit a Warrior, you either need to beat them within the first four turns of battle, defeat them with a super-effective attack, or defeat them without taking damage from them. You'll probably figure this out fairly easily, fortunately. To recruit enemy Warlords, you have to fulfill one of the mentioned conditions with a Warlord of your own, and the game never tells you this.
    • A gold Link icon above a wild Pokémon doesn't guarantee that this one is Perfect Link for a Warlord (special Warrior) since they generally have a gold rating with almost any Pokémon matching their specialty. (Though a Pokémon with 90% max link is probably worth using regardless.) On the other hand, generic Warriors can only reach 70% at most with families other than their Perfect Link, so if a Pokémon has a gold Link icon, it's guaranteed to be the one.
    • Male warriors who have a Perfect Link with Ralts might be forced to make a 50/50 guess on whether to evolve it into Gardevoir or Gallade to maintain the Perfect Link, and there's no way to know without searching it up. Somewhat averted for Snorunt users, since there is only one female Warrior who has a Perfect Link with Snorunt, making it rather obvious who the Froslass user will be.
    • While some Warlords transform to their upgraded ranks simply by level-grinding their Perfect Link partner, other Warriors have additional conditions that must be met, and the game gives no hints about how. For example, Magoichi also needs 3 female Warlords in the same kingdom as himself and Masamune somewhere else in order to transform.
    • In addition to requiring level 3 facilities, Lapras can only be encountered in Motochika, Mitsuhide, Shingen, and Kenshin's episodes, in which you're not likely to spend money upgrading Nixtorm in the first place.
    • While the boxart and/or title screen will tell you that there are Legendary Pokémon in the game, actually finding them requires the fulfillment of several specific conditions that Conquest will provide absolutely zero clues about:
      • Groudon, Mewtwo, and Articuno all require that you clear Shingen, Kenshin, and Mitsuhide’s stories respectively right off the bat. Mitsuhide’s campaign in particular can be pretty damn annoying to beat when you realize that you have to single-handedly beat back and conquer Nobunaga’s empire under the (albeit very generous) time limit of three in-game years. Once that’s out of the way, you have to upgrade certain facilities in Terrera, Illusio, and Nixtorm to Level 3 before the Legendary Pokémon’s dens show up.
      • Getting Terrakion requires that Keiji attains a 70% Link with his Perfect Link, Bastiodon (read: a power level that’s impossible to reach without excessive amounts of grinding), itself a Pokémon whose pre-evolution is difficult to find.
      • Dialga, Registeel, and Zekrom are the worst offenders, as they need specific Crystals: the Warrior Crystal for Tadakatsu, the Unifier Crystal for Ieyasu, and the Conqueror Crystal for Nobunaga. To get them, each of their owners must first achieve their Rank II transformation, which entails attaining Link percentages of 70–80% with their Perfect Links (Metagross, Aggron, and Hydreigon), whose obtainment range from a little frustrating to outright luck-based. After that, you need to control 12 kingdoms with Nobunaga, Mitsuhide, and Ranmaru in the same place for the Conqueror Crystal, have at least 50 Warriors plus Rank II Ina (65% Link with Prinplup) for the Warrior Crystal, and the Unifier Crystal needs Tadakatsu and Ieyasu to be in Valora, at least 15 Warriors to be in your army, and at least half of them has to have found their Perfect Link, in Ieyasu’s story only. Once you clear the absurd amount of hoops that the game expects you to jump through and equip the Crystals to their owners, the Legendary Pokémon will appear the following month.
      • Rayquaza, the Final Boss of the main story and Nobunaga’s Infinity +1 Sword, requires you to have Linked with all other Legendary Pokémon and conquer Dragnor in Two Heroes Of Ransei, which needs you to clear every other senior Warlords’ stories to unlock. Altogether, this is hours upon hours of gameplay that you wouldn’t even guess upon unless you searched up an online guide, and by the time you get Rayquaza, it’ll very likely be just one final box to check for completionists.
    • While most Pokémon evolve in methods similar to the main series (e.g. level-grinding or evolutionary stones), the exact details are different and may require the Mon to have specific stats in order for evolution to take place.
    • Want to get Kotaro's special link with Zorua? Good luck trying to even find Zorua in the first place. The only hint you get is that Zorua will show up if Kotaro is in your army...
    • Special passwords that cause a swarm of rare Pokémon to appear can only be used once per game. You cannot reuse a password to cause another swarm without the use of cheating devices.
    • Though they'll only catch you the first time, you cannot check what the arena features do in each arena, so try a practice run first to find out because your opponents do know, and they will exploit them.
    • Figuring out some 100% links. Your only real hint is preferred type. What this means is ANY Pokémon with that type. If the Warrior prefers Normal-types, this could mean ANY Normal-type Pokémon (which means non-elemental birds are all included). If someone prefers two types, it means any Pokémon with EITHER of them (Normal and Flying preferred means ANY Pokémon with the Normal-type OR Flying-type). Even worse with Pokémon who don't appear in all the places with their traits, which means having them find it on their own can be a pain. (For example, preferred type Flying? Send him looking for it in Avia. If it's Emolga, an Electric/Flying-type who only appears in Violight, he'll never find it.)
    • Deleting the save file. Unlike most handheld spinoffsnote , Conquest uses a button code much like the main series. Even if you managed to come to that realization on your own upon seeing the menu lacking in "New Game" and/or "Delete Save" options, you'll likely come to the conclusion that, whatever the code is, it has to be input at the start screen like the main series. Have fun trying every possible button combination, because that assumption is incorrect; you actually have to hold down A+B+X+Y at the company logo screen, which is only onscreen for a brief amount of time, giving you a rather small window for you to try combinations before you have to reset your DS again (Conquest has no soft reset code).
  • Handsome Lech: Magoichi. Hits on Oichi in the pre-battle dialogue, and needs to have 3 female Warlords in his nation in order to evolve.
  • Heroic Mime: A subversion; while the main character does not speak during cutscenes except for surprised expressions and reactions, outside of cutscenes and during battle, s/he has contextual stock phrases just the same as any other Warrior.
  • Historical Badass Upgrade:
    • Most of the female Warlords, at the very least. Kunoichi and Kai are at least based on actual female warriors, albeit ones whose more notable feats are possibly legend and not historical fact.
    • Inverted with Yoshimoto, who goes from the serious Daimyo as depicted here to a painted faced loony. Then he gets on the field...
  • Historical Beauty Update: A given, considering the art style.
  • Historical In-Joke:
    • During Mitsuhide's chapter, when attacking a nation defended by Nobunaga he'll say, "The enemy is inside [Name of Castle]!" like he did in real life.
    • Each character has a specific quote for when they're defeated by something other than the enemy; Nobunaga's is, "How fitting." One possible trigger is any of the various environmental hazards on the battlefield, most of which are luck-based; Nobunaga's real-world conquest found many of his most powerful rivals destroyed by sheer luck. Another trigger is friendly fire, in allusion to his betrayal at Honnouji.
    • When fighting Mitsuhide, Hideyoshi will say, "We can't lose to Mitsuhide!" and his Pokémon will get a huge buff for the battle. A reference to how Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide in real life.
    • Hideyoshi's Link with the Infernape line comes from how he was nicknamed "monkey" after scaling a seemingly impossible cliff.
  • Hot-Blooded: Motochika, oddly for a water user. It makes him a Foil to the calm, cool-headed grass user Motonari.
  • An Ice Person: Mitsuhide seems to be able to generate ice on his own accord. It even freaks out his Lapras.
  • I Let You Win: Pulled by Nobunaga. He claims that he allowed you to unify the 17 nations and make Arceus appear, so that he can capture it himself. This is somewhat evident in gameplay, since the initial battle with the character is fairly easy, and the character's remarkably level-headed about losing to you.
  • I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Recruitment works by proving your fighting prowess to your opponents, inspiring them to join your side in hopes of becoming stronger themselves.
  • Improbable Age:
    • Motonari certainly seems to think so about the protagonist, to the point where he worries he's the old guard on his way out, much to the dismay of his retainers.
    • Prepubescent-looking Hanbei is stated to be older than the middle-aged looking Kanbei.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Hanbei starts coughing up a storm at the end of his episode. When Hideyoshi asks if he's sick, Hanbei's response was that he got too excited. Kanbei doesn't buy it one bit, causing Hanbei to tell him not to say anything.
  • Instant-Win Condition: Banner battles are won by capturing all the flag banners on the field, regardless of whether you can defeat the opposing Mons or not (except Pugilis, where you have to also hold them for five turns). Be careful though—if the enemy does this first, they win, too!
  • Interface Spoiler:
    • The map of Ransei is a dead giveaway of the identity of the Legendary Pokémon which the game frequently alludes to.
    • Abilities activating. Grass Guard doesn't activate on grass? The attack misses. Stealth—activates only when it makes attack miss. Sturdy activating on an attack that shouldn't OHKO it? You likely got a crit.
    • Most Warlords have an unevolved Pokémon as their only Perfect Link at Rank I. If you evolve it before they transform, they will only achieve a 90% Link (although they can still transform via required Link percentage with that Pokémon). You have to get them to transform and achieve Rank II in order to get the Perfect Link with the evolution. However, if a Warlord's Perfect Link at Rank I is with a fully-evolved Pokémon, that means the Perfect Link added at Rank II is with a freakin' legendary Pokémon.
  • Joke Character: The generic Warrior Ujizane (who historically is the son of Yoshimoto, himself a Joke Character). He has 6 Power, 8 Wisdom, 62 Charisma, he can only have one Pokémon, he starts with a thoroughly pathetic Igglybuff, his perfect link is Forretress, and his ability, which increases the chances of inflicting status ailments, doesn't work on Forretress since it attacks with Gyro Ball. His Bug specialty lets him replace Forretress with another Bug-type with status attacks (notably Galvantula or Beedrill) and put his ability to good use, but that doesn't make him any less of a joke character.
  • Justified Tutorial: The nations surrounding the starting one specialize in Fire, Water and Grass types, so fighting them serves as an indirect tutorial on type matchups. Mitsunari, Masanori, and Kiyomasa even recommend which one you should challenge next. Also, each of those introduces another gameplay mechanic; Ignis shows you about terrain, Greenleaf gives you banner battles, and Motochika's taunt at the start is accompanied by the notice about running out the clock automatically giving the defender victory.
  • Kill Streak: The Moxie ability returns from the main series games, though the Attack boost only lasts one turn so it's not stackable. However, Conquest introduces its own version with Conqueror, which gives the user a boost to all stats that lasts until the end of the battle each time it knocks out an opponent.
  • Lazy Artist:
    • The game's advertised 200 Warriors are comprised primarily of a little over three dozen different generic character designs re-used several times each with different names, type preferences, and abilities. Altogether, there's only around 70 unique designs for the Warlords, or about 107 if you're feeling generous enough to include the evolved designs.
    • It's averted to varying degrees with the Pokémon, however. All 211 (more than advertised, curiously) Pokémon have at least one unique portrait, and those associated with special Warlords tend to have more.
  • Lethal Joke Character:
    • Gracia has poor Power, subpar Wisdom, and decent Charisma, and comes with a Munna, which can't do any damage and whose evolved form can only attack sleeping opponents, but her Perfect link is actually with Gothitelle, a powerful Psychic type. Of course, you still have to actually train up a Gothita into its third form. Even better, her Rank 2 skill gives the chance that any attack used by any teammate will likely confuse the enemy Pokémon it hits.
    • Yoshimoto has unspectacular stats for a Warlord, mostly useless abilities, a bad Perfect Link line (Pineco and Forretress, the latter of which will only do one point of damage to most enemies), and a silly design and personality. However, he can get 90% link with a variety of powerful Pokémon such as Scizor, Gengar, and Darmanitan. Load him up with a diverse group beforehand, recruit him in a later episode, and he'll more than likely have a Pokémon on hand that you can use as a sweeper, no matter what your neighbors have.
      • Another use for Yoshimoto is that Forretress's high defense combined with an instant healing ability whose drawback is making it UNABLE TO MOVE suddenly makes it an impenetrable Stone Wall that no enemy can hope to get past, so long as Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors they don't bring a Fire-type along. As an added bonus, Forretress can be given the Jagged Edge ability, which damages attacking enemies that make contact and offsets its crappy attack by making opponents kill themselves trying to get past it. This means that for any mission where you have to Hold the Line (which is every mission you are the one getting attacked for, as well as to an extent every mission with banners), he's a very powerful Warlord, only outclassed by the likes of Ieyasu and his Registeel—and if you use both of them together...
  • Lighter and Softer: To the Nobunaga's Ambition side of the crossover's usual fare. The plot is much more light-hearted and the battles are cartoonish.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Mitsuhide is the best example, but Muneshige and Ranmaru qualify as well.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: Infinite Tower has two of these in short succession. An Ethereal Choir plays as your Warriors appear on the battlefield, until the scene with Arceus occurs. A dramatic battle theme plays immediately following that scene, until the player links with Arceus. Both of these take less than a minute unless deliberately prolonged.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • Terrera is easy to conquer due to how the sandstorm feature of the stage works; at the end of the opponent's third turn, the sandstorm blows all Pokémon on a tower off of it. The player can use this to their advantage by retreating their army from Terrara when attacked, then moving in next turn to take it back in only three rounds if their Pokémon have enough range and they know how to position them right. And because you don't need to fight, just seize the banners, you can send over a team of weaklings to do it and get them a pretty significant power boost. Rinse and repeat next month ad infinitum for quick and easy level grinding.
    • In the ninja contest chapters, only Ghost, Poison, Dark and Dragon-types are to be used, and the Warriors and wild Pokémon you fight in fields will use those four types. However, if any of the Warriors have acquired Pokémon in other tales, as usual they'll bring them along when you recruit them, regardless of type.
    • Some of the evolved Pokémon are not as effective as their unevolved forms, which creates problems when you need a high link level with that Pokémon for a Warlord to transform. But link level does not change upon evolution, so there's nothing that says you can't give a Warlord a lower-evolved form of their Perfect Link, level it up to the point the Warlord is viable for transformation, and then evolve their partner so they can do so.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Nobunaga is Oichi's brother. But if you know your history, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

    Tropes M-Z 
  • Magikarp Power:
    • Zigzagged, surprisingly for this series. Evolved Pokémon have much higher stats than their unevolved forms and usually have better attacks, but at the trade-off of lower Range. This means evolved Pokémon tend to be Mighty Glaciers while unevolved Pokémon are Fragile Speedsters. There are exceptions of course both ways, but in general you'll find there are plenty of times when an unevolved Pokémon is preferable to its evolved form.
    • The trope-naming Magikarp appears in rank and file attendance here. Much like its incarnation in the main series, it's completely useless in battle until it evolves into the offensive powerhouse Gyarados. Abra, another example from the main series, shows up as well—all it can do is Teleport randomly about the battlefield. Unlike the main series, though, they can still be occasionally useful, able to grab prizes and banners. Dragon-types are also in prime form, starting with low stats and the very inaccurate Dragon Rage, then evolving into the powerhouses they are in the main series.
    • Your starting Eevee, as an unevolved Pokémon, has somewhat low stats and a medium-power "Quick Attack" (its pluses being a fast movement range and "Celebrate" ability which gives a free turn every time it lands a KO) and may start lagging behind other Mons once you get the ability to befriend (stronger) wild Pokémon. Its evolutions on the other hand are quite powerful, but aside from one free set of Fire/Thunder/Water Stones for its original three forms, the game doesn't explain how to acquire the other four. (Though considering two of those four—Leafeon and Glaceon—are location-based evolutions, it's not hard to make an educated guess for those at least.)
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Ranse (rendered as Ransei in the English release) means "turbulent times", an apt name for the Sengoku Period-esque world the game is based on.
    • All of the nations have one, though some are less obvious than others:
      • Ignis is Latin for "fire".
      • Fontaine is French for "fountain".
      • Terrera is derived from "terra", which is Latin for "earth".
      • Yaksha is a mischievous spirit that originates from Far East religions.
      • The ice nation is called Nixtorm. "Nix" is Latin for "snow".
  • The Medic: Oichi's Warrior Skill heals your whole team, so she could be considered one. However, there's no rule forcing her to use Jigglypuff or Wigglytuff (and she actually links very well with Dragon-types), so you can link her with something much stronger like Staraptor or Dragonite, making her more of a Combat Medic.
  • Mid-Season Twist: Not counting your starting castle Aurora, the 7th castle you attempt to capture will be either Terrera or Illusio. Your army heads there just like your first six conquests... but are turned away at the gates, forcing you to march back to the castle you came from, right into an enemy counterattack. And then after you manage to capture the 7th castle, the warlord of the castle you didn't attack decides to join your army without a fight. And after that, not only do you meet Nobunaga in person for the first time, you find out he's Oichi's brother.
  • Mighty Glacier: Many fully-evolved Pokémon have lower movement ranges to prevent them from becoming totally broken. Shingen's Rhyperior is a notable case: low movement and a long-range-only move makes it difficult to position, but once it uses Rock Wrecker, it will certainly leave a mark... and you won't be able to use it next turn.
  • Mr. Exposition: During the main story, Oichi fills this role, not only running the tutorial at the beginning but also informing the player on the ideal type matchups for every kingdom in the game. She also warns that Shingen and Kenshin have more diverse teams and are not prone to Poor, Predictable Rock.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Mitsuhide struggles with this during the main story. He eventually decides to go full-blown Starscream in the post-game.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The solid ice in Nixtorm functions similarly to the Ice Path in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Thin ice patches in the same level crack when you land on them, like in the Sootopolis Gym.
    • In one of his in-battle dialogues, Motonari references Pokéballs by mentioning he heard of Pokémon being kept in balls in a faraway land.
  • Non-Lethal Warfare: In contrast to the darker implications the main series games suggest about Pokémon warfare, no one ever dies or is in any serious danger during Ransei's wars. Pokémon simply experience a Non-Lethal K.O. when defeated just like in the main series, at which point the corresponding warrior withdraws from the battlefield. There's also no collateral damage (or deliberate attacks) to civilians or any other third parties.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Masanori's 'emotion' sprites are much more exaggerated and cartoony compared to everyone else's.
  • Non-Standard Game Over: As one would expect, losing all your kingdoms results in you failing the story and having to either quit or reload from the previous save. Running out of time in the "defeat Nobunaga before Year 4" stories or losing 5 battles in the "win 5 battles before your foe does" stories also results in a loss. However, what many players won't expect is that in the "collect 100 Pokémon" or "recruit 40 warriors" stories, if an opposing army gets 100 Pokémon or recruits 40 warriors before you do, you automatically lose.
  • Not Allowed to Grow Up: The plot of the game can potentially span decades at worst, since one turn equals one month, but of course the Warriors do not age at all.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Hanbei seems lazy and uninterested, but is just as brilliant a strategist as his partner Kanbei.
  • Object-Shaped Landmass: The region of Ransei heavily resembles the Legendary Pokemon Arceus, providing foreshadowing as to the identity of the Legendary Pokemon which only appears when a warrior unites all 17 kingdoms in the region.
  • Older Than They Look: Hanbei says he's older than Kanbei. Given a certain other game it's safe to say they're two years apart.
  • Olympus Mons: The legendary Pokémon that created Ransei is said to appear if Ransei is united. And that's not the only one in the game, as evidenced by the title screen.
  • One-Man Army:
    • As always, the assorted pseudo-legendaries and legendaries, along with numerous other fully evolved Pokémon, can win battles by themselves.
    • A hold item, the Guardian Charm, increases the holder's stats when they're the last member of their team in the fight. It still activates though at the start of a fight when the holder is the only member sent in, creating this trope. Though it depends on exactly which Pokémon it is, you can solo an entire six-against-one battlefield this way, and at higher link levels it's by far the best way to train individual Warriors/Warlords.
    • The "Last Bastion" ability gives the Pokémon a huge buff to Attack and Defense when all of their allies have been defeated, similarly to the Guardian Charm, allowing the user to go toe-to-toe with enemy armies. It even stacks with the Guardian Charm, though only partially.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: Each legendary Pokémon in this game can only be linked with by the Warrior that shares a perfect link with them; no one else even gets to try, and they only show up once said Warrior meets their requirements to begin with.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: Terrara and Pugilis. Both of them are banner battles with gimmicks and layouts that make them easy to conquer if you know what you're doing, and for convenience sake they're right next to each other, so you can leave one empty for the AI to take over and then you retake it next month, leaving the other empty for the AI, and so forth month after month.
    • Terrera has three banners high atop massive towers with lifts that carry Pokémon up to the top, but the first turn someone is on top of a tower, and every few turns after that, a sandstorm blows all Pokémon off the towers. The AI, thanks to Artificial Stupidity, will always make a beeline for the rightmost banner ignoring this, allowing the player to move their Pokémon into position to move onto the lifts once the sandstorm passes, and then claim the banners next turn and win. This can be done as early as the third turn, and you'll have no trouble doing it within four turns.
    • Pugilis has four banners on the edges of a wrestling ring; if a Pokémon is attacked while standing at the edge of the ring, they fall out of the ring into the pit around it and have to climb back up to the platform surrounding the ring. While you need to hold the banners for five turns to claim victory, the paths leading to the center ring are both a single tile wide, so once you take the banners and get rid of any enemies in the ring, you can stack your team on the paths. At this point, unless the enemy has a Flying-type or a Pokémon with Levitate, they have no hope of grabbing one of the banners back before the turn limit is up, allowing you to just wait out the clock defending.
  • The Power of Friendship: A Pokémon's strength is determined by how well synchronized it is with its Warlord, in lieu of a more traditional experience system. This even translates into the story, as your rival military commanders don't start putting up a challenge until their Pokémon are visibly synchronized with them.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Ginchiyo comes from a clan of Electric type users, and she's proud to bear that heritage. Just like in real life (minus the Electric Pokémon, natch).
  • Psychic Powers: Naoe Kanetsugu levitates his ofuda around him—regardless of who his presently selected Pokémon is.
  • Power-Up Letdown:
    • Some of the fully evolved Pokémon are actually much more difficult to use effectively than their lesser counterparts due to changes in their movement range, attack move or special ability. Examples include:
      • Pineco has a pretty decent attack that deletes a opponent's consumable item while gaining its effects, though its stats aren't anything to shout home about. Enter Forretress, pretty good stats but it has Gyro Ball, a move that does more damage the slower the user is compared to the target. It rarely does more than 2 points of damage.
      • Rhydon's attack is Drill Run, which moves it a tile forward to attack a single tile and is pretty powerful, and it's one of the few Ground-type attackers in the game (the only other feasible ones are Excadrill's Drill Run and Quagsire's Mud Bomb). The fully-evolved Rhyperior has Rock Wrecker as its attack, which hits a single tile three spaces away and is very powerful, but has a low base accuracy of 80% and can't be used on the next turn when it deals damage. Also, Speed determines accuracy and evasion in this game, so the naturally slow Rhyhorn line all suffer accuracy penalties. This results in Rhyperior having an attack that is difficult to line up to hit, will often miss, and if it hits it can't attack next turn, while Rhydon's attack has a much easier hitbox to work with, much more reliable accuracy, and can be used every turn. Even if there's a specific target you want to nuke with Rock Wrecker, it's doubtful whether Rhyperior will ever get a chance to target that Pokémon due to its movement range of 2, and it'll probably miss anyway. Not only is Rhyperior much worse than Rhydon, it's even arguably worse than Rhyhorn.
      • Munna has Hypnosis, which can put opponents to sleep for a few turns but has low accuracy and can't actually inflict damage. Its evolution, Musharna, has "Dream Eater" which does inflict damage, but only if the opponent is already asleep, so it's virtually useless on the battlefield if you have no way to put the enemy to sleep... which often requires dragging a Munna around (both of Musharna's abilities, Calming and Daze, can do so, but it rarely activates).
      • Lairon has Iron Head, a strong move coming from Lairon's surprisingly decent Attack stat. After evolving into Aggron, it becomes the strongest Steel-type attacker in the game with Iron Tail and the Run Up ability, even beating out Metagross' Meteor Mash. However, it loses movement range upon evolving, and Iron Tail is much less accurate than Iron Head, even before taking into account that the Speed stat affects accuracy in this game, making Run Up Iron Tail's damage Awesome, but Impractical most of the time.
      • Any Pokémon with the ability "Celebrate" gets a free turn every time it knocks out an opponent ... but loses the ability upon evolution. This is especially noticeable with Braviary, whose powerful "Sky Drop" move requires two turns to inflict damage, meaning that in the time it takes Braviary to knock out one opponent, its prior evolution could possibly knock out four. There is also the very crippling problem that Sky Drop can't damage Flying-types, making Braviary completely helpless against enemy birds.
      • Any Pokémon that gains the ability "Confidence" from evolving may as well have no ability at all. The ability is supposed to boost the defense of your allies, but due to an oversight, the defense boost wears off before the enemy's turn starts. Similarly, the ability "Decoy" does not activate at all due to an oversight, making it worthless.
    • Warlords aren't exempt from this either, as many "upgraded" Warrior Skills trade away one benefit for another that may not be nearly as useful.
      • After she transforms, Aya's Warrior Skill no longer heals your entire team, instead only healing those standing next to her. It boosts defense in an attempt to compensate, but the buff wears off after only one turn, giving it almost no utility.
      • Motochika's skill goes from Rally (a skill that boosts attack for 3 turns) to Rebellion (a skill that boosts critical chance for 1 turn). Mathematically speaking, this never translates into higher damage output in the long run.
      • Kanbei starts with Impact, a flinching skill that has excellent synergy with Chandelure's Fire Spin. After transformation, it's replaced with Extinguish, a skill whose only purpose is to nullify multi-turn Warrior Skills like Fortify and Adrenaline. To make matters worse, it affects your side, too.
  • Psychotic Smirk: This is Kotaro's only "emotive" sprite. Kanbei has one too, but it's more of a smug "just as planned" look, him being a master strategist and all.
  • Puzzle Boss: Mitsuhide, mostly due to the terrain. Ieyasu in Valora too, as he requires you to have Pokémon run on gears to open/close gates.
  • Random Encounter: Among the many random events that can occur in postgame episodes are a group of bandits stealing some item, and you are given a choice to face them in combat or just ignore it. Additionally, if you take Kotaro into a field battle, there's a random chance that a Zorua will spontaneously appear in addition to the known enemy party. (There's also a similar chance for finding another Eevee, if taking the Hero into battle.)
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: Warlords will often be much more powerful than any of their generic underlings, boasting tougher Pokémon and higher Warrior stats. If they've reached Rank II or higher, they'll even have unique and powerful Warrior Skills.
  • Recurring Boss: Hideyoshi. First shows up in Ignis, then later appears to help Nene defend Viperia. And then he assists Nobunaga in the final battle. His Chimchar evolves each time.
  • Recurring Traveler: Keiji, and the trio of Mitsunari, Kiyomasa and Masanori.
  • Required Party Member: In the main story, you must send your hero and Oichi into battle every time you challenge a new territory (for story reasons). This is not the case in the side stories, where you can send in any Warriors you choose to any battle.
  • Required Secondary Powers: Musharna's move is Dream Eater, which only works on opponents that are sleeping. The only Pokémon that can use a sleep-inducing move is its pre-evolution, Munna, which has Hypnosis. This would make Musharna entirely useless by itself, but the two abilities it has access to are both capable of sending nearby enemies to sleep, thus giving it targets for Dream Eater.
  • Reused Character Design: All the human NPC character designs originated in Samurai Warriors 3.
  • Rubberband AI: When the AI invades a territory, it will generally only send in enough Mons to slightly overpower the defenders' collective strength. If you only have one or two Warriors defending a kingdom, it may only send two or three invaders to challenge you, rather than a full army of six to curb-stomp you out of your kingdom. After all, if they did send a massive unbeatable army that would be violating the Rule of Fun, wouldn't it?
  • Save Scumming: Unlike previous Pokémon games, Conquest allows one to legitimately save their game smack-dab in the middle of battle. This can very easily backfire on you, however, especially when trying to recruit a Warrior or Warlord.
  • Scare Chord: Mewtwo and Arceus are both present, and they've still got pretty freaky cries. Failing a story's mission will also land you with a very dark, absolutely out-of-nowhere depression chord as the story leader laments their failure. Even worse when the failure is for a reason that no one anticipated and might even have you not looking at your DS when it happens. Someone else pick up 100 Pokémon? Turns out that's reason enough for Keiji to get upset.
  • Secret Art: Since each species of Pokémon only gets to use one fixed move, many Pokémon have moves unique among other Mons in the region. Likewise, while there is a wide variety of generic Warrior abilities, upgraded Warlords receive Warrior abilities unique to them (in name if not effect).
  • Secret Character: Hideyoshi has a third form that can be obtained by reaching a certain link level with Reshiram. This form and Reshiram itself don't even appear in the gallery unless you enter the code to obtain them.
  • Shock and Awe: Tachibana Ginchiyo can generate electricity around her gauntlet during her offensive pose. Hitmonlee, eat your heart out!
  • Shoot the Medic First: You can save a lot of frustration by checking at the start of the battle if any foes have the Warrior Skills Sweet Song or Empathy and then taking them out first, before they start using it to heal their allies.
    • Recruiting Ranmaru—generally a good idea as both his standard and Perfect Link species are very useful in most postgame chapters—can be very difficult if you're trying to do it by the 'four turns' method (which you usually will be) for exactly this reason.
  • Spell My Name With An S: The region's name—"Ranse" is the Japanese spelling, while Ransei is the English variant. This could be to prevent mispronunciation, most English speakers would read the Japanese spelling as "rans" instead of "ran-se"note .
  • Spiteful A.I.: While attacking you, the AI will attempt to pick up treasure boxes dropped either by the map or their defeated allies, just so you can't pick them up. They're even willing to walk into dangerous tiles for it. (E.g. Adjacent to Dragnor's damage nodes)
  • The Starscream: In reference to the real world Mitsuhide's ambush of Nobunaga, the Mitsuhide's story in this game sees him turning against Nobunaga to bring him down.
  • Starter Villain: Hideyoshi's the first Warlord you face in the main campaign, and he's angling to take over Aurora before your army moves on Ignis, but he doesn't pose much of a challenge.
  • Status Effects: All major status ailments (poison, burn, paralyze, freeze, sleep, and confusion) from the main series are present here, although mostly as secondary effects of damage-dealing moves rather than status-ailing moves directly. (Munna is the only Pokémon in the region to have a status move—"Hypnosis"—rather than a damaging attack.)
  • Stealth Pun:
    • In Real Life, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was nicknamed "Little Monkey" by Nobunaga because of his appearance. In this game, he uses the Chimchar family and his personality is impish and silly to match.
    • There's also the fact that, historically, Nobunaga was defeated by Mitsuhide, who was in turn defeated by Hideyoshi. In this game, they specialize in Dragon, Ice, and Fire types respectively.
  • The Stoic: Hattori Hanzō... doesn't show much emotion. His dialogue generally consists of brief, matter-of-fact statements such as "I linked with [Pokémon Name]." or "Victory." Borders on The Comically Serious at times.
  • Stripperific: Kai when upgraded. Kunoichi always, but even more so upgraded.
  • Taking the Bullet: Pokémon with the "Bodyguard" ability will swap positions with an adjacent ally to protect them from enemy attacks, without regard to whether the attack will do more or less damage to them than the intended ally.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite fighting alongside Masamune, it's obvious Magoichi doesn't like him very much. In fact, one of the requirements for his evolution is for Masamune to not be in the same nation!
  • Third-Person Person: Nobunaga, as a carry-over from his way of speaking in Japanese. Masamune also refers to himself in the third person when delegated a task.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: The initial story gradually opens access to more and more of the region as you claim kingdoms. The second 'section' of Ransei available contains Pugilis, full of Fighting-type Pokémon. The player character is the ruler of Aurora, the Normal-type kingdom; your starting Eevee can't evolve until after the game's halfway mark, and Oichi has a Jigglypuff. Oichi voices her concern once when the kingdom becomes available, and then again when you first go to actually attack. At least the arena provides a stat-boosting bell for Jigglypuff to ring so it can actually do something.
  • Those Two Guys: Hanbei and Kanbei during Hideyoshi's scenario, as well as their own. They don't show up in the main story, though, and their place is taken by two generic henchmen.
  • Three-Stat System: Warriors have their own stats, divided into Power, Wisdom, and Charisma.
    • Out-of-battle, each stat is tired to certain types of facilities: Power affects performance at mining facilities, Wisdom affects usage of banks, meditation spots, and Pokémon-summoning facilities, and Charisma affects performance at shops, blacksmiths, and alchemists.
    • In-battle, Power increases the damage your Pokémon can do, Wisdom decreases the damage they'll take, and Charisma increases both accuracy and evasion. This is separate from the stat system and applies directly to damage calculation; the effect is relatively minor compared to raw stat boosts, but it's there.
  • Timed Mission: With the exception of a few special fights at the end of storylines, all battles have a specific turn limit: if the time runs out, the defending army wins by default. Inverted if you're the one defending, of course. Mitsuhide and Motochika's episodes also have a 3-year (36 overworld turn) time limit to achieve the stated objective.
  • Title Drop: In the Japanese version, Nobunaga's Warlord Powers are titled Great Ambition and Extreme Ambition, while his English Rank II power is "Ambition." In both versions, after conquering Dragnor in the main story, Kenshin will say that "Nobunaga's ambition has been thwarted."
  • Tomboy Princess: Kai. It's even one of her powers!
  • Took a Level in Badass: As in the main series, the monsters can evolve to more powerful forms as they level up. Unlike either home series, the Warlords can also "evolve"... into more impressive looking armor (though mechanically and even visibly it's no different from a Pokémon's evolution).
  • Tron Lines: Tadakatsu and Ina both have these on their armor at Rank 2.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: Most of the Warlords' upgraded designs (and some default ones) strongly resemble their Pokémon of choice.
    • Kotaro gets a hairstyle that looks like Zoroark's mane.
    • Nō's witch attire resembles her best link, Mismagius.
    • Masanori's evolution gains shades resembling Krookodile's.
    • Kenshin looks similar to his legendary best link, Mewtwo, when evolved.
    • Aya's evolution design bears striking resemblance to her perfect link, Froslass.
    • Okuni looks somewhat similar to her perfect links, Larvesta/Volcarona.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable:
    • The game's maps are not merciful to players who don't strategize well and prepare their teams properly. It's possible to completely ruin your chances of winning if you're not careful. On the flip-side, knowing how to exploit these designs can make the maps very easy to defend against the generally incompetent AI.
    • In Terrera, a sandstorm comes to blow away any Pokémon on the towers every few turns, and this happens between the defender and attacker turns. This can lead to situations where you the defender end your turn, your Pokémon are blown off the towers, and your opponent takes their turn and moves their Pokémon onto all three lifts. You cannot board the lift while another Pokémon is on the landing spot at the top of the tower, so at that point the battle is lost on the next turn, simply because they take their turn before you. This makes the map more about defending the lifts instead of actually using them, until the sandstorm passes and you have a couple turns of safety to claim the banners.
    • Avia is meant to be navigated by Flying-types, with several land masses of different heights that aren't directly connected. Grounded Pokémon need several turns to get around by springboard... and then the Flying-types can just move away rendering their effort pointless. There's also an island on the map that is totally inaccessible except to Flying-types and Pokémon with Levitate, allowing a defender to place such a Pokémon there and wait out the clock once they ensure the opponent has no way to reach them with their own Flying-types.
    • In Valora, it's possible to position your Pokémon and the gates in such a way that, without Flying-types or Levitate, the enemy cannot get to your Pokémon at all without having to pass by at least one camera (possibly two) which are likely going to detect them and warp them randomly around the arena before they can cross the room. If you're defending and pull this stunt, all that's left is to wait out the clock. It's also fully possible for a Pokémon to get teleported by the cameras into an area where all the passageways out are blocked by gates they can't reach, which can result in them sitting out a significant part of the battle; if they're the last Pokémon standing, this pretty much seals their fate.
    • Nixstorm, thanks to its sea of Frictionless Ice, allows the potential to position your Pokémon in such a way that, without a Flying-type or Ice-type that can navigate the ice, the opponent simply cannot get to them.
  • Verbal Tic: Yoshimoto tends to end his sentences with の.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Some of the more interesting lines of dialogue in the game are the character's response to being teamkilled.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss:
    • Shingen and Kenshin's armies are much stronger than you're used to, and they're the first opponents to include fully-evolved Pokémon (Rhyperior and Gallade). Oh, and they add a variety of different type users in order to not be a Poor, Predictable Rock.
      • Although, Kenshin will ALWAYS keep his Gallade on a flag, and his army will attack you one at a time mostly, so it's fairly easy to pick off the mons one by one, before ganging up on Gallade.
    • Yoshihiro serves as one too: you have to be present in the fight and so does Oichi, who notes that Yoshihiro's Fighting-types have an advantage over your Normals. Only by exploiting the stage features (specifically, knocking opponents out of the ring before they can attack you) can you safely beat and recruit him (and gain a powerhouse as a result).
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Some of the Warlords prefer that bare-chested look; most notably Keiji.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Crossing with Power Up Letdown, many of the fully evolved Pokémon have attacks that can only hit several tiles ahead of them, like Rock Wrecker, Thunder, Psyshock, Dragon Rush, etc, which renders them unable to attack Pokémon directly in front of them (they have to back up a tile or two). If they're near the edge of a map this can result in them getting cornered, unable to attack whatsoever, allowing up to four weaker Pokémon to surround it and Cherry Tap it to death because they just can't fight back.
  • Weird Crossover: Pokémon and Nobunaga's Ambition. Nobody expected this crossover before it happened.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nobunaga. His reason for trying to conquer Ransei and (later) for destroying Arceus? To bring peace back to the land and restore affection between Warriors and Pokémon by eliminating the pesky legend that encourages Warlords to go conquer other territories.
  • Wolverine Claws: Kotaro, when upgraded.
  • Winter Royal Lady: Aya's design just screams this. Complete with Froslass-style hood in her upgraded form.
  • Worthy Opponent:
    • Yukimura sees the hero as this. It makes a lot of sense when you realise his specialty Pokémon is Charizard, which, according to the Pokédex, is also prone to this kind of behavior.
    • Gameplay-wise, Warlords can only be recruited by other Warlords.
  • Wutai: Ransei isn't exactly feudal Japan so much as the Samurai Warriors version of it.
    • Perhaps more accurately: Ransei isn't exactly feudal Japan so much as a Pokémon region with a feudal Japan lifestyle.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Inahime has this as one of her Warrior Skills. Given that it increases movement range and makes ALL attacks hit for three turns, emphasis is placed on the "inner iron" aspect of the trope.

Alternative Title(s): Pokemon Plus Nobunagas Ambition

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