Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance


Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

After playing through Sengoku Rance, I decided that I wanted more figures of characters from the game. I wound up getting Kenshin and Isoroku Yamamoto, and if Shikibu had a figure, I’d get that too. Sadly, she does not, and sadly, many other worthy characters from the game haven’t been so honored. Kotobukiya or Orchid Seed or someone should retool to make a figure of each female Sengoku Rance character; the world would be a better place for it.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

In the game Sengoku Rance, Isoroku Yamamoto is a captain who has been coerced into serving House Ashikaga. As Ashikaga’s territories are adjacent to the player’s starting location, Yamamoto is one of the first commanders you can defeat and coerce into joining your own army. I tend to keep her in my main force even though I haven’t had a lot of luck using archers, particularly towards the end of the game.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

Isoroku is depicted as a gentle, duty-minded person intent on extending her family line. Unfortunately, being that she is the last of her family, that means she needs to squirt out a baby. Rance – the titular main character of the game – eagerly volunteers his services as the prospective father, but Isoroku declines due to the impropriety of birthing a half-gai-jin heir. Such concerns do not deter Rance, who resorts to manipulation, seduction, and misrepresentation to get his way.

Divine words for Isoroku
Rance shows off his ventriloquist steez.

Many of the characters from Sengoku Rance draw their names and backgrounds from medieval Japanese history, but Yamamoto is instead based on a Japanese naval admiral. The real Yamamoto served as commander of the Combined Fleet during World War II and was one of the architects of the zerg rush that clobbered the American battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor. After enjoying a period of unprecedented dominance in the Pacific, his forces suffered a crushing reversal at Midway. Yamamoto, not knowing that Americans were listening to his Vent channel, was subsequently assassinated by US Army Air Forces pilots over Bougainville Island.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

The mission to kill Yamamoto was performed by pilots in P-38 Lightning aircraft, one of the most distinctive-looking fighters ever made. Curiously, a few decades later the Japanese game developer Capcom would release a game called 1942 in which players took control of a P-38 and went about blowing up Japanese ships. One wonders how the American public would react if a major American game company made a game in which you controlled a Taliban insurgent and ran around shooting NATO soldiers.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

Anyway, on to the figure. This figure comes courtesy of Kotobukiya and is built in 1/8 scale. She’s a bit under 20 centimeters tall to the top of her head, although her ponytail adds a bit more height.

I normally don’t take note of a figure’s box, but Isoroku comes packaged with multiple twist ties holding her in and scads of plastic. Wire cutters are a useful thing to have while trying to extract her from her packaging. Fortunately, she’s pretty easy to set up once you finally free her; you stick her ponytail to attachment points on her head, butt, and lower right leg and then work her bow and arrows into their proper positions. I do not see any pegs or anything that secure her armament to her hands, so this is one of those figures that you don’t want to knock down or bump. She comes attached to her base; her right foot is even held down by a metal screw.

Incidentally, I overlooked that third attachment point for her hair so her hair is looser in these photos than it really should be.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

Unlike some of Volks’s figures, Kotobukiya’s version stays fairly close to the game design, and they’ve done a very nice job of it. Isoroku is given a rather unemotional, business-like expression, which I think works pretty well being that Isoroku fights to secure the future of her family rather than because she gains thrills or joy from battles and victory.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

The paint is quite good, with no major problems. I do think that it would have been better if they had used a brighter red for her eyes. Some of the gold outline on her clothing is a bit sloppy, particularly on the bottom edge of her trousers, but you’d have to be looking very closely at the figure to notice it.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

The sculptor did a very good job of detailing her clothes, from the two little puff balls dangling off the front of her shirt to her three-pointed hair ornament to her two-toed tabi socks. I particularly like the detailing on her sword, which has a little square link on the end that you can move around.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

The only aspect of this figure that I dislike is the base. She’s mounted on a transparent pink plastic slab which is hideously incongruous to the more muted colors of the figure. It’s also got House Ashikaga’s emblem on it, which is sort of annoying, as I like to kick around House Ashikaga first thing when I play the game.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

I actually got this figure about a month ago but didn’t get around to unboxing it until just the other day, but now that I look at her, I think that this is a really cool figure. Isoroku wears perhaps a bit more clothing than I usually like, but other than that, she looks great, and I hope that Kotobukiya keeps on making Sengoku Rance figures.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

I don’t recall seeing many reviews for this figure out on the internets. The only one I can think of is Ashlotte’s review over on Tsuki-board. It’s an excellent review with awesome pictures. Pay no mind to his slander of Senhime, who is indisputably, incontrovertibly, indubitably one of the two most awesome female characters in the game. For real yo. Anyway, go clicky. Right now.

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

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30 Responses to Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance

  1. Leonia says:

    A gorgeous review with beautiful pictures (I am always impressed by your pictures). This figure is nice. I don’t really like the base but the character have a good and dangerous expression ^^ Thanks for this sharing !

  2. Tier says:

    Thanks! I was in a big rush when I took these pictures so I’m glad they turned out decently. I really like her face too; she looks really serious and determined, which contrasts a bit with her naivete in the game.

  3. Ashlotte says:

    Haha what can I say I can’t stomach her…Will agree to disagree I suppose. ~_^

    I was wondering why that review ballooned up in hits this morning haha…Now I see why…Fearsome power you wield Tier.

    Fantastic review though…You made her look far better then I did and I thank you much for the shots of which I’ve stolen several to save in my folders. :p

    She really is a damn impressive effort on Koto’s part…Shame she has to sit on that pink monstrosity… T_T

  4. VF says:

    Great pictures again! 🙂

    Just curious, on the back of her skirt, right side, there’s a little hole – is something supposed to plug into that? Maybe her hair? Looks like there’s a little nub in the hair that might fit in the hole.

  5. Tier says:

    >> Ashlotte
    I always use Senhime in my main group, but I have the feeling I’d dislike her a lot if she went off AWOL after I left her on the bench. I wasn’t all too impressed by Kotobukiya’s Senhime figure but Isoroku came out awesome. Nanjyou Ran looked okay but she’s not one of my favorite characters in the game (partly because I’ve never actually gotten her in my army).

    I really do not know what they were thinking with the base. At least it doesn’t take up too much space, although that’s not really a big deal since her bow is so big, I guess.

    >> VF
    Thanks! Yeah, that’s where her hair is supposed to attach to keep it close to her body. I completely overlooked it when I was setting the figure up for photographing.

  6. Ashlotte says:

    Haha see thats exactly what she did to me my first play through…I wasn’t using a guide or anything so when she suddenly just up and left I was like “What the freaking hell…that bitch!” so yea it left a bad impression on me and I killed her every time she showed up as an enemy commander after that. >_>

    Aye Koto’s Senhime is rather lackluster…The line has a huge quality flux along it drives you nuts, but I guess you could say that about Koto in general.

  7. Lylibellule says:

    Interesting this little text about Sengoku Rance names origins. I didn’t know that at all.

    Indeed, you are one of the few who did a review of this figure. And i’m glad because i always wondered if it worth buying it.
    With koto, you’re not sure of anything… The result is satisfying.

    Shame for the horrible base :/ and the amount of hairs on the front of her face seems too compact for me.

  8. Tier says:

    >> Ashlotte
    OMG you are a butcher :O I usually gun for Tokugawa pretty early just to recruit her quickly.

    I’m hoping that FREEing makes more Sengoku Rance figures, since I much prefer bigger figures to smaller ones. Being that I have no FREEing figures I suppose I will be seeing whether their quality is any good.

    >> Lylibellule
    Yeah, Kotobukiya is really inconsistent. That wasn’t too big a deal when their figures were cheap in the US, but I don’t know if they distribute their anime figures here by themselves anymore.

    I’m trying to decide if this is the worst base I own. It’s either this or the ones that come with all my Griffon figures.

  9. Ami says:

    Wow gorgeous pictures! I really love this Isoroku. It’s my favorite Sengoku figure by far. But that’s mostly because Isoroku is my favorite character. I’m really impressed with Kotobukiya. They manage to make a solid figure worth the price this time. My favorite parts have to be her hair and that stare she has on her face. It’s very enticing. The base is indeed horrible though. But I noticed most of Koto’s Sengoku figures have this horrible see-through base.

  10. softz says:

    That’s lots of information. I finally learned some history and origins of their names. No wonder when I did a search for Senhime, some obasan showed up in the results which left me puzzled. Thanks pal. You cleared it for me.

    I do agree that Koto is hard to predict. When I first started this, I bought most of the left over at very cheap price and found out that they are… er… so-so only. But, everyone learns from experience so I guess I have to too.

    Lastly, your photos are always great! Cool 🙂

  11. Tier says:

    >> Ami
    I like Isoroku as well, that’s why I keep her in my main army even though I’d usually be better off swapping her out for a more effective commander. Looking at her face, it’s pretty cool how she has a serious but somewhat passive look to her, but if you look at her up close, she can look like she’s snarling mad.

    >> softz
    Thanks! Senhime was a member of the Tokugawa family who wound up as a nun, I think. Curiously, the most famous Tokugawa shows up in the game as a big fat raccoon dog.

    While Kotobukiya’s quality is a bit less than the top tier figure makers, I like them a lot, since they make such a broad range of figures. They’ve got stuff from h-games, Final Fantasy, Marvel comics, Halo, and everything in between.

  12. Katsura-chan says:

    Yuck how can they deliver a graceful figure with such an awful base like this :/
    Really interesting what you wrote about the origins. Very informative ^^ I’ll sleep less stupid tonight.
    About the figure itself, she looks very cool, serious and determined.
    Same as you i usually like my figure with less clothes but this one worth it.
    As lylibellule said i think a bit more hairs would have been appreciable.
    Great pics 🙂

  13. Tier says:

    At one point I wanted to major in history, but then I figured that getting a job was probably more important and that I could read history books on my own time. I guess Isoroku is one of the more elegant characters in Sengoku Rance? I’ll admit that for me, raunchiness almost always trumps elegance in anime-style character design as far as appeal goes.

  14. Blowfish says:

    Ah Koto delivered such a nice figure?
    I only own Koto`s Kanzaki Kaori and wasnt that impressed with it.But this one is pretty tempting.

    Btw Buddy could you be a buddy and tell me where to find the english patch fpor rance? I feel compelled to play it now.

    Any game that sports a perverted main lead gets my two thumbs up

  15. Tier says:

    You can get the translation here, you’ll want to install the 1.0 patch and then copy over the file in the update patch into the directory you installed the game in.

    Yeah, Kotobukiya made a pretty good figure here. Very much hit and miss they are but Yamamoto turned out quite nice … too bad I don’t think too many people bought her.

  16. Shashin says:

    I’m playing Sengoku Rance again, after beating all the routes around the time the full translation patch was released. While it can probably be easily assumed, I didn’t have a legitimate copy of the game at the time. But I loved the game so much that I picked up a copy from ErogeShop and am just now getting to it again.

    It has been long enough that some of the minor conversation details are like new, and gameplay is as addicting as I remember. I’d play the game even if it weren’t loaded with delicious hentai, but it most certainly helps make it more enjoyable.

    I’ve been looking into picking up a few Rance figures, and will probably get this one eventually; it looks great and I love Isoroku. I’ll probably pick up a Kenshin figure or two first (though not from Volks – don’t have that kind of money for one figure, beautiful as it is) and Senhime is supposed to drop this month. Other than that, I know of Sill, Ran, Suzume and Kou figures.

    I like both the Ran and Suzume figures, but I couldn’t agree more with you on needing more. I’d pick up Orime and Uruza figures up in a heartbeat; as well as most other notable female characters such as Kanami or Natori. Hell, I’d even purchase a few male figures if done right. With the proper poses, Souun and Demon Nobunaga (with Toukichirou of course) would be amazing.

  17. Tier says:

    Yeah, I’ll admit my copy is pirated as well. I’m not going to try to rationalize that (since I think it’s lame to even try). I’d like to get a legit copy of that and Zanjibaru sometime, though.

    I was surprised as hell at how good a game Sengoku Rance is, even without the porno parts. With them, it’s one of my favorite games. I guess that’s probably enough justification for me to shell out funds for it.

    Alter has a figure of Shizuka scheduled for release, although I guess that’s technically from one of the other Rance games. I see this figure show up on YJA all the time, although to be honest, I’m sorta iffy on Volks’s stuff because some of it is pretty bad. I recently got a figure of Meiya Mitsurugi which should’ve been epic but doesn’t really look all that great (which is why I haven’t bothered photographing it yet). It’s sorta screwy since 1/4 scale Kenshin is easily my favorite figure in my collection.

    I’d really like a figure of Ryouma and Hibachi; I know Volks made a garage kit of Hibachi but I don’t think they ever offered a prepainted version, unlike Senhime and Nanjou Ran. And yeah, I’d probably pick up one of Demon Nobunaga if there were one. I might even get one of the Tokugawa raccoon dogs if someone offered one.

  18. Shashin says:

    Honestly, I’m of the opinion that you don’t need to rationalize it in this case, though it might appear that it’s just what I’m doing now. I once pirated all sorts of stuff, but now I only download eroge and currently airing Japanese anime. When I did download other games and the like, I usually ended up buying the ones I kept for more than a day or two. Not that it makes it okay or right by any means, nor does it really justify my actions, but I feel that I showed my support games that I’d actually purchase in the end.

    There’s not really any doubt that piracy hurts developers and publishers of all media, but I think the numbers they publish are grossly inflated. In my personal case, I rarely ever blindly buy a game that I haven’t tried myself or know the series very well. So if I download two games that I never would have purchased otherwise, and one of them sucks while the other is great, the first company doesn’t lose out, as I would have never purchased their product in the first place, while the second gains a sale. Once again, I’m not defending my actions, I’m just stating that I think the numbers they publish are inflated, as they’re probably going off the copies downloaded, and there is no way in hell that all the people downloading the game would have purchased a copy to begin with.

    In the case of eroge, and why I continue to download it, it’s just a matter of it not being commercially available here. While still not right, I don’t feel that I’m doing too much wrong here. And once again, the previous logic applies, even more so in this case. I love Sengoku Rance, but there’s no way in hell I would have purchased it without playing it.

    Even without the porno parts, I definitely would have played the game. Might have been a bit harsher on it, as it is a bit over-simplistic if the only thing you had to draw on was the game play, but even then it would still be mindlessly addicting. As you said, as a whole package, Sengoku Rance is easily one of my favorite games of all time, and I really hope I have a chance to play more of the Rance series in the future.

    As I’m just getting into figures, I’m still learning which companies I should flock to and which to avoid. So I don’t have any first hand experience with Volks, but other than the Kenshin figure, I haven’t seen anything by them that has really impressed me yet, anyway.

    I’d take a Ryouma and would pick up Hibachi for sure. I just wish there would be more figures of the series in general. I’m glad Kenshin got the coverage she deserved, but that’s one thing I seem to notice that irks me a bit about this industry; it appears that oftentimes on the most popular characters from a series get a figure, unless the series is really popular overall. Granted that’s from a rather limited view point, and it would even make sense to an extent, as that’s what would sell, but it’s annoying nonetheless.

  19. Tier says:

    It’s funny, I used to pirate a lot of stuff when I was younger but nowadays, even though Bittorrent and Rapidshare and other file hosting services make it much, much easier to get things, I don’t pirate nearly as much. I did pirate the Japanese version of Lightning Warrior Raidy and I liked it enough that I bought the American localization, which I don’t think I would have done had I not played it first. That reminds me, I need to put in a preorder for LWR2, since I think it comes out soon.

    Volks is sort of strange in that Kenshin is absolutely incredible and I’m certain that 1/4 scale KOS-MOS will be equally impressive, while their Moekore PVC figures are somewhat substandard and their smaller-scale prepainted cold-cast or resin figures leave quite a bit to be desired. It’s an unfortunate situation, since they’ve done a lot of figures from properties that I like (Sengoku Rance, Beat Blades Haruka, and Muv-Luv Alternative, mainly).

    Yeah, I wish some of the less-popular characters in various series would get figures too. For example, Irma’s my favorite character of all the Queen’s Blade girls, yet she has zero figures while characters like Airi and Ymir have something like a half dozen each. I know it wouldn’t kill MegaHouse to make an Irma figure, but I’m not holding out hope for it. The same goes for Subaru from Beat Blades Haruka, I get the feeling she’s the least popular of the three playable ninjas, so she doesn’t get a figure while Narika and Haruka have gotten one each from both Alter and Kotobukiya. Disappointing … but not surprising at all.

  20. Shashin says:

    I’ve never been the biggest pirate, though I have downloaded my fair share of music, tv shows, and a few video games. The music I’ve downloaded is mostly stuff that’s impossible to find in stores or even available legally online. Video games I never really pirated all that much, and once again, it was usually older games that I could no longer find, with the occasional new title I had to try; Civilization IV is a good example of that, and I ended up buying it all a few weeks later. Downloading TV shows is the main reason I stopped pirating stuff. My ISP caught onto it, disconnected my service a few times, and basically told me that I’ve got two strikes and if there’s a third, they’re stopping my service.

    I completed my first play through of Rance, with a decent amount of points. And let me tell you, 1 star difficulty (I plan to up the difficulty one level every play though) is an absolute joke with points. I took Turban and Elina with 10k gold and some random items to use up the left over points (shame I didn’t unlock the Popularity Staff), and I’m just tearing through things.

    I’m about 50 turns in, have no idea what route I want to take, and I’ve already got most of Japan. I might actually just break the fifth gourd, do the true route again, and end the game with 40 something points.

  21. Tier says:

    I guess I pirate a lot of hentai anime these days, though I’d buy a lot of it if R1 companies licensed the shows I like and released them in the United States. I don’t really download other stuff, I don’t watch many movies and I watch almost no television besides football and basketball games.

    You know, I’ve never done a second playthrough of Sengoku Rance. I played it through the first time with a partial translation patch and my army was so underpowered that there was no way I could defeat the demon army before they clobbered all my territories. When the final translation patch was released, it made it so I couldn’t skip through the text of scenes I had seen already, so I started over and beat the game. Then when I got a new computer, I started over again and played it through. I should probably play it again so that I can try macking on Kenshin or Yamamoto.

  22. Shashin says:

    Ah yeah, hentai is pretty much all I pirate; be it doujinshi, eroge, or anime. I do watch the occasional tv show online if there’s something I like to watch and miss it, but there’s plenty of legal ways to do that for most shows now. For the most part, my tv is only used to play video games or stream live StarCraft matches.

    I started playing around the time it was at patch .9, I believe. I remember my first play through took me around 150 turns, and there was a lot of back and forth going on between the Demon Army and me. I’d highly recommend playing through the other routes. I don’t really remember which is my favorite anymore, but I know they’re all highly enjoyable story wise, and some add some minor gameplay changes (nothing major, just changing the way you progress the story.) Then the Kill the Monkey route is great because it’s essentially giving you free reign to do whatever the fuck you want, while maxing out characters really fast because there aren’t many story cut scenes when the turn begins.

    One minor problem, unless you still have the game installed on your computer with the saves, is that you’ll have to play the True route again or find a save file. Honestly, once you’ve gotten a handle of the game, it’s really quite easy. I didn’t have my saves anymore, so I had to do the True route again, and was able to do it in about 90 turns. It’s really easy to blitz through the first four countries or so, depending on your attack route. I usually go Hara -> Ashikaga -> Asakura -> (Miko) -> Uesugi, because I like getting Kenshin fast as she’s one of the better commanders. For Hara and Ashikaga you only have to send 1-2 commanders to capture a territory the first few turns. Send Rance alone versus Ashikaga to clear the Isoroku event, or don’t use him at all once you see she’s in the mix. Of course taking the last territory might require some reloading, but it’s not too bad if you have a decent army. Asakura is easy once you get rid of the panda event (don’t even bother defending of course.) Miko I sometimes save, but like to get done relatively early because Natori and Himiko are amazing commanders. The 1 star game I’m playing now game me some trouble, because it took me six turns (as well as countless reloading) to capture Himiko, but it was worth it; she’s great in commander battles due to Convert Action 2 and high AP, and she destroys armies if you invest the troops into her. Then Kenshin is a breeze if you send Rance alone everytime she’s in battle, and falls easily once you get the house event.

    That’s just my general expansion route for the first 20-30 turns, depending on difficulty. This game I went about things a lot differently, instead expanding to the west, while avoiding taking too many gourds out of play. I was able to capture just about everything east of Mouri, excluding Tenshi (now allied), One-Eyed, and Iga (which I now hold) before the Demon Army appeared. It was rather funny, as the Demon Army was pushed so far back by the time they appeared, that a lot of story CGs were skipped entirely (forbidden Youkai appeared immediately and the Mouri Apostle exploded without any CG to show it was coming.)

  23. Tier says:

    Yeah, the last time I played it through, I found much easier, mainly because I found that you can get a third action fan through Rance’s satistfaction bonus; I hadn’t even looked at those power-ups in my earlier run-throughs. I wound up getting Natori and Seigan and using their percentage-based attacks to clobber the demon army through attrition; that was definitely a lot easier than hoping and praying that Suzume would get an assassination move off in my first couple of tries. I had a difficult time getting Himiko too; I usually wound up killing her or she’d escape and then I’d have to reload.

    I’ve always started out beating up on the central territories, then going east to get Senhime and Kenshin, and then going west to get Ryomou. I’ve got this strange compulsion to play games like this the same way; for example, when I played Rise of Nations years ago, I always played in skirmish mode and selected the Bantu nation and the same map, then I turtled in my base and tech up while grabbing the good wonders before pummeling everyone else with stealth bombers. I must’ve played at least 300 matches doing exactly that over the years.

  24. Shashin says:

    Yeah, the extra action fans help immensely. It’s always a good idea to rush for the third if you can, but I oftentimes just did a territory grab and focused on it after I got 4-5 territories; I would be close enough to it that way, but would do the dungeons then, so the maximum amount of characters got the extra level. I relied a lot on Suzume my first few games as well, but these two recent playthroughs, she was almost purely a scouting characters; I’d use Kanami quite a bit, though. As good as his move is, I actually use Seigan a lot less, too. Probably because you get him so late in the game, and by then I already have close to 30 commanders that are capable of doing the damage necessary to beat just about anything (well, with a few I end up using for scouting/their character clears.)

    I usually do the same route I mentioned above; last game was the first time I varied from it. After I get those territories, I feel I can do a whole lot more. Senhime usually comes shortly after that, and then depending on the route I try to get Souun/Ran. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the capability of diviners. If you do end up playing a new game with some points to spare, I can’t recommend Elina enough. Especially if you can pick up the protection paper or Turban. Makes it easy to take over territories (including the castle for the first few houses) with 2-3 people.

  25. Tier says:

    Yeah, I didn’t have many decent commanders so Seigan was sorta an interchangeable A-team/B-team commander … usually tossed out Yamamoto for him since archers don’t seem that great towards the end of the game (I mainly kept her in the A-team since she’s sort of a main character). I probably should fire up Sengoku Rance again and try macking on Kenshin; maybe after I clear some of these console games out of my backlog.

  26. Shashin says:

    I had an almost perfect A team going on for me last game. Archers are okay, but they seem largely underpowered when you have tacticians capable of high damage and other capabilities they bring, nuke characters like Maria, ninjas capable of knocking down preparation/assassination, miko and their healing/storm, and so on. With that said, I still use archers quite frequently; only really Yamamoto and Niwa. Niwa is pretty weak unless you want to spend books on him, but I always found him oddly reliable, plus it saves me wasting Defeated Warrior Hunt on a good character. Yamamoto is also a bit weak unless you invest in her, but if you do she has some great potential. Her special ability you can get that allows you to penetrate the front row is great. It has saved me quite a few times from taking a hit from their diviner/getting hit with an assassination, all because they had a guard in the back (or even the front) row that I couldn’t kill who I needed to in time.

    In the playthrough I’m doing now I decided to save the game, and squander a few turns so I could see the Kenshin rape scene that I had absolutely refused to get previously, before loading the game back up. I managed to end the last game with something like 72 points, so I had 87ish points to burn. I didn’t end up doing everything I wanted to do. Some of the randomness in the game really pisses me off. It was the first time I had ever captured Agireda, and i wanted to get her clear, which requires you to fight the Shimazu brothers. So I sent Rance out every fucking chance I got, sometimes with a weak army in hopes of baiting them, and over the course of taking the Motonari land (not Demon Army) to all of Africa, they never attacked. And I also needed the Kenshin battle event to get her H scene, but sure enough every time I sent the two of them together Rance would talk to someone else. So the clear wasn’t even close to optimal, even though I did pretty damn well. I would have finished a good 10 turns earlier if I had given up on Agireda early on, but I had never seen her H scene so I really wanted to get to it.

  27. Tier says:

    Ah, yes, I did the same thing with that scene (which is a really cool scene). I didn’t even know you could capture Agireda; I always beat her right near the end of the game since her armies were huge (though I play through fairly slowly, I suppose).

  28. Shashin says:

    Even if I try to play through at a slower pace, I tend to try and blitz my way through. I don’t like wasting a turn, and I frequently reload if I lose a battle (even if no one is killed. Africa is generally my last destination, but these last few games I’ve tried to go a different route. You can only get her hentai scene in the True route, I think, so I really wanted to get it as I wasn’t sure how many times I’d play through and I hadn’t seen the scene before. I figured you could capture/acquire her; I just never had been lucky enough to do so.

    I took more time on my Kill the Monkey play through, as I wanted to hit all the objectives. I got 5/6 treasures, then screwed myself because you need Iga’s commander for the last one. I captured Iga early on, but didn’t sweat it because I knew there’s an event where he retakes Iga from you. I waited a few turns while I built up my commanders for Orochi, and it never happened. I then spent even more time leveling up for Orochi, only to have the fight be a pushover.

    I probably could have stopped leveling up a good 10 or so turns and defeated him without too much of a problem. After that, I just had the One Eyed house to conquer. Didn’t get any points from the clear, as I ended with about 76 points, and my previous clear was 82 (you only get the highest value clear counted), and the Kill the Monkey doesn’t count as a route to give you a 5 point bonus. Still, it was fun, and I got to see a few scenes I hadn’t seen before, as well as clearing characters I’d never bothered with.

  29. Cantan says:

    Just curious, but is there another version of Isoroku without the much maligned base?

    Only ask as I’ve seen one on ebay (from a US seller) in the same stance and apparently the same figure with a clear plastic oval base

  30. Tier says:

    I don’t believe so; I’m guessing that was a picture of an early sample, before the base was finalized. I’ve noticed a lot of figure manufacturers show off their prototypes with transparent bases, whereas the production figures get colored bases with printed graphics and stuff on them.

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