Last updated on December 18th, 2025 at 08:55 am
Nobunaga's Ambition – Strategy Game Review
Nobunaga's Ambition is a Strategy/Simulation/Entertainment game from KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD., first launched in 18th August 2010.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 31+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Nobunaga's Ambition Stand Out
A new version of the app has been released.
The details are as follows:
[Bug fixes]
Fixed the problem that GPS function can not be used on iOS 8 or later terminal.
Fixed various bugs within the app.
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The standard-bearer in historical simulation gaming, “Nobunaga’s Ambition”, is available at last on iPhone and iPod touch. This title is a strategic historical simulation game set against the backdrop of the struggle for power played out by the mighty warlords of Warring States-era Japan. You will play as one of these warlords (daimyo), among them the revolutionary Nobunaga Oda, the “Tiger of Kai” Shingen Takeda, and the “Dragon of Echigo” Kenshin Uesugi, and fight for control of the 50 fiefdoms of ancient Japan, from Ezo in the north to Kyushu in the south.
Game Features
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A return to the roots of the “Nobunaga’s Ambition” series.
The “Nobunaga’s Ambition” series has continued to evolve over the many years of its existence, but this title is its foundation, with its simple yet addictive game play and stylish presentation. The beautifully appropriate musical score is back, and the touch controls on the iPhone / iPod touch version make it easier to play than ever before.
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A cast of unique characters.
This title features over 50 unique daimyo, each striving to control his own fief, and eventually to unify the land. Each player can find their favorite, and lead them to glory. Use the GPS feature within Japan to strengthen the Daimyo who controlled the fief you're currently in. -
The twin pillars of domestic government and war.
To hire and train troops and prepare for war, you must procure funds through the development of commerce and agriculture in your fief. Timing is crucial when it comes to the right moment to launch a strike against another fief―achieving the perfect balance between development and militarism is the only way to unite the land. Learn the basics of strategy and warfare with the easy and intuitive tutorial.
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New original features.
The iPhone / iPod touch version of the game contains new original features such as the ability to create your own daimyo, a game mode that allows you to extend your life infinitely, and the ability to play your own music playlists as background music in the game. Now you can create your very own vision of the Warring States-era that suits the way you want to play.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Nobunaga's Ambition is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 14th February 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
[Bug fixes]
Fixed the problem that GPS function can not be used on iOS 8 or later terminal.
Fixed various bugs within the app.
Download & Availability
Nobunaga's Ambition is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Nobunaga's Ambition on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Unlike the RTK2 theres no generals or officials in this game, which could be a disappointment for some as lack of depth, but also making this strategic game easier to adapt to for non Japanese players. You dont need any historical knowledge to enjoy the game. Just focus on the basics of strategic games, finding the right balance between strength and resources, and maneuvering according to opportunities or threats around you. You can even turn off the battle command if you only want to focus on the strategic side.
Well done! Nobunga was our favorite Nintendo title growing up. Hesitated for awhile to purchase this iOS version, partly due to negative reviews (and mostly lack of time to play). Now, after playing for a few days over the holidays, we are exceptionally pleased with this app and would easily recommend to anyone else wanting to reminisce. The developer spent a lot of time putting this app together, especially in making it true to the original. Gameplay is just like the NES version (but less clunky) and brings back lots of memories. App hasnt crashed once. You can just lock the screen or switch to something else and later pick up exactly where you left off. We love that you can play at your own pace (turn-based) and dont need WiFi/data or any multiplayer nonsense. Some additional instructions would have been nice. But again its so similar to the NES version, a quick download and review of the old NES manual was sufficient to remind us how the game mechanics work (e.g., unit types). Zooming into the map to select specific fiefs could be easier, as could an option to speed up repetitive turn-based choices. But overall, this game is (just as it was decades ago) a lot of fun.
We attempted this game on the old school shades of green game boy… Didn't understand it as a kid. We've got a bit of strategy under our belt now and totally dig it! It's a VERY slow paced game, not for someone looking for an instant gratification action game. Simple clean presentation, but extremely deep gameplay. Well done.
We have no idea why there are bad reviews. Most complaints we have read are people that just dont know how to play. We almost didnt buy it based on the bad reviews. Luckily it was just the people reviewing the game that is the problem and the game itself is pretty good. And $10 is a lot for an app but not really for this kind of game. Not perfect but its a good game.
If you enjoyed this on your Nintendo system back in the day, you will not be disappointed. Exact same game play. Lots of fun.
The game concept itself is great, but Im not really sure how to play. How do we get gold? Once we spend it its all gone and we cant do anything. People always have bigger armys then us. Its very difficult and the tutorial doesnt help much.
This version is quite faithful to the original version on the SNES. Ive played Koei games for three decades, and this classic still holds up well. The gameplay is very straightforward, considering all the options you have available. We love the music; it takes us back to a more pleasant time. Excellent all around. We noticed some negative reviews. The issues discussed in these reviews can be fixed very simply: 1. On your first term, adjust your tax rate to 50%. You wont have a decent harvest otherwise. 2. Early on, focus on domestics; Town, Dam, and Land. 3. In battle, numbers are most important. If you have a large, numerical advantage, training and morale are much less important. By the middle of our most recent campaign, we wasnt training troops at all, but simply recruiting soldiers and pressing forward. 4. Dont forget to arrange your troops. We prefer to take all the soldiers from units 4 and 5 and put them in the first 3 units, so our ideal arrangement is Infantry (Commander) 35%, Cavalry, 44%, Rifles, 21%. Fewer, larger units are much better as you can bring more of your force down on the enemy at any given time. It makes movement much easier, too. 5. Be sure to rest occasionally. Preserving your Daimyos health is paramount. Your daimyo dying of old age is the main way campaigns are lost. For this reason, a younger daimyo is much better than an older one, as you have much more time to conquer the land. 6. One good way to expand is by using a ninja to assassinate event daimyo. ONLY USE ONE NINJA! Multiple will fail. If you dont succeed, dont make a second attempt, just accept that that ruler has to be taken out in battle, and move on to the next target. The enemy can retaliate if you fail, and you will lose 10-15 points of health, if they do so, which is no good! Also, remember to have a great amount of money saved up in your home province, so that you can bid for the murdered enemys territory. A bid of 500 or so is usually more than enough. Thats it! This is a great game. If you are patient and halfway-bright, you will find playing this game to be a rewarding experience. Its considered a classic turn-based strategy game for good reasons.
If you enjoy doing one action and then touching the screen twenty times to get through all the enemies turns, this game might be for you! Add in looking up how to play the game because you start out with no food and the gold goes to upgrade your province. After two hundred more enemy messages, enjoy getting your 15 gold and 8 food a year. Heavy taxation there! And maybe five years into the game, youll have enough food and gold to attack! All the while the computer is attacking left and right as you look at your low gold and food numbers that inch up each year. Its a blast if you are the semi-conscious player.
Was playing game then nobunaga died, now all territories are silver and we cant beat the game.
We love this game. Spent countless hours back in the 80's playing the original version on our Nintendo system. It has a great balance of strategy and randomness that makes it fun to play over and over again. We wish it was available to play on our MacBook Pro too. All in all we're very happy we can play this game once again. Please make more games like this. Thank you.
If you know what this game is, you should be buying it. No in app purchase crap, just a classic game remade for the iPhone. We have played many hours, particularly on planes, and it is exactly what you should expect. Great game.
We love this game, along with ROTK 2, but it is really overpriced.
Love how the game is, it has us full support.
We were so happy when we found this game on here. Played it so much on the NES. Love this game and agree with another review that hopes for the release of Genghis Khan as well. The game can be hard at first till you learn the strategies, but that's part of the fun. We don't like games you can beat too easily.
We don't see any bug draining out gold and food. Did you check the city tax rate (in the game)? So far so good. We enjoy it. Hope they have Genghis Khan on iPad too.
First off, we LOVE THIS GAME!! We have been playing this game in all its forms ever since we found it on the original NES. The iPhone version is very fun and such an amazing time killer. BUT…it's a little disappointing that we have our Order & Wealth maxed out, as well as army morale, yet there will be times when EVERY SINGLE FIEF we own revolts or the peasants rise up. We can understand a couple uprisings/revolts from time to time. But with maxed army morale and Order, we should never have the majority of our fiefs turn on us. We're guessing it's a "rng" bug? Fix this and we'll give this awesome game a 5.
The new update is really good, so far, we enjoy playing the first game of a really great series. But we do have a suggestion…is there a way in a future update we could get multiplayer, perhaps? If so, thanks! :) look forward to future updates.
Why is the easiest difficulty so freaking hard? We can't enjoy it because we die too easily. This is a game right.
We love this game we own every single Nobunaga's Ambition from NES to PS3 and know this we already bought it and passed it. It may be challenging but fun at the same time we reccommeded this game to every simulation and Nobunaga's Ambition Fan.
Glad we picked this game. It reminds us of all the time spent playing it on the old nintendo game system. We have not experienced any of the bugs on level 1,2, or 3 that some folks mentioned. We just pick the best guy for us and play for hours. We have defeated the game on all three levels so far. Even when the game puts all our fiefs in uprising sometimes. We just retake them. Remember , this is a strategy game not a cake walk.
This game is a bit intimidating at first but if you do the tutorials and look up some of the old NES strategy guides you will be well on your way to dominating the map. We gave it 4 stars because it is a great strategy game with quite a bit of depth. It's the type of game you can play for hours until your phone dies. A couple of problems: – a lot of things are hard to click on and the map is hard to zoom and unzoom – there needs to be an easier way to view army details in a province, it currently takes too many clicks In regards to level 1 being bugged, we don't think it is because we can beat it every time now, it's pretty easy if you pick the right daimyo and survive for a few turns.
This had potential, but it is very average and VERY expensive for the quality. We bought for the nostalgia but the product manager should commit shikiri.
We would like to see the battle interaction improved, something like the nes version of Shingen the Warrior would make this game a top seller IMO. Looking forward to any improvements you guys have in progress.
We really REALLY wanted to like this game- so much so that we purchased it just to do our consumer's part in encouraging KOEI to continue production of these classic gems. Unfortunately we can't get past the fact you have to use gimmicks to win. The AI seems competent enough in exploiting weak fiefdoms that on at least one of the difficulty settings they should not be given extra turns. Keep it up Koei.
Awesome~! It's too hard, but very excited. We'll wating for new ver. And sell in Korea.
It plays great! A bit challenging than the original (which means better AI). A perfect port for the iPhone. Just awesome.
We loved this game when we used to play it it on the NES and SNES it is just as fun now. We wish Koei would make a Genghis Khan or Operation Europe for the iPhone/iPod.
Nobunaga's ambition is one of the all time greatest games. It is not an easy game. Those who write bad reviews need to learn the strategy. Thanks koei for making this for iPod.
This game is essentially the original with a few tweaks to get it on the iPhone and a new process for creating your Daimyo. Anyone who loved the original will love this! We got it 2 days ago and can't put it down. Well worth the price. Note to people who write bad reviews because a game is hard, lame! To those comparing it to ROTK, it's not the same game! It wasn't originally either. Sheesh! If you learn how to play this game, it's a blast.
Koei has done a good job bringing the classic Nobunaga's Ambition to the small screen. The game is worth many hours of fun and it is worthy of replay if you try different gameplay styles. If you are a long standing fan of the orginal 8-bit Koei titles this game was tailored just for you. Positives: + Excellent game play with a few random events adding the element of surprise. + Wonderful sound track and effects + Beautiful cut scenes + Save system is automatic and/or you have 3 manual slots. Negatives: – Level 1 (easy) is bugged and is worse than the most difficult level – Spy details on the Daimyo screen are wrong (rare issue) – There needs to be an option to personally take over a battle at the time of the battle and not just simple toggle in the options – The help menu needs more detail and needs to give at least an overview of ever option and a blurb about what each statistic represents. – The pinch to expand the map isnt touchy enough and takes many finger expansions to get the screen to maximum. Gameplay Tips: 1) Look at what the computer is doing around you. Keep a close eye on military build up. 2) Right from the start, sell your food to the merchant, use the cash to boost your army and your town. 3) Get your town about 750, then get your farm to 250, then give food/gold to your peasants to increase morale. 4) Ignore building the dam until your town is over 1000 and your farm is over 500 (the computer does this as well). 5) Keep your army trained up to max at all times! 6) Save often! Quickly addressing other reviewers observations: 1) "It's too hard" –> There definitely is an issue (bug) with level 1 (easy), it is insanely difficult. Put the game on level 2. You will find it plays much better. 2) You cant affect the outcomes of the battles –> Most of the time this is fairly true. However, there are times when the computer will badly place its leader unit and you can trap it, thus ending the battle without expending too many forces. Also, if you simulate the battles all the time, the computer will eventually badly place your leader unit and even though it was 1400 troops versus 100, you will lose and suddenly the enemy will have 1500 units.
It may not be the best version, but is playable and on the go. Way expensive for what you get. We would have settled for the snes version. The music is awesome to hear again.
It cost only about 200 golds to hire a bunch of ninjas to sucessfully murder a strong opponent's daimyo. Instant game over for them! No strong army, economy, or diplomacy is necessary to win this game. This game should be called "Ninjas' War".
The last Koei game we'll buy. Rtk Touch was bad enough. You had a blueprint from the old gameboy version. WTH is this.
We were really exited wen we found out about this. We thought it was gonna be like the rotk version but it's doesn't even come close we mean all u can do in battle is attack instead of being able to set fire to enemy units and we thought there was gonna be gernerals in this game like mitsuhide akechi but there's just the commander. We don't kni if this is a glitch but wen we play the computer always build their armies faster than us even wen we concentrate on recruiting troops. Needs an update fast.
The other Koei classic available on the iDevices, RotTK, is unplayable on it's version 1.1 due to the damage received because of natural events. Didn't try the new version yet. As for the game, it's very hard and we couldn't built an army good enough to last more than 1 hour, even if we focused only on military commands the computer had better developed fiefs and armies… Any way, for this price we can't recommend… Get a Computer Game instead of paying, what we consider, an expensive sum of money for an iDevice game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.4
- Size: 292.56 MB
- iOS: 6.1 or later
- Languages: EN, JA
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.
Last updated: 14th February 2017 | Genre: Strategy, Simulation | Developer: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.