Greetings. In light of the story I just reviewed, I'd like to talk about Pokémon Conquest a bit more. Now, this isn't going to be why it's great or deserving of more attention, just about the few little extras in it you probably never noticed. No, I'm not talking about the time when Motonari referenced Pokeballs, Kenshin and Shingen's five battles or Mitsuhide's Rebellion, I'm referring to the more subtle moments that are laced throughout the game. So why don't we take a look?
Arceus the Critic
5 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About Pokémon Conquest
Number 5: Pokémon Got Aurora's Name Wrong
Now, I imagine you're thinking how that is possible. And while this technically isn't in the game, I figured it was such a glaring error that it had to be addressed. You see, on the official English Pokémon Conquest site (which is still up to the best of my knowledge), they explain that you start off playing as the young Warlord of the Primus Kingdom. Not Aurora, but Primus.
What's worse is that this was one of the earliest entries on the site, so they had plenty of chances to fix this gaffe, but made no effort whatsoever. If you go there today, the mistake is still there for all to see.
Number 4: Historical In-Jokes
There are so many, so I will just list them out to save time:
While this is probably the most obvious; Hideyoshi's historical nickname was Monkey. I think you can fill in the blanks from there.
Nobunaga, who was suddenly betrayed and killed by Mitsuhide, uses Dragon Types while Mitsuhide uses Ice Types. Whereas Hideyoshi, who killed Mitsuhide to avenge Nobunaga, uses both Fire and Fighting. Likewise Ieyasu and Hideyoshi were rivals, and both have type advantages and disadvantages to cancel each other out; Fire/Fighting V.S Metal/Rock.
When Nobunaga is defeated by friendly fire, he will remark "How Fitting", which is another allusion to his historical death, and possibly him even mocking it.
At the end of Hanbei's story he starts coughing up a storm, and denies getting sick to Hideyoshi and Kanbei, which is a reference to the consumption that brought an untimely demise to him.
Despite Yoshimoto being an awful fighter, he is a good administrator due to his above average stats, which is a reference to the fact that he left most of the fighting to Sessai (who is one of the only named generic characters to speak in the main story), while he managed his fief.
Whenever Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide are in opposing armies during a capture the flag battle, both will have their energy maxed out after trading words, which is alluding to the historical battle of Yamazaki, where both rushed to seize Mt. Tenno before the other could. Likewise, when Nobunaga and Mitsuhide clash for the first time, both of their energy will increase as well.
Shigen's Rank II ability; Furin Kazan, is literally translated to "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain". That ability is a reference to passages from the Art of War that Shingen made as his standard: "as swift as wind, as silent as forest, as fierce as fire, as unshakeable as mountain."
Historically, Ginchiyo and Muneshige's marriage was very tense, to the point where they even lived in different castles at one point. This is represented by the fact that to Transform both have to be in the same army but in non-adjacent castles.
And finally: While all the Rank I designs are based off the characters from Samurai Warriors 3, with Rank II being more based on Pokémon, Nobunaga's Rank I sprite is actually based off his young Kessen III appearance, while Hideyoshi's base I sprite draws inspiration from both his Samurai Warriors and Samurai Warriors 2 designs, with both their Rank II being based on SW3. Not exactly historical, but still interesting nonetheless.
Number 3: Nobunaga Was Right
I suppose you are wondering why I would claim this, especially since Nobunaga became desperate enough in the final battle that he wanted to kill me. Well, why don't we take a look at his motives?
In both his and the Hero/ine's stories, he is sick of how decadent Ransei has become in their hapless pursuit of yours truly, and how cruel they got to each other and their partners in the process. While he tried to reason with people, they decried him as a fool. When Nobunaga realized that people could not be reasoned with through words he had to become the very thing he hated to bring about peace.
One could argue that the Hero's way was better; uniting the Kingdoms and linking with me to end the squabbling... but what would happen once the Hero passed on? People would naturally start fighting over me again, and Nobunaga knew this. He saw how decadent society had become and realized that he would not be able to reason with them.
After all, how could you reason with people who had become so calloused? The only way to force them to see reason was remove or destroy the object they were fighting over to begin with, which would create a long term, if not drastic, solution. While I would later return, I left for the time being in hopes that Ransei would manage to calm down and start to enjoy battles for their own sake rather than for what was on the line.
So even in defeat, Nobunaga still won the war.
Number 2: Ransei is Modern
Yes, I imagine this comes as a bit of a shock to many of you. At first glance, Ransei look very medieval, but upon closer examination, it ends there; the designers were only trying to make it look medieval, not actually be medieval beyond a semi-feudal society and dress.
Many of the giveaways are either obvious or become obvious upon closer examination: Motonari references Pokeballs being used in other regions, Valora is equipped with security cameras, Violight has a power plant, all the banks have computers, blimps are used to move warriors between non-adjacent kingdoms, and Kenshin has Mewtwo as a partner.
Number 1: Keiji Makes a Star Trek Reference
Yes, Keiji, the wild, wandering warrior with Terrakion as his partner, makes a Star Trek reference. No, I'm not joking.
Whenever you activate his ability he will say "Set your faces to stunned!", which is a pun on the classic line "Set phasers to stun". I really can't say anything else about it, it's just a funny little detail that's completely out of left field.
Well, I think that concludes this. If there was something I missed, feel free to tell me.
The End
Credits:
Pokémon Conquest
Star Trek