Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 67 | 5 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 50% | 52 | 499 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 100% | 97 | 1 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 1 reviews sampled · 2 total reviews in window · weighted 1 up / 0 down · computed 3h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (18)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 60
“Pretty good strategy game overall. The combat is engaging, the number of characters is vast, and the delegate feature is pretty handy. However, the graphics are rather subpar.”
read full review ↗ - 30
“Considering this is the fifteenth in the franchise, Koei Tecmo took a big risk by trying to attract an all new audience and it failed spectacularly. Understanding where Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi came from can help to explain it. It was released not just for PC originally, but for tablet also, hence the big changes and simplified features. In this bold move, Koei Tecmo managed to not only drive away its loyal fan-base but also fail to bring in any new fans to the series. Ultimately, the final product is just dull, too simple to appeal to the hardcore, and too dense to appeal to the casual. It's hard to see who could enjoy this outside of hardcore J-History buffs and, even then, a textbook would be more entertaining.”
read full review ↗ - 30
“I really hate tearing down games because nobody sets out to purposefully make a bad game and people put passion and effort into Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi, but not only does this game fail on its own merits, the fact that this is the 15th entry in an acclaimed series makes it even more disappointing. The way it tries to hide its lack of depth is almost insulting, and not even a decent character system can save it.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi has some small bugbears with its presentation, but thankfully nothing that hurts that core strategy experience too badly. It is one of the few of its kind that mixes both the excitement of battles and the mundanity of managing politics, while making both engaging. The UI designs and tutorials making the game an excellent place for genre fans to give it a try. An easy recommend for the kind of player who's sunk hundreds of hours into Civilization or Total War.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi is a slow-moving strategy game that needs long hours of play, a complex user interface and a smooth and annoying system of instructions rather than being useful to newcomers. On the other hand, the title provides many historical information about feudal Japan and real characters and battles from this era.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi is a game that feels like a more approachable version of what's come before, both for returning players and new ones alike.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Nobunaga’s Ambition: Taishi possesses many good qualities. Its extreme complexity makes it a top notch historic sim for every veteran but, on the other hand, results being inaccessible to all newcomers. Those who will invest their bodies and souls in Koei Tecmo’s new title will get a highly satisfying experience: if you’re not among these brave players, it would better to try something less demanding.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi is an interesting, but painfully slow and uninvolving strategy game that I want to praise more, but in comparison to its contemporaries, I can't help but feel it still needs work. Shame, as the strategy flavor of Nobunaga's Ambition has always appealed to me, but in practice it feels sluggish and makes me yearn for strategy games I'll enjoy that much more.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Sadly, all its clever systems end up centering on warfare, and it is in warfare where Taishi too often fails to deliver. For every pitched battle ending in an exhilarating upset victory, there were a dozen that left me feeling like they were wasting my time. Despite all the clever tools in Kou Shibusawa’s thirty-year vision for historical simulation, I frequently had no way to create a new history for a unified Japan without marching into the inevitable. ”
read full review ↗ - 60
“As a turn-based strategy game that should have offered more depth with the amount of time that you spend on it, Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi is disappointingly shallow and fails to carry on the long legacy for a series that is known for its incredibly complex and deep strategical implementation of ancient Japan.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi is an excellent addition to the grand strategy game genre. It provides an historically accurate setting with a lot of story from actual conflicts during the Sengoku period. Requiring good strategy planning and governance, the game provides a difficult setting to enjoy massive warfare on a grand scale. If you're a fan of the Sengoku period, or just a fan of grand strategy games, you'll fall in love with the in-depth features offered by Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi!”
read full review ↗ - 100
“This is the kind of game I can sit down to and play for an entire evening without realising how much time was slipping. It's always "just one more turn," or "just one more battle", and even after all these years of playing Koei's strategy and action games set through the Sengoku period, and reading books about it, I'm always impressed that Koei Tecmo manages to teach me something new each time it releases something in the franchise.”
read full review ↗
cublikefoot
Cubed3
GameWatcher
GamingBolt
IGN
GameSpew
Eurogamer
Wccftech
GearNuke
GameSpace
Digitally Downloaded…and 6 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Update info for "NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: TAISHI with Power Up Kit" (05/30/2019)May 30, 2019significant · resets scoring window
- 『信長の野望･大志 with パワーアップキット』アップデート情報（2019/04/11）Apr 11, 2019
- 『信長の野望･大志』アップデート情報（2019/04/11）Apr 11, 2019
- 『信長の野望･大志 with パワーアップキット』アップデート情報（2019/03/28）Mar 28, 2019significant · resets scoring window
- 『信長の野望･大志』アップデート情報（2019/03/28）Mar 28, 2019
- Update Info for "NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: TAISHI" (03/14/2019)Mar 14, 2019significant · resets scoring window
- Update Info for "NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: TAISHI with Power Up Kit" (03/14/2019)Mar 14, 2019significant · resets scoring window
- UntitledFeb 14, 2019
- UntitledFeb 14, 2019
- Update information (06/28/2018)Jun 28, 2018significant · resets scoring window
- Update information (06/05/2018)Jun 5, 2018
- Update information (04/26/2018)Apr 26, 2018significant · resets scoring window
- Additional DLC just released (03/30/2018)Mar 30, 2018
- Update information (03/30/2018)Mar 30, 2018
- Update information (03/30/2018)Mar 30, 2018
- Update information (03/08/2018)Mar 8, 2018significant · resets scoring window
- Update information (03/08/2018)Mar 8, 2018
- Update information (2018/01/18)Jan 18, 2018
- Update information (2018/01/18)Jan 18, 2018
- Update information (2018/01/09)Jan 9, 2018significant · resets scoring window
- Update information (2018/01/09)Jan 9, 2018significant · resets scoring window
- Update information (2017/12/08)Dec 8, 2017
- Update information (2017/12/08)Dec 8, 2017
- Update information (2017/12/01)Dec 1, 2017
- Update information (2017/12/01)Dec 1, 2017