Ishin no Arashi: Endgame

January 1st of 1859 I had just converted Satsuma and all provinces of Kyushu but one, a Bakufu province, were kogi. I had planned to start moving Ryoma, Yodo, and Naosuke back to Honshu to convert more yuhans. However my job was made substantially easier in that Mori Takachika, the lord of the powerful yuhan Choshu, was running around in Kagoshima, so I didn't have to go anywhere. It took a few days of persuasion and I had to chase him down as he ran from town, but I eventually recruited him.

Mori Takachika's stats aren't all that great, but he's worth recruiting if only for control of Choshu.

Mori Takachika doesn't have much info in his English Wikipedia entry, but was an important figure in late-Edo/Early Meiji. Since before the bakufu was even founded, Choshu had been opposed to Tokguawa rule and as its hanshu, Mori was a thorn in its side. An early supporter of Sonno-joi, Mori Takachika defied the bakufu and openly warred with the Western powers until their combined might crushed his ability to fight. The bakufu had punitive expeditions launched against him for his continued defiance (and sending troops to the capital to fight bakufu troops). Eventually Mori moved to a more kaikoku philosophy and joined forces with Western powers to defeat the bakufu. With their help he modernized his troops, which would play an important role in the overthrow of the bakufu.

Recruiting and converting Mori was a big deal--it spelled the beginning of the end of the sonno faction. Satsuma and Choshu are the two most powerful sonno hans--now the only others remaining were Mito and Geishu.

While Ryoma was chasing down Mori Takachika, I had the Satsuma army attack Nagasaki in the province of Hizen, only to discover a huge enemy force about twice the size of my 6000-man-strong force. Even playing really well in the combat mini-game and only engaging the Troop-1 army guarding Nagasaki castle, I lost several thousand troops through attrition alone.

Despite having fewer soldiers than me, the better-armed and better-trained Hizen army had significantly more attack power than I did.

I did eventually conquer Nagasaki and thus Hizen, but it cost me more than half my troops, and from my most powerful army to boot. Fortunately with the lucky recruitment of Mori Takachika, I had an army almost as good guarding Choshu castle. However the Choshu-2 mobile army was very weak--probably because I annhilated it when it attempted to attack Yodo earlier. However, it just so happened that unit was in the same screen as the final Kaientai member I needed, Ike Kurata. I had them follow him around until Ryoma could get there to recruit him.

I finally cornered Kurata in the mountains of Geishu, where Ryoma got his Trust up to almost 80--but completely ran out of energy. Kurata still had a bit left--he escaped and ran off somewhere. Chasing him down was becoming a recurring theme of this game.

With several new, capable characters under my control, I rearranged them into slightly new groups:

• Yamanouchi Yodo and Ii Naosuke, who started working the Chugoku area of western Honshu
• Mutsu Munemitsu and Inaba Masakuni who worked the Tohoku northeastern region
• Mori Takachika who "patrolled" the Shin'etsu region between Kyoto and Edo to make sure it stayed kogi
• Shimazu Tadayoshi who likewise "patrolled" Kyushu
• Nagaoka Kenkichi, Shingu Umanosuke, and Kondo Chojiro who worked Shikoku
• Ryoma himself who went where he was needed.

The remaining yuhans were challenging because none of their hanshu stayed put--they were wandering around the country trying to convert other hans so they were hard to find. Takachika did run into the hanshu of Nagaoka, Makino Tadayuki, in the the middle of the mountains in central Japan. Munemitsu and Masakuni joined Takachika in an attempt to convert him.

However, converting Tadayuki would prove difficult. My characters were on par with him in terms of levels, but even still, if I attempted to debate domestic policy he'd have a "blood pressure" (血圧) bar that if filled would risk him getting angry.

There's a somewhat sneaky way around this that I employed, though. Debating foreign policy will never produce a "blood pressure" bar, so I had my three characters debate Tadayuki about foreign policy until he was completely exhausted. Only then did I start debating domestic policy. Exhausted characters can't fill their Blood Pressure bar, so it was a way to avoid that risk.

You usually need multiple characters to pull this trick off.

I eventually converted Tadayuki, adding one more yuhan to those converted. Shortly after, I used the same tactic with Yamanouchi Yodo and Inaba Masakuni to convert Asano Naritaka, the hanshu of Geishu. With Geishu turning kogi, the only remaining sonno han was Mito, on the east coast of Japan.

While returning to Tosa from their various expeditions conquering bakufu-controlled provinces, the Tosa army ran across Ike Kurata once more, who was hanging out in the middle of the mountains. This time, to keep him from running while Ryoma came back to Tosa to recruit him, I stationed characters in every screen near where Kurata was so I could ensure he didn't get away. And this time it worked--towards the end of February, I finally managed to recruit Ike Kurata and form the Kaientai.

This took way longer than I wanted it to.

I didn't mention before exactly why I was so focused on forming the Kaientai in the first place, and this late in the game its benefits were not as great as they would have been earlier, but here's the main benefits of forming the Kaientai:

• All Kaientai members have their rank changed to "Kaientai" which is the equivalent of a jushin in terms of debate. (Ironically this meant Ryoma, who was a karo, took a hit here)
• Once the Kaientai is formed, all of its members get a huge experience boost. Low level characters can go up over 10 levels.
• When using a seaport, instead of being taken to that port's destination, Kaientai members are given a choice of destination from any of the other seaports in the game.

That last perk is the most important one--Kaientai members get mobility around the country like no other characters in the game. Trips that would take more than a week even with existing fast travel methods can be done in a single day with Kaientai members. 

Now as Kaientai members, even formerly worthless characters like Kondo Chojiro and Shingu Umanosuke were capable of converting low-level hanshu and almost any karo or jushin in the game. And Mutsu Munemitsu was now a powerhouse capable of converting yuhans singlehandedly.

By the end of February, Japan was starting to look very blue.

All bakufu-controlled provinces outside of Yamashiro and Musashi (where Kyoto and Edo are respectively) had been conquered. All yuhans but Aizu, Sendai, and Mito had been converted to kogi. While managing my hans at the end of February, I shuffled several armies and sent the combined forces of Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa--over 30,000 troops--to Yodo castle, right outside of Kyoto. I had never conquered the Imperial Palace through military force before and wanted to see what would happen.

There were only a half-dozen or so remaining hans to convert, but that was easier said than done. In all of them, the hanshu were out and about somewhere else in the country, and weren't at home in their castles.

Fortunately, there's a method for tracking wandering hanshu down. If you recruit either bushi or shishi bodyguards in a province, they'll tell you where the local hanshu is. For example, I had a character recruit some bushi in Tottori (the one yellow holdout in west Japan) and after winning the debate, they told me "The hanshu is in Yonezawa," Yonezawa being a province in the Tohoku northern region. So I could direct one of my closer characters (since going from Tottori to Yonezawa is going to take forever, kaientai or not) to Yonezawa in an attempt to find him.

Still, this isn't a foolproof method of finding errant hanshu as they may have moved on by the time you reach the area you were told they're at. This happened to me several times.

I did, however, discover that Matsudaira Katamori, the hanshu of Aizu, was just sitting at home in his castle, so I had Ryoma himself attempt to convert him.

Aizu is the sabaku equivalent of Choshu; it can never be converted to sonno through debate and needs to be conquered. It can, however, be converted to kogi, and that's just what I had Ryoma do. This was not at all difficult, as Ryoma was practically at the level cap of 43 and Katamori was only at level 28.

It took only a few debates to convert Katamori entirely.

 For good measure, I recruited Katamori as well--Aizu is a very powerful han and worth controlling directly.

Matsudaira Katamori was an interesting figure in the Bakumatsu period. He's famous for supporting the bakufu and fighting against the pro-imperial forces in the Boshin War, but it wasn't entirely from his own desires. In 1862, he was appointed Kyoto Shugoshoku by the bakufu, largely against his own will. The Kyoto Shugoshoku was responsible for keeping order in the city of Kyoto--a difficult task, as Kyoto was a hotbed of sonno-joi activity and political assassinations at the time. As Kyoto Shugoshoku, Matsudaira Katamori sponsored several city patrol units, such as the famous shinsengumi. When things came to a head in the battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868, Katamori's Aizu troops fought for the Shogun in Kyoto and were crushed by the combined Satsuma-Choshu armies, and then crushed again at Aizu itself in the battle of Aizu. In the interim between those battles, Matsudaira Katamori tried to make good with the Imperial court, but the Satsuma/Choshu victors would not let him off, angry at him for his former work as Kyoto Shugoshoku. However, despite being on the losing side, Katamori did survive the period, escaping execution, and went on to be a priest post-Restoration.

Note that Katamori is level 27 here--he lost a level debating with Ryoma. If you lose a debate, you also lose experience.

Aizu's army was big--but it was in severe danger the second I recruited Katamori. It was currently on the same screen as Edo castle--the most heavily-defended sabaku province in the game. Now a kogi army, it was grossly outnumbered by the tens of thousands of bakufu troops nearby, so I had it beat a hasty retreat out of the city.

With the conversion of Aizu, there were just two yuhans left to convert--Mito and Sendai. I sent Mutsu Munemitsu and Inaba Masakuni to Mito to see if they could convert it, but the hanshu of Sendai was nowhere to be found. I sent Kondo Chojiro to Sendai to recruit local bushi and shishi to find out where he was, and it appeared that he was wandering central Japan somewhere. Every other character I combined in one massive party to follow whatever lead Chojiro came up with.

Meanwhile my massive army had reached Kyoto. Strangely enough one of Kyoto's military units was nowhere to be found, so there were a "mere" 6000 soldiers guarding the imperial palace. That would seem to be easy pickings for 30000+ troops--but it wasn't at all. Despite being less well trained and outnumbered 5 to 1, the castle's defense gave the defending troops a decisive advantage over mine.

As you can see from the attack power bars, the defending soldiers had a huge advantage.

Despite doing well in the fighting minigame, it took two days to whittle down the defenders to the point I could conquer the castle, and I lost about as many troops as I killed, if not more. And when I conquered the palace...nothing happened. Yamashiro just reverted to my control the same as any other province. I guess nothing special happens when you conquer the Imperial Palace. For the hell of it I sent all my troops to Edo, the one remaining holdout of Bakufu control. That included a new 7000-soldier-strong Yamashiro troop, which was apparently on its way to attempt to conquer Choshu when I took over Kyoto.

Right after Kyoto fell to my army, Munemitsu and Masakuni arrived at Mito, the final sonno han of the game. Looking at the makeup of the han I saw that I had my work cut out for me, with 2 karo and nearly all of them very strong sonno-joi advocates, I was going to need to do a lot of debating among multiple people--many of whom were not present.

The hanshu had 89 sonno, 81 joi--a lot of negotiation would be necessary. 

The makeup of the han was also very strange, and I'm not sure exactly what Koei was doing when they set up this scenario. The hanshu was Tokugawa Yoshiatsu, elder brother of the final Shogun and final hanshu of Mito. Fair enough, except in 1858/1859 he wasn't hanshu, his father, Tokugawa Nariaki was. Stranger still, Tokugawa Nariaki was still alive in-game as a Mito karo.

Speaking of Nariaki, my clowncar of characters chasing after Yoshiatsu ran into him outside of Kyoto. He was even more extreme than his son with 100 sonno/joi points but I left behind a few characters to convert him. I couldn't bring him all the way to kogi, but I pulled his sonno levels low enough, and Yoshiatsu's kogi levels high enough, to convert Mito to kogi. The sonno philosophy was finished, wiped off the map. Only one province remained to convert--Sendai.

The other green province is Musashi, where Edo is--the only way to turn it blue is to conquer it, which ends the game immediately regardless of the state of the rest of the country.

Of course the hanshu of Sendai was running around seemingly at random throughout the country so tracking him down was no mean feat. I had a whole train of characters chasing after him, as Kondo Chojiro recruited mooks in Sendai to find out where he was at any given moment. I finally tracked him down...in Sendai castle itself. Date Yoshikuni, hanshu of Sendai, was apparently just going home.

Of course Date Yoshikuni was no match for a half dozen high level characters and he was quickly converted to kogi..

"Sakamoto Ryoma, you have unified all yuhans to the kogi philosophy." 

Now all yuhans, and all provinces except for Musashi for that matter, were kogi. It's not an instant endgame though--you have to speak to the Emperor and the Shogun to finish the game proper. In the interim it is feasible for a yuhan to get converted back, though not at all likely.

Oh, and speaking of Musashi, things were heating up there.

Edo castle, surrounded and outnumbered.

17,000 soldiers for them versus about 35,000 for me. Their training level averaged about 118; mine averaged at about 150. It would seem like I had a big advantage--but I actually didn't. The odds were in fact pretty even, or even slightly better on their side. This is because of the absolutely absurd defense level of Edo castle, which makes the Imperial Palace look like a walk in the park. If I fought a battle that ended in a decisive victory for my side, I'd usually end up losing slightly more troops than the enemy--to say nothing of what would happen should I do poorly.

This really only held for the 10,000 troops holed up in the castle. Musashi unit 2, which was wandering around outside of the castle was not so tough. I was evenly matched or slightly at an advantage to them. Still, the combined enemy forces annihilated my unit from Nagasaki castle, brought the main Choshu army to within an inch of its life, and killed about half of all the other troops before I reduced the castle to a skeleton crew. I decided not to kill those last few troops, opting for the more traditional win by talking to the Shogun and Emperor. While technically possible to win the game by conquering Edo Castle, you really don't want to do that, as we'll soon see.

Note in the above screenshot that Ike Kurata was hanging out by Edo castle at this time. The Shogun, Tokugawa Iemochi, was in the castle at the time, but I couldn't meet with him. The final audiences to win the game have to be done by your main character, in this case Ryoma.

Painting the country one color like this is not necessary to winning the game, and frankly a bit overkill

Speaking of Ryoma, he was in Kyoto, looking for the emperor. The Emperor himself wasn't at the palace, but in a house full of courtiers nearby. When you meet with the Emperor, you get a special command "Emperor." You can't do it until the yuhans have a united philosophy. There's also no need to meet the Emperor if you're the sonno faction. In that case, you only have to meet the Shogun to win the game. Likewise there's no need to meet with the Shogun if you're the sabaku faction. Only the kogi faction has to meet with both leaders to win the game.

"Emperor Komei speaks: If indeed all the yuhans favor the kogi philosophy, it is truly a cause for celebration. However, the court would still like to hear the opinion of the Shogun's house."

So, it's off to Edo to speak to the Shogun. I put everyone else besides Ryoma on autopilot for this to make it quicker; controlling a dozen armies and other characters each day just slows things up. It took about a week and a half to get to the Shogun (even with a Kaientai member, getting from Kyoto to Edo takes a while) but he acquiesced like the Emperor.

"Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi speaks: If all the Yuhans are united in the kogi philosophy and the court is likewise in agreement, the House of Tokugawa has absolutely no objections."

 With both the Emperor and Shogun consulted, the game is over, and cuts straight to the ending.

"In May of 1859, through the efforts of Sakamoto Ryoma, Japan was united under the kogi philosophy. The Imperial Court and the bakufu joined forces to build a new Japan. And thus, the Meiji Restoration was complete."

It's an old game so the ending isn't terribly fancy. After that you get a "GAME OVER" window with the option to return to the title screen or quit the program.

Oh, and as for conquering Edo Castle? This is why you don't really want to "win" the game that way.

This is what happens immediately after one of your troops conquers Edo castle.

No splash screen, no real "ending" of any sort, just a straight-up "GAME OVER" window. It's almost questionable if you could really count this as a "win" of any sort.

The sonno and sabaku endings are almost the same as the kogi endings; the text box has different contents but that's really the extent of the differences. Also you don't need to speak to the Shogun for the sabaku ending; likewise you don't need to speak to the Emperor for the sonno ending.

So that about does it for Ishin no Arashi! Looking back, there are two things I didn't explain: there are ferries across some rivers that you sometimes have to wait a few days to cross due to flooding. And there are some mines in the far reaches of the country you can dig for gold (ie money) in. But that's it--once you understand the basic rules and framework, the rest of the game explains itself due to its very open-ended nature. 

Next post I'll delve a little more into the alternate versions of Ishin no Arashi and perhaps its "sequel", Ishin no Arashi: Bakumatsu Shishiden, before wrapping up this game entirely.