Bae in Review: Nobunaga Oda, Ikemen Sengoku

[not_krys]

The man, the legend. The one that started it all.

How dare he make me feel the things I felt for him.

Remember, spoilers down below~

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Ikemen Sengoku was downloaded on a whim after hearing so many good things about it. It was a decision I have not regretted since.

However, as a first route, Nobunaga and I didn't start off that great. I had fear that this would go to a bad place for the MC, as has happened in various otomes before. The love interest was forcing himself onto the MC, you think it's gonna be one of those games and I was starting to feel instant regret. Nobunaga is about to take a kiss from the MC after putting sake in her mouth. "Cups aren't supposed to speak. Now, quietly let me drink."

And then... the MC swallows the sake.

And my heart went doki doki.

It was no accident she drank that sake. Next moment, she looks Nobunaga in the eye, openly defying him, and says something along the lines of "Sorry, this cup is empty."

Best part? Nobunaga doesn't get angry, upset, or scold her for daring to defy him. Matter of fact, he laughs. His heart went doki doki too. He's actually more interested in her because she fights back and doesn't sit by if anyone tries to take advantage of her. Nor does it feeling like he's being condescending when he laughs at her.

He was genuinely enjoying it when she bantered with him, a trend that continued throughout his route and in various other routes. He even takes an active interest when she reveals that she's from the future, making some logical conclusions about things that wouldn't be invented for the next few centuries, like her cellphone, or her teddy bear, Bearsace.

His intelligence, however, doesn't excuse his flaws. The man is ambitious and won't let anything stand in the way of getting what he wants. Oftentimes against her wishes, Nobunaga puts MC in situations where she's, at best, mildly inconvenienced, or, at worst, in life-threatening danger. He wants to keep her around because, while also saving his life, she intrigues him in a way that no one else had before. And, keep her close he does, including letting her sit in on his war strategy meetings with his other warlords despite her either being ill-informed or having better things to do than be there with the warlords, taking her to various battles against almost everyone's better judgment, using himself as bait to get information out of the enemy with her along for the ride, etc. It's sometimes hard to tell at times if he actually did care about her, or if he was testing her to see her limits for his own curiosities.

Despite the rocky start and some questionable motives behind his actions, Nobunaga actually does care about MC. Her naivety about her new surroundings and coming from a time where peace was more prevalent than his war-torn era, it's surprising he's still willing to give her plenty of chances to prove herself, be it as caretaker of his castle, playing against him in Go for her chance to go home, or to have her own opinion about the things going on around her no matter how ill-informed opinion might be compared to his as an experienced native of the Sengoku era. The person before him is interesting, why would he do anything to crush that spit-fire wit and courage?

Soon, it becomes pretty clear that the feelings he has are strong. Because of their close proximity, it's hard not to see how the two got close, despite how much they butted heads (or, more accurately, MC butted her head against the wall that is Nobunaga Oda). Probably the most defining moment of their relationship, for me at least, was MC rejecting Nobunaga because of the blood on his hands. This, I believe, is before the split of the route, where it diverges between the Romantic and Dramatic routes. MC was recovering from being poisoned, the poisoner originally thought to be one of Nobunaga's allies that had housed them on the eve before the big battle with the Takeda-Uesugi forces. Because of MC being poisoned first, it exposed the plot to weaken the Oda forces, weakening some of his forces in the process, but he escaped unharmed.

With MC being poisoned, however, he was pissed. Pretty fucking livid, to be precise. The ally had been loyal to his family for years, and when he was betrayed, Nobunaga wasn't about to show any mercy. Though he is a firm believer in giving second chances, there was a line crossed here. Someone that had supported him for a long time suddenly turning on him for their own benefit was not something he was going to tolerate, especially if it hurt the ones closest to him.

MC had a hard time accepting what had happened and, for me, brings up my other least favorite thing about this route and various other routes thus far: MC's pacifism. From the beginning, she's pretty much a super pacifist compared to the war-torn generals around her. She hates the idea of killing, and doesn't seem to be very welcome to the idea even if killing others is what you do in the Sengoku era to survive.

Nobunaga, having done the most sensible thing a man in his position could do for the situation, wanted only to return MC's side to make sure she was okay. He's worried about her, naturally, after the entire ordeal. She confronts him in her weakened state, guessing correctly that he had killed the traitors. Nobunaga explains his reasoning, that he wasn't killing just to kill people, that there is a method to his madness. That an enemy coming at him from the front to kill him is one thing. Someone that had served him loyally for years suddenly turning on him and hurting the things most important to him is another matter entirely. Why keep someone around if all they're going to do is hurt you?

MC still refuses to accept him and his reasoning, having had enough of the killing and not wanting to be touched by the hands that had metaphorical blood on them. Nobunaga doesn't take this very well, the severity now dependent of if you choose to take either the Romantic route or the Dramatic Route.

The Romantic route has the MC kidnapped by the enemy forces before they can resolve the issue, MC coming to terms on her own about her feelings about Nobunaga after having some time to calm down and think. In true IkeSen MC fashion, she manages to rescue herself and runs into the battlefield to find Nobunaga, apologize, and declare her love for him. The two share a passionate kiss on the battlefield and Nobunaga wins the day and the war. Yay!

With this ending as well, Nobunaga opens up about his past to the MC, about how killing became a necessity for him from a young age to keep himself alive. He learned to harden his heart and to turn off his emotions so that he didn't have to feel the hurt he did when he had to kill others, even those he once he considered family. When he met MC, those kind and tender feelings started to resurface, helping to remind him that it was okay to feel those emotions, and to share them, even if it's just in private with her.

For the Dramatic route, this transition is shown much earlier on, as Nobunaga takes the 'don't touch me with blood on your hands' from MC much harder and much more literally, refusing to touch her after battles, even seeming to lose a part of himself when he does go into battles from that point on. MC takes notice of this much earlier on, realizes that she loves him the way he is, blood on his hands and all. She seeks him out after a battle, to find him washing his hands in the river, looking lost and a little broken. MC apologizes to him, telling him she loves him the way he is, blood on his hands and all. To further apologize and to show her love, she kisses his fingers individually (and sucks on them too, making him blush. We can only infer what he's thinking).

As for which ending I preferred, I'm probably gonna say I liked his Dramatic Route more. The Romantic route has some sweet moments and it has a good resolution, but that Dramatic end... oh boy.

Nobunaga is more open about his feelings in this route, plus, as it was the second round of me doing his route, I got some portions of certain chapters from his POV, allowing a deeper look into him, and it just... made me so attached to him. How he has a hard time showing his emotions, how he changes because of the MC's presence, how he learns to love and open up to her. It almost hurts watching certain scenes knowing things from his POV.

Not to mention how on edge I was when he and MC were literally torn apart by cosmological forces, how he would prove his love to her, even 500 years in the future, and it just.... I was ready to cry at that point, frustrated that the tickets wouldn't refresh fast enough.

Don't worry though, in the mobile version, bad ends don't exist in Ikemen Sengoku, and Nobunaga and MC reunite in his time, rekindling what they once had.

MC was forced back to the present because of her messing with history by saving Nobunaga's life, and some cosmological force was trying to set history back on it's original course (aka, either MC goes back to the present and never see Nobunaga alive again, or it kills both of them. Because dramatic tension).

Back in her own time, MC develops amnesia of her time in the Sengoku era (because drama), meets up with Sasuke again, remembers Nobunaga, and forces her way back to the Sengoku to be with her love. In that time, Nobunaga fakes his death so that history will technically still be on course, so they slip under the cosmological force's radar and live happily ever after. An emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, but it all ends happily! Yay!

Overall, Nobunaga has grown on me over the course of playing the game despite the rocky start. He's become like an old friend that looks out for you, the friend that provides a listening ear and listens to you seriously. But don't let this fool you, he's full of tough love, pride, and a reckless streak. He'll tease and make you question everything about yourself and the world around you, and refuse to let you go for anything.

I feel like he's a good introduction into the series and I can't recommend it enough. He lets you know what you're in for, and isn't letting go for the entire ride.

Pros and Cons

PRO: He rewards those who serve him well handsomely, like naming you a chatelaine in his castle.
CON: Any and all above deities have mercy on your soul if you seriously piss him off. He tends to kill people for that.

PRO: He's always willing to listen to your opinion and has practically a photographic memory for things you deem as important, like if you want to have tea with him and talk about fun things together.
CON: He remembers everything. Literally everything. If you deem your teddy bear important, he remembers that. Even ask after the bear, asking about his friends. Don't want to be touched because his hands are metaphorically bloody from his enemies? He remembers that, too. Nobunaga remembers literally everything. Literally. Everything.

PRO: He's highly ambitious and isn't afraid to crush his enemies to get what he wants.
CON: Have fun being dragged to the battlefield as his lucky charm. You get a front row seat to all the chaos and carnage!

PRO: He is highly intelligent, and loves playing Go. He's also going to give you plenty of fair chances, even a novice to the game.
CON: No matter how good you are, he's probably still better than you at it.

PRO: Along with his high intelligence, he's always willing to learn about things different from what he's used to. Loves traveling the world with you because of this.
CON: He loves squeaky beds because they make noise along with you (may or may not be a con, depending on how you look at it).

PRO: Even across 500 years of history, he still manages to prove his love for you, including keeping your teddy bear in his curio cabinet full of things he's picked up on his travels even when teddy bears aren't supposed to be invented until 300 years later, and has a monument dedicated to you.
CON: Loves you enough to let you go, but only because forces beyond human comprehension and control told him to. It was either that or you both get fried by lightning.

Bae Rating: 8/10

If anyone has any special requests for baes for me to review, the most up-to-date list of games and routes I’ve completed thus far is on my Profile page

Have a good day, lovelies, and remember to touch all the butts.