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Samurai Cats (のぶニャがの野望, Nobunyaga no Yabou, literally translated as "Nobunyaga's Ambition") is a social game adaptation of the Nobunaga's Ambition series which turns historical figures into cats with kitty themed names. It debuted to the public on the informal Japanese holiday, Cat Day. The game's East Asian titles are a portmanteau of Nobunaga's name and the onomatopoeia for a cat's meow (ニャ or 喵).

The current producer for the social game is Nobuhisa Hiroshige. Its popularity led to five characters becoming costumed mascots for Koei-Tecmo: Oda Nobunyaga, Date Masiamune, Utsunomiyah Kunitsuna, Siamzu Yoshihiro, and Ishida Mitsunyari.

The popular social game, Mobage, won a fan-voted popularity award in Taiwan's Bahamut 2012 Game Awards and a Game Star award at the Taipei International Game Show 2013. Over one million players registered on Japanese and Taiwanese servers. Beta testing began in October 2012.

Gameplay[]

The game is simple to control, played in real time with timers for actions. Players lead their own forces, affiliating with a clan and selecting characters. The clan they choose affects their affinity rating with the land's daimyou. From west to east, the clans are:

  1. Ōtomo
  2. Ryūzōji
  3. Shimazu
  4. Mōri
  5. Chōsokabe
  6. Amago
  7. Miyoshi
  8. Ashikaga
  9. Saitō
  10. Oda
  11. Tokugawa
  12. Takeda
  13. Uesugi
  14. Hōjō
  15. Mogami
  16. Date

After the player completes Myaamoto Musashi's tutorial, the player is free to travel to different castles throughout the land. Similar to its predecessor, the entire game is a battle royal with other players.

The game uses five elements: fire, earth, wind, water, and void, which determine a card's stats and weaknesses. Players have a plot of land and can build up to nineteen buildings to strengthen their generals and troops. Troops and supplies are crucial for battles. Battles are accessed on the world map, with pirates, ninjas, and rioters being common encounters. Friendly units appear as green icons, and enemies can be unlocked by quest givers.

The player controls their army's commander and formations, with special abilities available for generals. Battles are automated and completed without player intervention, with results provided after a short waiting period. Victory rewards players with elements and goods, while stalemates grant a small amount. Players can watch replays and adjust their formations for future encounters. Special PVP tournaments and campaigns are scheduled, with players registering their teams and receiving rewards. Players can also participate in Wars or Castle Sieges, where they rank based on their encounters.

Wars is a three-man tug-of-war game where players side with one of three battalions. Players cannot switch their active army and have five minutes to decide their formation and abilities. Rewards increase based on fighting or not. Castle Sieges are hourly live events where players can attack or defend a castle while ordering their own army. If their active army loses vitality, players must ground for two minutes. Winning battles increases fame and overall ranking, allowing players to construct buildings for their villages.

When the player runs low on resources, they can stop playing to have their village naturally restore their army. Mobage Coins or GC Coins (virtual currency) can be used to buy restorative items, new vacant spots, or temporary status effects to alleviate the waiting process for using facilities.

As of August 1, 2013, special "Nyan Days" are in the game. The dates tend to be 2nd, 12th, or 22nd of each month (or the "nyan" or "meow" days). Players can be rewarded a random bonus or challenged to earn an exclusive prize on these days.

Izumo no Okunii now challenges players with a daily three question quiz after the April 30, 2014 update. Quiz questions include trivia about the kitty generals' quotes and abilities and the location of certain archaic provinces.

Scenarios[]

Players can participate in miniature historical events featuring kitty generals, earning character dialogue and dramatizations through story missions. High-ranked players can earn special rewards and titles, similar to tournaments and castle sieges.

The following scenarios have appeared in the game:

Name Duration Description
Nyanko Risshiden December 14~19, 2012
revised: October 23~30, 2013
Hideyoshi themed story. Begins with his beginnings as a peasant at Okehazama and ends with his death.
Mikeda Senki January 18~24, 2013
revised: January 23~29, 2014
revised for theatrical: November 11~18, 2014
Shingen's youth and rivalry with Kenshin. Starts with his relationship with his father and ends with his death.
Kengou Retsuden February 16~22, 2013
revised: April 17~23, 2014
Musashi's memoirs during his elderly years. Includes duels of other sword masters of the era like Bokuden Tsukahara and Yoshiteru Ashikaga.
Kessen! Sekigahara March 18~23, 2013
revised: August 13~19, 2014
Broad overview of the events leading to the climatic war for control of Japan. Summarizes events which occurred within the main battle.
Akechiden May 18~23, 2013
revised: April 22~18, 2015
Summarizes Mitsuhide's career starting with his oft fabled service under Dōsan Saitō. Continues past Honnōji to follow Gracia's life after his death.
Bishamonten no Hata June 18~June 24, 2013
revised: June 11~17, 2015
Uesugi family history starting with Tamekage Nagao and detailing Kenshin's life. Leads into Kagekatsu's career for its later chapters.
Osaka Neko no Jin August 22~August 28, 2013
revised: February 3~9, 2016
Showcases generals who saw their first or final service during the Osaka Campaigns. Starts by focusing on the Toyotomi and Tokugawa families after Sekigahara.
Chisou Bombay December 20~26, 2013 Bombay's career from his early days to his days of fame beside Hanbei. A part of the simultaneous Christmas themed challenge for Aya-nyan's Treasure card.
Dokii! Himedarake no Neko Senki March 13~19, 2014 Stories regarding the women of the era. Starts with the Imagawa family maiden and extends into other marriage alliances in the era.
Ninja (Shadow) no Gunzo June 18~24, 2014 Ninja based stories. Begins with Hanzō and includes other ninja rumored stories.
Nami no Ue no Neko (Cats on Waves) February 20~25, 2015 Highlights seafaring kitty generals and navy exploits.
Dokuganryu Masiamune August 24, 2015 Masiamune's life and exploits.


Cards[]

Players earn Nya Points for completing battles and quests, which can be used to purchase random character cards. Rare cards have silver edges, ultimates have golden ones, and treasure cards have rainbow backgrounds. New cards are added regularly, with the latest rarity being Fame, which features rippled red-orange borders.

File:Hideyoshi3-nobunyagayabou.jpg

Left side
  • Elemental Icon - located above character's name. This card's element is fire.
  • Stats - bottom numbers. From left to right: Attack, Defense, Speed, Virtue (ability to build up Special Attack Gauge during battle), and Scheme (increases Special Attack's power; also increases defense against enemy Special Attacks).
  • Troop Type - bottom left icon. Troop types are infantry, cavalry, and riflemen. Infantry are strong against cavalry, and cavalry are strong against riflemen. Riflemen are the distance fighters who can dwindle a unit's health.
  • Cost - bottom right. Cost to have card within an army formation. The default limit Cost for each army is ten; this value gradually increases based on the player's performance. The card's Cost rating also determines the amount of troop supplies the player drain to use them in an formation. Higher Cost ratings (most Rare or Ultimate cards) are usually the most expensive.
  • Available Troops - bottom right hand number. The maximum amount of troops this card can lead into battle. It also serves as a current life bar for the particular card if it is wounded during combat.
Right side

From Top to Bottom:

  • Character Quote - Personality for the image.
  • Meritorious Service - Lists experience points for the character. Higher numbers increases the amount of Special Attacks the character can use and lowers the necessary resources needed to use it.
  • Training - Indicates the training level of the card. Training can be performed by dragging and clicking this card's icon on top of the appropriate building within the player's village. Training can also change the card's default stats based on the element used to train them. Elemental affinities are marked in the Stats section.
  • Elemental Levels - From left to right: fire, earth, wind, water, and void. Keeps track of current elemental level. Each card has their individual elemental levels which is told to the player during training (i.e. higher fire levels means greater attack power). Elements can be mixed and matched to learn each card's special ability.
  • Special Abilities - Lists the abilities learned on the character card. These abilities can be learned after training and secured by pressing the double exclamation point icon which appears. Certain cards can start with an ability already learned without any training.
  • Character Type - Indicator for which special abilities can be learned in the game.
  • Flavor Text - Brief character biography to describe the historical inspiration of the character card. Includes the kitty's real historical name.

Players can strengthen cards by fusing them together, updating their maximum capacity for Training and Special Abilities. This method is useful for recycling repeat cards and strengthening characters united under a theme. Players can discard or sell used cards for Nya Points. They can have 36 active generals and keep fifty cards in storage. Starting on February 22, 2014, players can awaken cards with level 50 training using "Awakening Priestess" cards, which increases their parameters and unlocks rarer techniques.

Differences between ports[]

  • The Niconico appli version has Player Mode, an extra feature exclusive for this server. Players can strengthen multiple kitty generals in training sessions and can have their fortune read. The fortune's results can be hot-linked to the user's Twitter.
  • Server data is shared between the Gamecity and NicoNico app versions; Yahoo! Japan and the mobile servers (between original and smartphones) are separate.

Spin-Offs[]

Related Media[]

Samurai Cats has had collaborations with all of Koei-Tecmo's current MMORPGs. Each MMORPG features unique kitty themed items with the event and players can be rewarded a special Treasure card of one of the game's characters. These crossovers cards can be seen on Nobunaga, Masamune, and Hanbei's pages. Other crossover collaborations include 100man-nin no Nobunaga no Yabou, Sengoku Musou 3 Z Special, Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires, Toukiden Kiwami, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, Sengoku Musou Chronicle 3, and Guruguru Dungeon Nobunyaga.

Other serial code collaborations for cards have been published within the following sources:

Source Reward/Serial Code
Appli Fan Vol. 2 Tama-nyan
Dengeki Game Appli Vol. 4 Treasure Ogo-nyan
Famitsu Mobage Vol. 3 Obu Toramasa
Famitsu Mobage Vol. 5 Ishida Nyakichi
Nobunyaga no Yabou Kouryaku Neko Bukan Treasure versions of Izumo no Okunii, Sanyada Yukimura, and Oda Nobumiide
my GAMECITY Nouhime-nyan (TGS 2011), Toyotomii Hideyori (TGS 2012), Rare versions of Nohime-nyan, Senhime-nyan, Joukou-nyan, Myagohime, and Matsu-nyan (Christmas campaign 2013)
Yuru Chara Matsuri in Hikone 2011 Ishida Mitsunyan
Samurai Cats merchandise and my GAMECITY summer mini-game grand prix Treasure Iroha-nyan
Crane UFO dolls Treasure Toyotomii Hideyoshi
Taiwan only campaign Treasure Tokunyawa Ieyasu
Toshimaen amusement park live quiz event and the 2012 Sekigahara festival Treasure Omiichi
Nobou no Shiro ticket stub and event Treasure Nyarita Nagachika, a kitty version of film's protagonist; players could additionally enter another campaign to earn a Nyarita Kaihime themed to the film
Time Scoop Hunter ticket stub Treasure Nohime-nyan
Neko Zamurai Lawson collaboration and in-game event (complete Musashi's requests within event's time limit) Rare Myamoto Musashi and a kitty version of the film's protagonist, Madarame Nyantarou.
100man-nin no Winning Post Special tie-in campaign Treasure Sanyada Yukimura and Treasure Miiura Anji
100man-nin no Nobunaga no Yabou PC browser tie-in campaign Treasure Iroha-nyan and Treasure Omiichi no Kata; purchase the three year anniversary guidebook for this game to receive a Dokuganryu no Yabou season version of Masiamune.
100man-nin no Sangokushi Special tie-in campaign Treasure Toyotomii Hideyoshi; if players did early sign-up for game before launch they get three Nyao Coupons
100man-nin no NINJA GAIDEN tie-in campaign Treasure Oda Nobumiide and Nyattori Hanzo
100man-nin no Hokuto Musou tie-in campaign Higuchi Nyaroku and Ishida Mitsunyari
AKB48 no Yabou tie-in campaign Ashikaga Roshiaki and Treasure Izumo no Okunii
100man-nin no Winning Post tie-in campaign Treasure card Ogo-nyan and Nyagao Kagetora
100man-nin no Musou OROCHI tie-in campaign Takenyaka Hanbei, Honda Tadakyatsu and two raffle tickets.
Daikoukai Jidai V tie-in campaign Date Masiamune and raffle tickets
Sengoku Taisenkai Namamatsuri!! Episode 19 Oda Nobunyaga and Nyaraki Hiroshige appeared as guests for a collaboration with Sega's Sengoku Taisen. Serial code (戦国大戦界に殿乱入) is obtainable only by watching the live broadcast and rewards Toyotomii Hideyoshi.
Browser Sangokushi tie-in Water Mirror Girl in Nobunyaga no Yabou; Oda Nobunyaga in Browser Sangokushi
Sennen Yuusha ~Toki Watari no Tomoshibito~ collaboration Ryoma Ito Nobunyaga in Nobunyaga no Yabou; Oda Nobunyaga gear in Sennen Yuusha
Yoshiaki Festa 2013 Treasure Mogamii Yoshiaki
Nobunyaga no Yabou Tenka Fumao Uta Oda Nobunyaga
2 Minute Beginners' Guide series Treasure Nyarita Kaihime
2 Minute Beginners' Guide series + Nobunyaga no Yabou Tenka Fumao Uta Mikeda Shingen
Famima Meat Bowl Curry collaboration Treasure "Princess" Omiichi no Kata
Medyfas collaboration (only those with Oda Nobunyaga sticker) Treasure "Principle" Sanyada Yukimura

Newcomers who start playing the Yahoo!Mobage version in mid-December 2013 can receive a Rare Garasiam.

Players of the my GAMECITY can obtain cross title bonuses with the following games:

  • Nobunaga no Yabou Online - Treasure Sanyada Yukimura and Treasure Omiichi no Kata
  • Daikoukai Jidai Online 2nd Age - Treasure Tenshō embassy card and Higuchi Nyaroku
  • Shin Sangoku Musou Online - Treasure Iroha-nyan and Treasure Oda Nobumiide
  • 100man-nin no Winning Post Special (my GAMECITY version) - Treasure Miiura Anji
  • 100man-nin no Sangokushi Special (my GAMECITY version) - Treasure Toyotomii Hideyoshi
  • 100man-nin no Hyper! World Soccer (my GAMECITY version) - Imyagawa Yoshimoto and one raffle ticket

Visitors of Koei-Tecmo Group's amusement parks, Tecmopia, may have a chance to visit Nobunyaga in person. Scheduled events will include a live quiz show and other games with the kitty characters. New characters will appear in these events. Official merchandise is often on sale during these visits.

The social game's collaboration with Nobunaga no Yabou Online included a "haircutting death match" publicity stunt between the producers of both products. It was a simultaneous collaboration with the wrestling group, SMASH!, and it celebrated the MMORPG's eighth year anniversary. Players of both games were rewarded special items and could decide whose hair would be cut on stage. The loser was the social game's producer.

TAJIRI was the star of the social game's second pro-wrestling tie up, and both Nyaraki Hiroshige (producer of the social game) and the wrestler hyped the match over their respective Twitter accounts. A YouTube viral video was made by the company to show that Nobunyaga did have the ability to fight. Niconico users could purchase a digital ticket to watch Oda Nobunyaga's pro-wrestler debut live on August 4th (JST) and fans could purchase seat tickets to cheer for Nobunyaga. When the match started, Nobunyaga was too lazy to fight so he had his dedicated retainer, Nyaraki, do it for him. Nyaraki lost to TAJIRI's school boy six seconds into the match and Nobunyaga didn't feel like avenging him. His defeat was ruled as a ring out in 20 seconds flat. Nobunyaga stayed in the lobby for handshakes and photo ops with fans.

To celebrate the completion of YAIBA:NINJA GAIDEN Z, Nobunyaga no Yabou hosted a tournament in its honor called "Yaiba Basho" on March 27, 2014 (release date of Yaiba in Japan). Players can compete against one another to earn a collaboration version of Fumya Kotarō. Another collaboration is being done with Shallie no Atelier. Players can compete in the celebration event to earn an exclusive Matsunyan cosplaying Shalliestera.

The producers of Nobunyaga no Yabou and Sennen Yuusha held an interview with 4Gamer to explain and promote the collaboration between both IPs. Both producers have shared friendly relations with one another and wanted to share their respects for one another. They're hoping that this collaboration can open the gateways for future collaboration projects between Koei-Tecmo and Square-Enix.

Koei-Tecmo has sponsored two special written exams for two historical figures. The first was a Nobunaga themed one called Nobunaga Sengoku Rekishi Keitei. The second is known as Sanada Sandai Sengoku Rekishi Keitei, which focuses on the historical exploits of figures found within the famous generations of the Sanada clan: Yukitaka, Masayuki, Nobuyuki, and Nobushige. People who sign up and arrive at the site can receive serial codes for three Koei titles. The first test offered the Nobunaga no Online collaboration version of Oda Nobunyaga. The Sanada exam offers the Treasure card version of Sanyada Yukimura.

Short animated flash cartoons of the Samurai Cats characters were shown on episodes of Sengoku Nabe TV, a variety program which is loosely based on the Warring States period. A short promotional video with Nobunyaga's voice can be seen on Koei-Tecmo's Youtube. Two years later, many of the actors from the same show took part in a theatrical production of the social game. The theatrical group, Tambourine Producers, includes actors and creators from Haruka theatrical adaptations. In-costume cast commentary was posted on Tambourine Producers's YouTube channel. Smartphone users can view twenty in-costume publicity photos and actor commentary for the production by accessing Visual Boy.

Tambourine Producers had another theatrical production as a sequel. These cast members also starred in a separate spin-off story. This particular play doubled as a Vocaloid collaboration with IA; IA did the main theme and has a limited edition crossover card. Players could earn or receive multiple cards for the original theatrical protagonist or versions of preexisting characters based on their staged interpretation.

A third stage production has been announced for February 3~7, 2016. The actors will take part in a series of teaser events December 16~23.

Oda Nobunyaga and company are mascots for the Cyber Crime Division of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police. They appear on posters raising awareness to cyber crime with tips to prevent unauthorized access of another person's online account. Developers of the social game hope their small collaboration will help foster the industry's healthy development as a whole. Merchandise for the social game will be available at Marui One's August "Sengoku Marui" Kitasenju no Jin store campaign. It is one of many titles represented in the October 21~November 3, 2014 Marui One Family Mizoguchi Koei-Tecmo Goods Fair.

Ukita Miideie is one of the fantasy characters people could vote for in the BitCash 2015 General Characters Election.

This is one of the titles that will be on stage during the Tokyo Game Show 2015 net game presentation.

Nobunyaga's second idol group collaboration promotes MIRACLE MYSTERY TOUR, the first album made by Earphones. Susume! Otowa Shoujotai will play in both Nobunyaga games for a limited time; in this game, it replaces the standard village music.

An art contest is being held as part of a collaboration with TINAMI. Participants must submit an illustration combining a specified Samurai Cats character with a 3rd party mascot. The winner will receive a cash card worth ¥10,000 and have their artwork used in the game.

This game is among the few titles selected to promote the movie Shinobi no Kuni.

A third collaboration campaign featuring idol group Maneki-kecak is being held until the end of September 2018. Players can log in to collect cards of the idol members and a rare portrait of Nobunyaga. The event also includes a music video performed by the group.

A collaboration event with Peacemaker Kurogane is currently being held. Players can collect special cards featuring the main cast.

Gallery[]

Allusions[]

  • The main visual for the Nyakoukai Jidai January 29, 2015 update spoofs the logo and visuals used in the Uncharted Waters series.

External Links[]

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