10 Video Games That Taught Us Forgotten History
6. Samurai Warriors (Warring States Period)
As with the Dynasty Warriors series, the warriors Yukimura Sanada and Keiji Maeda owe much of their contemporary fame outside of Japan to Koei. Samurai Warriors tells the story of the Warring States period of Japan in the Sengoku period (1467 – 1603).
While Japan
maintained an Emperor throughout the civil war, the daimyos – local
lords – had lost faith in the Shogun. The daimyos had grown wealthy
following trade with China and, alongside famine and earthquakes, the
Shogun had proven ineffective as a leader. Clans and rival shogunates
established themselves in opposition and the country saw almost 150
years of continuous bloodshed and in-fighting.
Gradually the clans destroyed or allied themselves until only three warlords held any chance of uniting the country: Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Oda Nobunaga – presented in the video game series as the most powerful leaders.
Tokugawa established the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603 after a number of battles that saw him gain the fealty of the other daimyos. The Warring States period finally came to an end after Tokugawa's forces were victorious at the siege of Osaka in 1615.