I disagree, Japan is not underpowered. The 'Daimyo' ideas set is one of the best 'war type' in the game, giving bonus to discipline, morale, force limit and military traditions. The problem with Japan and the other Daimyos is the chinese tech group, that not only makes war with western powers really dangerous, but also makes teching up nearly impossible. Of course, a skilled player can offset this by various means, but it's unrealistic to expect Japan to catch up with westerners so much during the game period and fight in equal footing, specially if not playing ahistorically (i.e., blobbing).
While your account of the usage and quality of japanese weapons is interesting, the role of firearms in japanese history is often dismissed for more a more poetic view in the west: the samurai as a katana wielding honorable warrior. Instead, they were capable and effective with a number of weapons, including muskets and the like. So, firearms were equaly important and incorporated in everyday use by samurai and ashigaru alike and soon as the later half of the 16th century; by mid 1550s, the japanese had already mastered the use of firearms and fielded large mercenary forces of troops equiped with a type of matchlock gun called arquebus, which played a critical role in battle. While the quality of the samurai fighting capabilities was indeed impressive (shown in history in battle such as Sacheon, easily repeatable in-game given the morale and discipline boosts to japanese troops) the often romanticized view on bushido and the social role of the samurai often suggests erroneous interpretations in the west. If anything, the bushido code loosed a lot during the sengoku jidai and became much more of a social control tool for the shogunate and the daimyos. The way Japan is presented in the game is very satisfactory to me on a historical level and provides one of the best gameplay available.
On a side note, and I'm not saying this is the case with the OP, but many people seem to have taken a lot of information on bushido and the samurai from western movies like The Last Samurai and such. To those who like japanese history in movies, I'd like to suggest the japanese remake of the movie Unforgiven (starring Ken Watanabe), that takes place during the Meiji restoration and portrays an aging samurai going on a quest like William Munny did on the original. It's a great movie, with some realistic and precise katana swordplay and a lot of historical flavor.
While your account of the usage and quality of japanese weapons is interesting, the role of firearms in japanese history is often dismissed for more a more poetic view in the west: the samurai as a katana wielding honorable warrior. Instead, they were capable and effective with a number of weapons, including muskets and the like. So, firearms were equaly important and incorporated in everyday use by samurai and ashigaru alike and soon as the later half of the 16th century; by mid 1550s, the japanese had already mastered the use of firearms and fielded large mercenary forces of troops equiped with a type of matchlock gun called arquebus, which played a critical role in battle. While the quality of the samurai fighting capabilities was indeed impressive (shown in history in battle such as Sacheon, easily repeatable in-game given the morale and discipline boosts to japanese troops) the often romanticized view on bushido and the social role of the samurai often suggests erroneous interpretations in the west. If anything, the bushido code loosed a lot during the sengoku jidai and became much more of a social control tool for the shogunate and the daimyos. The way Japan is presented in the game is very satisfactory to me on a historical level and provides one of the best gameplay available.
On a side note, and I'm not saying this is the case with the OP, but many people seem to have taken a lot of information on bushido and the samurai from western movies like The Last Samurai and such. To those who like japanese history in movies, I'd like to suggest the japanese remake of the movie Unforgiven (starring Ken Watanabe), that takes place during the Meiji restoration and portrays an aging samurai going on a quest like William Munny did on the original. It's a great movie, with some realistic and precise katana swordplay and a lot of historical flavor.
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