I agree with this more positive mindset and I do feel like some people are looking over the richness of Japanese mythology. However, while I acknowledge that regardless of choice that some people will be sad, statistically a LOT LESS people would have been sad had they done the community favorite and long requested civilization. Especially with Hasansan’s point that the future of AOMR is unknown and this may be the last added civ as far as the community knows, for now. Otherwise everyone would all collectively be happy for just more civs.
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Who are the major gods and minor gods of this Japanese pantheon?
Not much official information, but from the promo release it’s pretty clear 2 of our major gods are Amaterasu and Susanoo. I’m assuming the guy in the dark clothing is the moon god (and brother of Amaterasu) Tsukuyomi. (Could also be Kagemasa, the campaign’s main antagonist)
Official post: Get a Sneak Peek at Age of Mythology: Retold - Heavenly Spear - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio
Awaken Raijin’s thunderous drums, send whole armies flying across the map with Fujin’s Smiting Gust, or even summon Watatsumi’s swirling dragon typhoon to devastate your enemies.
Potential minor gods: Raijin, Fujin, and Watatsumi
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I hope too, that would make sense.
yeah those are confimred! but i wonder which myth units those will have and which age they are. i personally assume Raijin will be a mythig age and Fujin a heroic age god. I also assume Raijin will have Raiju as his myth unit and Fujin… Itsumade?
The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is that it’s too medieval. The gods are fine, but the human units and myth units are too much like that.
Umibouzu, kamaitachi, wanyudo, raiju, jorogumo, tengu, kappa, wani are kinda too late (from the muromachi period to edo).
Kitsune, itsumade, oni, tsuchigumo and yamata no orochi are fine, since the first four are from the heian period and yamata no orochi is even older as it appears in the kojiki.
Ashura isn’t even from japanese mythology. Not even from the correct region lol. It’s from hindu mythology.
And shinigami isn’t even a real god or mythological creature. It’s just an interpretation of death. Like how in the west we imagine death as a skeleton with a scyth nowadays lol. Looks like devs watch too much anime.
such a let down they didn’t add other myth creatures from the heian period like the giant centipede omukade, or human units like the onmyouji.
i partly understand you. if the shinigami think is true that would be odd even i like the design they came up with. wanyudo still strikes me as a maybe creative but really odd choice. aswell as partly umibozu.
ashura/asura looks really great and yes it seems from buddhism but from what i read japanese buddhism (?)
i personally would have liked to see nure-onna and yuki-onna but i am very happy with kitsune and oni and i am interested to see how itsumade will look and play like since we saw just a small image of it there are pretty interesting images of this creature.
about time and stuff: we should already know, they don’t take it too seriously. at least the old devs (e.g. scorpian man) surprised me they took it more seriously with the chinese overhaul. i am personally open for a bit of creative freedom. as long as they don’t overdo it more than the old devs. one atlantean civ is enough. x)
The thing is that shintoism and buddhism are two different religions.
It’s like having a greek civ and one unit is jesus.
It’s the same situation as the Chinese in EE: gunpowder, Qing dynasty Jiangshi, post-Ming maritime god.
I know one complaint I heard about the Chinese DLC is that too many of the myth units are just quadruped animals, so I have a hunch they tried to diversify to address that concern. Because the wanyudo thing (I think its the flaming wheel with a face), as wonk as it looks, can’t be said to look too close to anything else lol; it’s about as unique as you can get.
I will also say having some medieval stuff doesn’t really concern me that much, when we have a whole Norse civ that is based on a Medieval era civ (granted early Medieval, but still). I do get the concern with the Buddhist reference though.
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Well, let the hype train begin.
I’m sure we’ll have some extra information about the gods or unique civ units on Twitter every 2 or 3 weeks.
If they cultivate it well, it’s going to be a great release.
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Medieval? A lot of things look Early Modern Age like the Samurai and Castles.
The Japanese only started building castles like that after they started using gunpowder.
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If Godzilla isn’t one of the myth units I don’t want it. 
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Should’ve been Aztec, Sumerian, Hindu
Devs ought to be ashamed.
I reckon this was chosen exactly because they had committed to giving premium players a DLC, and wanted to save the exciting ones for future purchase to maximize profits.
See it this way. Had both Chinese and Japanese been released back to back as individually purchasable DLCs then it would not do as well as having a more varied selection. But, since this is to first and foremost fulfill a commitment, then there is no harm done–saving the exciting ones for the future.
It’s scummy.
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Hm. I think you are a bit too harsh here.
I think regarding AoMR objectively making it this way and give us very high demand civs like Mesoamerican (would still prefer Maya over Aztec personally) and Mesopotamian as separate DLCs outside of the Premium Pack makes a lot of sense and are a saver bet for sure even tho we shouldn’t forget:
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Japanese culture is currently very popular, via anime, games or maybe even series (and cosplay…)
Also as far as i remember in a poll about most wishes civs Mesoamerican was surely the highest but Japanese wasn’t that low demanded either. I think it was like something around 3rd or 4th place and not even all ppl of the community voted especially since us guys here and on reddit etc are not all fans/players. (we are “just” the most active ones i would say xD)
I personally hoped for Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian or Celts BUT i still was very open for Japanese and i think they fit very well and i am happy this mythology is included aswell!
If this game will be supported the next one, two or even three years we definitely will see the other highly requested civs aswell!
But i also understand that mesoamerican civs will be one of the hardest to make. So still hope and be active but keep your expections a bit lower. Lower expectations are always for the best. Trust me on that.
thats funny cause i thought of godzilla too xD wouldn’t be surprised to see a mod in the future who does this. (godzilla as titan or something, i mean he would be bipedal so could work LOL 
)
i mean if they would do japanese it was obvious they would use samurai for example. they are way too popular and well known (and badass).
just imagine the outrage if they would have added japanese without samurai (or shinobi).
what castle/fort design would have you suggested?
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Samurai could have easily been a Cavalry Archer like early samurai in real life.
Maybe one that turns into an Infantry after death like the Chinese Tiger Cavalry.
That’s a little complicated. It would have to be a more lightweight fortification like the Hillfort.
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cool idea! like it.
well japanese have horse archers (unlike chinese…) and i saw samurai (heroes?) on horses but i guess they are just campaign exclusive.
aha. i understand.
Samurai is a rank not a type of unit.
Samurai used all kinds of weapons and were often but not always mounted. So all of those units can realistically be “Samurai”.
I wonder how mad people would be if Japanese had gunpoweder.
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Chinese in AOMEE already has gunpowder and well…
The thing is “pop culture Japanese” (aka sengoku) despite feudal in nature, is entirely early modern.
It would be “plain” if they went for the Heian period or earlier. No ninja. No samurai on foot swinging large katana. No iconic helmets and armor.
Look at the reception for the three Shogun 2 campaigns. The rise of samurai was considered very boring (I thought the same too despite horse archer general duels were somewhat fun)
And I also felt this year WE had switched from catering to “historical nerds” in the early stages of DEs (lesser known campaign settings, more grounded and accurate unit designs, more references to historical concepts and native languages) and gone all-in to chasing the “pop culture” and “wider audience” for all their games.
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I agree with you on a lot of what you’re saying, particularly AoM having a more pop culture approach, but I have to address this:
They have this partnership with the Louvre because World’s Edge is doing a lot to maintain historical authenticity. Ultimately AoM is a fantasy setting, so they are going to target the popular cultural identity of civs (and their source mythos) much more than in the historical setting that AoE has.
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