Yep. They messed up when the games was released.
I was just thinking another thing that reinforces Japanese were planned and not a “DLC not doing well so lets exit with less effort”. I was watching a Chillyempires video and he mentioned there is a 9-tailed fox character that is pretty prevalent in Chinese mythology and should have been included with China, and the only logical reason for it to not was if they were doing Japanese and wanted to save the fox character for the Japanese civ, and that design decision likely would have been made before the base game sales numbers were official given that they must have been working on the basic framework for the Chinese civ at least before the base game was released.
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I am actually pretty excited for the Japanese!
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The battles in Age of Mythology are going to start looking like the battles in League of Legends: Lights and explosions everywhere. 
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Seems to be more of a trailer thing then actual gameplay.
You’ll still only have a hand full of myth units and heroes in most actual matches.
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well we see about 3-4 heroes. (yasuko, two samurai on horse and a “wise man” i assume similar to the one of the chinese campaign)
myth unit wise someone else already pointed out quite a lot even with names.
over 12 myth units. two marine ones of course and some might be either god powers or campaign specific.
but it seems playable myth units outside of the campaign will be:
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Kitsune (white fox spirit with multiple tails) // i assume classical age
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Kamaitachi (giant marten with sickles as paws) // i assume classical age
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Tengu (winged bird-warriors) // i assume classical age
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Oni-Oger (red demonic giant with a pretty massive club) // i assume heroic age
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Shinigami (“lich”/“ghost” unit with a scream) // i assume heroic age
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Itsumade (giant bird-chimera) // i assume mythic age
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Ashura/Asura (fire giant with multiple arms and even faces) // i assume mythic age
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Raiju (giant thunder-wolf with two tails) // i assume mythic age
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Wanyudo (totally freaky/odd choice but hey we have argus so xD) // (maybe heroic instead of ?)
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Kappa (heroic age) and Wani (mythic age) // obviously the water myth units
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Spider (Tsuchigumo) and Titan-Hydra (Orochi) as i assume campaign myth units or GPs
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Kitsune is a scout myth unit so I guess it will be available to all in Archaic Age. Yamato no Orochi is the Japanese Titan. Spiders are just repurposed Atlantean spiders, so they will probably appear in campaign as you’ve said. So it leaves us 9 myth units for 9 minor gods and 2 naval units for heroic and mythic.
I personally think Raiju,Kamaitachi and Tengu will be Classical age; Wanyudo, Oni and Tsuru will be Heroic; and Ashura,Shinigami and Umibozu will be Mythic.
about Kitsune: i first thought so too! but there are other classical myth units which are basically “scouts” too like Caladria. I personally doubt Yamato no Orochi will be the civ titan, simply because its not bipedal like all the other titans, even the chinese one.
which are the other minor gods beside Fujin and Raijin? you seem to know more about this mythology so i would love to read your thoughts!
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I believe the official press release specifically states that it is this pantheon’s Titan.
Embark on a 12-mission campaign following Yasuko, a humble farmer’s daughter who discovers a magical spear and is swept into a mythic war. As she uncovers the spear’s secrets, she must battle the cunning spider Yokai Magumo, the power-hungry warlord, Kagemasa, and ultimately face the monstrous Yamata no Orochi, the Titan of the Japanese Pantheon.
Considering number of myth units they have shown I still believe Kitsune is a scout unit available to all. Going from the Steam page info, I think they gave gods in order of their age like they did with Chinese. My guesses are: Raijin is Classical age with Raiju, Fujin is Heroic age with Smiting Gust god power(trailer 0:30) and Oni myth unit; and Watatsumi is Mythic Age with typhoon god power (trailer 0:56) and I think myth unit is Umibozu because it is originally a sea yokai.
We know Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo are major gods from their depiction. There remains 6 minor gods left. Ame-no-Tajikarao could be one as he is depicted as carrying a boulder and there is a guy carrying a boulder at the DLC artwork.
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They reference the fox being a scout, so I wonder if they’ll make it your starting scout and a weak, archaic age myth unit.
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Cant wait to play as japan!
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I won’t be playing much with them either, like I don’t play much the Chinese.
However, I would totally love to have Maya pantheon next year and a year after that Sumeria.
Those two pantheons would tie up to the original campaign very nicely and I feel like they’re a no brainer when it comes to ideas for next DLCs.
Yes, I think they’ll play like the Japanese in AoE 4 but without gunpowder…
Yes, next year they will definitely focus 100% on America: Aztecs first, then Incas, and in 2026, Babylonians and Persians…
can’t wait to spam Oni and Kitsune with some Sumarai (which i assume have a similar role to Myrmidons or maybe Huscarl?)
We have a date!! September 30th
And some new info.
That new Bushido mechanic actually got my attention.
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Very interesting. It maybe affects too the favor ganeration system
Bushido and samurai are strictly medieval. Ninja is early modern. It deviates more and more from the classical theme.
Yes I know I know Norse, but this one is going to be a 1000 year outlier.
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What do we even know about Japan during the time period of the Trojan War?
Unless we’re talking about an audience with a degree of japaneese history, nothing. We assume it existed, since land and people don’t just pop out of thin air, but can’t even proove that.
What do we think about, when we hear Japan? Samurai, Ninja, Kimonos, Anime-Stuff.
That’s what we’re gonna get.
For the same reason we already have Vikings with horned helmets throwing axes, Greeks with corinthian helmets and Temples with a bunch of columns, and Egyptians in all ptolemeian aesthetic.
Bronze Age Norse also didn’t worship Loki. Heck, Viking age Norse didn’t worship Loki. Or very little. He was a character in the myths, and he was recognized as a god, but not one to worship, but one to talk about.
During the bronze age, neither were Odin and Thor worshipped, not even by different names, like 0AD people were, but instead a sun-goddess we don’t know the name of, according to wikipedia.
The MCU brought Loki more worship than he’s ever gotten in his entire existence. Explains our civilisation a bit, right?
Norse and Vikings still roughly overlap with what we consider “late antiquity”. The entire design of Japanese does not. And ninja is early modern. Then maybe add arquebuses and rockets too because those are also what we think about Japan.
They could simply make a roughly less outlying by using a early medieval design for Japanese around horse archers and warrior monks.
Or what about starting with other things that fit in the theme like Mesopotamians, Persians or Celtics, before all-in chasing the pop culture (and reusing assets)?
Only camels and war elephants are ptolemaic. And they were given bronze age aesthetics. Other units are purely bronze age
Can’t wait for the gundam civ.