“ | On the very edge of the eastern world, a new civilization was born beneath the rising sun. Follow the Yamato as they eclipse the neighbouring clans to dominate Japan, turning the islands of rice farmers and fishermen into an empire of warriors and poets. | ” |
—In-game campaign description |
Yamato Empire of the Rising Sun is a campaign in Age of Empires that focuses on the rise and development of the Yamato Kingdom. The set consists of 8 different scenarios each with unique challenges and goals the player must face.
Scenarios
With the launch of the Definitive Edition, the campaign now consists of the following scenarios:
- The Assassins (Reworked version of the original)
- Island Hopping
- Capture (Reworked version of the original)
- Mountain Temple (Reworked version of the original)
- The Canyon of Death
- Coup (Oppression in the original)
- Jinshin War (A Friend in Need in the original)
- Fujiwara Revolts (Kyushu Revolts in the original)
Trivia
- The original release of Age of Empires featured a different version of the seventh and eighth scenarios of the campaign. These were changed in response to concerns in South Korea with the theme of a Japanese invasion of the Korean peninsula. In subsequent releases of Age of Empires, the scenarios themselves were unchanged, but all scenario instructions, history text, and campaign maps were edited. So, instead of the Yamato intervention in the Korean peninsula, the final release depicts conflicts with the Kyushu clan. From a historiographical point of view, there's much debate that if the Yamato subjected territories from the mainland, or were puntuals conflicts, siding Japan with the first facts, and Korea with the later.
- The main background the original Age of Empires of the six first missions were conflicts between Yamato and Izumo clans. In the Definitive Edition release, the historical background was further changed, depicting also mythical-based histories and broader facts inside Yamato history.