Shall I PUK?

[Bob]

(sorry about the title)

I usually love the games of the franchise - and Koei games in general - for I find them fun even though you keep doing the same things (I played VIII, IX and XI only). In XIII, even though you also keep doing the same things, I find no fun, I'm just getting bored.

So shall I buy PUK? Will it add great gameplay that will get me interested in the game or shall I just stick to Nobunaga's Ambition?

[Sanji Himura]

Yes, the PUK adds a lot more to the game compared to the base game. Worth every penny of the $35 USD.

[erobotan]

yes, yes, buy PUK! Very good!

[Bob]

Thanks for the answers.
Could you develop about the new gameplay mechanisms? The steam page is extremely vague.

[ap3741]

The PUK adds what are essentially mini-games to the main game. Instead of uniting China you can now choose be be a merchant, adventurer, assassin etc (6 "jobs" in total) each with its own win conditions ie. as a merchant the game ends once you accumulate 500k gold. The process to complete the job goals are generally very simple ie. repeat an action over and over until you grind to victory. Honestly you'll probably finish each job once then never touch it again.

Otherwise the PUK adds some new scenarios and quality of life changes (also introduces new bugs), but nothing really major in terms of main game or combat mechanics.

At full price PUK definitely isn't worth it. I would recommend waiting for a sale, but knowing Koei you'll probably be waiting for a long time so...

[Bob]

ok, thanks ap3741.
I'll probably wait ROTK XIV then, since I didn't enjoy the main game.

[GramTooNoob]

The PUK adds alot more depth to the game, I would say it made the game alot harder. Not really in terms of AI, but rather the strongholds and bandits can really screw up the pacing. If you're not careful, your army could be ruined by a battlefield trap too. I did some streaming for this on Twitch and only ran into 1 bug with prestige menu, otherwise very smooth.

As for whether its worth the full price, depends on how much you like child rearing I guess lol.

[Motrini]

The PUK isn't perfect (AI issues are still there, and some balance problems too), and yeah, the alternative careers mentioned by ap3741 aren't great, but I wouldn't say they are the main addition of the expansion pack.
There's a huge amount of major and minor additions and fixes that are actually hard to list their entirety.

Just to name some of them
- 100 new officers (not counting free DLCs), 7 new scenarios, 14 new major events (not counting free DLCs; the trailer also states there are actually over 300 new events, but I guess they are counting every single minor generic one)
- Events Editor (this is pretty cool), items editor, strategies editor
- Battlefields are four times bigger (with improved camera and interface too)
- Stratagems (attacks, buffs and debuffs you can unleash by taking control of key points in the battlefield)
- War councils (where strategists decide which stratagems to employ and where to place the units)
- 6 skill trees with different branches and unique skills (so different officer will have a much different play style)
- Calamities and bandits/barbarian raids occurring on the map
- Morale depletes while marching so the armies now need to rest at key points where they also reorganize their formation)
- Ability to build fortifications at key points
- New comrades and bonds system
- Children
- New diplomacy commands like surrender and abdicate
- New special unit
And so on...

Again, it's not perfect and some of the features listed may actually sounds more cool than how they actually are, but if you liked the role-playing concept of the original game while finding it very lacking in features, this isn't a bad package at all.
Also, RTK14 may take a very long time since Koei is interested in making more than one expansion for 13 (and the game will be lacking in features as usual until the PUK comes out anyway).