Introduction to Japanese – Age of Mythology DLC!
Hey guys, Spirit of the Law here. There’s a new
DLC for Age of Mythology coming out tomorrow, September 30th, which brings us the Japanese as
a brand new pantheon. In this jam-packed video, we’ll take a look at their unique mechanics,
buildings, human, myth, and hero units, as well as their god powers. While there is a
quick tutorial for the Japanese in game, this will be a much more fleshed out version, so you can
really hit the ground running. With that, we’ll start with the Japanese favor generation with
Mikos. These gals are hero units you can train at the town center. And you’ll also start with one
that you can use both as a scout and as a bit of an anti- myth unit with some bonus damage against
those as well as grabbing some early relics. Plus, they can also heal other units. So, they’re very
multi functional. But for most of the game, their primary role is as your source of favor. They
build and work a unique building called a shrine, which are pretty cheap at just 75 wood, and when
being worked by Miko, generate favor depending on how many natural resources are around them.
Sort of calling back to how shrines worked in Age of Empires 3. This terribly placed one in the
middle of nowhere generates .03 favor per second, while a better placed one along wood line not
just converts the trees into cherry trees, but also has a license to kill with 007
favor per second, meaning you get way more favor over time. To quickly show a range
of examples, perfectly nestled in the trees, you can get up to.11 per second, about 50% more
than putting one along a boring old tree line, though other resources work too, especially gold.
either combined with a tree line or if you have piles on their own here giving up to 0.15 favor
per second in this example. Wild animals like chicken and boar also contribute a bit though
herdable animals like goats don’t. A few things to add are you can’t use multiple of these on the
same resource. So you want to avoid any overlap and also as you harvest a resource the favor
generated by the mo goes down. So you essentially maintain your high favor rate by preserving nature
which is a unique design choice. Intuitively, it seems like grabbing a wood line that also captures
a gold pile in range is a good way to go early on, then placing more hidden around the map as you
start to ramp up your myth unit production. Notice the amount of resources and anything they touch
actually goes up as well. So, shrines actually give you some resource benefit in the long run if
you decide to grab those natural resources later. In the very late game, there’s also a tech for
all your shrines to solely grow new trees around themselves, meaning older shrines you’ve stripped
the resources out from under can become more useful again later. Their other brand new mechanic
is called Bashido, which makes your creatures bigger if they block or are blocked. Just kidding,
that’s a different game entirely. And in ancient mythology, Bashido is instead a global levelling
system that gives you benefits varying a bit depending on which god you pick. Units at the dojo
building generate bashido XP both passively and even more when in combat. As you get XP from one
of a few different ways, your Bashidio levels up, giving you automatic upgrades to your military
units, plus a secondary effect for each major god. The unit upgrade is interesting, as Japanese
have a somewhat streamlined upgrade system, where one upgrade at a military building improves all
of their units at that building at once, unlike, say, Norse who have to upgrade each unit line
individually. The way this could look in practice is you run around with your samurai taking fights
and levelling up your Bashido to level two or three. So then if you tech into archers or cavalry
later, you’ll find they’re already at tier 2 or three just automatically, making those transitions
feel extra smooth. On the other hand, there’s a bit of a trade-off in whether you want to pay for
upgraded units earlier or wait for Bashido to do it for you later for free. Though something to
be aware of is as you get closer to levelling up, the cost of those upgrades also drops if you do
want to pay for them outright. Either way, the secondary benefits from each god make levelling
up useful even without the free unit upgrades. Speaking of which though, let’s take a quick look
at the three major gods. The first is Amaterasu, who leans into samurai in particular. She gives
you some passive gold, a bunch of extra bushido XP from samurai, more favor generation from shrines,
and lets your samurai automatically heal both in and outside of combat, while her archaic age
power is solar shield, letting a single unit become invincible for 15 seconds and fully healing
while doing that. If you like playing with tanky samurai as your core unit, he’s a great choice
to synergize with that. The second major god is Sukuyomi, who is focused more on the ninjas and
cavalry. He gives those units a boost through his bashido and lets you generate XP by researching
any technology as well as advancing 25% faster, plus giving you the odd-free scout unit we’ll
talk about a bit later called the kitsuni. His god power is new moon, which lets you research
all available texts at a given building nearly instantly for free. This only includes the current
level of text shown, not subsequent ones. So, you can’t just power through all your armory
texts back to back in mythic age, but seems pretty useful at a castle or temple to pick up
a lot of texts quickly. Though, there’s a few potential use cases with good planning. The third
major god is Susano, and he’s all about giving you as many myth units and god powers as possible. He
gives you free favor pertoid levelling up, and all his myth units generate more XP instead of just
dojo units. He also makes god powers cheaper and special abilities recharge faster with many myth
units having those kinds of abilities. His unique power is Kasunagi, which damages and sends units
flying in a small area. It seems like something that would be good for disrupting archers in the
back during an early fight, for example. And while it doesn’t seem that strong, it could swing the
first significant fight of the game. Next though, let’s bring things back to Earth and quickly touch
on the Japanese buildings and core units. Japanese eco buildings are pretty straightforward with the
water mill used as a drop off point for both wood and food and the mining camp for gold. The armory
is also pretty standard and nothing surprising so far. For military buildings, you then have
three options, each with slightly different roles. The first is the guard house, which has
an anti-cavalry and anti-infantry unit along with a ranged hero, which is basically an archer
plus a bonus against myth units. It’s not quite an archery range as you have the anti- cavalry
spear like equivalent here, but you can think of it as your source of lower tier counter units.
That said, don’t sleep on the spearman’s triple damage to cavalry or the ranged heroes eight times
multiplier against myth units. Contrasting with that, the next building is the dojo, which
trains your more expensive but higher tier units. The samurai is especially anti-infantry,
and the shinobi has a large bonus against ranged units along with a range attack. Plus, you have a
samurai hero version available at this building, adding in its own large multiplier against myth
units. Again, in addition to being an infantry that counters archers, shinobi also have a
unique ability after attack to become temporarily invisible. Note that the dojo units give you
passive XP generation, which is quadrupled for the major god Amaterasu. So, using these over
time will automatically upgrade themselves and any other units you want to surround them with.
The third building is the stable with your melee anti-archer cavalry, a horse archer, and a
mounted hero called the daimyo. Notice three of your heroes come from your military buildings
alongside similar human unit equivalents. And you can make as many of each of these as you want,
housing space permitting. Two of them are four housing space each, so that adds up quickly. But
in general, they’re still fairly easy to mix into your armies on the fly. The next building is the
castle where you train an anti-unit siege weapon similar to a scorpion in Age of Empires 2 along
with another hero called the Omnioji. This guy is actually a total boss, firing magic with splash
damage, can heal allies, and generally hits really hard against both buildings and myth units.
The fact they can also heal each other makes it feel like you’re adding shadow heart and gale
to your party at once. They’re anti- myth unit, anti-building, and just a great support unit all
around. The last building is the temple, which of course has your myth units and their corresponding
upgrades depending on which minor gods you pick up. And in fact, let’s just take a look at all the
myth units now to give you a bit of familiarity with each and what they offer. You actually get
the first myth unit in the archaic age called the Kitsuni. These work as early scouts and are
pretty cheap, at least food-wise, as well as fast. They have a unique ability to speed up your nearby
units by 5% with attack that you can research to make the stack with two of them for 10% more speed
on your nearby units. The fact the cavalry focused major god gets one of these for free each time
they age up implies the devs definitely want to encourage you mixing these into your armies.
Moving on to the classical age myth units. The first is the Kamaitachi, which are deadly
weasels of unusual size with blades for hands. They cost food plus favor and have relatively low
armor, meaning they’ll struggle against any higher tier enemy units, but are your fastest classical
age myth unit, making them good at applying some early pressure. They also have a unique ability
to whirl around and apply a damage trickle to any unit caught up in that. So, if you like speed
and are up against a lot of weak enemy units, then they’re a pretty solid choice. The next myth
unit are the spider ladies called Jurro. Instead of food, they cost gold in favor, being slower
but tankier with solid hack and pure armor. So, they’re able to hold up against higher tier units
for longer than the weasels. Their special ability is they grab a human unit, dealing a bunch of
damage to it, and then send it flying. Overall, they’re just a solid, well-rounded early game
myth unit. The third option in the classical age is the wanudo, featuring a face that only
a mother could love. They cost wood and favor, having high pierce and good crush damage to
take out buildings, but very low hack armor, so they’re not great in melee. Their special
ability is shooting fire that deals sustained damage. And while they’re not necessarily great
in the front lines, they work well as a nice support unit against mass enemies, buildings, or
just tanking arrows. Moving up to the heroic age, the first of the myth units is Tangu. They’re
very quick and can fly with pretty solid stats all around while their special ability lets them leap
at targets, pumping themselves up, getting past any obstacles. Jumping past melee units to hit
squishier targets in the back is exactly the sort of situation they excel at. Though they’re just
all around solid. The next myth unit are the super slow but beefy on. These are 300 food and 20 favor
each, so pretty expensive, but have over a,000 HP and a very slow to recharge but powerful attack.
They pump themselves up before a fight as well, doubling their attack speed and gaining 10%
extra attack, but lose 10% of their armor for a limited amount of time. Whether it’s tanking
arrows, grinding down melee units, or destroying buildings, these guys give you some serious mid
game muscle. And just looking at their faces, you can really tell they enjoy the work they do.
Finally, the third heroic age myth unit is the Raichu. As you can tell, these are some lightning
wolves with great speed and an area electrifying attack that sends units flying. They’re great for
disrupting enemy humans and general crowd control more than the other myth units in this age, which
focus down units one at a time. Moving up to the mythic age though, the first is Shinigami. They’re
pretty squishy for a late game unit at just 300 HP and relatively low armor. Though these guys
have not just a very powerful lightning attack, but also open the fight with a terrifying shout
that sends enemy units in front running. That’s their main way to not take melee damage and then
follow it up with an area of effect high damage range attack. Another interesting feature is they
have a second life. So if you lose one in combat, you just need to jump back to your temple or
you’ll find he’s back and more blue than ever, ready to fight for a second time, after which
if you lose them, then they really are gone for good. The second myth unit from the mythic
age is Maraki. Flying has a lot of advantages, and his armor is pretty good as well. But the main
benefit of this unit isn’t just what it can do, attacking directly from the skies, but the fact it
temporarily summons units called wretches to fight on the ground, giving you free extra soldiers to
soak up damage and adding more DPS to the mix. The final mythic age option is Assura. Like the Oni,
this is your super slow but tanky giant. In this case, with an extra ability of automatically
shooting fireballs from two of his hands, either directed at whatever he’s attacking or
with a bit of range in between fighting enemies. It gives you the combo of tankiness, high damage,
and some ranged and area effect, which is a pretty strong combo. Just to briefly cover your other two
myth units of the dock, the first is the honing guilo, which have a useful ability to submerge
and then reemerge to attack an enemy and send enemy ships flying. This lets them bypass melee
ships to get in range of squishier ones behind without taking too many shots. The other myth unit
is the Umibozu, which I just think is the coolest looking myth unit in the game. Straight up, these
guys do a way crazier version of the submerge ability by just outright teleporting on the map
from any location in the water to any other. They just appear and start fighting. And they’ll
use this ability completely on their own to jump around a fight. Meaning, despite being very slow
when walking, you can’t really escape them. So, that’s the Japanese myth units. And now, let’s get
back to what makes agent mythology feel completely unique with their god powers. The major god
powers in the archaic age again were the protective shield from Amaterasu making a single
unit invulnerable for a short period of time, Zukoyomi letting you research all texts available
at a building nearly instantly and Suseno giving you a small area disruption spell. These are all
pretty tame compared to some of the later god powers. The starting classical age with the first
round of minor gods, the first is the shrine of the hunt. This doubles down on your shrines by
giving free wolves and deer around one of them. Not only do the wolves protect a bit from early
raids, but you get free deer as either a nice food boost or you can just leave them and it’ll power
up the favor generation of the shrine as animals increase that production as long as they stand
close enough. The second god power is Gosh Boku, which plops down a tree that will revive your
myth units. This comes with the minor god who unlocks your weasels of unusual size. And the
way it works is when any of your myth units die, their little green soul travels back to the tree
and enters a queue where after a bit of a delay, they’ll come back as fresh units. The queue maxes
out at two, though, it’s not going to save every unit you lose in the game, but is helpful after
an early raid and will you keep a steady supply of free myth units popping out over time as you
fight. Value-wise, this is probably the strongest god power in classical age at the moment,
certainly in the long run. The third power is Swampland, which gives you an area on the map
that over 30 seconds will just randomly grab enemy human units and pull them under with a little
terrifying scream, never to be heard from again. A smart player will try to get out of it as quickly
as possible, but it’s still very disruptive, and even over a few seconds, they will lose some
units with boxed in enemies or units trying to push their way through, being almost wiped out
entirely. There’s just a creepiness factor making this one extra memorable as units just get picked
off one by one. Moving on to the heroic age powers next. The first is Shogun, which just turns one
of your hero daimyos at the stable into a samurai generating factory. They only generate while
they’re fighting, but every once in a while, they’ll just pop a fully formed samurai into
existence. I assume through the process of reproductive budding or by some other method
unknown to science. Obviously, it’s very important to keep that special daimyo alive to maximize
its value with this god power. And the fact he has to be in combat to use it makes it somewhat
of a high-risk play. The second heroic age power is Thunder Burst, which is just your classic area
disruption, knocking units in the air and doing a bit of damage. The whole ground just periodically
turns into a big trampoline, toppling trees and making it very hard for any non-flying enemy
units to do anything productive during those 15 seconds. The fact it grows with each bounce also
means it’s almost impossible to get out of once they’re in it, so enemy units just have to enjoy
the ride. The third power is smiting gust, which does very little damage outright, but you point
it in a direction and units caught up in it will just go absolutely flying. However far you expect
them to go, they just seem to go a lot further. You have to watch out a bit with this one as it
hits your own units as well. Though, note it only works on military units, so you can’t blow their
farmers and lumberjacks a quarter way across the map and force your opponent to resort them all.
And finally, for the top tier mythic age powers, the first is Sacred Gate, which makes all future
recast god powers 15% cheaper, but also gives you an extra use of all of the ones you have for free
again. So, it’s like getting three god powers a second time instead of a final new one. Plus,
you can continue to recast them cheaper after that. Another option is divine slash, which is
just your classic heavy damage on a single area, taking out buildings, human units, or softening
up myth units that are a bit too bunched up. The third option is Dragon Typhoon as your standard
mass damage god power to hit someone’s base or a way to clear out a bunch of weak units. Most
pantheons get something equivalent to this and is just a classic motif for late game god power.
And finally to wrap up, we have their Titan, a giant eight-headed dragon. This is the smaller
form of it, but even this is plenty, sending units flying with a powered up attack and using
a tail whip to do area damage in between charges. That’ll do it though for this quick introduction
to the Japanese. To me, they feel like they have more variety of myth units than Chinese
personally, and the shrine mechanic is certainly very unique. The three major gods are then pretty
intuitive with how they’re set up to be played, and the dojo in particular gives you a couple
of pretty interesting units to experiment with. I feel like the devs did a good job with this
Pantheon, and it’s a unique, but not overpowered feeling civilization is my early impression.
Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next time.
Age of Mythology: Retold is getting a new DLC called “Heavenly Spear” introducing the Japanese as a playable pantheon. Let’s take a look at the new units, buildings, heroes, myth units, and god powers!
0:24 Favor
2:20 Bushido
3:35 Major Gods
5:20 Buildings & human units
7:40 Myth units
12:31 God powers
16:15 Titan
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Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition