Age of Empires II is still several months away, but Ensemble Studios has agreed to give GameSpot an exclusive look at all the civilizations in the game. So while you won't be able to play the game until the fall, you'll at least be able to read about the game's 13 sides. And because Ensemble Studios came to us first, you'll only be able to read it here on GameSpot. For the next few months, we'll take a closer look at each of the game's civilizations, divulging not only their in-game qualities, but also providing historical information and notes from the designers. The first entry is the Japanese civilization. In two weeks, we'll look at the Britons, and every two weeks thereafter we'll reveal a new civilization.

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Age of Empires II takes place over roughly 1000 years during the Dark Ages and Renaissance in Europe. Neither the Dark Ages nor the Renaissance touched Asia, although the countries in that area did experience changes that were similar to those experienced by the Western nations during that time period. The Japan depicted in Age II is the medieval Japan popularly depicted in films and media, the same Japan in which samurai fought epic battles for their daimyo, and ninja plied their dark trade behind the scenes. It was mainly because of the popularity of medieval Japan that it was included for a second Age of Empires game, although appealing to the Asian market was likely a consideration. Producer Harter Ryan explains:

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"Inclusion of the Japanese civilization in AOK was very important to us due to worldwide interest in aspects of Medieval Japan. Our designers and artists poured over reference material to ensure that we had a realistic Asian building set and Japanese Wonder. Modeling the Samurai in accurate period apparel and displaying great swordsmanship when fighting helps ensure that a player using the Japanese civ will have a truly immersive experience."

Next: Historical context