This game presents a great step in the the battle part of the game, but the campaign is simply boring.
To start with the positive.
The CAMPAIGN -
Has some convenience others in the series lacked, reinforcements so you dont have to keep limping back to your cities being the first i think of.
Rebels while they do appear enough that you dont forget they exist no longer require the annual screening of rome and medieval 2, although empire etc included this i like it enough to mention it.
The diplomacy while better than the others isnt accompanied
with a.i as great as it was made out to be in the developers description does make the other clans to move in at least a vaguely understandable way.
And to be honest these are the only features i think are worth mentioning in the campaign.
The battles
This is the reason you should buy this game, the animations, graphics, etc etc in this are simply amazing.
You will lose hours watching individual sparring of units when a few men get seperated from the main group and end up surrounded by 3 or 4 enemies. Its really impressive to watch.
HOWEVER BADD THINGS
The campaign spirals in to what is the most dull and unreplayable total war game, which considering what its cost is/was is a huge kick to the nads.
The new "rpg" system is basically a bland version of the already existing traits, execpt with even less attachment to the family or its generals. Perhaps best seen in the creepy way the daimyo and his heir have the same face every generation?
They shouldve have done something really different at the very least keep the existing traits and ancillary system, but allow us to choose a few upon leveling up. Again this is what made EMPIRE AND NAPOLEAN SO BORING IN THE CAMPAIGN section as well, the rpg element looks like a botched method of dealing with this. They need to return to a family tree style or something similar at least to make it intresting.
The rush to become shogun and the appauling realm divide feature breaks the fragile a.i behavior. So many stupid small battles against dumb odds, some times with vassals and very very very long time allies. The fact this annoyance has spawned entire mods to remove or downplay it speaks alot about it. Also once this happens the only thing you can do is just push and push because you cannot maintain peace, or at least not for very long, and it makes the game so dull.
The battles only have one or 2 downsides to them at least, but they are again prety bad.
Reused maps for sieges, if you fight in kyushu be ready to see alot of the same castle at the start of the game.
And the worst part of the battles again SIEGES, the ai again falls apart here. In defence you can simply shoot down an entire garrison down whol stay locked up inside their walls rather than rush out. In an assault they will occassionally attack in more than 2 directions, but they pile on huge waves or random indivdual units.
To conclude the battles, on land are still alot of fun to watch and the first 1 - 10 turns of the campaign are interesting for the inital struggle of establishing yourself. But the drag of what feels like an empty campaign map and stupid rush at the middle point of the game makes what could have been a great return to a feudal setting for the total war series kind of a let down.