#sequel route

I’m not sure if the game intended this to be a mystery or not. In the actual Honnouji scene, the narration and Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide’s reaction strongly implies that Nobunaga really was dead, even though it didn’t explicitly show that he dropped dead. 

Still, "Nobunaga’s corpse was never found” was a saying that’s bandied about a lot online, leading to conspiracy theories about how he might have escaped or if someone secretly removed his body.

However, some experts claim that the corpse is not missing. It’s just “unidentifiable”. There are so many dead in Honnouji, and not to mention that the building burned down. It’s only logical to assume that nobody could identify which among the piles of dead bodies was supposed to be Nobunaga. Even in modern day, with all its high-end forensic technology, it’s still not easy to identify burnt corpses. 

The account by Luis Frois also assumed as such, and he said that Nobunaga’s remains was burnt up and nothing of him is left. He wasn’t there in the Honnouji premises to actually poke around the ashes, but he was in the church in Kyoto, which was close enough for him to have witnessed the fire.

I think there is the flimsiest chance that Nobunaga could really have just pretended to be dead, and then ran off into the sunset to live the rest of his life in peace. With so many people running around in Honnouji that night, who’s to say that he did not mingle with the escaping servants, and slip out? If you really want to play conspiracy games, might as well just say he’s not dead and just vanished.

Masamune’s sequel will be released in Autumn 2020!

Don’t forget the others~

Vincent Knight Vincent Knight (Sequel) Klaus Goldstein I Klaus Goldstein II (Absolute Perfection) Klaus Goldstein (Sequel) Yukiya Reizen (Sequel) Zeus Brundle Hiro Tachibana Alfonse Goldstein Caesar Raphael

This situation is obviously exaggerated for drama, so that Mitsuhide’s rebellion didn’t seem like it’s out of nowhere. In reality, Nobunaga doesn’t go this far with Honganji. After he petitioned the court to have Kennyo ousted and all the monks of Honganji evicted, he just left them alone. Kennyo went to retire to a different location, and Nobunaga didn’t bother hunting down every single one of the Honganji temples or believers. 

Surprisingly enough, the one who kind of did this is actually Ieyasu. After the Ikko Ikki of Mikawa rioted, eating up even half of the Tokugawa vassals in 1564, Ieyasu banned the Honganji sect from Mikawa altogether. All the Honganji-affiliated temples in Mikawa had to change into a different denomination or else they’d be punished or even eradicated. This ban on Honganji faith is not lifted until 1583.

Also, this is a mistake that I myself also made previously, but the Honganji sect is not the sole representative of the Jodo Shinshuu faith. As it turns out the Jodo Shinshu had split into at least 3 branches before Kennyo, with Honganji being actually one of the lesser branches at first. In time they grew in prominence and became the biggest one, causing misunderstanding that they’re the sole inheritor of Shinran’s Jodo Shinshuu teachings. 

Realistically speaking, throwing out Honganji doesn’t necessarily mean throwing out the Shinshuu faith entirely. Nobunaga had himself given clemency to some Shinshuu temples in his territories, after they swore that they’re not associated in any way to Honganji or the Ikko Ikki.

I'm quite sure this is a reference to Hideyoshi giving Mitsuhide a warning in Act 1. It could be incidental, but since she specifically said Hideyoshi and not the others, I think it might be purposeful.

Unfortunately, when I first read the Act 1, the translation was in error and what Hideyoshi says is completely different in English. I haven’t replayed the Act 1 again to see if the translation has been changed since (hopefully it has), but I don’t have the screenshots of that scene anyway, so I will just provide the context here with quotes from the Japanese text.

In the final or epilogue chapter of Mitsuhide’s Act 1, after they dealt with Nagamasa’s betrayal, Hideyoshi dropped by and said this:

[自分は下賤の出から取りたててもらった恩があるから、信長様を裏切るようなら]

I’m indebted (to Nobunaga) because I’ve been raised (in rank) from my humble origins, so if anyone betrays Nobunaga-sama…

[光秀さんでも容赦しませんよ]

… I will not forgive them, even if it’s you, Mitsuhide-san.