Nioh: From the Tower to Osaka Castle

Nioh opens in 1598 with William Adams locked in the Tower, held to keep England's secret about Amrita, the golden stone that England wants for itself. He breaks out with the help of Saoirse, his water-spirit guardian, only to meet Edward Kelley, who steals her and escapes to Japan. William follows. The developers picked the Tower for its sinister reputation, and it fits: the fortress was a prison above all in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it is open to visitors today.

Visitor guidance: The Tower is open to the public.

Nioh lands in Japan in 1600, but Kyoto carries the memory of 1582, when Oda Nobunaga died by seppuku at Honnō-ji after his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled. The game turns that night into a curse: Nobunaga's wife returns as a Yuki-onna, and the monk Tenkai is later unmasked as Mitsuhide himself. In Kyoto, Kelley drains an Amrita seal that holds back evil spirits, and William barely stops them with Tenkai's help. The Nekomata, a cat spirit, gives its life so the seal can be restored.

Location precision: The game never names a Kyoto site for the seal; the pin marks Honnō-ji, rebuilt in 1591 at its present site in Nakagyō Ward, where the story behind it began.

Visitor guidance: Honnō-ji is a working temple in central Kyoto; show the usual respect for worshippers.

The campaign's climax is Sekigahara. William faces Ōtani Yoshitsugu, whose frail body is driven on by Kelley's alchemy, then Shima Sakon. After the battle turns, Kelley persuades Mitsunari to offer 300 of his own men to raise a Gashadokuro, a giant skeleton of the dead, which William must destroy. In real history the battle was fought on 21 October 1600 and may have lasted only two hours. Cannon from Adams's own ship, De Liefde, were reportedly fired for Ieyasu. The field is a registered Monument of Japan.

Location precision: The battle covered a wide plain and ridges in Sekigahara; the pin marks the battlefield area, not a single mission spot.

Visitor guidance: The battlefield around Sekigahara is a registered Monument of Japan.

The expansion Defiant Honor takes William to the winter of 1614, fighting alongside Masamune's forces against the Toyotomi garrison in Osaka. He infiltrates the Sanada-maru, the outpost built by Sanada Yukimura, and crosses blades with Yukimura himself until Lady Chacha signals a truce. The real fort was just as hard to take: the attack began on 4 December and the Tokugawa forces were repeatedly repelled. Today a small plot north of Sanadayama Park remains, with a partial moat and a bridge.

Location precision: Only a small plot survives and its exact outline is uncertain; the pin marks the Sanada-maru area north of Sanadayama Park.

Visitor guidance: Reach it from Sanadayama Park; there is little to see besides the moat remnant and a bridge.

In the final expansion, Bloodshed's End, William and Yukimura fight side by side, and the game rewrites Yukimura's death. In history he fell at the Battle of Tennōji on 3 June 1615, the last battle of a general who had held the Sanada-maru. In Nioh his ninja vassal Sarutobi Sasuke takes his place to fake that death. The real battle was brutal: the Toyotomi army lost nearly half its men.

Location precision: Fighting spread across the Tennōji plain and nearby hills; the pin marks Tennōji Park as a general anchor.

Visitor guidance: Tennōji Park is a city park; the battle left no visible traces.

The story ends where the Toyotomi did. In Bloodshed's End William defeats Hideyori, who turns out to be a golem made of Amrita, then faces Lady Chacha as she transforms into a Nine-Tailed Fox demon. Fatally wounded, she regains her senses and apologizes to Yukimura while the castle burns and the Genna era begins. The castle is open to the public today, but the keep is a concrete reproduction fitted with elevators, and houses a museum.

Visitor guidance: The castle grounds are open to the public; the keep houses a museum.