Japan, 1585. Imagine yourself overlooking a grassy field. In the distance is a small town with houses made of wood and straw. The sun beats down on your forehead as you adjust the sword on your side. You are in feudal Japan. As a young samurai noble from the Kanto region, your task is to patrol the area with a group of 30 samurai under your command. You are a lord of the Hojo clan, Great Lord Hojo has bestowed the fief of Maebushi to you. It is yours to keep and rule over, to make sure it’s people are safe and secure. A small town entrusted to you on the border of the Tokugawa clan’s area, it’s almost a dangerous place. As you approach your town, smoke begins to rise from within the town. You suddenly find that your town is under attack by the Tokugawa clan! You draw your sword and lead your men into battle. Get ready for a bloody battle with Lord Tokugawa…
Growing up, I was fascinated by Feudal Japan, specifically the samurai class. My dad introduced me to Aikira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, The Hidden Fotress and my all time favorite Seven Samurai. He gave me books about the tales of famed samurai Miyamoto Musashi and even showed me a samurai sword he bought from a cheap vendor in Chinatown. My love for samurai lore stayed with me despite my growing affection for other aspects of Japanese culture. As I started playing more and more games, I had a need to play a samurai game. Okay, there are games like Koei’s hack and slash game, Samurai Warriors or the Way of the Samurai series. To me, none of those games felt like a true samurai game. Customization was limited and the stories were more or less linear.
One day, while browsing the Warband section of the website ModdB, I came across the page for the mod. Seeing that it was a Japanese sounding name, I immediately clicked on it. It described the mod as a total conversion of the entire Warband single player campaign, setting you in the Sengoku Era of Japan’s history instead of the world of Caldera. I quickly closed all other tabs I had open and focused my attention to downloading the mod. I was giddy as a schoolboy. (What does this even mean?)
I installed the mod and immediately was hit with the menu screen of a samurai riding a horse. I knew I was in for a crazy adventure. I went from a small peasant boy to my own clan leader by the end of my time playing this game. I spent the rest of my summer vacation in June of 2013 playing this game non-stop, every day. There were times when I forgot to eat because I was so invested in this game. I wanted to take over Japan. You’re probably thinking, “Why did he mention 2013?” I actually found out about this game back in 2013. There have been other games that I bought on Steam and played throughout the years however I always find myself coming back to Gekokujo every once in a while, just to continue my quest to dominate Japan.
So if you’re looking for something new to play in Mount & Blade: Warband, check out Gekokujo and the rest of the modding community.
You can find the official TaleWorlds Forum for this mod here or download the mod from ModDB here.
Don’t forget to check out our Discord!
Downtime 
I just watched Seven Samurai this evening. Such an incredible film – all humanity is in it – thrilling and beautiful like life and dark. I’ve also just bought Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord and am having a great time with that. However, my imagination will always dwell in the Sengoku period – I don’t know what it is about that era – from James Clavell’s Shogun to the Kurosawa movies it just fascinates me. I’m praying there’s a similar mod eventually for Bannerlord. Um, don’t know for sure why I’m commenting – it’s just your words struck a chord in me. Take care and cheers for the story. You and me too, bud, you and me too.
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