I should start off saying Hideyoshi Toyotomi was a real warlord, and he was a vassal to the real Nobunaga.  I’m fascinated by the samurai and their history. It makes me want to read more about them. Anyway, on to the game. Hideyoshi Toyotomi is an extremely loyal vassal to Nobunaga Oda, and would even die for him. In the prologue of Ikemen Sengoku, he instantly takes a dislike to MC and gets pretty mouthy. Although MC is the one that saved Nobunaga’s life, Nobunaga has had to step in once or twice to reign in Hideyoshi’s distrust and…well harsh words towards MC. I should add that the voice actor of Hideyoshi has voiced Azusa Asahina in Brother’s Conflict.

Hideyoshi and MC definitely started off on the wrong foot in the prologue and it continued to get worse after he and Masamune were able to find her after she was speaking with Sasuke privately.

Masamune took an instant liking to her….obviously. MC is kind of annoying in the prologue. Looking at the prologue after reading some routes, she is totally different from when she settles in. She is taken to Azuchi…and is still a victim of Hideyoshi’s mouthiness. He doesn’t give her a break whatsoever. In the beginning, it’s kind of hard to believe he’s actually a very caring soul. The warlords have council and Nobunaga wishes her to be there. He touches her and MC pushes his hand away. Of course Hideyoshi finds that to be an assault on Nobunaga and flips out at MC. Ieyasu and Mitsuhide have to hold him back from actually hurting MC, and Nobunaga tells him to stop. Of course, she’s his “lucky charm” so naturally he will say something to keep her safe. Even if it’s not for her.

Mitsunari, the sweetest one in the game, takes MC to her room and on the way reassures her that Hideyoshi is actually a kind person. MC isn’t actually swayed by this at first, and later that evening Hideyoshi pays her a visit. He tells her flat out that he doesn’t trust her, and that he’ll be watching her all the time. After he leaves, MC is shaken and wants to leave. Sasuke finally appears from the ceiling and is worried about MC. She tells him the whole situation and Sasuke looks concerned as he describes how Hideyoshi was towards Nobunaga in the history that he and MC know. He finds it not a good thing to have gotten on Hideyoshi’s bad side and tells MC that even though he can’t get her out that night, he’ll find a way to get her out soon. But soon things will start to change between Hideyoshi. The thing I like about his route is that it began with conflict, and gradually grew into something. So the changes in both characters are very noticeable. With Masamune’s route-romantic and dramatic- they do change but it’s not as noticeable until the end.

MC offers to help around the castle, and one day she’s beginning to wipe the floors down. Hideyoshi asked her what she was doing, and went off to tell her how to mop the floor better, rolling up her sleeves and tying them…and offered her hand cream. This while trying to stay strict and suspicious of her. Another day she has to take a tribute to Nobunaga, including sake that’s way too heavy for her to carry. Hideyoshi sees this and offers to help her. When they enter Nobunaga’s tenshu, MC stares at it because she hadn’t seen anything like it before. Hideyoshi tells her to quit staring. Meanwhile Nobunaga is watching them…in amusement. Throughout Hideyoshi’s route, Nobunaga seems to be trying to get them together. He’s not dumb; he sees the potential between the two. And each time he has the opportunity, he acts on it. MC notices a sewing pin stuck in a haori that was offered in the tribute, and when she announces she sees it, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi frowned. They instantly knew something was wrong. Hideyoshi warns her to keep her fingers away from the needle and he wants the pin tested.

After this incident, Ieyasu comes to MC and tells her the pin was poison and that it would kill someone pretty quickly. MC feels sick to her stomach and never realized she was actually falling ill until the next morning. That’s when we see the sweetest side of Hideyoshi. He takes care of MC and tells her to take it easy. He wants to take her out to town when she’s feeling much better to make up for being such a douchebag to her.

*Note: If you haven’t played Hideyoshi’s route yet, but want to, it gets much better. Some people might not like Hideyoshi’s aggressiveness towards MC in the beginning- but trust me…he’s sweeter than maple syrup as the story progresses.*

Hideyoshi takes MC out when she feels much better and he seems extremely happy to see her. He leads her into town where they are swarmed with Hideyoshi’s admirers. Once Hideyoshi takes MC away, they stop at places, a tailoring shop where MC looks at all the fabrics. Hideyoshi pays attention to the merchant as MC asks questions. He then offers to buy fabric for MC and she refuses. At the end though, MC does allow him to buy her tea and syrupy dumplings.

Hideyoshi has his issues, and that is being clueless as to how he feels about MC (not clueless in the sense as Mitsunari) but he either denies he has feelings for her, or he doesn’t realize that he likes her. Either way, it gets frustrating for MC because she’s starting to develop feelings for Hideyoshi, and Hideyoshi keeps “sister-zoning” her.  His loyalty to Nobunaga can sometimes be a problem; especially in the beginning of the dramatic route, which will be discussed then.

Throughout the beginning of the story- before you get to choose between Dramatic and Romantic- you get some great scenes with MC and Mitsuhide, which…he is surprisingly good at listening and giving advice. I would like to believe that Mitsuhide is somewhat the love rival with Hideyoshi’s route because there are quite a few scenes of MC with Mitsuhide and the way Mitsuhide reacts towards her later on…it seems he has feelings for her.

MC has a dining experience with Masamune, Hideyoshi, Ieyasu and Mitsunari (who is so engrossed in war documents that he doesn’t even eat by himself). Masamune does some dirty flirting towards MC and Hideyoshi has to stop him. We see that Hideyoshi becomes very protective of MC and doesn’t want anything to happen to her. It’s just so nice to see how their friendship/relationship later on starts from a really rough beginning to something so sweet. It’s a complete change from the Masamune/MC relationship that’s for sure.

More things develop in the Romantic and Dramatic routes, so I will be discussing those routes as well in their own separate pages. The Romantic route will be discussed first. So stay tuned for that.