I mean, the game spends a lot of time and effort saying that they are in fact retarded for acting like that. The entire point of the MC's character arc is learning how stupid those tactics are and how they are doomed to fail the moment they face an outside problem. Heck the first 20 seconds of the game are them telling you that, followed by the first stealth section, and the entire ending.
The only time it ever even pretends the "by any means necessary" has a downside is the section you are talking about where the Mongols learn from your actions that the poison plant exists and how it works, leading to them getting worse because of your actions and committing outright genocide in the last area.
True there were big consequences for using the poison but keep in mind japs weren't all about honor and shit, they also engaged in subterfuge (assassination included) so the whole moot point of "honor" feels like a flowery western outlook on Japanese history and not something that's thoroughly researched
I think its pretty obvious the point was to mimic Samurai movies (which is why it had Kurosawa mode as an option) and their mythologized version of that "honor" system rather than the historical thugs they actually were.
In the same way Ninja games are always about Kabuki theater dressed assassins creeping around on rooftops rather than a dude dressed like a peasant shooting a bow from across the field like they historically did.
I mean, the game spends a lot of time and effort saying that they are in fact retarded for acting like that. The entire point of the MC's character arc is learning how stupid those tactics are and how they are doomed to fail the moment they face an outside problem. Heck the first 20 seconds of the game are them telling you that, followed by the first stealth section, and the entire ending.
The only time it ever even pretends the "by any means necessary" has a downside is the section you are talking about where the Mongols learn from your actions that the poison plant exists and how it works, leading to them getting worse because of your actions and committing outright genocide in the last area.
True there were big consequences for using the poison but keep in mind japs weren't all about honor and shit, they also engaged in subterfuge (assassination included) so the whole moot point of "honor" feels like a flowery western outlook on Japanese history and not something that's thoroughly researched
I think its pretty obvious the point was to mimic Samurai movies (which is why it had Kurosawa mode as an option) and their mythologized version of that "honor" system rather than the historical thugs they actually were.
In the same way Ninja games are always about Kabuki theater dressed assassins creeping around on rooftops rather than a dude dressed like a peasant shooting a bow from across the field like they historically did.