The concept of the game as a TBS is a masterpiece for its time, but so complex that you need to touch every options
GAME:
When you start a new game you will be given a choice to play in multi player, Historical play, and Demo. Multi play lets you play up to 8 daimyos while Historical play will give you only 1 playable daimyo/character. Demo play is computer controlled. The difficulty of the game depends on the type of play(multi player, histroical play)you chose and the difficulty you chose of course. multi player is the easiest while the historical is the hardest regardless of difficulty.
Game play:
The game is complex because there are terminologies that you do not know its purpose. Because there is no tutorial, You need to learn the basics from scratch and usually the learning curve is gonna take up to 3 hours or more.
Game mode:
As a daimyo you need to develop your land. By cultivating the crops, By investing for economic purpose, By enhancing or nurturing the skill of the people on your land, By fortifying the defenses of your castle walls, By training and recruiting of soldiers for defense/offense purpose, By investing on dams, etc.etc. There is a lot of options to choose from and others will not function at some point until you raise enough skill.
Controls:
In the domestic affairs menu (where you invest gold for economy, crops, recruit, etc.) the controls are good but the speed of the game is typically slow, it's irritating that way. In battles, your troops move in a hexagon shape.
Reality check:
The historical aspect of the game is not really accurate and favorable only to some daimyo/ruler. Like for example the construction of azuchi castle or appointment as shogun depends when you met some requirements and if you used the right ruler. With the latter said, there is only a few great ruler that change the game play drastically over time.
Buy it? or rent it?
buy it. If you can't find one anymore then just play another game since this is too old already!. older than me!