4/5 ★ – RetroRanger's review of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, is a game that has been in my backlog for many years. I would see the name or box art and assume it was just another "cool ninja game." I like cool ninja games, so I still wanted to play it, but I never knew that it was a cool, hardcore, real-time tactics, stealth ninja game. Mimimi Games' impressive first try at the real-time tactics stealth genre was a risky endeavor for the young dev team, but it produced one of the coolest, "cool ninja games" I have ever played and would be the first among a growing, critically acclaimed portfolio. || This review contains minor spoilers || There are a lot of positives on display in Shadow Tactics. The levels are like detailed dioramas, with impressive lighting, snow, and foliage complimenting detailed environments. The stylized character portraits and charming Japanese elements on the HUD remind players that the game was made with passion and care. The music is mostly unmemorable, and the character models don't look great up close, but the overall presentation of the game is sure to please fans of Japanese culture, history, and style. The story will be familiar to those who have consumed media based on this time period and setting, but it at least serves as an interesting backdrop for the gameplay. Players control 5 unique characters, each with their own quirks and style, both in their personalities and gameplay. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed listening to these characters banter with each other, which was accompanied by some great voice acting overall. There are some tender moments and hints at backstories here that begged to be explored deeper. In fact, the release of Aiko's Choice, the one expansion for the game, highlights just how much more impactful the characters and story could have been. Aiko's Choice is mostly a narrative expansion, and perhaps it shows that Mimimi Games were surprised by how much fans enjoyed their characters. It's a shame that Aiko's Choice wasn't part of the main game, it would have made a certain tragic death all the more emotional. The real highlight of Shadow Tactics is obviously its tactics, but I wasn't completely sold on the level design and somewhat inconsistent difficulty. Each of the 5 characters have different movement options and abilities with a few overlaps. There are clear situations that seem to call for a specific character. Several enemies in one place call for Mugen's multi-kill attack. Distant enemies call for Takuma's rifle or Hayato's shuriken. Enemies in unkillable locations call for Aiko's distraction. Enemies with their backs turned call for Yuki's attract and trap. There are a decent amount of situations that call for two characters. An example of that is using Aiko's blinding ability on an enemy while another character kills a different enemy that was in his line of sight. There are clear situations that call for certain characters, and performing the required action in the right way always felt satisfying. These are the best moments of the game, but I was left feeling like there just weren't enough of them. For the first half of the game, I truly felt like I only needed one or two characters most of the time. There were a few levels where I felt like I was just dragging extra characters behind the wake of death and success that I accomplished with just one character. A good example of this problem is with Takuma, a sniper, and probably my favorite character. The devs didn't seem to know what to do with him. He's a character that requires a lot of setup to get him into a suitable spot for sniping, and a lot of time is spent clearing a path for him and sneaking him into a spot. Once there, he's really only useful for a couple of kills before you have to move him again and repeat the time-consuming process. This is on top of him being slow, causing noise while running, and not being able to perform close-range attacks. Compound all of this with the fact that there is a severe lack of environmental kill opportunities, which was supposed to be one of his main contributions, and Takuma ends up feeling a bit like a burden, and he wasn't meant to. This was especially felt in the last few levels of the game. In the finale, three of my characters made it past a tough entrance section with ease, but I had to spend upwards of an hour just trying to figure out how to clear a path so Takuma could walk out of the starting area. Then, after lugging him through the rest of the level, he was set up in a spot where he couldn't even help with the final encounters of the game. All of this is to explain that some characters felt unnecessary, useless, or even like a burden during some of the missions. There are opportunities for complex maneuvers, involving precise timing of multiple abilities at the same time, making some characters start closer or farther away from their set action, and sometimes requiring switching between characters after set actions to input more actions on the fly. In some cases, all of these things, executed perfectly, are required for success, and the end result is extremely satisfying and simply fun to watch unfold. This is where Shadow Tactics shines, but these moments that required coordinated actions felt more sparse than I would have liked. This goes back to the general sense that many of the missions felt like they could be completed with just one or two characters. This is true for many of the missions, but not all. Shadow Tactics is at its best in the levels that outright require coordination, and, well, tactics. These levels are characterized by drastically longer completion times, more guards, and encounters that really do seem like a puzzle that needs to be solved. This is due to the necessity of setup, preparation, and character coordination - and it is genuinely exciting to play through. These levels are also characterized by frustration and repetition, and there are some serious challenges here, but it's all for the sake of some extremely satisfying solutions. One great example is a level that forces you to carry an unconscious character up a mountain filled with friendly soldiers who want to kill you. The player is incentivized not to kill anyone, and on top of having to carry someone, this makes the level especially challenging. This leads to setups that require coordination between several characters, and it culminates in a final setup outside a tent which requires at least 3 characters synchronized attacks to finish the level without being seen. The last few levels, besides Matsuyama City, are all great examples of difficult levels that require multiple character coordination. Again though, Takuma is the standout. He is utterly useless in Kage-sama's camp, he is unnecessary in Mount Tsuru Prison, and an absolute burden in Sunpu Castle. These levels are the highlights of the game and they shine bright enough to make the game enjoyable overall, even if some of the levels or scenarios don't match the quality of the highlighted ones. Shadow Tactics does two things really well that conflict with each other, and this dissonance causes inconsistencies in the game. 1). Shadow Tactics is designed with the expectation that players will set up coordinated actions and will tactically plan how to utilize each character to progress. This planning and coordination is the core appeal of the game. 2). Shadow Tactics is designed with open-ended levels with multiple ways to progress. The intention is to increase player freedom and agency. These two components are developed extremely well on their own, but together it ends up feeling like the level design conflicts with the game design. The game design begs players to set up coordinated attacks, and look at each encounter like a puzzle to be solved, but the level design begs players to explore and find the easiest and most efficient solutions to progress. If the game design is structured around tactically using several characters in conjunction to progress, the level design should be narrowed in on that. If the level design gives players the option to completely avoid the intended situations, things get inconsistent. Some levels that have several characters feel like they can be completed with one because there are many options to avoid confrontations that require the coordination of several characters - but the catch is that you still have to drag each character along. Other levels feel impossible even with all of the characters because each encounter in the level requires coordinated actions. I've read of some reviewers complaining about difficulty spikes, but I think the real issue is inconsistency due to conflicting design philosophies. In terms of actual gameplay, Shadow Tactics feels decent to play and is very accessible. The camera isn't perfect, characters don't always seem to pick up or drop things/people where I told them to, and I did experience a few bugs, but the overall experience is good. The quick save/load feature makes experimentation possible without punishment and the game would be unplayable without it. There is one important feature missing that could have seriously changed the game, and that feature is a simple pause button. Every enemy in this game is set on a repeated route with cycled actions. This game is all about setting up coordinated attacks at precise times. Since the game lacks a pause button, players will find themselves waiting around for quite a while between enemy routes and cycled actions until those precise times come. It really feels like an oversight not to add a pause button in a game where all the enemy routes and actions are repeated, and especially, seriously, in a tactics game that expects you to plan coordinated attacks at precise times. I love Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, but these are critical complaints I had. The game is still a joy to play, the characters are still charming, and the tactics still feel uniquely satisfying when they come into play. It truly is a rewarding game filled with moments that inspire tactical creativity. Mimimi Games was in a league of its own all the way back with this first venture into the real-time tactics genre. I do believe Mimimi Games had a few things to work out with their level design, character ability balance, and quality of life additions (such as a pause button, or even fast forward and reverse), but these issues don't fully take away from the enjoyment of this game. Most players won't notice or care about the possible shortcomings mentioned above, and even though I did notice them, I still think the game was a statement piece for the dev team. Despite a couple of game releases prior, Shadow Tactics is the statement piece that set Mimimi Games on their course, and it's a statement piece that stands the test of time if players are willing to overlook some imperfections in a game that defined a genre. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, is a 4/5 or 8.5/10. Played in: 2023 Played on: PC Playtime: 18 Hours Status: Beaten.