Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is an incredibly well-polished game, with every aspect of gameplay, from sound design to performance, being of exceptional quality, which is a big part of why Mimimi Games are some of the most respected developers in the genre.
While players are welcome to attempt blundering their way through each mission, wracking up a massive body count as they do so, veteran players and those wishing to play the game correctly will take a more tactical approach by skillfully eliminating small groups of enemies at a time and carefully disposing of their bodies before moving onto another group.
This playstyle takes split-second precision, and as such most players will find themselves saving and reloading dozens, if not hundreds, of times while they are new to the game. To facilitate this better, the developers have incorporated a quick save/load functionality that allows players to seamlessly save and reload as many times as they like, ensuring that players still learning the ropes can see Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun’s surprisingly good narrative through to its conclusion.
Image credit Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Published by Daedalic Entertainment and developed by Mimimi Games.
Each mission has various objectives that can be approached in a manner of ways, allowing for great replayability; in addition, each mission offers a series of challenges that can make achieving victory far more difficult, which may be enjoyable for some.
That being said, I find such challenges tedious, as they often require a player to act in a sub-optimal manner or avoid using certain character skills to complete the challenge, something which I feel is a lazy way to make content more challenging instead of creating tougher encounters and puzzles for players to overcome on subsequent playthroughs.
Image credit Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Published by Daedalic Entertainment and developed by Mimimi Games.
Desperados III is essentially Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun with a new coat of paint, and honestly, I am fine with that; while Desperados III has improved upon the formula somewhat, after playing both for a considerable amount of time, its easy to spot just how similar they ware, with the majority of playable characters sharing the vast majority of their abilities with their Shadow Tactics incarnation.
That being said, Desperados III characters are not direct copies of their Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun cousins, and most characters have access to at least one character ability that their Desperados III counterparts do not, such as Yuki (Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun) having access to traps which were only available to Hector, the strength focused character from Desperados III, and Takuma (sharpshooter) having access to a pet ability that is functionally identical to the one used by Isabella a stealth focused character from Desperados III.
Image credit Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Published by Daedalic Entertainment and developed by Mimimi Games.
Unlike most developers who aim to wrap up each story with a clean and happy ending, Mimimi Games is more than happy to shake things up by introducing plot twists late in the plot, making a traditional happy ending impossible.
While Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun’s base game narrative ends on a traditional note as our makeshift band of heroes go their separate ways after defeating their enemies, a standalone DLC released in 2021 allows players to return to the world of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun for a few more hours, experiencing a brand new 6 chapter story that takes place during the events of the base game, before its epic (and tragic) conclusion.
Image credit Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Published by Daedalic Entertainment and developed by Mimimi Games.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a real time tactics video game developed by Mimimi Games and published by Daedalic Entertainment, it was released on 6 December 2016 and retails for $39.99.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
On average Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun takes between 25 and 50 hours to complete.
Estimated completion times are derived from various sources and may vary based on the skill level of each player.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is rated PEGI 18+ and contains the following:
While Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is not as polished or well executed as Mimimi Games’ next major release (Desperados III), it remains one of the best Real Time Tactics titles released in the past decade, and I fully recommend it to fans of the genre, and especially fans of the Desperados franchise, who will have little trouble picking up Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun due to its many similarities with the Desperados franchise.
