Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is secretly last year’s best stealth game.
Two soldiers patrol a stretch of road. They see nobody. Then, a sound that can only be described as “adorable” inspires one of them to wander off. The source is an improbably cute tanuki, or raccoon dog. Entranced, the soldier doesn’t notice the rock hurtling from above. As it turns him into a smooth paste there’s the flash and bang of a matchlock pistol, and soldier number two goes down. I exhale. Two more foes fallen to Shadow Tactics’ heroes. This tale of an unlikely cadre attempting to stop a civil war consists of 13 elaborate and complex stealth missions where the odds are seemingly stacked against the player. Thankfully, the quintet, made up of a sake-loving samurai, three ninjas, and an old man with a gun-leg and pet raccoon dog, have all the tools they need to overcome the most insurmountable of challenges. Each has skills to distract and kill, along with more specialized tricks ranging from geisha disguises to explosives.
Every enemy encounter is one piece of a huge clockwork puzzle, orderly and repetitive, and the key to its solution is to disrupt the pattern. The fun part is creating chaos with the toybox of abilities. There’s a lot of fun to be had playing with different strategies and stitching together the best parts until you have something that works. Making this experimentation a bit easier is the ability to save anywhere, complete with a timer that lets you know when it’s been a while since your last save. Never leave home without one.
Sometimes a problem requires lateral thinking. Snow can make a well-planned attack fall apart when a foe spots footprints, for instance, but a snooping guard will also helpfully follow such footprints to their end, where a trap can be prepared.
A lot of obstacles can only be overcome through teamwork, and that’s where the handy Shadow Mode comes in. It’s used to set up more complex assaults, assigning each character a job and activating them all at once. That way, a large group of enemies can be swept away in one swift move. It’s a thrill to just hit a button, sit back and watch my minions take out a room full of enemies in tandem.
Each mission introduces unique objectives and new game mechanics, and even the number of characters under your control changes. This rather effectively stops you from getting too comfortable with one tactic. You’re tasked with prison breaks, assassinations, burglaries and even stopping armies, in a whirlwind tour of Japan. These missions are designed to be replayed, as they’re essentially sandboxes fat with possible solutions. Unlockable challenges such as speed runs provide additional incentive.
Just as much diversity can be found in the themes and striking art direction. Lord Yabu’s ostentatious palace is painted dark red and orange when you infiltrate it, matching your heroes’ thirst for revenge and their hope that the sun is about to set on the rebellion. It’s in stark contrast to the rescue attempt in Suganuma Village, where the rain never lets up and the once lively fields are now accompanied by rows of corpses. It’s a gray and dismal location for a desperate mission.
A sake-loving samurai, three ninjas, and an old man with a gun-leg
timeless charm
Like the surprisingly strong art, the story has been given an unexpected degree of attention. It’s a mostly simple, but well-spun, yarn that manages to explore its heroes and give them meaningful arcs absent of overbearing exposition or lengthy cutscenes. It’s through the midmission banter that we learn the most about the band and see them grow, and even those conversations have the soul of wit.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun might evoke the stealth escapades of decades past, but it’s an exceptional addition to the genre in its own right. It’s tricky, complex without being complicated, and full of enough character and userfriendliness that even the stealthaverse might find something to tempt them into the shadows. Did I mention you get a tanuki?