hadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a
game that demands to be played with subtitles set to English and audio set to
Japanese. If you don't you will miss a genuine enthralling setting and story.
Imagine missing out on witnessing a dying and defeated Daiymo as he sings a
soliloquy, heralding spiritual revenge on the one about to perform the final act
of seppuku beheading him. All unbutchred by an English translation. The
story reminds me of WarCraft III or StarCraft, great gameplay with interesting
characters sprinkled in. With cutscenes between missions and dialog spread
intermittently throughout levels for character growth. Every line is a joy to
listen to as you become invested in the characters. It is a shame that I had to
watch all the cutscenes on YouTube, having no option to add subtitles once you
switch the language. But it was a small price to pay for an overall fantastic
optical experience.
The gameplay however is where Shadow Tactics hits the mark dead on. As the name suggests with a stealth focus you're thrust into specific scenarios with clear objectives. How you reach those is up to you and the tools at your disposal. Enemies patrol regular routes with a limited cones of vision and two radiants/ranges. One can see you while running (long) and the other while crouching (short). You can only see one enemy's at time which adds to the tactical challenge. There are various bushes, water and furniture/objects you can hide in. Or you can take the advantage of higher ground and stalk your prey. Assembling a Z-team (Z is for Zany in this case) is organic with each having their own toolkit to fit their personality. The begrudging ninja strikes suddenly and indiscriminately, the kunochi lures targets through charm, the old man attacks from a far, the Samurai duals other Samurai and lays waste to guards, while the child uses wit and cunning to make up for her lacking experience. Achieving your objective typically means moving the group (especially in later stages) to a final objective. The issue is not all can climb, run and hide effectively. So success is dictated by methodically eliminating patrolling guards to get said Z-team to the objective. Herein lies the core fun of the experience. You can sync and stage actions through your strongest weapon "shadow time". Throwing a rock to distract one guard as you throw a shuriken at another, have the child and kunochi stab two more, the old man gun down a fourth and the samurai slaughter a group of three in a matter of seconds is one of the most satisfying experiences you will have in a game. And entirely befitting of Japanese lore and legends as you become one yourself. Abilities fit into two categories, kill or distract. Distractions like Sake to lure, disguising the kunochi as a Geisha or using a pet Japanese raccoon dog to lure guards makes every situation play out differently. This is only exceptionalised even further by making each character able to deal with unique enemies better depending on the situation. Guard in tower? Old man rifle. Samurai? Samurai. 1v2? Shuriken + Kenjutsu. Everything feels tight and responsive, if you die it's always your fault, creating an exciting gameplay challenge. Characters respond to actions adding to the immersion, such as switching from Ninjato to fist for non-lethal as Hayato says "Taijutsu" - Japanese for unarmed martial arts. Finally the soundtrack is an absolute win, full of beautiful instrumental woodwind pieces. The art fits the setting perfectly, with each exploring a fresh inspired environment. And surprisingly even plays into the stealth mechanics! Visibility is different at night, rain puddles make more noise and snow leaves suspicious footprints for Guards to follow (into your clever traps, naturally). Overall there are 13 story missions and each runs from 1-2 hours of stealth action packed joy. With time and space, I'll definitely be returning to this one.
The last point I want to make is on the place of realism in game design. I read a
well thought out article with it's major criticism being everything I just stated. The culture, Japan is wrong. The lengthy criticism (which was the bulk of the review) which dug deep into cultural inaccuracies was preluded with "you'll likely find this to be a nitpick". Such as Samurai not wearing armour away from the battlefield or the Japanese language used being too contemporary. He was correct, it was nitpicky. While it might sound like an excuse on the developers behalf it seemed the writer forgot to keep in mind that this is a game and such design decisions are often made intentionally for the betterment of the overall experience. The Samurai wears armour because it's his character design, the same reason Bart Simpson never changes out of his iconic shorts. It makes him slow, yes this is the intention, better to fight Samurai and soak up more bullets. He has the most health but is also slow and lacking agility, which is where you make use of other characters that have this strength. Good game design is full of compromise, and you can't criticize historical accuracy or realism to such a granular degree and praise how good the gameplay is. Because you wouldn't have it without those historical and cultural compromises. Some examples are valid to a degree, like a few language differences. Likely the developers ran out of time or just made a mistake but to a white boy like me it sounded authentic enough spurred on by the performances. And other situations such as a 1 minute cutscene, where characters wear shoes indoors and objects were out of place. No excuse for that one, but I can understand how the developers might have missed it under the weight of limited research, budget, deadlines, etc. Everything else, Shinobi only act during the night, suggesting seppuku is only done during a ceremony turning a short tense cutscene into a 3 part scene interrupting the flow of the game, etc - are all way off the mark. Addressing by ones first name? Watch the Karate kid. Hara-kiri and not seppuku? I've heard of one of those... The final point was when Japanese devs create a game set in the West, they typically get it wrong. Well I love that, it makes for a more interesting take loosely set, not purely set game with artistic liberty taken for the "artists Japan". Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid. All fantastic games with a weird take on Western society. I don't think the developers were trying to make a historically accurate masterpiece but rather a fantastical fun game with an authentic feeling setting. And unless you're a feudal Japan buff and chronic nitpicker, that they achieved in aces and spades.
