Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun Review (PS4)

Feudal Japan, stealth kills, and a handful of trained killers.  No, it's not the next Tenchu.  It's Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun.

I can comfortably say that Feudal Japan is one of my favorite periods in time.  From Samurai Warriors to Nobunaga's Ambition to the aforementioned Tenchu, setting your game in the time of ninja and samurai is a good way to get me to play it.  This game takes a more "tactical" approach to the era.

Shadow Tactics is like Tenchu, but with an emphasis on tactics and teamwork.  Like Tenchu, you hop from shadow to shadow, killing anyone who gets close before the know you're there.  You'll need to decide who kill, when to kill them, where to hide bodies, and have a good sense of timing and understanding enemies patrol routes.  Instead of playing as one super ninja, however, you play as a team of five somewhat less-super warriors.  Each brings their own strengths to the table, making themselves an essential part of the team.  This is where to the tactics come into play.  Surveying the killing field and determining when, where, and how to utilize each character and their unique abilities.

Looking ahead and learning patrol route and sight patterns is the way to win.

Understanding each character's niche is key to success.

Another thing that's similar to Tenchu is the enemies.  No, not the types of enemies, but the fact that they are extremely blind and moderately stupid.  For example, if an enemy can see thirty feet, they will see you if you move within thirty.  But you you're thirty-one feet away, it's like they are staring at thin air.  The same thing happens if move into the edge of their sight and you're ducking and not behind any obstacles.  They'll see you if you stand, but won't see you if you duck out in the open.  To quote a funny YouTube video, "Vision!  Doesn't!  Work That Way!"

Ducking in the shaded sight area is good enough to hide in plain sight.

When things get tricky, you can use Shadow Mode to set up simultaneous ass-whuppings in advance.  For example, you may come across two or more enemies that you must kill before you can continue on.  You have to kill them at the same time or you'll get caught and they'll call for back-up.  This is when to use the Shadow Mode.  In Shadow Mode, you control a "shadow" and can move around freely without being seen by enemies.  You simply move the shadow of the character near the enemy you want to kill and the game will que it up.  Then, when you get everything set up to your liking, simply press the "execute plan" button and watch your babies make you proud.  You DO have to control each character's shadow individually, but it works well enough.

The game says it all.

The controls are tight and responsive.  You'll move exactly when you want to move and kill exactly when you want to kill.  The directional pad does a number of things, including seeing where (and when) an enemy is looking, something you'll want during your first playthrough.  You can also check mission objectives, center the camera (useful for finding your own characters), and activate Shadow Mode.  Everything works well.

Well, now it time to get to the little stuff.  The graphics are fine...unless you actually want to see the characters.  Everyone is so small.  They have different colored highlights to help find them when they're hidden, but that doesn't even help sometimes.  For example, I was constantly losing track of Yuki on her first mission because she blends in with the rocks.  Fortunately, the enemies always stand out.  Also, I came across a really bad graphics glitch where the ground turned blue and stayed that way for the whole day no matter how often I reloaded.  It seems like was just a one time thing, so no biggie.

Hmm...now where did I leave Yuki?

This glitch haunted me for an entire day on the worst possible level, at the worst possible time.

The music is good.  It gets you in the mood to turn Japanese and stealth-kill everyone you can.  If assassins had Ipods in Feudal Japan, this is probably the music they'd listen to.  While it's not pure fire, it is good and atmospheric.  There's also voice acting which is okay, save for the terrible accent Hayato's voice actor is trying to speak with.

You can also try different difficulty settings, obtaining trophies, or beating levels in different ways.  The game is kind of short, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.  It would have been nice to replay levels with different characters, but it is what it is.  To my knowledge, there's no DLC, so what you see is what you get.  Once again, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun is a neat little game.  There's some strategy involved in beating the levels, especially on your first attempt.  There's a charm and, dare I say, a cuteness to it.  The game could have been longer, but at the same time, it doesn't overstay its welcome.  Check it out.