As much as I enjoyed Napoleon’s artillery duels, battles in Shogun 2 are more satisfying because they leave more room for tactical creativity. Similarly, differences on the battlefield are between samurai and ashigaru (armed peasant), cavalry and infantry, or spear and sword. This simple yet engaging mechanic is a massive improvement over the overly complicated agent designs of Empire, Napoleon, and even Medieval II. The agents that do your bidding outside the field of battle have been reworked into rock-paper-scissors triangle that has ninjas, monks, and metsuke (secret police) dancing all over Japan in a shadow war. This streamlining extends to all areas of the game.
Instead of choosing between boring percentile increases here and there, you’re unlocking powerful new abilities like double-speed samurai training or tripling town growth. Upgrading a castle doesn’t just add a percentage modifier to unit replenishment it opens up another slot for economic or military buildings, adds stronger walls and defensive emplacements, and allows faster troop training. Every button you press has an immediate, noticeable effect.
#TOTAL WAR SHOGUN 2 REVIEW SERIES#
For example, choosing what type of buildings to build in each province is a series of decisions that leaves space for developing strategies (Market or archery dojo? Monastery or stables?) without burying the player in trivialities. Unlike previous Total War titles, each of these elements is elegantly designed as part of the greater whole. Dominance over Japan requires building a strong infrastructure, picking your friends and enemies carefully, and ultimately seizing victory on the battlefield itself. Stripping away the bloat that has crept into Total War over the franchise’s many iterations has allowed Creative Assembly to explore the design of the core gameplay itself. This cuts away the fluff that got in the way of exploring Total War’s gripping strategy. Instead of dozens of countries and ethnicities bringing radically different troops to the battlefield, Japanese clans fight with minor variations of sword, bow, and spear. It brings the scale down from Empire: Total War’s globe-spanning theaters to three of feudal Japan’s islands. Shogun 2 is a repudiation of this development philosophy.
This ambition has often come at the price of rough edges, from unit AI during real-time battle sequences failing to navigate terrain to imperfect balancing and problematic rival faction AI on the turn-based campaign map. The Creative Assembly has always reached for the stars with Total War, pushing the boundaries of what we thought technically possible to create ambitious grand strategy titles that mix internal politics, diplomacy, intrigue, economic development, and warfare.