Shogun Showdown evaluation: an distinctive roguelike that hits totally different

Like a samurai poised patiently for a gap of their opponent’s defences, Shogun Showdown understands that focus and finesse are the means to delivering an impactful blow. This uncommon roguelike distils the style all the way down to its purest elements, all in favour of amplifying its dizzying fight that performs gracefully with the ideas of positioning and persistence. Extremely refined, trendy and sophisticated, Shogun Showdown is a delight.

Right here’s the pitch: you might be on a quest to kill the Shogun. The Shogun is a Unhealthy Dude, corrupted by some type of cataclysmic occasion that has shaken the earth, darkish forces gushing free from the ensuing cracks. A minimum of, I feel that’s what’s occurring? Shogun Showdown is fairly mild on story, to be sincere, and out of doors of some small cutscenes, there’s not a lot to chew on right here. At first, I discovered this determination regarding, earlier than it turned obvious after a couple of hours of play that like most elements of the sport, this was merely extra proof of developer Roboatino’s cautious intent.

Shogun Showdown is a roguelike in essentially the most conventional sense of the time period. All of the style staples you’d anticipate are right here: a node-based map, retailers, and executives. Unlockable characters, weapons, and expertise. There’s no fats to trim right here, no further runes that dole out minute share boosts or fancy narrative conceits to incentivise or reward demise. You get a single forex used to purchase extra stuff,and that’s it: every thing is in service of the fight, repeatedly funnelling you into its glorious clashes.

A turn-based twist on the style, positioning is your most necessary weapon towards the Shogun’s hordes. Firstly of a run, you might be positioned within the centre of a row of tiles. Motion is locked to single hops left and proper, however you may also flip round to face the opposite approach. Assaults, stylised as playing cards on the backside of the display, might be dragged above your character’s head to outline the order through which they’ll be carried out. As soon as a card has been used, you’re compelled to attend a short cooldown interval earlier than it may be primed once more.

Each motion (aside from particular playing cards) takes up a flip. Whether or not you resolve to maneuver to your left or prime your bow for an assault, the baddies chilling round you’ll additionally decide on the identical time. Their actions are visualised on display alongside your individual, their upcoming actions or fight talents displayed on their physique or above their head. Assaults that will likely be carried out after your subsequent transfer, in the meantime, flash yellow to encourage you to get out of their approach, lest you be recognized with a terminal case of Massive Sword In The Chest Illness.

Contemplating all your assaults are tied to cooldowns, and the arenas you combat inside are as cramped as a London home share (typically stuffed filled with as many individuals, too), each selection you make turns into the distinction between life and demise. Fortunately, your choices are plentiful, the results of a wealthy and numerous number of weapons and perks handed over with beneficiant frequency as you decide your approach via the sport.

Though some weapons are pure injury sellers, most could possibly be higher described as motion modifiers. A splash that flings you throughout the sector. A smoke bomb that switches your character’s place with that of your closest opponent’s. A grappling hook that pulls an enemy into the tip of your blade. Mixed with character talents (beginning character Wanderer can swap locations with whoever she’s going through, whereas the unlockable Ronin shoves enemies into their allies, the affect lowering them to a fountain of blood) weapons encourage you to think about your broader technique each single flip. You’ll be able to’t coast by on brute power alone.

It’s astonishing stuff. Regardless of being turn-based, the drama it generates is a testomony to the breadth of creativeness on show throughout the design of those weapons. After just a few hours of play, it turns into obvious that no two encounters will ever be handled in the identical approach. You start every run with two default weapons, however can solely decide out of your unlocked pool after particular rounds. You’ll hardly ever have entry to greater than a handful of assaults, mainly, and though throughout a run they are often upgraded to spice up their energy, cut back their cooldown or change into imbued with a useful capability, the quantity of fiddling you are able to do to every one is capped.

In apply, all this creates an enormous quantity of spectacle regardless of being locked to a single 2D airplane. To play Shogun Showdown is to search out your self caught between two enraged fighters with no clear answer on how one can keep away from sure demise. Do you soar out of the best way of the Ashigaru’s katana, solely to be pierced by his buddy’s spear as a substitute? Do you loosen a crossbow bolt, understanding that its capability to chop via a number of enemies directly could be extra helpful when you’re capable of flip round to face the group behind you? Ah! Wait! What should you swap locations with katana boy utilizing a smoke bomb as a substitute, inflicting him to strike down his pal within the ensuing confusion? Good!

It’s right here, amid this strategy of fraught decision-making, that Shogun Showdown reveals its breathless, exhilarating core. Ducking and weaving. Pushing and pulling. Slicing, dicing, bludgeoning and cursing. That is fight at its most enjoyable, regardless of its relative simplicity. Battles are both hard-won (with defeat averted on the final minute by a well-timed well being potion or the slice of a sword that cleaves your two remaining enemies into chunks) or achieved with such ferocity and pace that the sport has no selection however to plaster the phrases “Obliterated” over the display (which, simply as a facet observe, feels actually good).

Who wants real-time motion when turn-based battles like this will conjure such moments of brilliance? After one significantly memorable battle, I shouted so loud that I acquired a mild textual content from my companion asking me to maintain it down. In her defence, it was 2am. Such is the time-deleting pleasure this recreation supplies in abundance.

I’ll inform you what, it helps that it’s a looker. With most elements of the sport pruned to perfection, the artwork is not any exception. Every stage is framed fantastically, with a number of layers offering a way of depth that, mixed with the fight, lends it an efficient cinematic high quality. Fights play out surrounded by silhouetted flora, splintered pagodas bathed in sunset-hued mild, scattered loosely behind the bloodshed. Backgrounds particularly are a spotlight – detailed vistas convey a way of rot and corruption that has tainted this sparse world – however in reality, all elements of the sport, from its characters to its UI, are readable and fairly.

And when it’s performed? Nicely. roguelike is rarely really performed, is it? All I’ll say is that defeating the Shogun is way from the tip, with tougher challenges awaiting these courageous sufficient to enterprise forth after the titular ruler is toppled. Even then, there are at all times new ways to find, new toys to play with, and new characters to be trialled on the battlefield. I concern my time with the sport is way from over (complimentary).

2024 has been such a superb yr for roguelikes that I used to be satisfied I had already had my fill. How, in a yr that has already offered each Balatro and Hades II, might one thing of equal high quality make a real try and steal the crown? Extra idiot me, I suppose. After taking part in Shogun Showdown, it comes as no shock that it has ducked and weaved its approach into my life with such grace that I barely even seen the blade it slipped into my coronary heart. This can be a dazzling gem of a recreation you merely can not miss, even should you do get smoke-bombed.