Shadow Tactics is a real-time tactics game, or RTT for short. In these types of games, everything happens in real time rather than turn-based. You control a small group of characters, and to progress in the game, you have to be smart.
Unlike strategy games, RTT games don’t want you to build bases or gather resources. Instead, you have a fixed, small team and have to focus on making the most of each character’s unique abilities. Timing your moves is the key here.
This genre comes from tabletop wargames where players move miniature figures around. As computers became more powerful, these concepts moved to digital games. Shadow Tactics is made based on the veterans of this genre, Commandos and Desperados, and this time bringing this style of gameplay into a feudal Japanese setting.
The Story Behind the Game
As said before, the game is set in feudal Japan. After a long period of war, the shogun has finally unified the country and brought peace everywhere. Until a mysterious figure known as “Kage-sama” shows up, who starts ruining everything. Your mission is to uncover his identity and stop his evil plans.
You control a team of five characters, each with their own background and motivation. Mugen is a tough samurai with a strong loyalty to the shogun. Hayato is a professional ninja who doesn’t trust people easily. Yuki is a young thief who’s both clever and fast. Aiko is a skilled female ninja who can disguise herself and walk safely into crowds. And finally, there’s Takuma, an old sharpshooter with a pet raccoon dog and a wooden leg.
The story gets really interesting as you go along. There are twists, betrayals, and some really sad moments. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say things are not always what they seem, and your team will have to make some tough choices.
How Do You Play?
In Shadow Tactics, every mission is like solving a big puzzle. In each mission, you face heavily guarded areas that need to be infiltrated. Enemies have visible vision cones that show exactly where, when, and how far they can see, and your job is to avoid detection by them while completing objectives.
Each character comes with a different set of skills. Hayato can throw shurikens to kill enemies from far away and use rocks to make noise and distract enemies. Mugen is the strongest one; he is the only member of the team who can fight samurai (the toughest enemies of the game) directly. Yuki can set deadly traps and use a flute to lure guards into them. Aiko can disguise herself as a geisha and walk around without anyone getting suspicious. Takuma has a rifle and can shoot enemies from super far away, plus his pet tanuki can distract guards by growling at them.
These skills might seem easy to implement individually, but the main challenge comes from combining them. For example, you can use Yuki to distract one guard while Hayato takes down another from behind. Or Aiko could talk to some soldiers and distract them, while the rest of your team sneaks past. Meanwhile, in order to succeed, you would always need good timing.
When you take down enemies, now is the time to hide their bodies, simply because you cannot leave a dead body on the ground, right? If guards discover corpses, they’ll raise an alarm and bring reinforcements, making your mission much harder. Bushes, barrels, or wells would be great places to hide bodies.
The game includes optional “badges” for each mission. Some require you to complete missions quickly or at the highest difficulty. Others need some specific conditions, like avoiding kills or not using certain abilities. This adds replay value to the game.
Is this game Too Hard?
To be honest, Shadow Tactics is challenging. It requires patience, careful thinking, and planning. You must be ready to make mistakes over and over again and learn from each one of them.
But the good thing is, you can save your progress at any time, and the game regularly reminds you to do so. When things go wrong, you can reload and try a different approach. Actually, this trial-and-error process is part of the experience.
There are also different difficulty settings available in this game. While lower difficulties reduce enemy vision range and give you more health, hardcore mode provides a serious challenge for experienced players.
The first mission of the game works as the tutorial, which introduces basic mechanics without feeling too complicated. New concepts show up across missions slowly, giving you enough time to become a master.
What is unique about this one?
When released in 2016, Shadow Tactics somehow revived the stealth-tactics genre that Commandos and Desperados made popular. The feudal Japan setting that was chosen for this game, especially with non-Japanese developers, is wonderfully applied to the game. Missions take place in diverse locations, sometimes in snow, sometimes in city streets, forests, and castles.
The other strength of the game is the characters. They’re not just a bunch of soulless characters; they are individuals with interesting personalities. They interact during missions, and their relationships develop throughout the story. This makes you care about what happens to them.
The mission design is strong. Some missions are long and complex, taking over an hour to complete, while others are shorter. The difficulty curve is well-balanced, and completing a challenging section makes you feel smart.
One really helpful feature is called “Shadow Mode.” You can tell multiple characters what to do and then make them all do it at the same time by pressing a button. This is amazing for taking out several guards at the same time or doing combo moves that need perfect timing.
Should You Play It?
If you like games that make you think, Shadow Tactics is fantastic. It’s not a game where you can just run in and shoot everything. You need to be patient, observe enemy patterns, and come up with clever plans.
The game got lots of great reviews when it came out. People loved how it brought back the old-school stealth tactics style and made it feel fresh and modern. It even won some awards in Germany for best game design.
In 2021, developers released a standalone expansion called Aiko’s Choice with five new missions focused on Aiko’s backstory. So if you need even more of the game, you can check out that one too.
More from Mimimi Productions
After Shadow Tactics, the studio made two more excellent games in the same genre. Desperados III, released on June 16, 2020, brought back the famous Wild West games, Desperados, adding the studio’s signature to it.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew followed on August 17, 2023, taking the formula to a supernatural pirate setting with cursed crew members and a ghost ship. It introduced new mechanics and a more open mission structure while maintaining the core stealth-tactics gameplay.
Both games are worth playing if you enjoy Shadow Tactics. They share the same attention to detail, challenging missions, and smart design philosophy.
Unfortunately, Mimimi Productions announced in August 2023 that Shadow Gambit would be their final game, and the studio closed down shortly after. The reasons mentioned by the founders were frustration with working on projects for over 15 years, along with rising development costs. However, their games will be available on all platforms. The team even released additional content for Shadow Gambit before closing and is still connected with their fanbase.
The Bottom Line
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a solid choice for players who enjoy stealth and tactical gameplay. It’s challenging but fair, visually appealing, and has a story that is worth following.
The game respects players’ intelligence and rewards their creativity. Most missions can be completed in multiple ways, whether you prefer a pacifist approach, not killing anyone, or silently killing everyone in sight.
Shadow Tactics is the spiritual successor of classic games like Commandos or Desperados. Even if you’re new to this genre, Shadow Tactics could be an excellent introduction. It needs patience and strategic thinking, but in the end, the payoff is worth it.
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment, Kalypso Media
Developers: Mimimi Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, GeForce Now, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Mac operating systems, Classic Mac OS
Release Date: December 6, 2016
Genres: Action game, Real-time tactics, Indie game, Adventure game, Tactical wargame
PEGI: 18
