Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice Review

Reading about Aiko’s Choice was a curious one. It’s a standalone expansion to a game from 2016 – the stealth-oriented real-time tactics title, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. How a game gets an expansion five years after its release was a mystery to me, it seemed like any interest in a non-serialised IP would have diminished by then.

But I see now. The game is a deadset mega-banger.

Bush parties are a highlight of any successful ninja campaign

At first I was going to refer to the game as a real-time strategy, but the more minutiae-scaled detail of its mechanics really does lean more towards a tactically-oriented experience. In short, you control a cadre of assassins with different vocations, and use them to execute (mostly literally) particular manoeuvres to traverse a map and complete objectives. Stealth is the word of the day, month AND year – so try and remain unseen, lest you make your situation rapidly worse.

Each of your deadly brethren has their own abilities, strengths AND weaknesses. Originally, I was partly disgusted by the presence of a samurai – I am a long time ninja enthusiast, and somewhere in my past I developed a strong anti-samurai rhetoric. Look at this armoured idiot, who can’t nimbly leap on roofs or stealthily dispatch an enemy. Look at his thudding footsteps as he walks, so noisy – what on Earth am I supposed to do with this guy?

I then came to realise he has the unique ability to kill every motherfucking person in a generous radius. A whirlwind of swords, everyone, dead. This seemed exceptionally useful as a baseline, but then I also made the critical mistake of discovering that my ninjas are unable to easily kill enemy samurai – whereas Mugen, my cheerful samurai fiend, could dispatch them with ease. It was finally dawning on me that my party of killers was a well-stocked toolbox, and that the world in front of me was a range of DIY problems to be fixed in cool and creative ways.

This isn’t to say that every character ability is an earth-rocking game changer. I can openly say that beyond my staples, a lot of the super specific options would likely be hampered by playstyle and player preference. Takuma, for example, was a dude who was packing guns and grenades. While these were immensely devastating, I had settled into a very slow and methodical playstyle, carefully observing enemy patterns and creating elaborate scenarios to dispatch them. Blasting them may have been easier – but the alert level and noise did not readily appeal to me.

This ultra-methodical playstyle was one that had a small learning curve. The game is not immediately ready for you to speed run it – player knowledge and map awareness are needed in equal parts. My first instinct with reviewing games is to try and keep a reasonable level of speed – time spent playing is time not spent writing and publishing – and you need to find a balance between completing something quickly, but not glossing over it or missing anything important. This first hour or two within Aiko’s Choice contained one of many harsh lessons, and a rising frustration that I initially was levelling towards the game. I took a moment to relax, have a cold drink of water and reassess; the friction I was feeling was essentially from trying to implement a playstyle that I had not yet settled into. I was not respecting the way of the ninja. Soon enough, I was rapidly dispatching fools in all manner of incredible, deadly ways. My last play session went well past my bedtime, I was just so in the zone.

Brutal samurai on samurai action is a highlight

Thankfully trial and error are concepts beautifully realised within the game. Every meticulous plan can be attempted, and the ensuing fuck up observed, thanks to the game incorporating the ancient and appreciated system of quicksaving. For the truly enlightened among us, we know that the act of save-scumming can be a lifesaver when walking the razor’s edge of failure – the ability to rapidly make granular saves, attempt your grand plan, then immediately abandon it and try again from a few moments  earlier; it’s a godly tool. My initial frustrations from not fully understanding the game systems evaporated once I realised that technically, no amount of colossal mistakes could actually ruin me – trying again wasn’t just available to me, it was encouraged.

Heck, there were times where I would execute what I considered to be a perfect plan – bad guy nerds falling left and right, when suddenly I would stop and find myself wondering …could I do it better? Perhaps I didn’t want to expend a limited resource for that kill, maybe a patrolling guard could be an advantage at another point of his path. I’d dig into my quicksaves, and time travel back a few extra minutes and resume my thoughts on how to solve the matter. The game had convinced me that repeating an action for a different outcome wasn’t madness – it was bloody good fun.

Just a man and his tanuki – how could they possibly be threatening?

This plays directly into a phenomenal loop within the mechanics – the art of getting creative. I felt a burning itch to look into gameplay footage from other players who may have conquered the previous title, to see what kind of kunoichi techniques are utilised by far greater players than I, but I stayed my hand. I promised myself that I would not look into these forbidden arts until I had both completed this game and written the text you are reading right now (edit: turns out people are tons better than I am – BUT! I am not half bad at ninjutsu).

Both the visual and auditory stylings are brilliant. The game puts the Unity Engine to work, with Edo Japan looking every bit as vibrant and gorgeous as our video game senses have imagined. Quiet period-appropriate music plays constantly in the background, and works to centre you within the games’ setting, never once becoming grating as you scratch your chin and watch the same guard’s patrol path for the thirtieth time. Every sound effect is carefully measured and further deepens your relationship to death, even the clatter of a distracting rock still sounds crisp and interesting after the hundredth throw.

This guard has discovered a shuriken – unfortunately, it’s embedded in his neck

The characters too are full of personality and interest. The way they interact with each other feels natural and organic, and every time I had the opportunity to hear their family-style banter I would pause what I was doing to enjoy it. Sure, it would have been nice to have a few more selection quotes for the characters – selecting a dude and hearing the same three things did get a little old – but it wasn’t a deal breaker. I was also pleased to encounter a hearty amount of random banter to be eavesdropped from guards and their leadership, and they often bicker and complain about their situation. One particular mission saw them guarding ninja students, and it was quite funny to hear them trying to learn ninja tricks, or questioning why they were guarding people far more deadly than them.

The only sadness I took away from Aiko’s Choice was the fact that I finished it in a scant few hours. Everything I experienced was excellent, and nothing felt rushed – but I still wanted more. Thankfully, there is the entire base game from 2016 on offer, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is available on a ton of modern storefronts.

Aaand it’s been around long enough to regularly be put on sale. 

Final Thoughts

Aiko’s Choice is a positively brilliant revisit to a game that I lament having missed during its heyday. 2016 feels like an aeon ago, but thankfully 2021 has offered this beautifully crafted standalone expansion to not only bring more attention to ninja stealth simulators as a genre, but to display its own excellent tightly packaged experience.

Reviewed on PC // Review code supplied by publisher

Click here for more information on WellPlayed’s review policy and ethics