#SHADOW TACTICS 2 FULL#

With every other option exhausted, I “gave up” and just sent my fastest ninja sprinting across a guard’s direct line of sight to a nearby hiding spot. I played extremely conservatively at first, never daring to cross a sight cone for even a split-second, until I ran into a group of enemies where there was no possible way for that to work. That is, by design, a fundamental part of the Shadow Tactics game flow.įrom then on, the details of every new encounter are a chance to learn-again, out of necessity-about some aspect of the game, or the nuances of a particular character or ability. It doesn’t take long to learn, out of necessity, about the sheer power of the quicksave: hit F5, do something, anything, reload at the press of a button when it all inevitably goes wrong, and then use your new knowledge of how and why it all went wrong to better understand the game and the challenge. While more detailed tutorials for absolute beginners wouldn’t go amiss, the maps themselves are instructive, in their very complexity and finesse.

#SHADOW TACTICS 2 FULL#

It can feel a bit like you’ve been thrown in the deep end if you haven’t touched Shadow Tactics since Blades first came out (guilty!), but it also means the maps in Aiko’s Choice, though few in number, are wonderfully intricate and full of opportunity for inventive strategies.Īnd that’s also, oddly enough, what makes Aiko’s Choice a fantastic introduction to the genre. Despite the standalone nature of the expansion and some basic tutorials, it’s very much a follow-up to Blades of the Shogun, and the complexity of its levels follows suit. Spanning three main levels and a couple of brief interludes, this expansion is a densely-packed puzzle box, building on what came before in intriguing ways-like navigating a map made up of a bunch of small islands with a party who can’t all swim. String those puzzles together on a broad, intricate map that offers multiple paths to victory and plenty of room for experimentation, and you’ve got the makings of something engrossing.Īll this is true of Aiko’s Choice, too, and made particularly apparent through the (relatively) short-form nature of the game. Sure, it can be frustrating at first, especially for an inexperienced player, but the rush of a brilliant plan executed flawlessly-when all the pieces of a puzzle that seemed impossible click into place-is something else. Each mission is a collection of these intriguing little puzzles, each one leaving plenty of room for a creative approach while also demanding that you think outside the box and dare to try new things. One down, a whole lot more to go, but the impossible just became a little bit more possible.Īnd that’s what makes Shadow Tactics, and the genre at large, work so well. “I’ve only got three people in my squad right now, how am I supposed to clear out a courtyard with seven guards who never take eyes off one another? Or even just sneak past?” But with some experimentation and liberal use of quicksave and quickload, you slowly piece together a solution: using Aiko’s disguise and Mugen’s ability to lure weaker-willed soldiers away with a sake bottle, you can leave just big enough of a gap between the other soldiers’ sight cones for a well-timed stealth kill from Hayato. When you’ve got a half-dozen guards all working together, always in line of sight of at least a few of the others, many too committed to their duty to be lured away from their posts, taking them all down quietly requires elaborate planning.Įvery encounter seems impossible at first glance. There’s no conceivable way to actually get through this section.” Stealth games are inherently puzzle games, and tactical stealth especially: the old “lure guards away one by one and quietly eliminate them” rarely works here, with enemy layouts specifically designed around the fact that you’ve got a whole squad of espionage experts to work with.

I say this despite-or indeed, because of-the fact that I spent most of my time playing it thinking, “Nope, this time it’s actually impossible. A standalone expansion to that game, Shadow Tactics: Aiko’s Choice isn’t just more of what made Blades of the Shogun so good to begin with-it’s also a surprisingly good introduction to a “harcore” genre that’s known for a steep learning curve.

Following in the footsteps of games like Commandos and Desperados, it reminded the world how captivating a finely-tuned blend of squad-based tactics and stealth can be, especially in a meticulously-crafted rendition of Edo-era Japan. Five years ago, Mimimi Games breathed welcome new life into the tactical stealth genre with the excellent Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

Shadow tactics 2