Shadow Tactics:
Blades of the Shogun

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (2016) is a stealth strategy game set in Japan, where a new Shogun employs five recruits to use assassination, sabotage and espionage to enforce peace in the country. Play involves commanding a team of specialists to sneak in amongst enemies to complete missions. It sounds familiar but stands out for how you pause time to give each agent commands before seeing the plans unfold simultaneously.

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You control a team of deadly specialists and must choose your approach to infiltrate mighty castles, snowy mountain monasteries and hidden forest camps. You must learn how to use their very different skills and personalities to work together. As you do, trust is earned and friendships forged as the characters develop dynamically and face their personal demons:

• Hayato is an agile ninja, who clears the way through his enemies silently with his sword.
• Samurai Mugen is more powerful and can defeat multiple enemies at a time.
• Aiko can camouflage herself and distract enemies disguised as a Geisha.
• Yuki is a street child who can place traps and decoys.
• Takuma is a marksman with a sniper rifle to down enemies from a distance.

You play by deciding how to traverse without being spotted. You can set traps, poison your opponents or completely avoid enemy contact. As you make your way through the levels you can see where enemies are looking. Most crucially though, you can pause time to specify actions for your team to execute simultaneously.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun 10 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 months ago.