Shogun Showdown review

Our VerdictThis wonderfully clever strategy roguelike demands your best, and it deserves to get it.

Our Verdict

This wonderfully clever strategy roguelike demands your best, and it deserves to get it.

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Need to KnowWhat is it?A turn-based roguelike that challenges you to master the blade. Or several blades, actually.Release dateSeptember 5, 2024Expect to pay$15/£12.80DeveloperRoboatinoPublisherGoblinz Publishing, Gamera GamesReviewed onNvidia Geforce RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAMSteam DeckVerifiedLinkOfficial site

Need to Know

What is it?A turn-based roguelike that challenges you to master the blade. Or several blades, actually.Release dateSeptember 5, 2024Expect to pay$15/£12.80DeveloperRoboatinoPublisherGoblinz Publishing, Gamera GamesReviewed onNvidia Geforce RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAMSteam DeckVerifiedLinkOfficial site

Simply defeating the demonic Shogun and his army of warriors isn’t enough—it must be done with elegance. A true warrior slices their way to the castle without taking a hit, and never makes a move unless it’s precisely necessary, defeating multiple foes with every quick flurry of attacks. And ideally they do it in 30 minutes or less.

You start each run with two tiles—these are your weapon attacks, each specific in their use. As you defeat foes, you gain new tiles and can upgrade the ones you have. The feel of a deckbuilder is there, even if I struggle to call a handful of tiles a deck.

Battles are 2D and turn-based. Almost every action takes a turn—hopping a space left or right, flipping your character around, or queuing up tiles—and once you’ve done it, all your foes will get their next move.

(Image credit: Roboatino, Goblinz Publishing, Gamera Games)

A battle against two swordsmen and two archers in Shogun Showdown.

When you’re firing on all cylinders, it feels like directing the coolest samurai movie you’ve ever seen. Each tile is specific in its use—always doing the same damage, striking in the same position relative to your character, and having the same effects—but the impressive variety of them, combined with the special ability of each playable character and the upgrades you can gain between fights, allows every run to generate its own wild combos.

Before you know it you’re slamming an enemy into another with your ability, then piercing through both of them with a spear and sliding backwards into a third to hit them with a backwards stab. Or summoning a wall of thorns, shoving it forward into someone’s face with a wave of ki, and then finishing them off with a poison arrow. Or swapping places with an enemy about to swing so they smack one of their allies instead, judo-throwing them over your head into someone else, dropping a bear trap at your feet, and then yanking them back into it with a rope dart.

(Image credit: Roboatino, Goblinz Publishing, Gamera Games)

Choosing which tile to upgrade with an ice effect in Shogun Showdown.

It’s a gentle cajoling that pushes you to play better and most importantlycooler.As you engage previously dormant neurons in your brain, your strategies get ever more efficient, and the right combo, refined with elemental upgrades, cooldown reduction, damage bonuses, artifacts, and more, starts to feel unstoppable. The elegant interface—so streamlined you can play the entire game with just the two mouse buttons and the scroll wheel—and the run timer encourage you to go faster and faster the more arrogant you become. That is, until hubris brings you low, and you accidentally run headfirst into a sword you could clearly see was about to swing. Oh well—dust yourself off and get ready for another run.

(Image credit: Roboatino, Goblinz Publishing, Gamera Games)

A fight against two swordsmen in Shogun Showdown.

It’s accessible strategy but with tons of depth to dig into. Beating the Shogun for the first time is only the beginning, as you go on to ratchet up through ever tougher difficulty levels, try to get a full set of stamps (awards for good performance in a run) for each character, complete challenges, and unlock ever stranger and more nuanced attack tiles. After 35 hours, spread throughout the game’s journey through early access and after its launch, I still feel like I’ve got loads more to see—and much more to learn.

The Verdict90Read our review policyShogun ShowdownThis wonderfully clever strategy roguelike demands your best, and it deserves to get it.

The Verdict

90Read our review policyShogun ShowdownThis wonderfully clever strategy roguelike demands your best, and it deserves to get it.

90Read our review policy

Shogun ShowdownThis wonderfully clever strategy roguelike demands your best, and it deserves to get it.

Shogun Showdown

This wonderfully clever strategy roguelike demands your best, and it deserves to get it.

More about shogun showdownThis finely-honed samurai strategy game deserves a place in the roguelike hall of fame this year just as much as BalatroMy new roguelike obsession is a turn-based strategy game that makes you feel like a samurai John WickLatestWormhole is an impeccable arcade revival of Snake that plays like it fell off the back of Derek Yu’s vanSee more latest►

More about shogun showdown

This finely-honed samurai strategy game deserves a place in the roguelike hall of fame this year just as much as BalatroMy new roguelike obsession is a turn-based strategy game that makes you feel like a samurai John Wick

Shogun Showdown

This finely-honed samurai strategy game deserves a place in the roguelike hall of fame this year just as much as Balatro

A samurai looking up at the vast shadow of the Shogun in Shogun Showdown.

My new roguelike obsession is a turn-based strategy game that makes you feel like a samurai John Wick

LatestWormhole is an impeccable arcade revival of Snake that plays like it fell off the back of Derek Yu’s vanSee more latest►

Latest

Wormhole is an impeccable arcade revival of Snake that plays like it fell off the back of Derek Yu’s van

Wormhole

Wormhole is an impeccable arcade revival of Snake that plays like it fell off the back of Derek Yu’s van

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Our Verdict#

Our Verdict