Like a samurai patiently waiting for an opening in an opponent’s defense, Shogun Showdown understands that focus and finesse are the means to a powerful blow. This sporadic roguelike strips the genre down to its purest ingredients, all in the service of its stunning combat, which plays gracefully with the concepts of positioning and patience. Highly refined, stylish, and elaborate, Shogun Showdown is a delight.
Here’s what it’s about: You’re tasked with killing the Shogun. The Shogun is a bad guy, corrupted by some cataclysmic event that shook the earth, and shadowy forces have sprung from the cracks. At least that’s what I think? Shogun Showdown is pretty featherlight on plot, to be sincere, and aside from a few tiny cutscenes, there’s not much to think about. At first, I found this decision unsettling, but after a few hours of play, it became clear that, like most aspects of the game, it was just further evidence of developer Roboatino’s cautious intentions.
Shogun Showdown is a roguelike in the most customary sense of the word. All the basic elements of the genre you’d expect are here: a node-based map, shops, and bosses. Unlockable characters, weapons, and skills. There’s no fat to trim here, no extra runes that give out tiny percentage boosts, and no fancy narrative conceits that encourage or reward death. You’re given a single currency that you can buy more of things,and that’s it: everything serves the fight, drawing you into these perfect clashes again and again.
A turn-based twist on the genre, positioning is your most crucial weapon against the Shogun’s hordes. At the start of your run, you’re placed in the middle of a row of tiles. Movement is locked to single-shot left and right, but you can also turn around to face the other way. Attacks, styled as cards at the bottom of the screen, can be dragged over your character’s head to determine the order in which they’re executed. After using a card, you’re forced to wait a tiny cooldown before you can re-ready it.
Each action (except for specific cards) takes a turn. Whether you decide to move left or ready your bow to attack, the bad guys around you will Also make a decision at the same time. Their actions are visualized on the screen next to yours, their upcoming moves or combat abilities displayed on their body or above their head. Attacks that will be performed after your next move flash yellow to encourage you to get out of their way, lest you be diagnosed with a terminal case of Big Sword Disease in your chest.
Given that all of your attacks are tied to cooldowns, and the arenas you fight in are as tight as a London house (often packed to the brim with people), every choice you make becomes the difference between life and death. Thankfully, you have a ton of options, thanks to the wealthy and varied selection of weapons and perks you receive with such frequency as you pick your way through the game.
While some weapons are purely damage-dealing, most are better described as movement modifiers. A charge that throws you across the arena. A smoke bomb that swaps your character’s position with that of the nearest enemy. A hook that pulls an enemy into the tip of your blade. Combined with character abilities (the starting character Wanderer can switch places with anyone he’s facing, while the unlockable Ronin pushes enemies into their allies and a strike turns them into a fountain of blood), weapons encourage you to consider a broader strategy on each turn. You can’t rely on brute force alone.
It’s astonishing. Despite being turn-based, the drama it generates is a testament to the breadth of imagination that goes into designing these weapons. After just a few hours of play, it becomes obvious that no two encounters will be treated the same way. You start each round with two default weapons, but you can only choose from a pool that’s unlocked after certain rounds. You’ll rarely have access to more than a handful of attacks, basically, and while they can be upgraded during a round to escalate their power, reduce their cooldown, or become imbued with a helpful ability, the amount of tinkering you can do with each of them is circumscribed.
In practice, all of this makes for a huge spectacle, despite being locked into a single 2D plane. Playing Shogun Showdown is like being caught between two furious warriors with no clear solution to avoid certain death. Would you jump out of the way of Ashigaru’s katana, only to be impaled by his friend’s spear? Would you loosen the crossbow bolt, knowing that its ability to slice through multiple enemies at once would be more beneficial when you could turn around to face the group behind you? Oh! Wait! What if you switched places with the guy with the katana, using a smoke bomb instead, causing him to knock his buddy out in the process? Brilliant!
It is here, amidst this process of complex decision-making, that Shogun Showdown reveals its breathtaking, stimulating core. Ducking and weaving. Pushing and pulling. Slicing, slicing, crushing and cursing. This is combat at its most stimulating, despite its relative simplicity. Battles are either hard-won (with defeat reversed at the last moment by a well-placed health potion or a sword slash that slices the two remaining enemies to pieces) or won with such ferocity and speed that the game has no choice but to put the words “Destroyed” on the screen (which, as a minor note, seems Really Good).
Who needs real-time action when turn-based battles can conjure such moments of brilliance? After one particularly memorable battle, I screamed so loudly that I received a gentle text from my partner asking me to be silent. In her defense, it was 2 a.m. Such is the joy of time-wasting that this game provides in abundance.
I’ll tell you, it helps that it’s pretty. Most aspects of the game have been polished to perfection, and the graphics are no exception. Each stage is beautifully presented, with multiple layers of depth that, when combined with the combat, give it a striking cinematic quality. Fights take place amidst silhouetted flora, broken pagodas bathed in sunset featherlight, and bloodshed scattered about. The backgrounds in particular are a highlight – the detailed vistas convey a sense of the rot and corruption that has tainted this limited world – but in reality, every aspect of the game, from the characters to the user interface, is crisp and stunning.
And when it’s done? Well. A good roguelike is never truly finished, is it? Let’s just say that defeating the Shogun isn’t the end, and those who dare to venture forth will face more complex challenges after the titular ruler has been overthrown. Even then, there are always novel tactics to discover, novel toys to play with, and novel characters to try out on the battlefield. I’m afraid my time with the game is far from over (praise).
2024 was such a great year for roguelikes that I was convinced I had my fill. How could something this good make a real attempt at stealing the crown in a year that saw the release of Balatro and Hades II? I guess I was more fooled. After playing Shogun Showdown, it’s no surprise that this game ducked and slid into my life with such grace that I barely noticed the blade it was driving into my heart. It’s a dazzling gem of a game that you simply can’t miss, even if you’re bombarded.
