Shogun Showdown Review (PS5) – An Unrelenting Showdown
Roguelikes are a dime a dozen these days, with 2024 being no exception to the genre trend. Hades II and The Rogue Prince of Persia reaching Early Access from genre veterans at this point; Balatro being one of the biggest games of the year — it’s not even quantity at this point but quality too. So, where does Roboatino’s Shogun Showdown sit amongst the aforementioned heavy hitters?
To the delight of my masochistic roguelike needs and to the disdain of games that are in my pick-up-and-play rotation, Shogun Showdown is one to not overlook. The game is a tactical turn-based roguelike with a fantasy Feudal Japan aesthetic and a mid-to-late game deck-building that creeps in. Enough buzz words to make a person sceptical, but believe me when I say this has one of the most addictive loops I’ve played in a while — if you don’t mind dying a lot.
My preamble is probably longer than the game’s, as Shogun Showdown simply gives you the option to start a run, and then you’re thrown into the tutorial. Don’t worry though, because whilst it may be brisk, it gives you all the tools to showdown, shogun style. Let’s do the same, shall we?
By My Blade
The whole game is centred on different sized 2D tiled battlefields; think of something grid-based but flattened. Your character will always start in the middle, whilst enemies could spawn on either side of you. Each move (unless stated) uses up a turn, with your enemies following an action straight after you.
When you start a new run, you’ll have two different attacks that are tied to the character you take to battle. You start with The Wanderer, whose abilities consist of blades that attack both sides, as well as an arrow that fires in a straight line that you’re facing. These attacks are tiles, which essentially act as your cards in deck-building fashion, but more on that later.
Each attack can be placed and then triggered separately by your command, both of which use up a move each. Factor that in with your movement as well as your enemies, and you already have strategic puzzle-solving instantaneously. The arenas are usually pretty condensed too, forcing you to think aggressively and on your feet if you want to survive.
The attack tiles also have cooldowns and different areas of effect, as does your character’s special ability. The Wanderers’ ability is to swap positions with enemies if they’re facing them. Not only could this negate the enemy’s attack but it also enacts friendly fire on another unsuspecting enemy. Factor this alongside stacking your attacks and gaining the positional advantage and you quickly start pulling off some really satisfying combos.
Going Down
This was all picked up within minutes of playing my first couple of runs. I quickly connected with the character attack patterns, what the capabilities of my own attack tiles were, and I became hooked on what Shogun Showdown was already shaping up to be. As is the standard of the genre, you start with very little but even with that in mind, this game has a tough jumping on point.
I died a lot very early on, but the gameplay is so snappy and kinetic for a turn-based that battles could last under a minute. I’m more stubborn than I give myself credit for, but I do think the addictive gameplay loop makes the tough starting moments more forgiving. Runs are simple enough of a premise, every level has a zone, and each zone has a handful of battles that result in a boss battle at the end. Each battle will have waves for you to survive, killing enemies will start the next wave and it carries on till you’re the victor.
Movement is tied to the triggers, navigating the menus with the left stick and selecting with ‘X’. It’s an intuitive set-up for a game that requires a lot of varying actions, mimicking the quick pace that’s usually unmatched on PC versions of games. Progression is tied to your defeat of the bosses, with victories rewarding you with death tokens to take back into the menu.
Death Is Not The End
Death tokens can net you a new attack tile or permanent skill unlock. You can only buy from a group of three at a time, and I don’t believe RNG is at play on what the shop offers you, but the more you unlock, the more expensive each unlock gets. Annoyingly, you only see the icon before purchase, so you don’t really know what you’re getting until you unlock it. This can create some hiccups in progression, because sometimes the tile you’ve spent your cold hard death tokens on may not be helpful to your playstyle in your next few runs.
Inversely, this did make me experiment with what I could utilise in battle and whilst it wasn’t all a success, I can see how the depth and variety of Shogun Showdown don’t pigeonhole you to play a certain way. This is also true with the characters you unlock. Beating the final boss in an area unlocks a new character with their own special ability and new attacks.
Whilst attacks are assigned to characters, you can also find them out on your runs. After defeating a boss you’ll have the choice between two paths for a different type of shop. Some might be able to upgrade your weapons damage, cooldown, status effects or even give it more upgrade slots. You can also buy skills that’ll last your entire run, as well as items and weapons. Weapons and upgrades can also be found between fights where you’ll usually choose between two.
Loop Hero
It slowly creates this deckbuilding-like quality to the game, where you can discard unwanted attack tiles or upgrade the ones you use more etc. Of course the more you unlock, the more RNG takes place with what you’ll stumble across in your runs. But again, if you start recognising builds and adapting to different play styles you start to notice just how high of a skill ceiling the game has.
As the adage goes, easy to pick up, hard to master and Shogun Showdown is the pinnacle of it. I must admit though, I’m hours deep at this point and I’m still not making too much progress in properly beating the game, but even with seeing so much failure I’m enjoying just how much I’m learning every sprint to battle I go on.
There are quests, true endings, challenge modifiers awaiting me once I get good enough to finally beat the main run of bosses. It helps that Shogun Showdown has a great pixel art style with chibi sprites for the characters and enemies, as well as some opulent backgrounds. Villages at night, intricate ruins and flourishing forests silhouette against the bold singular colours of the backgrounds.
The heroes range from stealthy-looking assassins to bulky ronins, with enemies sharing similar armour but more so in the realm of the fantastical. The music also blends chiptune beats with some more classical Japanese instruments, creating a retro-inspired Feudal fusion that is thumping.
Showdown For What?
Like I mentioned at the top, Shogun Showdown is not one to overlook if you’re any bit at all into roguelikes. It shares the space with Balatro in games this year that you pick up, lose hours to and then put it down to only think about it a minute later. The surface level simplicity of the game’s core loop that opens up into an almost bottomless pit of opportunity grasps you into just going on one more run.
I’m partial to Japanese culture in my aesthetics, but I think that Roboatino has had a deep understanding of the Feudal era. From the weaponry to the landscapes and even the mythology, the team have managed to create something that looks and feels cool to play. I do think there’s not much outside the fantastic gameplay to elevate the game as a whole.
Maybe a bigger emphasis on narrative or an easier learning curve could have made the early hours of progression more palatable. However, my time with Shogun Showdown is no way near over and I can’t wait to wage war against the Shogun once more.
Shogun Showdown is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Developer: Roboatino
Publisher: Goblinz Publishing, Gamera Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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