By Rainer Sigl
Everyone vs. Alone, that’s often the case with video games. A small round tactical game “Shogun Clash” As a solo player, I take on the entire army of the evil Shogun Nobuyaka.
Until I stand in his throne room, I fight against countless of his minions in forests, mountains, and villages, and take on various small bosses. Brute force doesn’t give me the greatest odds. On the contrary, those who carefully consider each move will win here.
Small but tricky
“Shogun Showdown” looks simple at first glance with its pixel-style, side-view gameplay and relatively small battle locations — but it’s not. Every move, every step, every attack has to be carefully considered because when I finish my round, it’s my opponent’s turn and they want to come at me.
“Shogun Clash”Developed by Robaitino and distributed by Goblinz Publishing, available for Windows, PS4/5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox series.
Like the classic tactical game “Into the Breach”, I can anticipate the enemy’s upcoming actions and adapt my reactions to them; At best, it enables unique combos or at least daring escape maneuvers.
Robotino
Fine rogue-like tricks
But time is not everything. In addition to efficient maneuvering and attacking, a selection of new weapons and their upgrades are also relevant, randomly generated every few fights. Exactly: There are also subtle echoes of mechanics from the deckbuilding genre here. It takes a bit of luck to make successful combos using the available attacks and weapons each turn. If I still don’t get to the boss, I go back to the beginning – as usual in the rude songs.
A successful run, i.e. a game until you beat Shogun, takes about an hour at most, but it took me longer to do it the first time. Shogun Showdown is an amazingly deep roguelike strategy game with lots of style and fresh ideas.
