Samurai have got some of the best branding out of all of the old world warriors from yesteryear. Most are presented as noble and prideful, deep-thinking and curious, stoic and disciplined, hardened and lethal. History might object to much of that as a matter of common course, but as far as fiction, and especially video games, are concerned, samurai can’t get any cooler. We’ve had lots of games that make being a samurai seem like the most awesome thing a person could be involved in, but Shogun Showdown might solidify its place at the top of that list, at least as far as their martial prowess is concerned.
The turn-based nature of a roguelike makes a great bedrock for a game about executing one’s enemies as quickly and stylishly as possible. My character’s every move costs a turn, meaning every step taken in the small arena, every attack made or prepared, and even turning to face the opposite direction all trigger responses from enemy characters. Like other small-time tactical classics like Into the Breach, you know exactly what each foe plans to do with their next turn before it happens. The dance becomes knowing the array of possibilities from each of the enemies, when to expect their offense, and having a way to prevent it or avenge the damage it does. This is pretty easy early, but by the time you get to the middle of a run, bad guys come in so many forms and can do such an array of things at any given moment that surviving rounds can be perilous.
As you progress through stages, you can add tiles to an ever growing hand of offensive and defensive options that can be as straightforward as swinging a sword or a spear in a particular direction to laying down traps or vanishing into a cloud of smoke to avoid incoming damage. You can stack up to three at a time that will execute in whatever sequence you arrange. Once used, they go on cooldown for a number of rounds, and the balance of staggering out my offense in waves that can keep enemies on the back foot and cover for my already used abilities is the kind of katana-sharp gameplay that comes alive after a few hours and a dozen or so runs. It’s rare that what’s effectively a turn-based deckbuilding combat system can feel as stylish as a character action brawler, but I think Shogun Showdown its very close on more than one occasion.
So many of the attack options you encounter are more than simply just dealing damage in front of or behind you (or both at the same time). There’s also all of the ways that attacks and move you around the cramped field, bouncing you into or sometimes through enemies, or even tossing them around as well. Without spending a tile of your own attacks, you can manipulate your foes into dispatching each other by carefully watching their movements and timing the blows correctly. All of the little decisions you have to make to narrowly escape danger or to clobber an offender just in time mimics the classic samurai movie tea house flash combat sequences better than any action game could, in the same way that the turn-based John Wick Hex is probably the closest we’ll get to a game that makes you think like the titular assassin under fire.
What’s also impressive is how much restraint Robatino shows in its design choices. These sorts of games can easily bloat into a floating paper lantern full of the hot air of various meta mechanics, multiple currencies, or top level run specific items that can make min maxers brains tingle but mine recoil in fear. Shogun Showdown shows none of that overzealousness, keeping everything that isn’t combat focused very simple. There’s only a handful of item types like potions that heal health or that can help make enemies vulnerable in a number of ways. There’s only one currency, gold, that can be spent on everything that you would have the option to pick up or alter. Every run can unlock new potential skills that would be added to the pool of funds during the next run, but that’s the most random anything gets. That means I’m not spending hour ten discovering new things that could or couldn’t change the way I play but will distract me from any material progress I’ve made. Instead, I’ve only ever felt like I was getting better, learning and memorizing enemy spawn patterns and knowing that there’s not going to be a weird wrench thrown into a run that I couldn’t plan for that will ultimately ruin it. These are parts of roguelikes that I certainly do enjoy on the whole, but I never once missed it here.
Visually, the staid but deliberate design does wonders as well. Simple shapes of dark pagodas, verdant forests, or swinging dungeon cages mixed with bold shades that mimic sun sets or dank caves really sets the mood. Enemies and player characters alike aren’t made of many pixels, but they are so well-designed and evoke old fantastical Japan just as well as higher fidelity, bigger budget games.
The crown of the roguelike king of 2024 may have already been firmly placed on the tasseled head of Balatro, a truly remarkable game in its own right. But you should let Shogun Showdown surprise you with its brisk but mighty combat, because there’s truly nothing like it on the market right now.
Shogun Showdown is available now on Steam and Nintendo Switch.