Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice is an excellent addition to the series, albeit one that comes half a decade too late.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a brilliant masterpiece of the Real-time tactics genre, one that blends perfectly stealth, tactical approach to combat, complex problem solving from different angles, and a nuanced yet beautiful setting, often over-romanticized, such as feudal Japan. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice, as a standalone expansion of the original Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, preserves a lot of what makes the first game great.
Aiko’s choice was supposed to come out shortly after Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun; however, the small studio, Mimimi, was facing bankruptcy during its development, so all future projects and DLC had to be canceled for the company to survive. Now, five years after the release of the original Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Aiko’s Choice feels like a nostalgic trip down memory lane, to give just a taste of what should have been, albeit it has been five years, and that in gaming is an eternity. Can Aiko’s choice stand the test of time, or is it just a relic of a bygone era in gaming? We will see.
First things first, we need to address the obvious. Although this is a stand-alone expansion, it was developed as part of the core Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun game. So, even when technically you would be able to just jump into action, the devs even recommend you play at least the first few missions of the base game to understand some key gameplay mechanics and the plot of Aiko’s Choice.
You see, this stand-alone expansion fits within the narrative of the first game, just before its climax, and centers around the main cast of characters, but as the name implies, much more on Aiko and her choice to defy her former master and spoil her plans to create a new generation of female ninjas.
So, you do not need the original Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun to play Aiko’s Choice, but you must play it beforehand to better understand and enjoy the expansion. After all, Aiko’s choice is just more of the same, although with a few tweaks, and a more hardcore experience, mainly designed for those who played, enjoyed, and wanted more Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
Secondly, the game will not be coming to consoles, mainly because it was built on a previous version of the Unity engine, not compatible with newer consoles, because of those development problems mentioned above. Thus, while playing it, you need to take into consideration that, although is a new release, it will look and feel like a game from five years ago.
Now for the fun part. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice is an excellent continuation of an already great game. And its plot recontextualizes the final act of the main campaign, which adds depth to an already amazing plot. However, the expansion is small, perhaps too small for a standalone game, as it clocks in around 12 hours, 8 if you are already good at the main game’s mechanics. And the game makes you long for even more of it.
You get to play again with the same array of characters, which some might consider coherent with the story, but there is a sense that they could have added a new character to provide a little bit of variability. Because, in a sense, it just feels like a mission pack, a harder, beautifully crafted batch of new missions, yes, but now a new game all in itself.
You still have to manage the same character archetypes and dispatch enemies in the most efficient way possible, working around their limitations and specialties. And while the game excels at creating challenging levels, with a good AI, it does little to add to the formula. A few UI tweaks here and there, but nothing else to distinguish itself from the original game.
The graphics and music departments suffer from the same curse and blessing at the same time, as they are virtually the same as the base game. Don’t get me wrong, the original Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun had amazingly well-designed set pieces, with a beautiful toned-down palette, which grounds, in reality, a setting that is easily exaggerated, over-romanticized, or even transported to the realm of the fantastic, but this game takes it to what is possibly one of the most realistic depictions of feudal Japan, which is beautiful in its way.
The game world feels real, like a stamp taken out of a history book, and while not super detailed, there is a lot of energy and dedication in creating a distinctively Japanese aesthetic.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice is an excellent addition to the series, albeit one that comes half a decade too late. Not that it feels dated, but the huge gap between the two makes it feel awkward and out of place at times. The game provides some nostalgia value to seasoned players but might be a bit discouraging with its steep learning curve for newcomers. Nevertheless, if you find yourself interested in playing Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice it is better to try the original Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun to understand and enjoy it a little bit more.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice has been nominated among the Best Strategy Games of 2021 for the GamesCreed’s Game Of The Year 2021.
