Total War: SHOGUN 2 returns the series to the setting that started it all: Japan in the middle of the 16th century, the Sengoku period, when a broken shogunate left the country carved up between rival warlords. You take the seat of a Daimyo and set out to do what none of them managed peacefully, reuniting the islands under your banner and claiming the title of Shogun. Creative Assembly pairs a turn-based campaign map with full 3D real-time battles on land and at sea, and the tighter focus on a single nation makes this the most cohesive Total War in the catalog.
Ten Clans, One Throne
The campaign opens in 1545 with Japan split between dozens of factions, ten of them playable. Each clan starts from a different corner of the map with its own traits, so a new campaign never plays the same way twice. The Shimazu of Kyushu field superior katana samurai, the Chosokabe of Shikoku raise cheaper and better archers, the Date charge harder than anyone, the Oda recruit ashigaru peasants by the thousand, and the Hattori bring the ninja arts to the battlefield and the shadows alike. The Takeda, Uesugi, Hojo, Mori and Tokugawa round out the roster, each with a distinct road to Kyoto.
On the campaign map you manage provinces season by season: farms, castles, markets, ports and the sacred sites that shape your clan's religion. Taxes and trade fund your armies, roads move them, and the family tree decides who leads them. Generals and agents gain experience and unlock RPG-style skill trees, so a veteran commander who has fought through a dozen battles becomes a real asset worth protecting.
Battles Worthy of the Samurai
When two armies meet, the game drops into a real-time battle where thousands of individually animated soldiers clash across seasonal terrain. Yari ashigaru hold the line, bow samurai loose volleys from the high ground, cavalry hunt down routing troops, and later in the campaign matchlock ashigaru bring gunpowder to the field. Morale, fatigue, weather and elevation all matter, and the battle map is drawn from the exact spot on the campaign map where the armies met.
- Multi-stage sieges make Japanese castles a genuine challenge. Hilltop fortresses rise in tiered layers of walls and gates, so scaling the first wall is only the beginning of the assault, and defenders can fall back through each ring while archers and rifles pick at the attackers below.
- Hero units such as elite samurai bodyguards and warrior monks inspire nearby troops and can turn a wavering flank, giving you a decisive tool to commit at exactly the right moment in a battle.
- Naval battles put fleets of bune warships on open water, with boarding actions, fire arrows and ramming maneuvers. Control of the sea lanes protects your trade and lets you land armies where the enemy least expects them.
The Art of War
Creative Assembly built the campaign AI around the principles of Sun Tzu's Art of War, and the result is an opponent that maneuvers, feints and exploits weakness rather than simply piling units at your borders. It also gives you the same toolkit. Fire and siege tactics wear down a stronger foe; diplomacy, marriages and hostages buy time; and a network of agents does the quiet work between battles.
- Ninja
- Your saboteurs and assassins. A skilled ninja can sabotage a castle's defenses before a siege, disrupt an enemy army's movement, or remove a troublesome general altogether, with a cutscene that shows whether the attempt succeeds.
- Metsuke
- The clan's police and spymasters. Metsuke root out enemy agents, keep provinces loyal, oversee towns to boost income and can bribe enemy garrisons or generals when steel would cost too much.
- Monks and Missionaries
- Religious agents spread Buddhism or Christianity, incite unrest in enemy lands and calm it in your own. Converting to the new faith unlocks European trade and gunpowder units, but risks rebellion among the devout.
- Geisha
- The most refined assassins in the game, available only through the highest tier of buildings. A geisha is expensive to train and almost impossible to stop once she reaches her target.
Every path leads to Realm Divide. Once your clan grows strong enough to threaten Kyoto, the remaining factions set aside their quarrels and turn on you together, and the final push to the capital becomes the hardest fight of the campaign.
Campaigns and Battles Online
The whole grand campaign can be played cooperatively with a friend, sharing the map and fighting each other's battles in two-player mode. Beyond that, online and LAN battles support up to eight players, and the special online campaigns let you build a persistent avatar general and army that grows with every match you fight on a contested map of Japan. Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards and Steam Cloud saves round out the package.
Whether you crave the slow satisfaction of a well-run domain or the thunder of a full cavalry charge, SHOGUN 2 rewards both. Raise your banner, choose your clan and find out who really deserves to rule Japan.
