Shogun 2: Nine Years Later

[Henry Young]

Hey all, given that we are now almost a decade out from Shogun 2’s released, and thus pretty far removed from the initial height, all the DLC and updates, and years of new games to compare it to, I was wondering: how has your opinion of Shogun 2 changed over the years? Have you liked it better or worse? And perhaps most interestingly: how do you feel about it in comparison to the games that have been released since?

[godray]

Whoa, has it really been that long? Almost a decade already? My goodness how time flies...

I bought this game the day it came out, literally a day one purchase for me, and I haven't stopped playing ever since (I think I clocked in more than 700 hours in this game already). I have nothing but fond memories playing this game, be it campaign, co-op campaign or multiplayer.

I thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of it, in fact, I fell in love with this game even more now, since in my opinion (might be unpopular) no other Total War games that came out after S2 could ever compete with this game.

For me this game has it all, from gameplay and graphical perspectives; the era/setting, the music, the graphics, the sound, the game mechanics, the animations during battle, the simple UI, every single details in this game is amazing. I own all the DLCs including ROTS and FOTS, all three eras have their own good and bad stuff in it but nevertheless each has their own dynamics and it really adds to the overall experience of playing this game.

I dare say this is CA's best work (again, like I said earlier, this game still has flaws in terms of unit balance etc. but I guess we'll learn to accept it, at least I do haha).

I honestly cannot compare this game to other TW games, be it older or newer TW titles. I do own Rome, Rome 2, and Warhammer, I played Atilla and Warhammer 2 at a friend's place a couple of times, while these are all great games in their own rights I still think Shogun 2 as a whole is untouchable, it has its own charm that no other TW games or other RTS titles has.

[VCR]

I remember being excited with the fact that CA had gone full circle and revisited Shogun: there's even some of the music from the original weaved in I'd noticed!

I'm actually a relative latecomer to Shogun 2, even though I play the TW series (although I don't have Warhammer or 3K). I think where I had circulated through the older back catalogue of the series I unfortunately bought this one too late, a good couple of years later and only recently acquired RotS. I'm hooked. I haven't acquired Fall just yet.

I guess to really sum it up for me: sound up high, ashigaru units thundering toward each other followed by the crunch of spear and bone, with Ona Hei belting through the speakers. Classic TW

[BastardSword]

It really is the best TW game. The Warhammer games are pretty but just feel like a mess to me. Three Kingdoms is the same. The only thing Three Kingdoms does well for me is having the best and most responsive battle interface in a TW game, but everything else about it is just a massive slog, especially the extremely messy and cluttered campaign map. By comparison Shogun 2's interface is an amazing achievement, they pack so much information in such a simple and elegant system.

Also the AI is the best as well. Each time you play a campaign in Shogun 2, you have no idea what will happen. In Three Kingdoms the same things happen in nearly every campaign, no matter which faction you play as.

[BDK]

9 years of utter arcade trash.

[Teutonic]

Looking back, I really appreciate Shogun 2's distinct identity and how it knew how to represent its setting (the Feudal Japan ambiance, music, art design, unit design). When Rome II came out I was really disappointed. The factions felt cookie-cutter, unit variation less memorable, UI and banners were really "Arcadey". Battles became a "unit stats" game. The music was really lackluster and didn't feel speak out to me as "Rome". It lacked identity vs. Shogun II. Just my opinion!

CA's more recent games again feel "Arcadey" and cookie-cutter. I do appreciate Three Kingdom's art/style, but the battle engine or way battles are fought needs some improvements.

[AKOOMA]

I don't play total war games for the campaign like everyone else. I only want it for the multiplayer.

Shogun 2 multiplayer is by far the best multiplayer in the series and I doubt we will see any other TW game come close to it.

So much replayability the way you can upgrade veteran units and such.

The MP in all the other titles just feel meaningless and give you no reason to play MP other than for bragging rights on the leaderboard. Which no one cares about lmao.

For this reason alone I still think shogun 2 is the best TW game. I hope to god they bring back avatar conquest in future titles because if they don't I'll just skip out on paying. Whats the point in paying if the multiplayer is trash? Just my two cents.

[waxman80014]

It still has some bugs in it that should have been fixed years ago. Its like my car its old has flaws but it will get you there....

[easytarget]

Shogun 2 / Rise of the Samurai / Fall of the Samurai are and will always be the best thing CA ever made.

Every creative team has a point where they've refined their craft to perfection and managed to put it altogether in a finished product. This is it.

Once you've managed that sadly if you go back to the well repeatedly you're iterating clones with diminished creativity to them.

At this point anyone who tells you the TW core conceptual game loop (tactical battles w/ strategic layer) isn't played out is lying to you and themselves.

[Halfgeek]

Shogun 2 is still one of the best TW game. Though more recently, Warhammer ones I thoroughly enjoyed too, looking forward to the 3Kingdoms (haven't got time to play it atm).

[Trebor797]

I played Shogun2 for a very long time and its still alot of fun. Avatar conquest is one of the best MP systems I have ever seen which makes S2 the best TW game for me. Every TW games has pros and cons, but as I play mainly MP battles Shogun 2 is the best compared to others. Tbh the the speed of battles is sometimes too fast as battles with many thousands soldier can be decided in a few minuites.But Avatar conquest gives so many possibilities to fully customize your army and its just alot of fun and satisfication winning with your army that you worked for. I guess if any TW game ever should be better than Shogun 2 its a Medieval 3 with Avatar conquest system. Lets hope after Troy CA is focusing on remaking some of the good old titles.

[Liberty Shingen]

ugly side will be the amateur whiners here, those talk-alot-unit-theory-discussion-but-cannot-play, hackers and cheaters, hosting games with rules of no artillery no fire rockets no more than 4 cav units but please bring unlimited number of red bears black bears katana samurai yari ashigaru no problem, then they lose and bring up alpha beta charlie delta tournament rules and use psychological verbal abuse of calling cav spam pullthrough pull drags such a bad player you are

if these autist losers get to win against newbies, quickly post video demonstrations of "how to deal with cav spammers" XD

ignore all these noises, the ability to construct your own winning avatar conquest multiplayer army with full customization, makes shogun2 the best game ever unbeatable by any measure

[[KBD]SixxTailsHD]

Shogun 2 is the best Total War game IMO. Ship Combat is crap imo, Never really enjoyed it in any game besides Napoleon but even then meh. No total war game can match it. Empire is a close second though.

Best combat, especially before it went to super arcadey 5 min battles.

[Aaron]

I've played the hell out of this game and loved it. After taking a long break, I've come back to realize it's always been extremely flawed.

The controls (control groups, AI and pathfinding) are painful. They're adequate for a pause and play or for a handful of units, but when you want to control a full army (20+ units or more), order breaks down to a point where if feels like your fighting the UI and grouping AI more then the enemy.

Units will sometimes tear off into weird directions when given an order as a locked group. Yari walls twist and contort into directions facing away from the enemy. Sometimes archers only walk up, close enough only for their first row to fire, so u have to manually position them. ect. Little things like this happen all to time, to varying degrees of frustration.

I still love this game. It's just got a buggy, rotten core. It's asks for precise action and timing, while giving us a slow and clunky interface, and your unit AI seems to regularly try to screw you over.

Admittedly, the total war games have always suffered from a lack of polish. That's what keeps this decent franchise from being great. They regularly try new aesthetics and campaign mechanics, but rarely do anything different with the battle system that's essentailly been the same since the beginning. All of them suffer from issues, even if the newer titles much less so.

All the games have weird logic defying moments like 1 man stopping an entire unit from firing or units pulling through each other or getting stuck. Kinda wish they'd go back to the drawing board and fix this instead of copy and pasting it with a couple improvements into every game.

[tricker]

Still good.

[easytarget]

Originally posted by 大名 Takeda:

Originally posted by Aaron:

I've played the hell out of this game and loved it. After taking a long break, I've come back to realize it's always been extremely flawed.

The controls (control groups, AI and pathfinding) are painful. They're adequate for a pause and play or for a handful of units, but when you want to control a full army (20+ units or more), order breaks down to a point where if feels like your fighting the UI and grouping AI more then the enemy.

Units will sometimes tear off into weird directions when given an order as a locked group. Yari walls twist and contort into directions facing away from the enemy. Sometimes archers only walk up, close enough only for their first row to fire, so u have to manually position them. ect. Little things like this happen all to time, to varying degrees of frustration.

I still love this game. It's just got a buggy, rotten core. It's asks for precise action and timing, while giving us a slow and clunky interface, and your unit AI seems to regularly try to screw you over.

Admittedly, the total war games have always suffered from a lack of polish. That's what keeps this decent franchise from being great. They regularly try new aesthetics and campaign mechanics, but rarely do anything different with the battle system that's essentailly been the same since the beginning. All of them suffer from issues, even if the newer titles much less so.

All the games have weird logic defying moments like 1 man stopping an entire unit from firing or units pulling through each other or getting stuck. Kinda wish they'd go back to the drawing board and fix this instead of copy and pasting it with a couple improvements into every game.

Very good =) I absolutely agree

No, not really, this is just a wall of babble by someone who hasn't so much as written a game in basic throwing word salad up. He used lots of words and said very little.