izigame.me

Shogun Showdown is truly a breath of fresh air and a shining gem in the rogue-like line of games that have come out in recent years. As someone who has poured many hours into most other games of this kind (from Nuclear Throne, FTL, Binding of Isaac, Gungeon, Slay the Spire, Spelunky and many others), Shogun Showdown still manages to stand on its own through beautifully crafted and thoroughly considered simplicity. Simplicity that nevertheless manages to offer you a myriad of strategic opportunities for you to exploit and fully utilize to your advantage to win.
One aspect I feel most other games of this type eventually fall into and become a sore and thoroughly unenjoyable part of the game for me, is their RNG based mechanics. You'd play run after run where the game either gives you the most mediocre of items for hours on end, making the experience either tedious due to the items' lack of synergy or utility. Or you get every rare and broken item in the game in a row and sleep through to the finish because the game lost all semblance of challenge. Or you may get items you're sure would win you the game, but the game decides to present you a random enemy or boss, or multiple of them in a row, that directly counters your entire build and you just die in the end. Of course, that's a matter of skill about whether or not you'll score a victory, but fact is, in the end, I dont feel like I had earned that victory or loss one way or the other.
Shogun Showdown manages to surprise in this aspect. Instead of going the usual route of adding uncountable amounts of items to the game to increase variety and then retroactively balance them so that they don't become either game-winning or nigh useless, it instead goes the minimalist route. The game offers a whole variety of weapons for you to choose and make each run distinct with, as well as a variety of characters to start each run with. Each that plays incredibly distinctly from each other and with their strengths and weaknesses to consider. Yet the maps and enemies remain consistently predictable. Each stage is pre-defined, their tiles as well. But, you may still pick which way to go on the map screen when a path branches out, each path offering distinct benefits for you to pick from. Even the seemingly most useless weapon you may pick up, you can still manage to find a way to make it wreck havoc through upgrades and enchantments. Sure, the shuriken may only do one damage at the start, but if you add the Curse effect to it, making the enemy take double damage on next hit once you hit them with it, and since it's ranged, it opens up a lot of opportunities for the rest of your loadout all of a sudden. The whole arsenal has this potential and that's truly refreshing and a playground to experiement with.
With the later difficulties, each of the decisions you make play incredibly very significant roles that must be considered in full for you to even get near a victory. Carelessness isn't easily forgiven and each single action you take is something you really have to mull over before committing to, lest you get punished and straight up die as a result.
Positioning and forward-thinking and planning are here of bigger importance than the individual weapons you pick up. That in itself negates a lot of the experience I grew irritated with other games of this kind, like I mentioned. No run feels like I had done everything right and still lost, or done everything wrong and still managed to eek out a victory. And that's truly refreshing. With the aforementioned thought that's necessary to have given before committing to each individual action you do, makes this a pleasure to play.
On the design side of things, the game looks and feels truly wonderful, evident in the screenshots. The music is atmospheric and calm to keep you fully engaged, with some tracks being absolutely catchy bangers that had me bobbing my head while I played every time they came on (Theatre of Illusions and Spirit Gateway being notable mentions) The controls are tight, and the animations bouncy and full of life and character. Colour palette is also well considered so that each character stands out and everything's clear.
I thoroughly recommend Shogun Showdown to anyone even mildly interested in this genre and most others, really. It's more than well worth the money.