Total War Shogun 2 - any good?

[Aotrs Commander]

Until Friday (1st May), Total War Shogun 2 is available free to keep on Steam until Fridaty (1st March) (not, apparently including expansions or DLC, but they are reduced by 75% and no more than a tenner total).



So, leaving aside the obvious point that a free game is at worst no more costly than the asking price (unless it physically causes your computer to explode or something) and the game seems to have generall recieved glowing reviews...

How does it fare? Bearing in mind my only exposure to the franchise is from Total Warhammer.

Is there like, a story campaign or campaigns, or is it more like TWW, where there is fundementally only one "campaign" as such?

As someone who know less than frack-all about the period (as there seems to be a distinct lack of English-language history books to read up on as there are with China), how much would there be to learn from it in that sense? (I mean, I'd suspect not a lot as with most games of this typeb but it's worth asking!)



Edit, crap, wrong forum, dunno how that happened, hang on, MODS! *files report* Sorry, guys! I am teh stupids. Edit edit: Ta very much! Right, now we're in the right place, carry on, folks!

[Peelee]

Edit, crap, wrong forum, dunno how that happened, hang on, MODS! *files report* Sorry, guys! I am teh stupids.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

As someone who know less than frack-all about the period (as there seems to be a distinct lack of English-language history books to read up on as there are with China), how much would there be to learn from it in that sense?

Can't help you with any of the other stuff since, like you, I've only ever played the Warhammer version, but Extra History has a series on the Sengoku Period (i.e. the big civil war with all the ninjas and samurais that I'd imagine the Total War is based around) that might be a good palce to start learning about the era:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...37316BH8FsaU24

Grey Wolf

[Corsair14]

Its ok, but if you are used to and enjoy a faster paced game then stick to Warhammer. The unit selection is far less than WH, the territory management is far more detailed and difficult to get the hang off. Unlike WH you aren't just going to plow through territory after territory take a province, leave a lord to pacify and move on. I played the original Shogun and Medieval 1+2 and this one was by far more complicated. Battles and sieges are pretty good though and the castles were really well designed and multitiered. I found that to be cool having different levels of walls and courtyards the opponent had to fight up giving you a multilayered defense. But unfortunately the fief management drags it down for me.

[Eldan]

I wouldn't call it the best Total War game. It's not bad, by any chance, but it has problems. The main ones, for me, is that the different factions all have the exact same unit tree, with minor stat variations. The other historical Total War at least had different troops for the different armies, like Medieval spanning from Egypt to Norway, or Rome from Hispania to Afghanistan, but in this game, it's all just the same 100 years of Japan.
Additionally, there's this incredbily annoying system where, once you get close to victory, everyone on the map will immediately ally against you in total, unstoppable war, including your allies. It makes it rather tedious.

[Resileaf]

Shogun 2 is the most... Balanced of the Total Wars. With every faction being fundamentally the same except for bonuses on certain types of units, the AI is at its best in this game since the counter game is very simple for it.

I'm surprised you haven't found many books about the period, the Sengoku Jidai is extremely well documented as it is one of Japan's most monumental era of its history. Nonetheless, most of what you might want to learn is in the game's encyclopedia. The only thing it's really missing is learning about the characters of the era, of which there are a lot.

In any case, the one thing you absolutely need to know about is the endgame. Much like Warhammer has the Chaos invasion as its endgame, Shogun 2 has the Realm Divide event. When the Shogunate is too afraid of your power or when you conquer Kyoto, it will unite all the other clans against you. Every clan you have not interacted with or had neutral relationships with will immediately become your enemy. Your friends and vassals will stick with you for some time, but a growing diplomatic penalty will eventually make them turn against you as well. The entire beginning of the campaign concerns preparing yourself to survive the onslaught. The endgame concerns beating it and proving yourself more powerful than all the other clans combined.

[Cespenar]

Diplomatically, as others have said, it's not as polished as Warhammer or Three Kingdoms. So, you'll probably end up fighting through everyone. Tactical gameplay, management and other bits and bobs however, are not bad at all.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I enjoy it, especially as it's had some of the most nail-biting battles I've encountered in a Total War game. It IS rather homogenous, each clan basically just having different colors and an improved version of one or two vanilla units to incentivize you to prioritize your army composition around their use, the only real major decision being whether you'll convert to Christianity and use guns, or stay Shinto and use bows.

And Yari Ashigaru will NEVER let you down, no matter what clan you play!

[snowblizz]

Shogun 2 may be the best one in the series IMO.

But yea reading up on previous posters now as an earlier entry it may not feel as polished as a later title. Though IMO, too polished is what gives you soulless crap like Rome 2 so...

One thing about Shogun 2 it to some degree feels like you are playing on the clock, the older titles had turn limits too IIRC but some reason Shogun 2 felt more acute. Not exactly being rushed per se, but there is a feeling that you better be moving or someone else will.

I have the Fall of Samurai dlc too, and it was absolutely hialriosu to blast enemies in castles with cannon and naval bombardments, though I got a bit obsessed with the latter which was rather difficult to accomplish.

Diplomacy as in every TW title I've ever played is naff.

One of the coolest moments in any game I played comes off Shogun 2. I was working my way off the North of Japan my armies being in the heartland close to Kyoto. Suddenly I'm invaded by backstabbing Mori clan (effectively the opposite side of Japan) for no reason at all. With no real defence it looks bad. But I can rush in piecmeal Ashigar units bogging down the movement of the invading army. So I do, 3 separate attacks with single ashigaru units sap the movement allowance for the enemy for several turns (just attacking and reatreating) while the cities around build a new army. Several turns into this, suddenly a large part of the Mori invading army defects to my side. Followed by another chunk. My two new best friends (sons of the Mori clan) join their armies with the harassing ashigaru and we crush the honourless invaders. Just in time for my full stack of newly raised samurai to show up and have no job left to do.

I don't know how or what the engine did allowing that but it was awesome.