Shogun Showdown Review: A Roguelike That Strikes With Precision

Like a samurai waiting for the perfect moment to strike, Shogun Showdown delivers its blows with pinpoint focus. This isn’t just another roguelike—it’s a masterclass in distilling the genre down to its most essential parts, creating an exhilarating combat experience built on positioning, patience, and precision. Refined, stylish, and complex, Shogun Showdown hits differently, and in all the right ways.

A Simple Quest with a Complex Soul

The premise is straightforward: you’re on a mission to kill the Shogun, a villain corrupted by some dark event that has split the earth open, allowing malevolent forces to seep in. Honestly, the story doesn’t get much deeper than that, with only a few cutscenes here and there to push things along. But what at first feels like a lack of narrative soon reveals itself to be intentional—everything here serves the combat, and nothing more.

Combat That Puts Strategy First

At its heart, Shogun Showdown is a roguelike in the purest sense: node-based maps, shops, bosses, and unlockable characters. But it’s the turn-based combat that really sets it apart. The game puts you on a single row of tiles, where movement is limited to hopping left or right. Facing the right direction is crucial, and every attack, visualized as cards, must be carefully planned and executed.

Every move you make takes up a turn, but so does every move your enemies make. Their actions are displayed on-screen, giving you a heads-up on what they’ll do next, whether it’s attacking or moving. Cooldowns on your attacks force you to be strategic, and with tight, claustrophobic arenas, every decision counts. It’s a roguelike where strategy and timing are everything, and brute force alone won’t get you far.

Weapons That Shape Your Strategy

What’s truly remarkable is how the game’s weapons play with movement and positioning. Sure, some deal straight-up damage, but most are tools for modifying your place on the battlefield. A dash launches you across the arena. A smoke bomb swaps places with an enemy. A grappling hook yanks them into your blade’s reach. And when paired with character abilities—like the Wanderer’s ability to swap places with her enemy, or the Ronin’s brutal shove that splatters foes against each other—these weapons turn every fight into a complex puzzle.

No two battles are ever the same. The game feeds you new weapons and abilities frequently, keeping you on your toes, but limits how much you can upgrade or tweak them, so you’re forced to make tough choices in every run.

A Beautifully Brutal World

While the combat is the star of the show, Shogun Showdown is also a visual treat. Each battle unfolds on a beautifully framed stage, where layers of silhouetted landscapes and crumbling pagodas set the scene. Bloodstained sunsets drench the arenas, giving the game a cinematic quality, while the detailed backgrounds add a sense of decay and corruption to the world. Every piece of the game, from its characters to its UI, is crisp, clean, and readable, making it as pretty as it is brutal.

A Roguelike That Won’t Let You Go

Even after you topple the Shogun, the game is far from over. More challenging foes, new strategies, and unlockable characters await those who dare continue. And let’s be real—any good roguelike never truly ends. There's always something more to discover, and Shogun Showdown promises to keep you coming back for more punishment, in the best way possible.

Verdict

2024 has been a stellar year for roguelikes, with heavyweights like Hades II and Balatro leading the charge. Yet Shogun Showdown somehow sneaks in like a stealthy assassin, delivering a precision strike that leaves a lasting impact. Its combat is pure genius, its design masterful, and its replayability endless. If you’re a fan of roguelikes, Shogun Showdown isn’t just a game—it’s an essential experience.