Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is Dani’s favourite game of recent years. Aiko’s Choice proves to be a worthy sequel – if you’re tough enough.
Samurais are strange characters to the max. Shoot them in the face with a pistol at close range and they’ll only go down on their knees for a short time, but drop a flower pot on their mighty helm and they’ll keel over dead. Alright, this rule is difficult to test in reality, mainly because there is a glaring shortage of samurais at the moment.
But in Aiko’s Choice, the standalone addon to Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, it works. I have tried it out successfully.
Table of Contents
What’s that again?
But before I bother you with the details of the game, let me briefly outline what Aiko’s Choice by Mimimi Games is all about. There are supposed to be some people who know neither the Commandos series nor Desperados (part 3 is also by Mimimi) or Shadow Tactics.
Aiko’s Choice costs just under 20 euros on (Steam) and is classic real-time tactics. You look down on a level from above, you turn the camera, you zoom in and out, you use your heroes and their abilities in such a way that you get to your goals as unseen as possible – and kill dozens of enemies along the way. For example, a samurai by dropping a flowerpot on his head. Which then looks like an unfortunate accident for surrounding enemies.
None of the heroes known from Shadow Tactics come with new skills in the quasi-sequel, all can still do the same as before:
- Kunoichi (female ninja) Aiko takes out enemies in close combat with a hairpin, throws sneezing powder to temporarily blind enemies, and can disguise herself as a noble lady.
- Ninja Hayato strikes with a sword, throws a deadly shuriken or a stone to distract enemies.
- Thief Yuki sets a deadly trap and lures guards in with a flute, among other things.
- Samurai Mugen kills several enemies at once with his sword whirl and manipulates enemies with his rice wine bottle.
- And Takuma does in sniping, throwing bombs around and sending his cute Tanuki (tanuki) on diversionary manoeuvres.
Essential in all this: the regular use of the F5 and F8 keys. For quick saving and quick loading. Real-time tactics à la Commandos and Co. thrive on trying out procedures, learning from mistakes and then doing things better or completely differently.
Aiko’s Choice
Aiko’s Choice is aimed at people who know and love the main game Shadow Tactics, can’t get enough of the tinkering adventures – and are looking for a proper challenge. Because the addon doesn’t do things by halves.
It only consists of three large missions, two smaller intermediate missions and an epilogue, but the three main missions are quite challenging and add up to around ten hours of play. The first level alone is probably about twice as big as the biggest one in the main game. And all three are considerably more challenging. More details on that later.
The stolid samurai and the frail sniper
The problem: There are three opponents in the courtyard, all of whom can see each other. One of them is even a straw hat who does not respond to distraction manoeuvres. But because neither the samurai Mugen nor the sniper Takuma can get onto roofs if there is no ladder and they therefore have to go across the courtyard in order to advance further into the castle, the three guys have to die at the same time. And ideally in the small time window in which no one from the guard patrolling behind can see into the courtyard.
And that’s where Shadow Mode comes in, allowing you to give characters instructions that they all carry out at the same time. While [1] Mugen and Takuma wait safely in a small garden, (2) Aiko and (3) Yuki have positioned themselves on the rooftops to each execute a lethal knife attack from a jump. Hayato is sitting in the bush (4) to stab his opponent from behind.
As soon as you press Enter, the characters will perform their attacks simultaneously. All three also pick up their respective victims at the same time in order to drag them into a bush afterwards. The latter, however, cannot be programmed via Shadow Mode. So you have to be quick before the patrol notices anything.
The addon picks up the story of the heroes before the ninth mission of the main game and focuses on an episode from Aiko’s life and its effects on the hunt for the shogun’s traitor. And at the end, the kunoichi is presented with a choice.
The great thing about it: because the add-on does not dock at the end of Shadow Tactics, we are on the road with all five familiar heroes. And the love story between Aiko and Knuffi samurai Mugen is not neglected in the entertaining and well spoken English dialogues. On the other hand, the actual story remains comparatively pale and also seems a bit contrived, at best it develops a similar drama at the end as key scenes from the main game.
The addon picks up the story of the heroes before the ninth mission of the main game and focuses on an episode from Aiko’s life and its impact on the hunt for the shogun’s traitor. And at the end, the kunoichi is presented with a choice.
The great thing about it: because the add-on does not dock at the end of Shadow Tactics, we are on the road with all five familiar heroes. And the love story between Aiko and Knuffi samurai Mugen is not neglected in the entertaining and well spoken English dialogues. On the other hand, the actual story remains comparatively pale and also seems a bit contrived, at best it develops a similar drama at the end as key scenes from the main game.
All five?
Let me correct this: Only in the last main mission do we really have access to all five of the Shogun’s blades. In the first mission, Takuma and Yuki are kidnapped, Hayato, Aiko and Mugen are then executed by a firing squad. Good for those who still have the skills of the individual heroes at hand at this moment, because there is no gentle introduction to the rules.
At least: those who get shot over too often get a gentle hint about what to do. And for people who have been playing Shadow Tactics for a while, the scrolls already known from the main game have been distributed here and there in the levels, which, when clicked on, once again point out particularly important mechanics.
Oh yes: At the end of the first mission, which takes us through a large settlement, across a busy bridge and through a port facility, we bag Yuki again, but Takuma remains missing.
City, Country, Castle
Takuma we then meet again after the first big mission in a small intermediate mission. He is trapped on a ship with his Tanuki Kuma. On board with him: dangerous cargo in the form of five explosives and weapons crates. We mark these with Takuma for his comrades, who have to destroy them one by one in the subsequent second big mission.
In the second very relaxed interlude, Aiko and Mugen take a brief excursion into old Shadow Tactics territory to learn some important information. And in the third big mission, it’s off to a gigantic castle so crammed with enemies that you can’t see the ground in places.
All right, I’m exaggerating, besides, secret passages and arrow traps help in the huge complex. But it’s true: Shadow Tactics was only as challenging as in the add-on in very few moments. Everything can be solved, and in different ways, but I have rarely had to pay as much attention to my timing in the main game as I did in Aiko’s Choice.
Easier to read
Mimimi has turned the graphics and detail screw mightily for Desperados 3. Shadow Tactics is not ugly in comparison, on the contrary, but visually noticeably more reduced. However, this also makes it easier to read the levels and their special features, and situations can be grasped more quickly. The same is now also true for Aiko’s Choice.
The islands allow for different entry points, but offer little privacy. Many crates are only waist-high and rocks stand so close to the water that you cannot hide behind them dry-footed, but have to swim in the water and wait for a gap in the action.
And the first kill, which so often opens the way to the goal in the main game, is not immediately recognisable. Or rather: It doesn’t exist. Each player decides for himself from which direction he will gradually work his way to the weapon boxes. By the way, a similar mission also exists in Desperados 3, but it gives us much more help.
Small successes, big satisfaction
All the nicer when you then manage to blow up one of the enemy samurais with one of those weapon boxes. Only to discover that there is no Achievement for it. The complaint was immediately sent to Mimimi, who replied with a shrug of their shoulders that they had only recently discovered in the QA phase that this was possible at all.
Well, at least there’s an achievement for taking out three normal guards with a crate blast. I guess I’ll have to do that on my next playthrough.
But what I’m actually saying is: the level of thinking, the fiddling, the trying, the failing, the trying again – all of this makes moments like the one with the blown-up samurai even more valuable, even more satisfying than anything comparable in the main game or in Desperados 3.
However, you have to be built for it, Aiko’s Choice can also become frustrating very quickly when you cut your teeth on the same straw hats and samurais for what feels like hours and don’t get an inch further. For all passionate tinkerers, Mugen fans and achievement hunters, however, the add-on is highly recommended. And in the end you can even pet Kuma.
Editor’s verdict
I played through Shadow Tactics in a frenzy a few years ago in the winter. I thought the setting was fantastic. Is there anything better than ninjas for a real-time tactics game? Probably not. The puzzling, the search for the most elegant approaches, it kept me wonderfully entertained for many evenings. After the first playthrough, I watched speedruns on YouTube, cringed at so much skill and dedication, and tried out a few myself.
But that’s only one part of why I like Shadow Tactics so much. The other part is the characters, who gradually develop a wonderful chemistry, and the well-done story with decent drama and even a bit of crying potential towards the end. Now the story in Aiko’s Choice is not of the calibre of Shadow Tactics, but everything else is in there again. And I think it’s fantastic, but I can also understand if people turn their backs on the islands at the latest and never touch the add-on again. How long I fiddled around with the first weapon box alone until a way to the goal literally jumped out at me. Speaking of which, I’ll jump right back into final castle mission, I’d have to try an optional poison kill.
