History VideoGame / ShadowTacticsBladesOfTheShogun

* {{Speedrun}}: Each level has a challenge badge for completing the mission under a given time. The timers are pretty tight, but made even tougher by the mission timer continuing to run between quickloads.

* EasyLevelTrick: In the final mission, the BigBad periodically watches a group of soldiers practice with their guns. [[spoiler:Tossing Aiko's sneezing powder at one of the soldiers will make him accidentally shoot and kill the BigBad.]]

* EasyLevelTrick: In the final mission, the BigBad periodically watches a group of soldiers practice with their guns. Tossing Aiko's sneezing powder at one of the soldiers will make him accidentally shoot and kill the BigBad.

* SaveScumming: Subtly encouraged. The game will time how long ago your last save was and even record how often you had to reload a level.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The load times for this game are notoriously long

* RoyalBrat: Masaru, the Shogun's nephew. He spends nearly all his screen time either bossing around or insulting people. Then he goes and [[spoiler: murders Ryūnosuke, the Shogun's son.]] Later, he indulges himself in a fancy bathhouse

* TheUntwist: Kage-sama's identity. [[spoiler: It's Lord Noboru, the only recurring character aside from Shogun and your party.]]

* NoGearLevel: Mount Tsuru. You begin the map only with Hayato (who has only rocks), Yuki (who has nothing), and Takuma (who still has his rifle and Kuma, but no bullets). Aiko, Mugen, and the remainder of your gear are spread throughout the area. One of the challenge badges wants you to collect none of the confiscated gear.

** Firearms are both dead-on accurate and quick to reload, both of which would be questionable during this era, but make them more flexible in the player's hands and more dangerous when an enemy spots you.

* RoyalBrat: Masaru, the Shogun's nephew. He spends nearly all his screen time either bossing around or insulting people. Then he goes and [[spoiler: murders Ryūnosuke, the Shogun's son.]]

* '''Hayato:''' TheProtagonist, [[HiredGuns experienced mercenary]], and classical {{Ninja}}. Hayato is agile enough to walk tightropes and scale buildings with ease, and strong enough to walk while carrying an incapacitated guard. His '''Shuriken''' is a somewhat noisy way to take out an enemy from afar, while his '''Throw Stone''' forces any foe to face the noise for a few seconds. He is a strong infiltrator and stealthy killer, but has no way to manipulate the enemy's movements.

* '''Aiko:''' A [[{{Ninja}} kunoichi]], and Mugen's lover. Like Hayato, she is a consummate acrobat, but like Yuki, she can only drag incapacitated guards along the ground. She has '''Sneezing Powder''' which will reduce a target's sight range for a few seconds, and with the help of the right clothes, can '''Disguise''' herself to make anyone but samurai ignore her. While disguised, she can start a '''Conversation''' with any guard to make him face her as long as she remains.
* '''Takuma:''' An [[CoolOldGuy old man]] with [[FriendlySniper unique skills]], loyal to the Shogun. His [[HandicappedBadass advanced age and peg leg]] give him Mugen-like agility, plus he makes noise while running. He cannot perform ''any'' physical feat needing more muscle than climbing a ladder. His cane and [[LegCannon peg leg]] convert into a '''Sniper Rifle''' for long-range takedowns, and can disable groups with either deadly '''Explosive Grenades''' or stunning '''Poison Grenades'''. While between vantage points, his pet tanuki, Kuma, can [[CutenessProximity lure guards to it]], similar to Yuki's Whistle.

* DarkestHour: Everything's fun and games until [[spoiler: Mount Tsuru. Mugen is forced to reveal the secret location of the Shogun's son, resulting in the heir's assassination. The team is imprisoned, then escapes only to watch Mugen commit seppuku in shame.]] For some time after, the characters' command acknowledgements are depressive, particularly [[NotSoStoic Hayato the stone-cold mercenary]].

* TeamPet: Kuma, Takuma's talented pet tanuki.

** Once you reach the BigBad, he sees he's out of time and intends to commit seppuku -- but you still have control of your characters. One of the challenge badges wants you to drown him, which first involves knocking him out and throwing him down about five staggered rooftops before you can toss him into the ocean.

** Once you reach the BigBad, he sees he's out of time and intends to commit seppuku -- but you still have control of your characters. One of the challenge badges wants you to drown him, which first involves knocking him out and throwing him down about five staggered rooftops before you can toss him into the ocean.

* [[{{Ninja}} Hayato]]: TheProtagonist and the resident Ninja of the group. A stealth master, Hayato is able to blend in anywhere and easily scale buildings. He is useful for infiltrating areas and creating diversions, and is able to take out targets from a distance using his shuriken.
* [[{{Samurai}} Mugen]]: {{Deuteragonist}}, BloodKnight and a powerful Samurai. Mugen is able to lift heavy objects, throw sake to create distractions and use his sword to take out groups of enemies at once. He also has more health than the others.
* [[TagAlongKid Yuki]]: A young girl, skilled at surviving on her own. She uses traps and bird calls to distract her enemies and eliminate them one by one.
* [[{{Geisha}} Aiko]]: Another ninja who can disguise herself as a geisha in order to distract guards.
* [[FriendlySniper Takuma]]: An old man who uses his cane as a makeshift sniper rifle in order to take out guards at long distances.

The story follows these five as they work together to undermine the conspiracy attempting to overthrow the era of peace set in by the Shogun in the Edo Period. The five characters must use stealth, tactics and their wits to perform espionage on the enemies of the Shogun and eliminate them before they can even act.

** You can execute any character who's knocked out, complete with a unique animation for it. You can also toss them into rivers or off cliffs (which counts as killing them).

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Yes and no. They keep a good lookout for dead guards and are quick shots with their guns, but they are opposed to looking upward, don't spread out their search very far, and go back to what they were doing after about a minute.

* NoNameGiven: the SHogun is only refered as "the Shogun". Several of his family members have a proper name, though.

* BadassMustache: Mugen is the most combat-capable character with his ability to kill multiple enemies in a single instance. And his mustache and magnificent!

* [[FriendlySniper Takuma]]: An old man who uses his can as a makeshift sniper rifle in order to take out guards at long distances.

** The samurai are very difficult to kill (they're basically immuned to almost everything beside Mugen basic attacks, Mugen's handcannon and Takuma's bombs[[note]]they're shortly knocked down by gunfire, and then can be stabbed by anyone[[/note]]), are very difficult to distract and can see through Aiko's diguises.
** Strawhats, in a lesser measure. In direct combat, they go down as fast as basic mooks, but they are much harder to distract (they never move from their position and noise distract them much less longer).

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Shadow Mode, which allows for you to sync up movements between characters, is excellent for creating elaborate traps to tackle difficult problems. Want to make a difficult move due to wanting multiple characters to act at the same time? Simply queue up their movements in Shadow Mode and press enter to do them all at the same time.

* PacifistRun: Doable, but ''extremely'' hard due to nature of knocking enemies out. Guards will wake up after about a minute, take a look around, and return to their post. If someone sees an unconscious guard, it'll trigger an alert just the same as a dead guard would.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Guards are fairly smart- they have wide vision cones, behave according to their class type and generally work together to weed out intruders if you're spotted. They're also quite clever in that they will search the area around dead bodies thoroughly, so staying in one spot after a kill may be disadvantageous.
** ArtificialStupidity: ...yet, as AcceptableBreaksFromReality dictate, they're easily distractable and quite easy to manipulate.

* NintendoHard: ''Oh boy.'' There's a reason that the game tells you how long it's been since you last quicksaved- be prepared to mess up and fail numerous times before the solution is found.
* PacifistRun: Doable, but ''extremely'' hard due to nature of knocking enemies out- unlike most games where they sleep forever, here they will wake up eventually and if they saw you will alert guards.

''Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun'' is an isometric stealth-based videogame released on December 6th, 2016 by Mimimi Productions. It aims to revive a seemingly long-dead genre set in stone by ''VideoGame/Commandos'', which is that of the [[StealthBasedGame stealth-strategy]] genre.

''Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun'' is an isometric stealth-based videogame released on December 6th, 2016 by Mimimi Productions. It aims to revive a seemingly long-dead genre set in stone by ''Videogame/Commandos'', which is that of the [[StealthBasedGame stealth-strategy]] genre.