Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Aiko's Choice
Description
Return to the beautiful world of Edo Japan
Set in Japan around the early Edo period, Aiko's Choice is a stealth strategy game that takes place within the story of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.The expansion focuses on one of the main game's protagonists: the kunoichi adept Aiko...
Set in Japan around the early Edo period, Aiko's Choice is a stealth strategy game that takes place within the story of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.The expansion focuses on one of the main game's protagonists: the kunoichi adept Aiko. She is a master of camouflage and distracts enemies disguised as a Geisha.
Although Aiko was certain that she left her old life behind her, Aiko's former sensei, the cunning spymaster Lady Chiyo, reappears from the shadows to challenge her. Together with her deadly companions she sets out to hunt down the ghosts of her past...
Play a team of five unique assassins
In the style of the main game, you take control of five skillful assassins, including Aiko, to sneak in the shadows between dozens of enemies. Aiko's companions are just as deadly as her:
Hayato is an agile ninja, who clears the way silently with his sword and shuriken. The mighty samurai Mugen prefers a more powerful approach and can defeat multiple foes at once. Yuki is a young thief, who places traps and decoys enemies towards their deadly fate. The wise marksman Takuma, however, relies on his sniper rifle and distracts enemies with his loyal pet companion Kuma.
Define your playstyle
Choose your approach when infiltrating enemy bases in hidden forest camps or lively Edo period towns. Set traps, poison and distract your opponents – or avoid enemy contact completely. Carefully plan your every move, utilize your characters' unique skills and execute your own ingenious tactics to outwit your enemies on the challenging missions that lie ahead!
Features
Return to the beautiful world of Shadow Tactics set in Japan, early Edo period.
Rejoin your favorite characters for another adventure set within the story of the main game Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
Experience a previously untold tale centered around the kunoichi adept Aiko, who must face a vicious enemy connected to her past.
Explore three fully fledged main missions, located in brand-new environments, and three shorter interlude missions.
The expansion includes all the features of the main game
Play a team of five different characters with their unique skill sets.
Synchronize your team's actions to strike down your enemies at once with the "Shadow Mode" feature.
Choose between non-lethal or deadly stealth attacks.
Find dozens of ways to take out or sneak past your opponents the way you want.
Choose from three difficulty levels to match your skill.
Disclaimer: You don't require a copy of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun to play Aiko's Choice. Even though you can enjoy this standalone expansion on its own, we recommend playing at least the first few missions of the main game to get a feeling of the game's mechanics as well as the characters and story!
We are very happy to finally return to Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun after all these years, and we hope that we were able to convert that joy into this standalone expansion. Join us on another visit… to Japan, early Edo period.
... but mediocre story.
Fans of the main game will enjoy 3 additional level with challenging layouts and 3 smallish storytelling level with focus on fleshing out the aiko's story.
Great:
- awesome environment design, imho even better than the main game
- all maps are challenging with a lot of options and new ideas
- The main theme got even better! (real orchestra!)
- more kuma, more yuki, what more do you want?
Not so great:
- Imho, the story ending to this expansion is awful and feels even more forced than "that moment" on mount tsuru. everything up to it was great, though.
- hayato can jump down 10m onto stone but chickens out jumping 2m into water while mugen still can't throw bodies off a pier but vaulting them over a fence is fine. hmm. this and a couple more small annoyances from the main game are still present, but overall they don't spoil the fun.
Verdict:
This is purely an expansion for true fans who want more shadow tactics. Otherwise it doesn't really make sense how 3 more maps can cost half the price of the main game, which had 13 level. I still enjoyed it a lot and would pay full price again. I'd advice you do the same, otherwise we will never get shadow tactics 2!
Don't be misled by a standalone nature of this release, and a steep pricepoint. It is a 4 years late DLC mission pack to 2016 Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. What you get are three new missions, with short interlude missions that timeline was are inserted before what could be considered an ACT3 of the main campaign. Story in servicable, character as enjoable as they were in the original, but it's not what I would call a necessary or significant expantion of the main storyline.
Some Quality of Life improvements are missing when compared to Mimimi's more recent Desperados3, though it's nothing I can't live without. Aiko's Choice runs on the same engine that original Shadow Tactics did, so no improvements were tranfered over from Desperados3.
If you didn't play base Shadow Tactics:BotS, you should play that first, before considering Aiko's Choice (and perhaps Desperads3 - both will give you far more bang for your buck or other currency of choice). If you did, then you probably know by now, if 3 extra missions is something that interests you, and what is the pricepoint that you are willing to pay.
This game is just 3 missions (and a couple more mini-missions), which all take place in the middle of original game story-wise, one of which is largely recycled from the previous game. I *loved* Shadow Tactics and definitely enjoyed this addon and gulped it in one evening.
Fantastic voice acting, just like the original game (aaah Takuma-san), and a couple more tunes, which again, are just as good as the original. Level design is satisfyingly complex, although I felt comfortable playing on Hardcore for my first walk-through.
Truth be told, this just feels like cut content from the original game (but then it might have been just a touch longer than it had to); and it's a bit of a steep price for a mission pack.
But I won't complain since I adore the setting, the execution, and wholeheartedly wait for Shadow Tactics 2.
After completing the story, gaining all badges and achievements, my time was 39.5 hours - so that's good value for my money there. Though who am I kidding - if you played the main game and liked it - you're probably not reading this review, as you're too busy throwing money at your screen.
When you like the first one, you will like this.
Big disadvantage is the number of mission. 3 medium size missions, 2 very short and the epiloge... Wait for a sale.
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