Shogun 2: Total War - New Video - Battle Report

[Deepcrush]

Economic issues were always a problem in RTW. It took so long to build up a proper amount of money to do anything fun. I'm going to have to find this Mod and try it out.

[Sionnach Glic]

It's easy enough to build up large sums of money in Europa Barbarorum. And the new recruitment system means you don't need to wait hours to start recruiting good units (hell, as Carthage you start to game able to recruit elephant units).
The financial problem mainly stems from one thing - war is expensive. And if it's a war against a nation who's a major trading partner, then you're going to be hitting economic difficulties.

The mod's website is here. It's a lengthy download, but you're basically getting a brand new game.

[Deepcrush]

Is it a stand alone like Third Age Total War or will it over take RTW?

[Sionnach Glic]

You can still play normal RTW with it downloaded, yes.

[Deepcrush]

Perfect, I hate Mods that just over take the game.

[Deepcrush]

Okay, looking over the Romani faction... where the hell is the Lorica Segmentata (spelling, shut up!)?

[Sionnach Glic]

It's been one of my basic assumptions here at IGN that there is no such thing as the "perfect" game. No matter how ambitious a designer's ideas might be, they will eventually encounter the limitations imposed by time, money or technology. While the results of working within these limitations can often be sublime, there's not a designer in this industry that hasn't wished for just a little bit more of whatever it would take to make their game better. Some of you might see that way of thinking as a reason to despair but I see it as a fundamental expression of hope and limitless potential for the PC development environment. It is, in my opinion, a fundamental belief for any fan of PC games.

It's also a worthwhile motivation for Creative Assembly to apply ten years of experience and growth to the father of its celebrated strategy series, Shogun: Total War. IGN recently visited Creative Assembly's studio and were able to speak with principal members of the design team about their vision for the new title and its place in the evolution of the franchise.

Like its processor, the new game picks up in 16th century Japan during the aftermath of the Onin War. The battles between rival Shoguns have devastated the country and left the capital of Kyoto in ruins. Competing warlords in control of small pockets of power are each striving to obtain the blessing of the central emperor and legitimize their rule of the entire land. The player takes on the role of one of eight of these warlords, each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths. Some may be located on remote islands that are rich in resources but far from opportunities. Others might be in the thick of the action immediately and able to use unique samurai units to carve out a more secure portion.

As a setting, feudal Japan satisfies all the Total War requirements. It's a period with lots of competitors who all have an equal chance of coming out on top. It's a period of rapid political and technological change, thanks in no small part to the Dutch and Portuguese bringing gunpowder to the island. Finally, the samurai who dominate this period offer a perfect blend of the best parts of fantasy and reality.

After the excesses of Empire, Shogun 2 is taking a Zen approach. Though the word "accessible" is often code for "plain," in the case of Shogun 2, it's clear that the designers want to maintain a tighter focus on the core elements and not give in to feature creep. The unit roster is a great example of this. Rather than massive roster of units found in Empire, Shogun sticks with just 30-40 basic units (20 or so per faction), each of which has a clear and obvious purpose. This should give the player a chance to focus more on tactics than on the slight variations between similar unit types. If you need to keep an enemy at bay, for instance, you'll know to call on your Ashigaru spearman. To help add a bit of variety, units will upgrade over time.

The scale is also different in terms of the presentation of the story. Empire was a game about a global war. Shogun 2 is about eight warring fiefdoms. So if Shogun 2 won't have the epic geographic scale of Empire, it will have to compensate by emphasizing character and story. During its time in Europe (through Medieval, Rome and Empire), Total War has gradually shed some of the narrative that provided context for the battles and campaigns. Shogun 2 will focus directly on the daimyo, or clan leaders, like Takeda Shingun or Chosokabe Motochika. Instead of being the impersonal force guiding the destiny of your faction, you'll actually play as a person who has to negotiate the treacheries and loyalties of family politics, which can sometimes be as deadly a battlefield as any you can find. Your generals will also be more important this time around, not just due to the return of their pre-battle speeches, but also because you can choose which upgrades they get as they develop. It makes it much easier to get attached to them than the sometimes random characters you've recruited in previous Total War games.

One particularly novel development is the introduction of hero units. These are warriors who have perfected a fighting art and can carve their way through enemy armies without much trouble at all. Based on mythologized historical figures like the warrior monk Benkei, hero units are a nearly unstoppable force on the battlefield, capable of holding bridge crossings against entire armies, or smashing through a battle line to engage the enemy general. You can counter heroes with the right tactics, such as filling them full of arrows, or by having your own hero units engage them in duels. The development team may even consider letting players use political manipulation to sway heroes away from each other.

The unique nature of Asian architecture has a profound impact on sieges. The stacked pagoda structures of Japan allow sieges to play out in stages, with attackers and defenders moving from wall to wall and from tower to tower. This gives both sides of a battle more options than simply waiting for a hole to appear in the outer defenses and then just cramming as many men as possible around it. Each castle will have five levels of construction as well, so there's an increasing level of choice and sophistication as you advance. What's even more intriguing is the team's suggestion that castles will have unique qualities based on whether they're built in the mountains, on the plains, or by the sea.

Even with all the new siege mechanics, Creative Assembly is striving to ensure that the game delivers the full range of battle types, from small scale ambushes and river crossings to huge battles in open fields. The hilly nature of Japan means chokepoints abound, so players will have to consider maneuver and position very carefully as they make their way towards objectives.

The naval battles that were introduced in Empire are also being brought into Shogun 2. Boats during this period were a bit like floating castles, so you can expect to see lots of archers firing at each other from the tops, and lots of melees when enemy ships grapple with each other. The big difference this time around is that the ships are oared, so you won't have to worry about the wind affecting their momentum. If you want a ship to move to a particular spot, you just have to issue the order and it's done. Land will also be present during the naval battles, not as a contestable space, but as a means of orienting players. The ships themselves will have unique roles and levels of aggression, so there's a rock-paper-scissors element to fighting at sea.

The game's AI is being programmed according to Sun Tzu's Art of War. As one of the core foundations for this kind of mix of melee and ranged warfare, Sun Tzu is an obvious starting point, but what was particularly revealing is how much Sun Tzu talks like a programmer. If, for example, you outnumber the enemy more than five-to-one, Sun Tzu recommends an enveloping move. If you outnumber the enemy two-to-one, he prefers a direct engagement.

As intriguing as the mechanics of the game are, Creative Assembly also acknowledge that the overall art design is probably more central to the success of this game than any other in the series. The art team has been inspired by all of the conventional icons of the land and the wide range of seasons and weather will help add variety to the battles. You may, for instance, find yourself fighting in the same province during the spring as cherry blossoms drift by, and then come back for a battle as layers of snow sit on the land in winter. The team is reintroducing nighttime battles to the game, and we saw a spectacular example of a castle assault during a thunderstorm at night. The way the lightning cracked in the distance and lit up the trees and soldiers as rain collected in puddles around them was phenomenal. The ranks of soldiers, all outfitted in distinctive primary colors and sporting battle flags on their backs, looked better than any we've seen in the franchise.

Battle animations are superb. The units in Shogun 2 have a total of 52 different bones, which is a nearly 25% increase over those in previous Total War games. This allows for much more natural and realistic animations, which incidentally, were captured using the British Kendo Association and actual bushido fighters. Samurai were known for their strong, flexible armor and for their mastery of multiple weapons like the katana and nodachi. During our demo, we saw two ranks of katana samurai battling with each other and it looked even better than the thrilling combat in Empire. Add in support for up to 56,000 units in a single battle, and it's clear to see just how ambitious Shogun 2 really is.

To further add to the authenticity, the team is also using all the original weapons on the original materials for the sound effects. They've even gone so far as to record the sounds of the historical footwear of each unit type walking and running on all the types of terrain represented in the game.

At this pre-alpha stage, it's far too early for Creative Assembly to talk more specifically about the game, but we're already hungry for more details. We know that there will be an entirely new agent set in the game, one that uses a rock-paper-scissors mechanic, but we don't know what that means in practice. We've also been told that the team has some ambitious multiplayer ideas, but they're not willing to even hint what those might be. Whatever the case, the first look was more than enough to whet our appetite for more information. You can be sure that IGN will continue to delve into the details of Shogun 2: Total War in the coming months.

[Deepcrush]

Any word on this lately? I'm hoping they fix the graphics issues that came with Empire.

[Deepcrush]

In game screenshots are out and updated!

http://www.totalwar.com/shogun2/screenshots/game

[Sionnach Glic]

Thanks Deep. There's also a new video containing in-game footage that can be reached from Deep's link (just click on the Videos tab). Looks pretty nice.

It seems that they've dropped for good the randomized appearance of soldiers that Medieval 2 had. I think that's a shame, because it was a neat little detail.

[Deepcrush]

Its also early enough that they were still just testing and so haven't loaded new skins in.

Edit*

To be honest I'm hoping the go back to the METW2 design. I think it was a more stable system then ETW.

[Sionnach Glic]

There's a new video up, showcasing a battle between two factions with commentary by two of the development staff.

My thoughts:

That looks bloody beautiful. If nothing else, this game will at least be nice to look at.
We're given the name of the guy who coded the battle AI. Now we know who to blame if the AI continues being dumb.
Some great detail in the individual soldiers. Also some nice variation, thank Christ they went back to the M2:TW method of randomising apperances.
New speaches, supposedly taking the individual generals' history and traits into account. Cool.
Ew. I don't like the new unit display at the bottom. It just looks very....cluttered.
I don't really like the banners above the units either.
Is there no mini-map? I seriously hope there is, since I use it heavily to keep track of where my units and the enemy's units are.
They've apparently spruced up the battle AI. Of course, they say that with every new release and it still continues falling for the same tricks. Let's hope it's actually better this time.
The combat animations of the individual Samurai seem alright. Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.
We get a nice display for the archers showing the area their arrows can reach. Cool.
Ye gods, what's up with those flaming arrow animations? They're hideous. Hopefully this is just because the game as they show it is still in the Alpha stage.
That shot of the player's cavalry tearing through the AI archers from the rear looked brilliant. Unfortunately, it does seem to indicate that the AI is still heavily vulnerable to flanking attacks. Nice to know they still haven't fixed that easy win method that's been around since the original frickin' Shogun game.

Hmm, all in all, I'm left feeling rather apathetic. It looks gorgeous, that's for sure, but there doesn't seem to be much actual substance backing its looks up. It really just seems to come off as a prettier M2:TW with an ugly interface.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I wonder why everybody is always in awe about Japan and it's military history. What about China's thousands-year struggles?

Three Kindgom : Total War. For nice measure, add a few neighbouring kingdoms like Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Manchu. Add random barbarian invasions.

Make the Great Wall strategically significant.

That'd be a neat game... I mean, Japan is nice. But China just has so much more material to work with.

[Tyyr]

Japan has katanas and katanas are awesome. They can totally cut through a tank.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Japan has katanas and katanas are awesome. They can totally cut through a tank.

A japanese tank, maybe. But if you have to attack it with swords, I'd go with the Claymore.