2016’s Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is what I consider a modern classic. Mimimi Games’ hardcore take on the tactical stealth genre has always been easy for me to recommend to anyone looking for a new stealth game. The studio went on to deliver several more excellent titles, including Desperados III, the standalone expansion Shadow Tactics: Aiko’s Choice, and later Shadow Gambit, which made Mimimi one of those developers I trusted completely when it came to this style of game. They really understood how to make tactical stealth work. That’s why it was so unfortunate that not long after their last release, the studio ended up shutting down. Because of that, this new release of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun on Switch 2 came as a pretty big surprise.

Getting the gang back together!

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is an isometric real time tactical game where you control a group of unlikely allies as they sneak their way to each objective without being seen. Enemy vision cones are visible, clearly showing their field of view and even what they can spot behind them. It is a great quality of life feature that removes a lot of the guesswork from stealth and lets you focus more on planning your next move.

In many ways, each encounter feels like a puzzle where you need to figure out how to use every piece you have. The five playable characters all have their own abilities and playstyles, which can completely change how you approach an objective. Hayato the shinobi relies on speed and precision, letting him move quickly and take down enemies with skillful strikes. Much like Hayato, kunoichi Aiko can move through environments with ease, but her strengths lean more toward disguise and infiltration, giving the game a bit of a Hitman style feel at times.

Yuki takes a similar approach, but being younger and less experienced, her playstyle leans heavily on traps. She can set them up to lure guards into position, making her perfect for players who like planning ahead instead of rushing in. Mugen, on the other hand, is a samurai, which means heavy armor and far less stealth potential. What he lacks in subtlety he makes up for in strength, since he can take down multiple guards at once and he is the only character who cannot be stealth killed by the others. Finally there is Takuma, who prefers to stay above the action, perching on high ground to provide sniper support. His pet tanuki, Kuma, can also be sent out to distract enemies, opening the way for the rest of the team.

To keep things interesting, you will not always have access to the full group. Depending on the mission, you will usually only have two or three characters available at a time. On the rare occasions when everyone is present, the missions tend to be much larger, often with several objectives happening at once. Because of this, success usually comes down to figuring out how each character works together with the others. If you need to pull off several actions in quick succession, Shadow Mode lets you queue commands and execute them at the same time. Just be careful, because the game does not pause while you set things up, so you still need to wait for the right moment before putting your plan into motion.

Snow-covered levels add an interesting dynamic.

The level design as a whole is phenomenal, with each stage scattering its objectives across a wide area and leaving it up to you to decide how to tackle them. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun does a great job of subtly guiding you, offering small hints about possible solutions without ever forcing you down a single path. You are free to experiment, get creative, and find your own way through each situation, which makes every success feel earned.

Each of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun’s thirteen levels introduces new mechanics or small twists that keep things from feeling repetitive. One mission might take place during an open siege, with soldiers constantly moving around and loud cannon fire helping to cover your actions, while another happens in a snow covered town where footprints can give away your position and make moving around far more dangerous.

Save scumming is not only possible in Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, it is something the game almost expects you to do. If you go about a minute without saving, a small green timer appears on the screen as a reminder, which tells you a lot about how the game is meant to be played. On your first run you will fail often while learning the mechanics and figuring out how each character works with the others. Once everything starts to click, you begin to notice that most situations have several different solutions. The game really wants you to experiment with its systems and try new ideas until something works.

This also feeds into Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun’s strong replay value, since every mission comes with optional challenges. These can include things like finishing a level without killing anyone, which adds even more to the puzzle like feel of the gameplay and level design. If you are the kind of person who likes to fully complete a game, there is a lot here to keep you busy, with most levels taking around 30 to 50 minutes on a first playthrough, and even longer if you go back to finish the extra challenges.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a game that I absolutely adore. It feels like a true hardcore stealth experience, the kind we do not see very often anymore, and with the shutdown of Mimimi Games it really feels like we lost a legendary developer. Thankfully, playing the game on Switch 2 has still been a great experience overall. That said, I do wish this version had taken more advantage of the system’s features, especially in handheld mode.

Being able to tap on a guard or hold a spot on the screen to check vision cones would have been a great quality of life improvement, and it could have smoothed out some of the awkwardness that comes from moving a game like this from keyboard to controller. Camera movement and contextual actions simply feel more natural on PC, and I did find myself fumbling with the standard controller layout for a while before getting comfortable with it.

There’s also Joy-Con mouse support!

If you are a fan of the new Joy-Con’s mouse functions and do not mind setting the system up in tabletop mode, then you might want to opt for Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun‘s mouse functions . This makes the game feel much closer to the PC version, with a cursor used for movement while the sticks handle camera control. The result is a much higher level of precision, and it even makes it easier to manage multiple characters at the same time. It is a really an ingenuitive feature, though there is a bit of a learning curve if you are not already used to using the Joy-Cons as a mouse. Once you get the hang of it, however, it feels like one of the best ways to play the game on console.

Thankfully, I wasn’t hung up on the controls for very long, as it doesn’t take too much time to get used to them. Visually, the game still looks great, keeping the same style as the original PC release. The distinctive art direction is preserved nicely, helped by the smooth animations for each character. Not only does every level introduce new gameplay ideas, but the look and atmosphere also change from mission to mission, which keeps the game feeling fresh the whole way through. Unfortunately, there is no 60 FPS option available at launch. Hopefully that gets patched in later, but at the very least the game holds a steady frame rate with no noticeable drops.

While this review is focused on the base Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun release, it is worth mentioning that Aiko’s Choice, the standalone expansion, is also available at launch. It is sold separately, though there is a bundle on the eShop that includes both. The price might feel a little high for games that have been around for a while, but you are still getting roughly 35 to 40 hours of content on a first playthrough, with plenty of replay value on top of that.

Playing Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun on the Switch 2 has been a real treat. It is still one of my favorite stealth games of all time, taking the classic stealth formula and giving it a clever puzzle like twist that makes every encounter feel thoughtful and rewarding. The game constantly tests your skills with excellent level design that encourages creativity, experimentation, and patience, rather than brute force. Figuring out the perfect plan, watching it fall apart, and then finally pulling it off never gets old.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is available now on Switch 2. Previously available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. 

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

A copy of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun was provided by the publisher.