Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

As of May 2024, this, in my opinion, is no doubt, the greatest real time tactical stealth game of all time. Pretty much after Helldorado, the genre pretty much became dead.

That was until Mimimi came with this masterpiece.

Pretty much imagine this game being Desperados but modernized and set in feudal Japan. The unity engine surprisingly made the game look good, with the ability of turning 90 degrees around the area in a full 3D environment, so no more blind surprises like in Desperados.

There are 13 missions, but just like Desperados, all of them are long and take an hour, two or sometimes three depending on how good you are. There is a replayability involved as many missions can be done in multiple ways to earn badges, or try them out on harder difficulty.

The story is very well made, and the characters are each unique and likable. I recommend playing in japanese dub for full immersion.

The gameplay itself is like Desperados 1, but with QoL added and improved enemy vision mechanic. You will get to know each enemy and how they react quickly and yes, even civilians can screw you.

Overall, if you liked Desperados 1, and you like feudal Japan setting, then absolutely play this. Really amazing game, although shame that Mimimi went bankrupt a year ago. They really nailed this game. Full recommendation.

Commandos: Feudal Japan.
A steal at the current 90% discount. The potential difficulty stems from finnicky mechanics (mostly based on exact timing/execution).
The playable characters in the game correspond with the Sniper, Thief, Spy, Green Beret and Diver.

Good game tactics wise. The first half of the game is great. The last third is a bit of a slog, however the last mission, despite its difficulty is worth it to demonstrate what you have learnt thus far.
The story is low key and characters pretty ordinary, however the gameplay is the game's strength.
If you like tactics, defs worth your time

Great strategy game by the also great former studio Mimimi.
Follows the same formula (actually this one came first) and delivers a touching and interesting story, yet another setting.

Can be a lot of work if you decide to persue all badges - specially time related ones.

Good old Commandos has been reborn in Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
Different times, but the tasks are still the same. We destroy undesirable personalities and their henchmen for the new Season. In every way we can!
We have at our disposal a squad of five fighters, skilled warriors. Each of them has their own approach to solving problems. The player will have to look for a solution to a particular task himself, both as a squad and as individual fighters.
At high levels of difficulty it is really difficult, you need to think everything through and choose your strategy.
It may seem that the game is short (only 13 missions), but in these missions the storyline of the game is fully revealed. The game never got bored, it was interesting to replay.
I recommend the game, especially for fans of the genre!
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good but idk why i let this in my library for at least a year to finish it, for anyone that already had the game but not play it yet, give it a try, it is dificult and frustating at some point, but just load the game and try different aproach.
for anyone that want to buy it but want it, full price is worth it, but if you wait for sale you can grab it like in 90%? i dont remember but i belive i got this game for really cheap price.

again, Good game
recomended

TL;DR A smooth and beautiful tactical game with very few issues. Definitely worth the purchase.

Story
In Edo period Japan, the Shogun brought peace to Japan by winning the war. However, some conspire against the shogun to plunge the country back into strife and usurp power. In order to thwart this plot, the Shogun's most trusted samurai retainer assembles four other companions to sabotage these rebels and uncover the mastermind hiding in the shadows (literally calling himself "The Shadow" in Japanese) and bring him to justice.

The game's plot is told through in-engine cutscenes between missions and character conversations in the midst of a level. The plot is pretty standard fare, with very predictable plot twists. While the main plot isn't really anything to write home about, the main characters are pretty endearing and fun to hear bantering with each other. The Japanese voiceover is also stellar.

Gameplay
Shadow Tactics is an isometric real time tactics game with 13 missions. You control a team of five characters from a top down perspective against a map full of baddies. Each character comes with a pre-defined set of items/abilities: a melee weapon (or sniper rifle), a unique ability, a distraction option, a handicraft pistol, and a bandage set. Although that doesn't sound like a lot of variety, each character has their nuances with the items available to them. For example, one character may distract enemies by throwing a rock and only getting them to turn away for a few seconds, while a different character might send a trained raccoon dog to make cute noises to get all the enemies preoccupied asking the important question - who's a good boy? Some characters are nimble and can climb vines are grapple to the top of a building with a hookshot, while others require conventional ladders. Some characters can pick up enemy bodies (a certain powerhouse can even carry two for the price of one and just throw them onto other enemies!), while the less brawny characters can only slowly drag them on the ground, and some can't move bodies at all. So you always have to consider which character is best for a specific job in a specific situation.

While you technically can go on a frontal assault, your characters don't have much in the way of ranged options, so you can easily get outnumbered and killed if you don't keep a low profile. Although classified as a stealth game, you'll find that it's more of a puzzle game: figuring out how to take out how to take out Soldier A without being seen by Soldier B or C, who either have direct line of sight on Soldier A, or are supposed to regularly meet up with them and will get suspicious if Soldier A is running late. Oftentimes, figuring out how to get through a segment will result in spamming F5 and F8 until you get it just right, but at least the quickloads are fast. Usually, there's more than one way to get the job done, and even more than one route to take to your goal. Your mileage per level can vary anywhere from 2-4 hours if you're meticulous and take your time, to 1-5 minute speedruns when you figure out the most optimal path. Nearly every level comes with some new gimmick to make things more interesting, and each level comes with 9 bonus challenges (badges) for some extra replay value.

Overview
The Good
+Smooth gameplay
+Great aesthetics
+Great Japanese voiceover option for immersion
+Fun characters with individual strengths and weaknesses
+Characters can be given instructions to carry out actions concurrently
+The environment of the level affects gameplay mechanics
+Game allows both pacifist and kill-all runs in most levels
+Multiple ways to go about each level
+Can replay missions in any order once unlocked
+Each level has badges for playing the level with certain handicaps for some extra challenge
+Nice soundtrack
+Runs decently even on a non-gaming laptop
+Demo available
+Save reminders

The Bad
-Poor pathfinding
-Alarms are near-instant
-Save-scumming simulator
-Linear story with on-the-nose plot twists
-Not much variety in gear