Shogun 2: Total War confirmed, detailed

By Robert Purchese Published 3 June, 2010

Narrative! Hero units! Cherry blossoms!

SEGA has confirmed the rumours and unveiled Shogun 2: Total War. The game will be released exclusively on PC in 2011.

The details picked from the leaked fact sheet have turned out to be true, although the multiplayer parts are still TBC.

Shogun 2 will present a smaller-scope but more detailed, personal experience.

Unit roster has been trimmed from hundreds to 30-40 and factions cut down to eight rival Japanese feudal warlords, according to IGN. Similarly, the geographical scale of Shogun 2 will be reigned in, preferring the small Japanese territory to a global scope.

You'll discover who the historical faction leaders of the time were, and where their loyalties and politics lay. Generals will return to rouse troops before battle, and this time their traits will be hand-picked by you rather than assigned at random.

Naval combat, an important development of Empire: Total War, returns in the shape of oared ships and hordes or archers, and there will be varying vessel-types to pick from depending on your choice of tactics.

Shogun 2: Total War is currently in pre-alpha stage. Look out for a full preview on Eurogamer soon.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • towser #1 2 years ago

    I just did a little sex wee

    Best news I've heard in a long time!

  • AphoticCosmos #2 2 years ago

    Hmm, this doesn't excite me in the way that Empire and Napoleon did. Shogun is a "been there, done that" scenario.

    Can we have WWI:TW please? Puh-leeeeease! /puppyeyes

  • Mkwone #3 2 years ago

    They seem to be pumping these out at quite a speed lately

  • Skurmedel #4 2 years ago

    Mmm gimme... this and Civ 5 makes for good year.

  • Rorsch #5 2 years ago

    I'm really hyped for this one, doesn't seem like 10 years have since I played the first one

  • tincanrocket #6 2 years ago

    @AphoticCosmos - WWI Mod for Napoleon Total War: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthrea...

  • hiddenranbir #7 2 years ago

    hand picked traits? I didn't realise medieval Japan had genetic engineering for us! :x

    I agree partly with Aphotic, I'm really concerned this will sort of just provide a more complicated and therefore buggier and inconsistent experience over the original.

    They seem to be pumping these out at quite a speed lately

    They need you to forget their ETW effort quickly, the older that games get the more excuses they have to not support it as originally put in their remit.

  • mr_shoe_uk #8 2 years ago

    Awesome

  • HandOfBeadle #9 2 years ago

    Samurai >>> Sharpe

  • macmurphy #10 2 years ago

    Never really had a PC but I got the original of this running on a laptop and it was one of the most compelling things I've ever played. Any chance of a console release? I thought Civilisation did ok on the 360, maybe this would too. Failing that, how about a LIVE release of the original, surely that wouldn't be too much of a punt if it doesn't sell?

  • Mkwone #11 2 years ago

    @Handofbeadle

    Were dropped on the head as a baby? :p

    Sharpe>Anyone

  • gmjapan #12 2 years ago

    I only tried the original Shogun as the demo and was a long time fan of Rome:TW.
    I could just be overly cynical but I cant help but feel this is going to look great, play fantanstic, be incredibly detailed and accurate but ultimately be broken by some failure in a core mechanic.

  • Hantheman #13 2 years ago

    Brilliant.

  • mumblyjoe #14 2 years ago

    Dear Creative Assembly,

    Don't fuck it up this time!

    Thanks

  • rob76 #15 2 years ago

    Looking forward to this although after the Empire farce there is no way I'll get this pre ordered.

  • Zephro #16 2 years ago

    Still don't understand the Empire hate around here at all.

    I'd do this letter though:
    Dear CA
    Spend all the budget on AI. Not graphics, not art and not pandering to whims of the community.

    Regards

  • Shikasama #17 2 years ago

    I've never really got on with the Total War games. The battles always seem to end up in a 'just rush eah other, sod the strategy' thing.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #18 2 years ago

    I'd like a streamlined console version of medieval but that's just me! Or a British version similar to the medieval 2 add-on.

    Still, smaller scale sounds interesting.

  • the_mtfr #19 2 years ago

    Really grateful to the devs & Sega that it's still a PC exclusive. I hope it will always stay that way.

  • Les #20 2 years ago

    "The battles always seem to end up in a 'just rush eah other, sod the strategy' thing."

    That's the problem with RTS in general IMHO. What I like about TW is that at least troop creation and battles are separated. Much of the strategy is in deciding which units to recruit and at what location to deploy (e.g. archers are of little use uphill).

    Btw, good news :)

  • hiddenranbir #21 2 years ago

    Still don't understand the Empire hate around here at all.

    You just answered it with your letter of request.

  • Zephro #22 2 years ago

    The letter of request pretty much applies to Medieval 2 about 5 times more than Empire. Med2 was just Rome but worse. Empire innovated in many many gameplay ways. Personally I loved being a mixture of Sharpe and Hornblower and spending my time protecting my trade routes and international situation.

    I never had the Medi2 problem of soldiers forgetting to swing weapons. Or entire armies attacking me by lining up facing AWAY from me. Or Rome's problem of enemies standing still while you shot them because they were defending. Or Medieval 1's problem of Emperors/Kings running out on their own head long into my army. Or Barbarian Invasions problems that while the small infantry were getting burnt to death with a battering ram all their elite heavy cavalry was standing in archery range. I also remember cavalry going backwards and forwards under archery fire stuck in an infinite loop.

    The AI has been improving. Just sadly not as quickly as graphics or quick enough to maintain pace with the deepening gameplay. A game based around international relations, diplomacy and trade doesn't need AI twice as good as the dull risk board strategy it needs AI exponentially better sadly.

    Anyway the games have been steadily improving with the exception of Medieval 2, which we can pass of as the fault of the Australian studio.

    Tbh I still want them to do a spin off squad based tactical shoote Sharpe: Total bloody War.

  • hiddenranbir #23 2 years ago

    ETW AI would seize up on itself because they tried to make it too complicated (complex systems don't need complex rules). They've admitted to that fault openly.

  • Zephro #24 2 years ago

    Complex systems often do need complex AI rules. :-s Oddly that's why machine vision still hasn't gotten terribly far.

  • Les #25 2 years ago

    "Complex systems often do need complex AI rules. :-s Oddly that's why machine vision still hasn't gotten terribly far."

    I guess what he was hinting at is that a few simple rules together can lead to complex outcomes. E.g. fractals or evolution.

  • hiddenranbir #26 2 years ago

    Yeah, Les got my meaning. Apologies if I didn't make it clearer.

  • Shikasama #27 2 years ago

    Christ -3 for what I said? Please take a hearty 'fuck off' from me.

    Les - A great example being Chess.

  • Zephro #28 2 years ago

    Ah ok well AI is the other way around. Finding AI solutions is exponentially hard on the number of variables in general. So if you have N parameters to your system the difficulty is along the lines of N^2. So something twice as complex ends up with a problem more than twice as complex to solve. In general anyhow.

    So for instance a fairly simple set of rules defines chess with a fairly small set of variables 64 position, 32 pieces, simple rules. But actually finding solutions to optimal strategies is a massive, massive computing challenge.

  • Xeopuppy #29 2 years ago

    Awesome, Japanese warlords in Feudal period of Japanese history, about time...

    BANZAI

  • Bravestinsane #30 2 years ago

    Didn't even read it but

    SOLD!

  • Bravestinsane #31 2 years ago

    Didn't even read it but

    SOLD!

  • hiddenranbir #32 2 years ago

    @shik

    Don't worry, I got -2 for making fun of us being able to select traits. Talk about a gamey feature!

  • Yodzilla #33 2 years ago

    Shogun is still my favorite Total War game so I'm hoping this is as fast-paced and relatively simple as the original.

  • Verwandlung #34 2 years ago

    Nice!

  • Saxo #35 2 years ago

    Would have thought alot would think the smaller scale to be a bad thing. Well anyway for me it is certainly a bad thing. What made the other games so fun was the grand scale. You could conqour the world, and you could lead great armys to victory. 30-40 units doenst sound like total war, it just sounds like a small skrimish, of waring villages. Shogun 2:Feuding tribes. Meh if people want it they should buy it, and good for them. Ill just stick to Empire.