Shogun confrontation challenges you to think at least two turns ahead. You can’t just attack whenever you want in this turn-based combat roguelite. Instead, you have to use a turn to load your attack into a queue, and then use another turn to unleash that queue on your enemies, who come at you turn by turn, with their own queued actions. To complicate matters further, you must use a turn to move yourself forward or backward one space. You even have to use a twist to, well, playbecause it matters which direction you look.
Simply put, the entire game is about positioning. It’s about setting yourself up for success. In that way, it’s a bit like choosing when to launch an indie roguelite on Steam. It’s not enough to just come out swinging; you have to position yourself well.
Maybe you didn’t notice Shogun confrontation recently reached 1.0. Maybe you hadn’t heard of it at all since it was released in early access in 2023. Not me. And that’s a shame. Developed by Roboatino, Showdown is a crunchy, satisfying roguelite that has you replaying a series of battles, combining shuriken into grappling hooks in a piece of your blade as a final swing. Each 30-40 minute run (maybe a little shorter if you’re more decisive than me) tasks you with planning a series of attacks while your enemies do the same, with each side figuring out their intentions and moving along a single 2D track in turn-based combat that feels both deadly and balletic.
If I’m really struggling with the experience, it may be that the meta progression of unlocking new combat skills is a bit slow. I could also quibble with the game’s soundtrack, which gets a bit repetitive over time. Although it doesn’t really bother me on either front. Even though I’ve only just unlocked better abilities, like a sword that gains one attack power per turn it spends in your queue and a kama that can strike two spaces away, ignoring the enemy directly in front of you, I’ve never felt bored by the game’s original offering. Likewise, when it comes to the music, newly unlocked areas feature new songs, and to be honest about my media consumption habits, the game is a perfect addition to any podcast. I played the game on Steam Deck, playing a few battles at a time between other tasks, and, like any roguelite worth its salt, the game plays just as well in short bursts as it does in the long run.
As I played, the only real thing that kept nagging at me was why exactly aren’t more people talking about it Shogun confrontation.
The obvious answer is the difficulties in discovering games in the year of our lord 2024. I don’t want to go into this further, but it is impossible to deny the reality that even bangers like Shogun confrontation aren’t getting what they deserve, at least in part because of the glut of great games being offered this year, month after month, week after week. But I want to go a step further than just explaining everything with “too many good games omg.” I think so too Shogun confrontation suffers from positioning, among other things.
I’m not a developer nor do I have any specific knowledge about when it’s best to launch a game, but I’m confident that it’s hard to think of a more difficult year than 2024 to launch a new roguelite launch. The year started with Balatroturning us all into card counting freaks, followed shortly after by early access to Hades 2. If all that wasn’t enough, Blown by the windthe next match of Dead cells developer Motion Twin, came releases in early access on October 24. To make matters worse, it even includes a turn-based roguelike UFO 50. While it’s never easy to time a game’s release perfectly, it’s safe to say that when it comes to launching a roguelite in 2024, the difficulty borders on punishing.
Still, I would like to make a pitch Shogun confrontationbecause, honestly, it deserves your time. Here’s my pitch: buy it, put it on your Switch or Steam Deck and forget about it. I mean it. Late 2024 isn’t the best time to be discussing purchasing another roguelite, but there will undoubtedly come a time when, in between some other obsession, you’ll remember you bought it. You will see it lying there in your library and going, Oh yeah, that one guy on Polygon told me to buy this, and despite the oddity of his argument, I listened to him. Then you boot up the game and completely forget when it launched, or what other games it was talking to at the time, or whether it compared more or less favorably to Hades 2and you just play it. You play it, and if you like these types of games, you will have a great time.
Shogun confrontation teaches you, through its operation, to think ahead to a time when it will be most advantageous to act. I bet you don’t have room for another game in your role right now. But it will. Probably. Possibly. And at that moment, Shogun confrontationwith its tight combat and perfectly podcastable gameplay loop, will be there, ready to strike. All you have to do now is queue it up.
Shogun confrontation was released on September 5 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was played on PC using a download code purchased by the author. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.