I’m going to start this review with a TL;DR: If you’ve played Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun at any point in the last decade and are wondering if it’s worth double dipping on the Switch 2 port, then the answer is obviously yes. It’s a fantastic stealth game and now you can play it on the toilet. For those who have never tried Mimimi’s first (and, in my opinion, best) foray into the stealth tactics genre then you’re in for a real treat.
For those newcomers, Shadow Tactics is a top down, real time stealth game that has you using a small team of experts, some stealthy and some a bit more… direct, and completing missions in wide open sandbox levels. It’s set in feudal Japan, in case the title didn’t give that away, and while there’s a serviceable story about a samurai putting together this team to take down a mysterious warlord, it’s never been something more than an excuse to sneak and slice your way around the level. It’s not bad, but it’s not going to get anyone particularly excited.
The real stars of the game are your teammates. You get introduced to each in interesting ways, typically by helping or meeting them partway through one of the four opening levels, and they’re all equipped with different abilities that make them suited to specific tasks.
They’re extremely well designed and balanced, and none of them feel overpowered. Instead it feels like having a team of specialists, with each member suited to certain tasks and your job is to determine when and where you’re best to deploy them. Stealthy characters like Hayato the ninja, Yuki the thief or Aiko the geisha are nimble enough to scale buildings and vines but lack the strength to move bodies quickly. Mugen, our samurai on the other hand, is a hulking brute who’s about as subtle as a bull in a china shop but can take down multiple enemies with ease, including other samurai. Takuma, a sharpshooting old man reminiscent of MGS3’s The End, rounds out your team by providing long range (but noisy) cover fire.
Each member of your team has access to a couple of unique abilities that you’ll need to make regular use of. Hayato brings along, for some unknown reason, a single shuriken. It’s great for silent takedowns from a distance, but you’ll need to retrieve it after each kill. Yuki can place traps and lure people over using a whistle, while Aiko gives more opportunities for social stealth thanks to her ability to disguise herself.
The team works really well together, and most missions give you a pre-determined selection of characters to use rather than all five of them. You may find Mugen is teamed up with Yuki, with her stealthy trap kills complimenting Mugen’s multi-kill ability. Or Hayato and Aiko will team up, giving you two stealth specialists with different strategies: Hayato being more traditional stealth while Aiko can disguise herself and interfere with guard vision cones, opening up opportunities for Hayato.
As far as stealth is concerned, this is some of the best in the genre. The synergy between your crew is heightened by the use of Shadow Mode, and with the tap of a button you can move shadowy versions of your characters into position, even getting them to complete actions like taking out enemies. Once you’re happy with your plan, hitting X will set it into action with all characters moving simultaneously, and every time you pull one of these off you’ll feel like a complete badass. Watching Mugen slice through a group of three enemies while Hayato throws a shuriken at another and Takuma snipes the last one from halfway across the map is so satisfying, and every time I found myself in a seemingly impossible scenario I immediately thought about how Shadow Mode could help.
Your top down perspective gives you a perfect vantage point to spot guards, hiding spots and environmental opportunities such as vines to climb or machines to sabotage. Guards have vision cones which you can see by holding down left on the d-pad and hovering over them, with a solid green area depicting where they’ll always spot you while a striped section denotes where you can crouch and walk through without being seen. It’s a great system and one that reacts to the environment too. Guards will narrow their cone of vision if they spot a lure you’ve placed for them, or darkness will impact their ability to see. In snowy levels you even need to be aware of your own footprints because if they spot them they’ll come running and follow them right to your hiding spot.
This is all complemented by a great HUD. As well as clearly highlighting interactable objects in the level, it’ll regularly show you a timer at the top of the screen to remind you of when you last saved. It starts off green but moves to yellow and red the longer you go without saving, providing a handy reminder to hit the minus button and quick-save. If, like me, you get spotted frequently then you’ll be making good use of those quick-saves, and jumping into the pause menu gives you the option to quickly load into any of your last 3. It’s a smooth system that makes experimenting with new routes and techniques effortless.
In terms of controls, actions have been mapped to a controller the best they possibly can be, but it still feels a bit clumsy at times. Moving a character with the left stick and the camera independently with the right stick makes sense, but switching between characters can often leave the camera not focusing on them until you move, which isn’t something you always want to do. Switching between items can get a bit confusing at times too, although luckily you have to prime them before you use them so it never resulted in wasting anything. The Switch 2 port contains the obligatory use of mouse mode with the Joy-Cons. I’ve yet to find a single game that implements this well and Shadow Tactics is no different. I don’t think it’s the fault of the developer, it’s just awkward trying to use a Joy-Con as a mouse due to the shape and size, especially on the arm of the sofa. I’m sure this will be useful for some people, but it’s not something I used for more than a few minutes.
Visually the game looks much like it did when I originally played it. I’m not the best at guessing frame-rates but it doesn’t feel like a perfect 60 to me, but it’s more than playable and doesn’t detract from the experience. Visuals are clear and crisp, and I was able to spot areas of interest in the environment with no difficulty.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun was a fantastic game in 2016 and it’s still just as good in 2026 on the Switch 2. The quick-save system lends itself well to a system that’s easy to pick up and put down, letting you sneak and stab your way across feudal Japan at your leisure.
