In a way, this is probably the most casual Total War game (at least until Rome 2 since I haven't played anything after Rome 2 yet). And I mean it as a good way (mostly). The battles feel much faster and easier to grasp because how streamlined the units work and just overall how lightweight this feels.

It also laid groundworks for what I understand to be the staples of future Total War games, by implementing a light RPG systems for your generals. While making decisions for your clan is still bare-bones at minimum, it's a nice change of pace that adds more dynamic to your army controls.

However, it's not without its problems. Obviously, being in a single country where everyone roughly had the same military culture means the units are more or less the same. If you are not interested in this period of Japanese history, you would not give a sht about why Oda and Tokugawa are different, and frankly you would be alright. Of course, if you are interested in Sengoku Jidai, stuff like a unit made up solely of Samurai or a fcking Hattori clan as daimyo will make you incredibly annoyed.

But the biggest flaw of this game is the dreaded Realm Divide mechanic. Once you become too powerful in the campaign, you are declared the enemy of the state, which adds diplomatic penalty to your faction cumulatively. This goes on forever, and once you are in a war when Realm Divide is called on you, you are not getting out of that war whatsoever. You are bound to turn everyone in Japan as your enemy sooner or later.

It's a mechanic designed to keep you busy in late-game stages, but it only works to make it incredibly frustrating and one-dimensional. Unlike in real history when Toyotomi Hideyoshi was able to hastily negotiate a peace treaty with Oda's historical enemy, the Mori clan, to deal with internal problems, there is no diplomacy here. Everyone hates you and that hatred is relenteless and unending. So in the end diplomacy is basically a tool to delay Realm Divide, if anything, and really is useless after a certain point in the game. This also means that some backwater clan in Shigoku or Tohoku will randomly land a small army far away from the frontlines and lay siege on your castle. It doesn't matter if that clan is so feeble that it is not logical to declare war on my almighty clan. They will do it as if they are beholden to some religious calling that blinds them from any kind of rational thinking. The result is an annoying game of cat and mouse until you finally become the shogun and hold all required territories at the same time.

With Realm Divide disabled with a mod, I would say it is an excellent game for those who would like to get into Total War series. Its battles are just streamlined enough to be not too overwhelming or drawn-out, and the campaign is just right length and scale for an entry point. Sieges still suck but let's be honest, terrible siege battles are basically a series tradition at this point.

This was a great introduction to the genre! I really loved how this game is dead simple to start.

I love the setting of the game and wish there was somehow a sequel that was a bit more challenging.

Overall the game was great, it was however quite easy to beat the campaign. It was a good introduction, however, I wish it became a bit harder

Eu estou apaixonado por esse jogo.
Eu não apenas joguei muito Shogun 2 nos últimos meses, como eu praticamente vivi o jogo.

Em todo lugar eu estava com esse jogo na cabeça: seja no trabalho, no estudo, ou no meu tempo livre, mesmo. A trilha sonora, as táticas de guerra, a estratégia para evoluir a economia das províncias... minha cabeça estava 100% pensando no shogunzinho.

Não é um jogo perfeito, tenho várias críticas a ele, como por exemplo: a mecânica da diplomacia ser muito rasa e previsível; as batalhas navais serem um pé no saco; a IA não ser das melhores, podendo até travar as batalhas num limbo infinito; e até a falta de variedade nos mapas de batalha, que são bem monótonos em sua maioria.

No entanto esse é um jogo em que os pontos positivos são maiores que os negativos: é um jogo imersivo, acessível, artisticamente muito bonito, as batalhas são muito empolgantes e divertidas, e a variedade de tropas e clãs está NO PONTO... É um jogo simples e enxuto para os novatos, e mecanicamente complexo para quem quer se aprofundar.

Tenho quase 100 horas de jogo e ainda aprendo uma coisa nova sobre o jogo a cada dia.
(sim, ainda sou muito ruim)

Dez anos de Shogunzera no mercado e até hoje o pessoal joga e cria conteúdo na internet.
Se você quer um jogo de estratégia daora ou só gosta muito de sengoku jidai, vai na fé.

わしの刃を食らえ！！！

our men are running from the battlefield

shameful display

My favourite Total War game in terms of setting, land and naval combat, and responsiveness on potato PCs. Realm divide isn't my favourite but it's definitely a challenge. The now spun off expansion, Fall of the Samurai, is a great change of pace and does 1800s combat better than Napoleon Total War.

I started with an older one in the series that people said holds up fairly well. It did.

Pros:
Fun setup for a war game
Occasionally the battles are fun, when you aren't taking over a city with 40 people defending it which happened way too often.
I liked having to setup different attacks in battle based on weaknesses and strengths. The city defenses are super fun

Cons:
the actual overarching game outside the battles isn't that fun.
again, way too many times i went to a city only to have the lowest number of people defending it.
The game takes forever to play even if you are only steamrolling with one army.
the cities are kinda broken, there isn't an easy way to enter the main gate.
Kinda dumb ai

I am a little sad that they just stopped working on historical games for the past 7 years, but warhammer without spending thousands of dollars does sound nice.

7/10

I was expecting this game to be a lot better than it actually was. Still though, this game is a solid one and there's lots of fun to be had. I haven't touched Fall of the Samurai yet so this is just a review for the base game. Rise of the Samurai sucks, the base game is great. The UI was not only simple but it was arguably the best in the series at that point. The tech tree is fun to play around with and so are the units the game has to offer. The multiplayer was revolutionary for the series as it now allowed players to fight against each other in campaigns rather than just battles. Each clan felt unique and fun to play as, and the goofy animations from the first game were back in this one. The thing that makes this game a 4 star instead of a 5 star is the realm divide feature that makes every clan in the game declare war on you mid game, if you're not prepared for that sort of thing you've already lost.