Shogun 2 Deserved Better

The visual upgrade is good, but the full version falls slightly short in quality-of-life features

The visual upgrade is nice, but the full version lacks a bit in quality of life.

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Blink and I've spent another 30 hours on Shogun 2. Without a doubt my favorite of the older Total War games – and as someone who has clocked a lot of hours in both Rome and Medieval 2, I don't say this lightly – there's something very simple about Shogun II. An elegant simplicity complimented by an era where the creative assembly clearly enjoyed experimenting with a variety of ideas.

It's no surprise that it has remade the game despite the fact that it's probably the best Total War game ever. I'd happily go back and play Shogun 2 on Rome 2, or even Attila, which I think shows how good it is. Shogun 2 is definitely a good game with improved visuals (if you like the new style), modern unit controls, and full Japanese voice acting, but I think Creative Assembly missed the mark in terms of the other additions of the remaster.

To give it a fair shot, I started with one of the newly introduced small island factions, the Honma. I always love conquering this island in campaigns because they have a gold mine, plus starting on an island in the north adds a lot of opportunity. The first thing I noticed, though, is that none of the 50 new mini-factions in Shogun 2's campaigns receive unique rewards, which could go a long way to distinguishing them from the previously unlocked Shogun 2 sub-mods.

With no passive bonuses to define playstyle, or changes to any faction starting with similar units, location is the only difference between these clans. I also noticed that the trading system hadn't been updated to account for single-zone island factions, meaning my beloved Honma could only trade with one faction for the entire campaign. Again, a quality change made sense there.

In terms of the additions you'll actually feel in your campaigns, the new "Realm Divide" difficulty options for the endgame, the improved visuals and terrain, and the revamped unit controls are really standouts—I went back to the original Shogun 2 after that, and the visual differences on the battlefield are noticeable. But the bird's eye battle view? Area coverage? I haven't used either once. Diplomatic Quick Deal is another somewhat useless item. In Shogun 2 you don't often create enough alliances or trade agreements to need a quick trade (like Total War: Warhammer's 100 factions), but this feature also doesn't include "marriage arrangements".

The best Total War game is getting a remaster with 50 new games, modern visuals, and full Japanese audio.

Shogun 2 Complete Edition is recreating all the cinematics in traditional Japanese wooden style

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A way to easily find out which factions have spouses is the only diplomatic quality of life change I've found really useful. While I enjoyed my campaign as Honma, I still encountered new QoL issues that a remaster could solve. For example, there is no ability to merge units, which would be great in a game as worn out as Shogun 2 where unit maintenance is not affected by remaining soldiers. Maybe a numerical indicator for your army's units, which saves you from having to count each time?

As for the agents who accompany the army, do they stay in towns or ships? Or how soldier generals always appear in your capital? I could go on, but there are so many QoL improvements this remaster could have made to Shogun 2 without violating the game's identity. Even broader issues like siege routing, which can still be terrible, or issues with enemy AI.

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I had a battle in the remaster where the besieging enemy general ran into my wall, and then sat there for 40 minutes fast-forwarding (a known bug that I never even experienced in the original game). Or about fixing the over-defensive mode of the naval artificial limit, which forces you to traverse the entire map in every battle just to engage enemy ships. You can see the full list of bug fixes for Shogun 2 - Complete Edition and considering players have had 15 years to document every broken element, it's not much, and I haven't even mentioned multiplayer bugs like the desync issue.

Yes, Shogun 2 still plays well, and I'd thoroughly recommend it to Total War or strategy fans, but that's not conditional on this remaster. Everything that was great before is still great, whether it's battling samurai to become shogun, or unloading a line of infantry rifles and cannons on enemy armies in Fall of the Samurai.

At least the Shogun 2 DLC factions that are now free, such as the Christian Otomo, the religious rebel Ikko-Ikki, or the baller Saga in Fall of the Samurai, are some of the hottest campaigns if you've never played them, and a lot of people can try them for the first time (if they missed them when they were free before).

Any reason to return to Shogun 2 in 2026 should be celebrated, but I just wish that the full version was more expansive and necessary compared to leaving things unfinished. If you already own Shogun 2, you'll get a 75% discount for one month when the game launches on Steam on October 13, while owners of the original will get all the old DLC for free.

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation, and his tastes have remained largely consistent ever since. When he's not scouring games for secrets or banging his head around puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over Destiny 2, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW and Inverse.

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