Shogun: Total War
Encyclopedia
Shogun: Total War is a turn-based strategy
and real-time tactics
computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Electronic Arts
. Released in June 2000, the game is the debut title in The Creative Assembly's Total War series. Set in Japan during the Sengoku jidai
—the "Warring States" period from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century—the game has players adopt the role of a contemporary Japanese clan, attempt to conquer the nation and claim the position of shogun
. The turn-based aspect of the game focuses on a map of Japan where military force, religion, diplomacy, espionage and economics all influence the player's actions, whilst battles are fought in a real-time mode. Sun Tzu's
The Art of War
is central to the game; its precepts are quoted often and its strategies recommended.
Announced in early 1999, Shogun: Total War was The Creative Assembly's first high business risk product; previous products had involved creating video games for the EA Sports
brand. The game was initially conceived as a real-time strategy
"B-title" powered by 2D computer graphics
following the popularisation of the genre through titles such as Command & Conquer. However, proliferation of 3D video card
s amongst consumers led to a transition to 3D graphics
. Through the course of development, Shogun: Total War evolved into a real-time tactics game with a focus on historical authenticity; military historian Stephen Turnbull
advised The Creative Assembly in this regard. The turn-based campaign map was added to include context for the real-time battles.
Shogun: Total War was well received critically, though complaints surfaced regarding glitch
es in the game. The game holds scores of 84% and 87% on the review aggregator sites Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. An expansion pack
, The Mongol Invasion, followed in August 2001, adding a playable version of the Mongol invasions of Japan
. The game's positive reception paved the way for the development of successive Total War releases set in different times and regions, leading it to become a well known franchise. The latest game, Shogun 2: Total War
, is a sequel which returns to the Sengoku period albeit with all the improvements in graphical technology and gameplay since the first game. It was announced in June 2010 and released in March 2011.
warfare in the Sengoku period
of Japanese history, which lasted from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The game puts the player in the position of a Japanese daimyo
with the objective of conquering Japan through military might, diplomacy, espionage, trade, and religion - thereby taking the position of shogun
. Shogun incorporates two main areas of play: The turn-based
campaign map is where the player moves their armies, conducts diplomacy, builds the infrastructure of their provinces and performs various other tasks necessary to run their faction. The real-time
element of the game allows the player to assume command of one of their armies and personally direct the course of any battles that take place.
The game consists of seven factions which the player can choose to play as each one of Japan's historical clans. The island of Kyūshū
and the southwest end of Honshū
incorporates the Shimazu
, Mōri
and Takeda clans, while the Oda
and Imagawa
clans control the central parts of Honshū. The northern parts of Honshū are home to the Uesugi
and Hōjō
clans. While each clan has access to the same broad units and technology and begins the game with roughly the same amount of land, each clan has a specific advantage in a particular area. For instance, the Imagawa clan trains more efficient espionage agents, while the Takeda clan can produce higher quality cavalry
, etc.. Smaller, independent factions are represented as rebel clans and ronin
.
and a castle
. Certain provinces possess natural resources that require a mine
to be constructed to tap into. Coastal provinces may also construct ports to increase trade. Each castle has space to expand with a variety of military buildings and dojo
s, which allow for specific army units and agents to be produced. However, each castle can only support a certain number of auxiliary buildings. Castles can be upgraded to increase their defences and resilience to a siege. The production of units and construction of buildings is limited by the amount of koku
the player has; koku is generated depending on the strength of the faction's economy and harvest. Units and buildings take time to produce; each turn represents one season
.
During each turn, the player is able to move units about the map. Units come as either armies or agents and can only be moved to a province that borders the one in which they reside. However, both agents and armies can travel longer distances using ports, allowing them to move from one coastal province to another with a port in a single turn. Armies consist of military units such as spearmen, cavalry and archers. Should an army enter a battle, these units will be reproduced for the game's real-time tactics mode. Each army is led by a general that possesses an honour
rating that rises and falls with the general's success or failure; if a general repeatedly endures defeat, they may commit seppuku
. The faction daimyo and his heirs are also represented as generals—if a daimyo is killed and has no available heirs, the faction is eliminated from the game.
When an army is moved into an enemy or neutral province, it will engage in battle with whatever hostile armies already reside in the province. An army may also lay siege to a province's castle; after a determined amount of time, a castle's supplies will run out and the garrison will be forced to surrender if it does not break the siege or receive relief. A siege may cause damage to the castle's buildings, requiring repairs to be sought.
Several agents are available to each faction. The basic agent is the emissary
, which can be used to negotiate alliances and ceasefires, as well as attempt to bribe enemy or neutral armies to join the player's faction. As factions build up their infrastructure, other agents become available, such as ninja
and shinobi
, the former assassinates enemy generals and agents, while the latter can spy on enemy provinces or perform counter-insurgency in home provinces. Each agent has an honour rating that determines how successful they may be at any particular mission. As the game progresses, the player will come into contact with European traders; first the Portuguese
Jesuits, who will exchange arquebus
es for money and the adoption of Catholicism
by the clan, and later the Dutch
, who will sell arquebuses without requiring a conversion. If a faction changes from Buddhism
to Catholicism, it is given the ability to produce Jesuit priests, who in addition to acting as emissaries, convert the population, therefore making rebellions due to religion less likely.
The battle system forms the second area of gameplay. Unlike the campaign part of the game, players control battles in real-time. However, should the player choose, the game can automatically resolve battles on the campaign map, taking into account factors such as strength of numbers, weapons and terrain. Outside of the main campaign mode, players can participate in recreations of the historical battles that comprised the Sengoku period. In each battle, players are given access to an army consisting of a variety of units. Units come in the form of samurai
and ashigaru
, and fall into the categories of archers
, spearmen
, cavalry
and heavy infantry
. Each unit has its own intrinsic advantages, disadvantages, cost and overall level of effectiveness.
Players must use contemporary tactics and formations with the units they have available to defeat their enemies; the teachings of Sun Tzu's
The Art of War
are integral to the tactics used by the game artificial intelligence
and for the player to succeed. The terrain of the battlefield and the weather impact on how a battle is fought. Each unit has morale, which can increase if the battle goes well for their clan, or decrease in cases such as heavy casualties or the death of the general. If a unit's morale is broken, they will rout
; in certain circumstances, however, routing units may be rallied by the general. Victory in battle is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or by killing the opposing army. Armies can lay siege to castles, replacing open land battles with close-quarters combat within the confines of the castle walls.
hosted the multiplayer for Shogun Total War. There were two separate servers; one for Shogun Total War, and one for Warlord Edition. In the foyer, players had their points next to their names. These points were called honour. A player started with 100 honour. Based on winning or losing, the player gained or lost honour. In order to prevent an expert from playing a lot of beginners and gaining a lot of honour, an expert who had 49 more honour points than the beginner would lose points even if he beat that beginner. The honour system was implemented to make the multiplayer more fun and challenging. If players wanted to play without a change in honour points, then the host could simply set the game to 'friendly' mode. The Shogun servers had many players when EA hosted them. Role-playing was very popular and this period is considered by many fans as the best and most nostalgic. The battles themselves were very fast-paced, unforgiving to mistakes and highly reliant on individual skill both in army selection and, above all, army control. In Shogun, any army could win over another using clever, fast and precise strategies. In later Total War games, army selection was given more importance. This is the reason why many fans still refer to Shogun as the purest and most skillful of the Total War games.
Before Rome: Total War
was launched by Activision
, EA shut down both the Shogun Total War and the Warlord Edition servers. The players turned to the other Total War series, while the new players avoided the Shogun series. Some players wanted to return to Shogun Total War. They hosted their own servers where players could join without registering.
. The Creative Assembly had previously been involved with Electronic Arts, producing games for the EA Sports
brand. Development was led by Michael Simpson, a former microchip designer who had joined the company three years prior. According to Simpson, Shogun was conceived when the Creative Assembly established a secondary development team from their EA Sports designers to develop an alternate, low business risk product for the company. At the time, Command & Conquer had risen to success, inspiring the creation of a number of similar real-time strategy
games. Simpson's development team therefore initially planned to create a "B-title RTS game".
As development progressed, 3dfx video card
s began to proliferate amongst consumers, leading the Creative Assembly to move the game from 2D
to 3D computer graphics
. Initially sceptical of the results of using 3D graphics, Simpson was surprised when a 3D rendered landscape turned out to be feasible for gameplay. From this point, the game began to turn away from being a simple low risk product to something more substantial; the camera view was moved from the traditional real-time strategy top-down perspective to the position of the general on the battlefield. As this limited the extent to which the player could see across the battlefield, this fundamentally changed the nature of the gameplay. To accompany this, the game took on a more historical approach for its units and tactics.
However, the game was not considered to be substantive enough simply with the real-time battles; Simpson recalls that "the problem [was] that the battles themselves were very short, and we needed something to tie it together and make people care about the battles". The result was the introduction of the campaign map, intended to provide the player with a broader strategic perspective and context for the battles. A feudal Japanese setting was chosen; in addition to being thought of as "cool", the Sengoku period
was selected as it allowed for several different factions who could have potentially won the conflict, and due to the introduction of gunpowder
to Japan, also allowed for rapid change for the game's technology tree.
To attempt to make the setting as authentic as possible, the Creative Assembly enlisted the aid of Stephen Turnbull
, a military historian who specialises with samurai warfare, although the jidaigeki
films by Akira Kurosawa
also provided a source of inspiration - excerpts of the famous Mt. Fuji castle scene from his 1985 film Ran
even feature in the opening credits to the Warlord edition of the game. Elements of Sun Tzu's
The Art of War
were integrated into the game's artificial intelligence
to provide more authentic decisions by computer-controlled factions in the real-time aspects of the game. The game was showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in both 1999 and 2000, where it garnered interest amongst the video game media. A demonstration
was released in January 2000, and the game was published on 13 June 2000.
which added a Mongols
campaign, played as either the invaders or as Japan. The Warlord Edition was also released, containing both the original game and the expansion. The Total War series has been continued with Medieval: Total War
, Rome: Total War
, Medieval II: Total War, Empire: Total War
. Napoleon: Total War
and Total War: Shogun 2.
In June 2010, it was confirmed that a direct sequel to the original game was in development, entitled Shogun 2: Total War
. The game was released on March 15th 2011.
and GameRankings respectively. Almost a decade after its release, Shogun is considered one of the great gaming classics and its success paved the way for the development of new Total War releases, a series of games which today are a staple in the industry.
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
and real-time tactics
Real-time tactics
Real-time tactics or RTT is a subgenre of tactical wargames played in real-time simulating the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics...
computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. Released in June 2000, the game is the debut title in The Creative Assembly's Total War series. Set in Japan during the Sengoku jidai
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
—the "Warring States" period from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century—the game has players adopt the role of a contemporary Japanese clan, attempt to conquer the nation and claim the position of shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
. The turn-based aspect of the game focuses on a map of Japan where military force, religion, diplomacy, espionage and economics all influence the player's actions, whilst battles are fought in a real-time mode. Sun Tzu's
Sun Tzu
Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...
The Art of War
The Art of War
The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu , a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period...
is central to the game; its precepts are quoted often and its strategies recommended.
Announced in early 1999, Shogun: Total War was The Creative Assembly's first high business risk product; previous products had involved creating video games for the EA Sports
EA Sports
EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...
brand. The game was initially conceived as a real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
"B-title" powered by 2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
following the popularisation of the genre through titles such as Command & Conquer. However, proliferation of 3D video card
Video card
A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...
s amongst consumers led to a transition to 3D graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
. Through the course of development, Shogun: Total War evolved into a real-time tactics game with a focus on historical authenticity; military historian Stephen Turnbull
Stephen Turnbull (historian)
Stephen Richard Turnbull is a historian specializing in eastern military history, especially the samurai of Japan. The books he wrote are mainly on Japanese and Mongolian subjects.He attended Cambridge University where he gained his first degree...
advised The Creative Assembly in this regard. The turn-based campaign map was added to include context for the real-time battles.
Shogun: Total War was well received critically, though complaints surfaced regarding glitch
Glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...
es in the game. The game holds scores of 84% and 87% on the review aggregator sites Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. An expansion pack
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
, The Mongol Invasion, followed in August 2001, adding a playable version of the Mongol invasions of Japan
Mongol invasions of Japan
The ' of 1274 and 1281 were major military efforts undertaken by Kublai Khan to conquer the Japanese islands after the submission of Goryeo to vassaldom. Despite their ultimate failure, the invasion attempts are of macrohistorical importance, because they set a limit on Mongol expansion, and rank...
. The game's positive reception paved the way for the development of successive Total War releases set in different times and regions, leading it to become a well known franchise. The latest game, Shogun 2: Total War
Shogun 2: Total War
Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It is the latest installment in the Total War series and returns to the 16th-century Japan setting of the first Total War game, Shogun: Total War, after a series of games set mainly in Europe...
, is a sequel which returns to the Sengoku period albeit with all the improvements in graphical technology and gameplay since the first game. It was announced in June 2010 and released in March 2011.
Gameplay
Shogun: Total War is focused on samuraiSamurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
warfare in the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
of Japanese history, which lasted from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The game puts the player in the position of a Japanese daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
with the objective of conquering Japan through military might, diplomacy, espionage, trade, and religion - thereby taking the position of shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
. Shogun incorporates two main areas of play: The turn-based
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
campaign map is where the player moves their armies, conducts diplomacy, builds the infrastructure of their provinces and performs various other tasks necessary to run their faction. The real-time
Real-time tactics
Real-time tactics or RTT is a subgenre of tactical wargames played in real-time simulating the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics...
element of the game allows the player to assume command of one of their armies and personally direct the course of any battles that take place.
The game consists of seven factions which the player can choose to play as each one of Japan's historical clans. The island of Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
and the southwest end of Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
incorporates the Shimazu
Shimazu clan
The were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō clans in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan,The Shimazu were...
, Mōri
Mori clan
The Mōri clan was a family of daimyō, descended from Ōe no Hiromoto and established themselves in Aki Province. Their name was derived from a shōen in Mōri, Aikō District, Sagami Province. The generation of Hiromoto began to name themselves Mōri.After the Jōkyū War, Mōri was appointed to the jitō...
and Takeda clans, while the Oda
Oda clan
The was a family of Japanese daimyo who were to become an important political force in the unification of Japan in the mid-16th century. Though they had the climax of their fame under Oda Nobunaga and fell from the spotlight soon after, several branches of the family would continue on as daimyo...
and Imagawa
Imagawa clan
The was a Japanese clan that claimed descent from Emperor Seiwa . It was a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Ashikaga clan.-Origins:Ashikaga Kuniuji, grandson of Ashikaga Yoshiuji, established himself in the 13th century at Imagawa and took its name.Imagawa Norikuni received from his cousin the...
clans control the central parts of Honshū. The northern parts of Honshū are home to the Uesugi
Uesugi clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan, descended from the Fujiwara clan and particularly notable for their power in the Muromachi and Sengoku periods ....
and Hōjō
Late Hojo clan
The ' was one of the most powerful warrior clans in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region.The clan is traditionally reckoned to be started by Ise Shinkurō, who came from a branch of the prestigious Ise clan, a family in the direct employment of the Ashikaga...
clans. While each clan has access to the same broad units and technology and begins the game with roughly the same amount of land, each clan has a specific advantage in a particular area. For instance, the Imagawa clan trains more efficient espionage agents, while the Takeda clan can produce higher quality cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
, etc.. Smaller, independent factions are represented as rebel clans and ronin
Ronin
A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....
.
Campaign
The main campaign of Shogun: Total War involves a player choosing a clan and moving to eliminate their enemies and become shogun of feudal Japan. Each faction controls various historical provinces. Each province allows for the cultivation of farmland, and the construction of border watchtowersWatchtower
A watchtower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military, and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to provide a high, safe place from which a sentinel or guard may...
and a castle
Japanese castle
' were fortresses composed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century...
. Certain provinces possess natural resources that require a mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
to be constructed to tap into. Coastal provinces may also construct ports to increase trade. Each castle has space to expand with a variety of military buildings and dojo
Dojo
A is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style to...
s, which allow for specific army units and agents to be produced. However, each castle can only support a certain number of auxiliary buildings. Castles can be upgraded to increase their defences and resilience to a siege. The production of units and construction of buildings is limited by the amount of koku
Koku
The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...
the player has; koku is generated depending on the strength of the faction's economy and harvest. Units and buildings take time to produce; each turn represents one season
Season
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
.
Honour
Honour or honor is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation...
rating that rises and falls with the general's success or failure; if a general repeatedly endures defeat, they may commit seppuku
Seppuku
is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
. The faction daimyo and his heirs are also represented as generals—if a daimyo is killed and has no available heirs, the faction is eliminated from the game.
When an army is moved into an enemy or neutral province, it will engage in battle with whatever hostile armies already reside in the province. An army may also lay siege to a province's castle; after a determined amount of time, a castle's supplies will run out and the garrison will be forced to surrender if it does not break the siege or receive relief. A siege may cause damage to the castle's buildings, requiring repairs to be sought.
Several agents are available to each faction. The basic agent is the emissary
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
, which can be used to negotiate alliances and ceasefires, as well as attempt to bribe enemy or neutral armies to join the player's faction. As factions build up their infrastructure, other agents become available, such as ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
and shinobi
Shinobi
Shinobi is the Japanese word for male ninja. It may also refer to:*Shinobi , a series of video games**Shinobi , the original video game in the series developed by Sega**Shinobi , the PlayStation 2 sequel...
, the former assassinates enemy generals and agents, while the latter can spy on enemy provinces or perform counter-insurgency in home provinces. Each agent has an honour rating that determines how successful they may be at any particular mission. As the game progresses, the player will come into contact with European traders; first the Portuguese
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
Jesuits, who will exchange arquebus
Arquebus
The arquebus , or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute...
es for money and the adoption of Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
by the clan, and later the Dutch
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
, who will sell arquebuses without requiring a conversion. If a faction changes from Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
to Catholicism, it is given the ability to produce Jesuit priests, who in addition to acting as emissaries, convert the population, therefore making rebellions due to religion less likely.
Warfare
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
and ashigaru
Ashigaru
The Japanese ashigaru were foot-soldiers of medieval Japan. The first known reference to ashigaru was in the 1300s, but it was during the Ashikaga Shogunate-Muromachi period that the use of ashigaru became prevalent by various warring factions.-Origins:Attempts were made in Japan by the Emperor...
, and fall into the categories of archers
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
, spearmen
Yari
is the term for one of the traditionally made Japanese blades in the form of a spear, or more specifically, the straight-headed spear...
, cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and heavy infantry
Heavy infantry
Heavy infantry refers to heavily armed and armoured ground troops, as opposed to medium or light infantry, in which the warriors are relatively lightly armoured. As modern infantry troops usually define their subgroups differently , 'heavy infantry' almost always is used to describe pre-gunpowder...
. Each unit has its own intrinsic advantages, disadvantages, cost and overall level of effectiveness.
Players must use contemporary tactics and formations with the units they have available to defeat their enemies; the teachings of Sun Tzu's
Sun Tzu
Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...
The Art of War
The Art of War
The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu , a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period...
are integral to the tactics used by the game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters . The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence...
and for the player to succeed. The terrain of the battlefield and the weather impact on how a battle is fought. Each unit has morale, which can increase if the battle goes well for their clan, or decrease in cases such as heavy casualties or the death of the general. If a unit's morale is broken, they will rout
Rout
A rout is commonly defined as a chaotic and disorderly retreat or withdrawal of troops from a battlefield, resulting in the victory of the opposing party, or following defeat, a collapse of discipline, or poor morale. A routed army often degenerates into a sense of "every man for himself" as the...
; in certain circumstances, however, routing units may be rallied by the general. Victory in battle is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or by killing the opposing army. Armies can lay siege to castles, replacing open land battles with close-quarters combat within the confines of the castle walls.
Multiplayer
Originally, Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
hosted the multiplayer for Shogun Total War. There were two separate servers; one for Shogun Total War, and one for Warlord Edition. In the foyer, players had their points next to their names. These points were called honour. A player started with 100 honour. Based on winning or losing, the player gained or lost honour. In order to prevent an expert from playing a lot of beginners and gaining a lot of honour, an expert who had 49 more honour points than the beginner would lose points even if he beat that beginner. The honour system was implemented to make the multiplayer more fun and challenging. If players wanted to play without a change in honour points, then the host could simply set the game to 'friendly' mode. The Shogun servers had many players when EA hosted them. Role-playing was very popular and this period is considered by many fans as the best and most nostalgic. The battles themselves were very fast-paced, unforgiving to mistakes and highly reliant on individual skill both in army selection and, above all, army control. In Shogun, any army could win over another using clever, fast and precise strategies. In later Total War games, army selection was given more importance. This is the reason why many fans still refer to Shogun as the purest and most skillful of the Total War games.
Before Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War is a PC strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and released on by Activision...
was launched by Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
, EA shut down both the Shogun Total War and the Warlord Edition servers. The players turned to the other Total War series, while the new players avoided the Shogun series. Some players wanted to return to Shogun Total War. They hosted their own servers where players could join without registering.
Development
Shogun: Total War was announced in early 1999, developed by the Creative Assembly under Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. The Creative Assembly had previously been involved with Electronic Arts, producing games for the EA Sports
EA Sports
EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...
brand. Development was led by Michael Simpson, a former microchip designer who had joined the company three years prior. According to Simpson, Shogun was conceived when the Creative Assembly established a secondary development team from their EA Sports designers to develop an alternate, low business risk product for the company. At the time, Command & Conquer had risen to success, inspiring the creation of a number of similar real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
games. Simpson's development team therefore initially planned to create a "B-title RTS game".
Video card
A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...
s began to proliferate amongst consumers, leading the Creative Assembly to move the game from 2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
to 3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
. Initially sceptical of the results of using 3D graphics, Simpson was surprised when a 3D rendered landscape turned out to be feasible for gameplay. From this point, the game began to turn away from being a simple low risk product to something more substantial; the camera view was moved from the traditional real-time strategy top-down perspective to the position of the general on the battlefield. As this limited the extent to which the player could see across the battlefield, this fundamentally changed the nature of the gameplay. To accompany this, the game took on a more historical approach for its units and tactics.
However, the game was not considered to be substantive enough simply with the real-time battles; Simpson recalls that "the problem [was] that the battles themselves were very short, and we needed something to tie it together and make people care about the battles". The result was the introduction of the campaign map, intended to provide the player with a broader strategic perspective and context for the battles. A feudal Japanese setting was chosen; in addition to being thought of as "cool", the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
was selected as it allowed for several different factions who could have potentially won the conflict, and due to the introduction of gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
to Japan, also allowed for rapid change for the game's technology tree.
To attempt to make the setting as authentic as possible, the Creative Assembly enlisted the aid of Stephen Turnbull
Stephen Turnbull (historian)
Stephen Richard Turnbull is a historian specializing in eastern military history, especially the samurai of Japan. The books he wrote are mainly on Japanese and Mongolian subjects.He attended Cambridge University where he gained his first degree...
, a military historian who specialises with samurai warfare, although the jidaigeki
Jidaigeki
is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...
films by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
also provided a source of inspiration - excerpts of the famous Mt. Fuji castle scene from his 1985 film Ran
Ran (film)
is a 1985 Japanese-French jidaigeki film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film starred Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-era warlord who decides to abdicate as ruler in favor of his three sons. It also stars Mieko Harada as the wife of Ichimonji's eldest son...
even feature in the opening credits to the Warlord edition of the game. Elements of Sun Tzu's
Sun Tzu
Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...
The Art of War
The Art of War
The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu , a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period...
were integrated into the game's artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters . The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence...
to provide more authentic decisions by computer-controlled factions in the real-time aspects of the game. The game was showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in both 1999 and 2000, where it garnered interest amongst the video game media. A demonstration
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
was released in January 2000, and the game was published on 13 June 2000.
Expansions and sequels
It was followed by the Mongol Invasion expansion packExpansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
which added a Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
campaign, played as either the invaders or as Japan. The Warlord Edition was also released, containing both the original game and the expansion. The Total War series has been continued with Medieval: Total War
Medieval: Total War
Medieval: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Activision. Set in the Middle Ages, it is the second game in the Total War series, following on from the 2000 title Shogun: Total War...
, Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War is a PC strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and released on by Activision...
, Medieval II: Total War, Empire: Total War
Empire: Total War
Empire: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. The fifth instalment in the Total War series, the game was released in North America on 3 March 2009, and in the rest of the world the following day...
. Napoleon: Total War
Napoleon: Total War
Napoleon: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega for the PC. Napoleon was released in North America on 23 February 2010, and in Europe on February 26. The game is the sixth stand-alone instalment in the Total...
and Total War: Shogun 2.
In June 2010, it was confirmed that a direct sequel to the original game was in development, entitled Shogun 2: Total War
Shogun 2: Total War
Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It is the latest installment in the Total War series and returns to the 16th-century Japan setting of the first Total War game, Shogun: Total War, after a series of games set mainly in Europe...
. The game was released on March 15th 2011.
Reception
Shogun: Total War received a strong critical response; the game holds scores of 84 percent and 87 percent on the review aggregator sites MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and GameRankings respectively. Almost a decade after its release, Shogun is considered one of the great gaming classics and its success paved the way for the development of new Total War releases, a series of games which today are a staple in the industry.