Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System Requirements: XP/Vista/Windows7, Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+, 2 Gb RAM, 2 GB HDD, NVIDIA® GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon® X1900, Direct X-compatible sound card, Internet connection for multiplayer
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

With the release of Total War: Shogun 2 this year, it seems inevitable that clones will appear on the market cashing in on Creative Assembly’s success. Fortunately for strategy gamers, Paradox Interactive has decided not to bother making a Total War clone when trying their hand at depicting feudal Japan. Instead, Paradox has finally released Sengoku, a game that they describe as a “…deep character driven strategy game, [where] you play as the head of an illustrious Samurai family.” While armies fight one another and ninja conduct covert operations, at its heart, Sengoku is a game that focuses less on warfare, and more on feudal Japanese politics and people. This is a strategy title that wants players to worry equally about whether a neighboring clan might declare war and whether a disloyal vassal might plot the downfall of your clan’s ruler.

Sengoku covers the historical period in Japan from 1467 to 1620. Civil war has broken out, and your clan leader must control over half of Japan for three years in order to solidify his claim as Shogun, thus winning the game. In order to be successful, players must be able to manage the game’s resources: money, manpower, honor, and people. Cash finances armies and provincial construction, while manpower restricts the number of soldiers you can levy at one time. Honor is very important because not only do you spend it when you declare wars or are caught doing something underhanded, but it also regulates how you interact with other characters. A clan leader with low honor will find his vassals very uncooperative and other characters plotting against him. If honor dips too low, your clan leader may opt to commit seppuku in order to pass the leadership of the clan to his heir and reclaim some honor; if it drops to zero, you lose.

The most difficult resource to manage is not cash or armies, but people. At any one time in the game, there may be a thousand different characters active. They don’t wander the countryside looking for adventure like their RPG counterparts. Instead, they sit comfortably in your interface, interacting with your clan leader. You have to appoint advisors to positions in your court, not just because you need their help to rule the clan, but also because you need your advisors to oversee the construction of buildings or to hire ronin. Furthermore, a single character finds it difficult to rule more than five kori (provinces) at one time; thus, you have to surround yourself with vassals you can trust who rule in your name. And every ruler needs at least one wife, if not four. Women in Sengoku find themselves saddled with the historical limitations placed upon them in the period, however, they still have importance. Not only do they help you create heirs to inherit your clan and territories after death, but they also boost their husband’s abilities. Whether genius or imbecile, a ruler can benefit from surrounding himself with smart women.

All of these characters are not static. Characters have personalities, competency in various fields, and even ambitions. Paradox has developed a system whereby characters like or dislike one another based on a variety of factors. A clan leader might find that he has some vassals who just don’t get along well with him because of his arbitrary personality, making domestic politics interesting. But rather than just randomly deciding to revolt or secede from the clan, all characters can engage in plots. This mechanic allows AI controlled characters (meaning everyone but you and your multiplayer friends) to mimic human politics. A plot has a pre-defined goal, like “overthrow the leader of the clan” or “attack clan X.” Once a character initiates a plot, he can invite other characters to join him. When the plot has enough backing, it is unleashed. This mechanic neatly sidesteps the usual problem of AI not being able to understand the point of a political alliance. Instead of the AI randomly deciding to attack enemies or make poor alliance decisions, it is always clear what the goal of a particular alliance is and what the desired outcome should be. While it can take some difficult diplomacy to convince characters to join your plots, when they do it means that the AI will actually work towards a common goal with clearly defined parameters. As a human player, you have no one to blame but yourself if you can’t get other powerful characters to help you take down a common enemy.

Sengoku is a grand strategy title. When I said it wasn’t a clone of Total War, I meant it. Armies fight in an abstracted fashion inside of provinces without direct tactical control on the part of the player. If you are looking for a game where you move armies around on a battlefield, this is not going to be the game for you. That being said, Sengoku brings so much to the table in terms of gameplay, that its few flaws only slightly mar its excellent qualities. Among these flaws are some problems with how inheritances from father to son are executed; there are cases where provinces end up being owned by nobody, and in at least one case, my ruler’s son inherited land from an uncle, only to form an independent clan with the same name and heraldry as his father’s clan, causing immense confusion. There is also an elusive crash that happens sometimes, which I suspect is tied to these inheritance problems; but these problems are only intermittent and the patch scheduled for release the day the game goes live addresses these concerns. My only complaint about gameplay itself is that I wish the game had even more possibilities for different kinds of personality traits and interaction between characters who exhibit these traits. The existing mechanics for the interaction between characters are so entertaining, it left me wanting even more. Even the AI, which I can normally fault in any strategy game, is reasonably competent. It’s not a genius, but the AI effectively uses plots to take down powerful enemies and to scheme about taking control of the clan. I never felt for a moment that I could just coast along and not mind what both AI vassals and AI clans were doing, even when I was close to winning. A final concern some players might have is replayability. The game only has one historical starting date, which might indicate to some people that there is less to offer. After all, if the game only has one scenario, then there is a lack of variety, right? As it turns out, even when I played the same clan three times in row, all three games turned out very different within a few short game years. Because Paradox has chosen a historical date that coincides with multiple clans already at war, and because the AI effectively utilizes plots, there are no guarantees early in the game. You might carve out a sizeable chunk of territory for yourself, or be subject to a civil war because one of your vassals decided to plot on day one. This was very satisfying, even as I swore at the computer screen when I lost control of my clan to the AI within a few years.

Sengoku is more focused than some other grand strategy titles. Each game lasts fewer hours and has a more defined victory condition than other titles Paradox has released; no one should think that this game is just their flagship title, Europa Universalis, set in Japan. On the other hand, Paradox is not charging a flagship price, either. Priced at $29.95, Sengoku offers a quality, and unique, gaming experience for players looking to take up their katana and fight with honor and courage… or take up their quill and plot with skillful deceit.

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