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I’ve been a fan of Legend Of The Five Rings for over fifteen years now. The classic tabletop franchise boasts one of the most detailed settings of any RPG, and for much of its life cycle it had a living history developed by the tournament scene of its spinoff trading card game. Naturally, when I heard that L5R was getting its first video game, I leapt at the chance to try it out for myself.
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Into The Shadowlands
To bring you up to speed if you’re unfamiliar with the setting, Legend Of The Five Rings is best described as samurai fantasy. It takes place in Rokugan, the Emerald Empire, where noble families grouped together into thematic Clans vie for supremacy while fighting together to protect the Empire from the corruptive forces of the Shadowlands. Shadowveil: Legend Of The Five Rings focuses specifically on the Crab Clan, one of the setting’s most famous factions.
The Crab Clan are the first line of defense against the Shadowlands, and their sworn duty from the moment they can pick up a sword is to defend the Kaiu Wall, which keeps everything from goblins to oni out of the greater Empire. In Shadowveil, you’ll lead small bands of samurai, scouts, and shugenja (mages) into the Shadowlands to recover lost artifacts and investigate the movements of the enemy.
As for the game, it’s a roguelite autobattler, and from what I’ve played of the demo, a well-made one at that. Starting positions in each battle matter almost as much as the build you create for your party, which resets between runs, so you aren’t stuck with a bad setup but also can’t rely too heavily on a good one.
Playable classes reflect the specialties within the various families of the Crab Clan, and the choice of main characters (berserker O-Ushi or tactician Sukune) also gives the full campaign some killer replay potential. Even without the L5R branding, I’d be excited to try the full game to see what’s in store beyond the bounds of the demo.
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Imperial Histories
Legend Of The Five Rings has needed a shot in the arm for years now. The series rebooted when publisher Alderac Entertainment Group sold the rights – their flagship franchise for years – to Fantasy Flight Games in 2015, and while there certainly were new fans who picked it up after that, a lot of older die-hards (myself included) weren’t interested in buying all new cards and rulebooks, and saw the sale as time to move on.
During my chat with Shadowveil’s Game Director Filip Andersson, he mentioned that some players he spoke to at events like Gen Con were surprised to hear that the franchise was even still around.
Nowadays, with D&D eating up more TTRPG market share than ever (Econ Market Research notes that it “continues to dominate both tabletop and digital TTRPG spaces“), other properties need more than just a loyal fanbase if they want to stay relevant, and expanding into other media is exactly the right play. Like any game based on an existing property, Shadowveil has to pull double duty, winning over longtime fans while also bringing in new players who have never heard of Rokugan.
To both of those ends, developer Palindrome Interactive made the right choice in focusing on the Crab Clan. It was, admittedly, a risky move to only focus on a single Clan – L5R fans are notoriously dedicated to their favorite factions – but if you’re going to pick one, the Crab are the Clan to go with. They’re iconic to the setting, front-and-center at the main conflict of the overall story, and perhaps most importantly, they’re removed from most of the inter-Clan rivalries that spill over into the fandom.
I may be disappointed that I can’t play my beloved Scorpions, but having to play as the insufferable Lion or Crane Clans might have been a deal-breaker; conversely, the Crab might not be everyone’s favorite, but you’d be hard-pressed to find fans that actively dislike them.
Welcome (Back) To Rokugan
Crab Clan also makes for a great jumping-on point for newcomers. As Andersson pointed out during our talk, their pragmatic, plain-spoken style sets them apart from the stiff formality of others and from what players might expect from samurai characters in general.
Combined with Shadowveil’s comic-book art style (which I’d love to see adapted into a graphic novel, by the way), the game highlights the Crab Clan as the Empire’s rough-and-ready defenders and lets you know right away that this isn’t your typical samurai game like Total War: Shogun 2.
If you’re a fan of Legend Of The Five Rings, mark your calendar for March 4, when Shadowveil launches. This storied franchise deserves to reach more players, and while roguelites and autobattlers aren’t for everyone, it could pave the way for other games in the series, highlighting other Clans or even, be still my heart, an Empire-spanning RPG in the vein of Baldur’s Gate.
If you’re not a fan of L5R yet, Shadowveil is one of the most accessible introductions to the series in years – possibly ever – as it doesn’t rely on tome-sized rulebooks or endlessly-expanding card collections. Here’s hoping that it signals good things to come for the future of the Emerald Empire.
Shadowveil: Legend of the Five Rings
- Released
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March 5, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Palindrome Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Palindrome Interactive, Amplifier Studios