Owlcat Games has had a large part to play in the CRPG renaissance we’ve been experiencing in recent years, having developed two excellent additions to the genre in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. So, when the company founded a publishing arm to support upcoming indie games, like Another Angle’s Shadow of the Road, I was intrigued.
Shadow of the Road is set in Japan during the tail-end of the Edo period, around 1868. The game adopts an alternate history – depicting a brutal civil war between the forces of the Japanese emperor and the shogun. The emperor has enlisted the help of the East Nippon Company, an analogue of the real-world trading companies that operated in Asia, that brings with it weapons of destruction, like samurai-zapping electric coils. The shogun’s army was defeated in a major confrontation with the emperor’s foreign-backed forces.
Shadow of the Road exclusively uses Japanese voice acting. Another Angle informed us during a press event that this decision was made to deepen the player’s immersion.
Gaijin Technology
The preview begins in a ryokan (guest house). Our two party members, Satoru and Akira, are samurai who served under one of the shogun’s most loyal lieutenants. After their master is killed in battle, the two become purposeless ronin. After a brief dialogue section, one of the emperor’s cronies confronts us and chaos breaks out in the ryokan.
Shadow of the Road has an approval system between party members, and also a ‘paths’ system, where certain dialogue options contribute points towards a path, e.g: ronin, samurai, warm-hearted, and so on. Presumably, pursuing these paths grants additional dialogue options later in the game.
Combat in Shadow of the Road is wholly turn-based and uses an action point system. Movement, skills, and useable items all require action points, and you have a limited number of action points to use per turn. The system is fairly generous, and you’ll often have enough points to both move and attack – sometimes multiple times in the same turn.
The combat is relatively tactile, but there still feels like there’s some polishing to be done. For example, maps use a grid system, but the cursor blends in with the environment, making it difficult to see at times. The system also doesn’t feel responsive at times: dashing skills and skills that push enemies to different squares feel clunky, and you’re not always sure if your clicks have registered because of awkward camera angles and a lack of visual feedback.
The turn-order system in Shadow of the Road can be manipulated using different skills, adding an additional strategic layer. For example, there are powerful skills that trigger one turn after you set them up. If you use an ability that bumps your allies up in the turn-order, then you can potentially fire a delayed skill immediately, preventing your enemies from interrupting it.
The death of any party member (during the preview, at least) results in a game over screen. There is no downed or unconscious system – once an ally reaches zero health, they die and the encounter ends. Although my preview only lasted an hour, I get the sense that each party member is core to the narrative, meaning you’ll have to ensure no one falls during combat.
Path of the Ronin
After dispatching a rowdy samurai in the ryokan, the shogun tasks our heroes with retrieving a boy from a nearby estate. He wasn’t forthcoming about why he wanted the boy, but we’re the obliging sort of ronin, so we set off without asking too many questions. The cutscenes shown between levels are a highlight, providing plentiful exposition alongside gorgeous artwork. The game uses these in-engine cutscenes to add to the scene, pushing the camera closer to the action rather than showing everything from its usual isometric angle.
Shadow of the Road features several mythological elements that borrow heavily from Japanese folklore. There are living, dancing mushrooms and magic users. How fun.
While Shadow of the Road is not an open-world game, this quest is a prime example of how it tells its story through standalone levels, which can be explored within the confines of the level, before being whisked off to the next.. I found a side quest where you find a merchant’s corpse and you have to report it to someone at the nearby estate. This is where some of my bug problems began, however. After finishing this quest, I would receive near-constant notifications about its completion. It was mildly annoying, but the next bug I encountered was more frustrating by far.
An Unpolished Gem
During the first combat section of this level, all of my enemy’s models disappeared, leaving a series of hard-to-see floating swords. A couple of invisible enemies assassinated Toshiro, the boy I was supposed to fetch, failing the mission. I knew the shinobi were good but I didn’t think they were that good. It’s only a preview, and there’s always going to be issues, so I wasn’t too put out – but I would be remiss not to mention it.
I levelled up near the beginning of this sequence and was met with an entire skill tree for each character. I unlocked a new dash ability for Satoru, which proved useful in the upcoming fights. Though a baseline requirement for games of this genre, it’s good to see there’s a significant character progression system in place.
That said, the enemy variety in the preview wasn’t particularly diverse. A major issue I had with combat was the lack of visual and auditory feedback. It mostly felt like I was beating on wordless husks of meat that had slightly different skills from one another. There’s a general lack of sound in these fights overall, detracting from the experience. The final boss of the preview was more interesting, at least – a floating eye demon. In practice, all it really did was fly around bumping my enemies until I picked it off, but it stood out.
The preview ends after defeating this boss, with Toshiro revealed as some sort of magic-fuelled chosen one. Presumably, the shogun wants to leverage the boy’s powers to defeat the emperor.
I can see the potential in Shadow of the Road; It has a compelling setting, and the dialogue, visuals, and characters make me want to learn more about the world and narrative. However, the gameplay loop falls short. The combat doesn’t feel immersive enough, and I’m not yet convinced by its depth unless other strategic considerations are gradually introduced throughout the game. Shadow of the Road feels a long way from finished, but there are enough compelling elements present to potentially build a strong title.
Shadow of the Road
