General Akamoto is one stab away from becoming Shogun when someone kills him. He arrives in the land of the dead, learns he must wait centuries before he can be judged worthy of the afterlife, and decides to take it by force instead. That is the setup for Skulls of the Shogun, a turn-based tactics game developed and published by 17-BIT, and it is a sharper hook than most strategy games bother to write.
Trailer, via SkullsoftheShogun.
Advance Wars with a body count
Skulls of the Shogun does not hide where it comes from. 17-BIT built the combat around Advance Wars, and the result is turn-based tactics between undead samurai. You move, you strike, you take ground. The bird’s-eye and side-view perspectives keep the field readable, and the feudal Japan setting gives every unit a reason to look the way it does.
The game was not supposed to arrive when it did. 17-BIT originally planned a 2012 release on Xbox Live Arcade and Windows 8. It shipped on Xbox 360 and Windows Phone on January 30, 2013 instead.
Kurokawa got there first
The story earns its place. Akamoto fights the Shogun of the Dead’s forces across four regions of the afterlife, meeting General Romeoka and the goddess Sakura in the land of Eternal Blossoms; the foul-mouthed Ikkaku and the lightning god Raiden in the Land of Summer; and General Higure and the wind god Fujin in the Land of the Golden Harvest.
Higure alone recognizes Akamoto and tries to warn him of a greater danger. Then the turn lands: the impostor wearing Akamoto’s name is his own lieutenant, Kurokawa, who killed him and — having tripped and fallen on a spear — died second but arrived first, stealing the identity reserved for his general. Kurokawa and the Ice Goddess Yuki meant to usurp the Shogun. Yuki slowed Akamoto’s arrival to make the theft possible.
That is a real twist, and it works because the game built a cast around it.
Bone-A-Fide, then every platform it could find
17-BIT kept the game alive for years. The Bone-A-Fide Edition came to Steam in July 2013 with four new campaign levels, a new character, new multiplayer levels, a progression system and developer’s commentary. OS X and Linux followed in May 2014 through a Humble Bundle. Ouya got it in October 2014, PlayStation 4 in June 2015, and a Nintendo Switch port arrived on July 11, 2019.
Nerdist adapted it into an animated web series, with John DiMaggio voicing General Akamoto.
What the campaign is actually about
Battling the forces of the Shogun of the Dead, the ruler of the afterlife, he finds that they are taking orders from an impostor claiming to be him.
That line is the game in miniature: a tactics title that understands a campaign needs a reason to keep moving, not just a grid to clear.
Skulls of the Shogun is not the deepest strategy game of its era, and it never claimed to be. What it has is discipline — a tight Advance Wars skeleton, a story with an actual payoff, and a developer willing to port it to every platform that would have it. The Ouya and Windows Phone releases are footnotes now. The game is not.
KEY FACTS
– Released: January 30, 2013 (Xbox 360, Windows Phone)
– Developer and publisher: 17-BIT
– Platforms: PlayStation 4, Ouya, Linux, Windows Phone, Android, PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360
– Bone-A-Fide Edition: July 2013 on Steam
– Switch port: July 11, 2019
– IGDB critic aggregate: 8.2/10 across 6 outlets
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