Shogun 2: Total War To Be "More Contained"

08 Jun 2010 at 19:16:02 by Peter Parrish

An in-house interview between publishers SEGA and lead designer on Shogun 2: Total War, James Russell, has revealed a few more details about the freshly announced title.

Russell stresses that the team are aiming to make Shogun 2 "more contained" than recent efforts. By this, he means the focus will be on characters, setting and depth - rather than the vast geographic scope of recent Total War releases.

Echoing Martin Hannett's infamous suggestion to Joy Division that they should try playing "faster, but slower," Russell aims to be "doing more with less."

Sea battles, introduced by Empire: Total War, will feature once again, though will obviously require different tactics: "Japanese ships of the era were full of samurai swordsmen and archers, so we’re focusing a lot on boarding systems and stone-scissors-paper interplay between different ship types," says Russell. Land masses will also be present amidst the waves for the first time, which could result in some interesting challenges.

There are, apparently, "very exciting things" planned for the multiplayer aspect of Shogun 2, but this is not yet expanded upon.

In the looks department, Russell is promising "huge samurai armies in all their glory with a new and improved battle graphics engine that looks utterly stunning" and "the unique geography of Japan [depicted] with the most beautiful map we have ever produced."

Have a peek at some of that lovely artwork, below.

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