(Note to self, stop calling this game Samurai Shodown, stop calling this Samurai Shodown…)

Games can thrive or die on the satisfaction of a single moment of gameplay: finding a new card combo in Slay The Spire, that sweet slot machine-like opening of a treasure chest in Vampire Survivors, the satisfying thunk of hitting your first skeleton in Diablo… For a strategy game, those moments are things like pulling off that perfect victory or coming back from the brink.

Samurai Shodown—goddamn it–Shogun Showdown has plenty of those moments, a well-packaged and tidy gem of strategy. It gives you those moments of feeling so smart as you chain together your actions, cause enemies to damage each other, but knowing you are only as safe as your next move.

Mechanically, the game has the expected elements from recent deckbuilders (tiles, here) a la Slay the Spire: (limited) choice in encounters or shops, telegraphed enemy actions, acquiring new tiles, upgrading or changing their abilities, different characters to play as, different playstyle archetypes, consumables, skills, and so on. Other elements are pretty familiar from other strategy games, such as simple positioning along a line, waves of enemies, ordering your actions, and cooldowns for every tile.

On the technical side, the game is flawless, running smoothly with a default Linux native client on desktop and Steam Deck. The pixel graphics look good with their own style, the music is catchy (though a bit repetitive as it only changes per area/boss), and the overall presentation is polished.

The feudal Japan setting is a nice change from the majority of deckbuilder and related games I tend to see. So the tiles, enemies, and stages all fit in the theme and match the gameplay elements (throwing a shuriken for distance attack, polearms and swords, ninja skills, etc.) though there isn’t really any story per se. Each boss has some lines of dialog (they say one at random from what I can tell) but I can’t say there’s much to put together. Just some overall flavor of the world.

The default gamepad controls might seem a bit unorthodox with triggers to move your character left and right while the pad selects tiles and things on the screen, but I adjusted quickly enough. There is also an alternative control scheme and you can change the mappings.

The game is a great match on the Deck, supporting the correct aspect ratio and turn-based games always being perfect for the sleep/wake feature. The battery usage is not bad, running at a full 90 fps it was around 10-11.5 W. Dropping down to 60 fps or lower gives you back another watt or so. I’m sure tweaking the other settings will give you even more playtime, but 4-5 hours without messing with it gets you in plenty of runs.

Speaking of which, runs take maybe 20-30 minutes when you are new (mid-game) to about an hour to reach the boss. The early stages can go by pretty quickly once you are familiar with the enemies and your own tactics. While the first few levels, with a few stages of enemies/upgrades before a boss, are set, you do have some choice of later levels (over 10 total locations, doing 5 to the final boss). Each of these introduces new enemies and tactics you need, as well as art and music. Of course, there are additional difficulty levels, called “days,” which up the challenge by adding things like elite enemies.

So, what makes Shogun Showdown work, what makes it a tight and fun strategy game?

Firstly, I think it nails the amount of decisions you need to make. Each turn you get one action like moving your character, using their special ability (pushing an enemy, for example), or queuing a tile (up to three total). There are free actions like using a consumable to heal, curse enemies to take more damage, reset cooldowns, and so on. Tile upgrades can also make them free, besides increasing damage, lowering cooldown, or adding effects like spreading damage or cursing enemies.

You don’t have a ton of choices but each one you make means all the enemies get their turn next. This means you need to anticipate a few moves ahead, as you want to queue up your attacks knowing you need a separate action to activate your set. This doesn’t sacrifice the depth of the game but finds a spot where there is enough without throwing a million mechanics at you. The difficulty seems comparable to others I’ve played in the broad deckbuilding genre. It comes not from spongy enemies or cheap tricks, but from keeping your edge over enemies as there are more of them with abilities like instantly queuing attacks, testing your anticipation and planning.

While you can go all in on upgrading just one or a few tiles to rely on a strong single move or combo, the game for me wasn’t about ramping up your power beyond the enemy’s curve like in other deckbuilders like Monster Train. Sure, it is fun to upgrade a spear attack that hits two tiles, can be used every other turn, and spreads damage (or poison or ice). Still, you need to know how to position and anticipate enemies. Instead of just going for power, Shogun is about being strategic, knowing when to attack or to draw an attack, and learning how to set things up so you can combo kill several enemies at once or use them against each other.

So you might move into range of an enemy so they prepare their attack and then move away on your next turn so they will miss. Or better, have ready your attack to teleport and change places with that enemy so their attack hits their hapless buddies. You start to see some chain effects, where you manipulate positioning and timing to land a combo sequence, taking out a set of enemies through your own and their attacks.

Some satisfying samurai-ing!

Besides these moment-to-moment tactics, Shogun Showdown gives you plenty of options for how you want to play. Want to focus on movement tiles, jumping around to avoid damage? Or putting a lot of upgrades to a tile that strikes on both sides of you, freezes enemies, and is instantly ready if you do perfect damage to kill? How about using curses so your small damage dash attacks instead rip through the entire line?

In other words, Shogun Showdown finds that sweet spot of quick to pick up, hard to master and put down. In typical roguelite fashion, beating bosses gives you a currency to unlock more tiles, more shop selections, and more abilities to pick up. Getting further also unlocks new characters, which come with different starting tiles and their own ability (also on a cooldown).

Each time you return to the start you might have new tiles to unlock, new strategies to try out, and just that feeling that this time you’ll have the upper hand. When I’ve died, it was because of my own mistakes, where I always felt there was a way I could have succeeded. And usually, that mistake wasn’t in those last few turns, but some time before, like missing a combo to take out enemies before the next wave or taking damage that could have been avoided by queuing up a smoke bomb (teleport) tile knowing I was in a risky spot.

Finding that tense moment-to-moment battle with the mid (in longer fights or across stages) and longer range (developing your tiles and strategy for the run) makes Shogun Showdown a wonderful strategy game of just the right size.

Shogun Showdown is available now on Steam and on GOG. A review key was provided by the publisher, but as always all opinions are my own.