Shadow Tactics: Blades of Shogun - Aiko’s Choice review: Tactical stealth goodness

sportskeeda.com:

Back in 2016, Mimimi games released a tactical stealth game called Shadow Tactics: Blades of Shogun. It is hard but satisfying once you figure out ways to take down enemies silently and efficiently, making it a good stealth tactics game in the veins of the old Commando games.

Aiko’s Choice, the standalone expansion to Shadow Tactics: Blades of Shogun, is more of what they introduced in the original game, in a more literal sense. Not much has been expanded on the gameplay front, apart from new missions and levels. But sometimes less is better than more, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of Shogun - Aiko’s Choice does what the game is meant to do pretty darn well, being a great tactical stealth game.

Aiko's Choice is set between the events of Shadow Tactics: Blades of Shogun, during the Edo period of Japan, and centers around the titular character Aiko, the Kunoichi. The story is set between two main game missions, The Attack on Kanazawa and The Death of Kage-Sama.

For people who have not played the main game, a very well-made cutscene is shown to the player explaining the game's main story in the gist and properly introducing the plot backdrop of Aiko's Choice. It helped jog my memory with the main storyline as I played Blades of Shogun a long while back.

I cannot say the same for newcomers because as much as the storyline is a self-contained standalone tale, the opening cutscene does the bare minimum to explain who the cast is and what is happening. I would highly suggest players at least give Blades of Shogun a try because it is a great game and would also help understand the backdrops and how to play the game much quicker.

Since it is an extension of Blades of Shogun, Aiko’s Choice features the same voice cast as the main game,