“Shadow of the Road” has chosen a very unusual setting for role-playing games. Instead of knights and dragons, here we have samurai and ninjas with a touch of mythology and steampunk.
What kind of game is it? “Shadow of the Road” is a CRPG developed by Another Angle with turn-based combat. The game is published by Owlcat Games, the creators of Pathfinder and Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader.
During the Meiji Restoration, a war breaks out in Japan between the emperor and the shogun – so far, so historical. However, “Shadow of the Road” expands this story with magic, demons, and elements of steampunk.
“Shadow of the Road” will be available for PC on Steam, in the Epic Games Store, and on GOG.com. When, however, the trailer has not yet revealed.
You can watch the announcement trailer for the game here:
Japanese mythology meets steampunk
What does the trailer show? The brightly glowing colors of the first seconds quickly give way to a rather dark and brutal world. Mythological elements are added, such as a flying yokai – Japanese monsters comparable to demons – and an oversized katana stuck in the ground.
“Shadow of the Road” will give you the opportunity to stealthily eliminate opponents or face them in turn-based tactical battles like in Baldur’s Gate 3. You control a whole group of characters who possess different abilities. A hulking samurai can throw enemy soldiers and kick them down ledges, while elsewhere a sorceress sends an enemy soldier flying directly into the swords of her ally.
Towards the end, the game also presents a scorpion-like mech. The combination of historical Japan and steampunk is unusual, but it seems to have already convinced some players. For example, nestorvetumbra writes in the YouTube comments under the trailer: “Owlcat is releasing a steampunk version of the end of the shogunate and the Boshin War… my finances will never recover.”
With Owlcat Games as the publisher, the chances are good that in the end we can expect a great role-playing game. The new DLC for their game Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader was even so good that it was the best game at gamescom 2024 for MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus.
