who else thinks Shogin total war was a wierd place to start

[Plan C]

.. Que?

...then Shogun has more money than RTW
Shogun can slam a revolving door...
Shogun doesn't do push-ups, it pushes the Earth down etc...

@Armatus - yeah, they've stuck with Jeff van Dycke although I'm only able to recall few of his pieces for later games (excellent "battle" theme for Vikings in VI, one of RTW "tension" tracks, title theme for Kingdoms: Crusades and some others). On the whole STW music score was the one that blew me away because it captured traditional Japanese music so incredibly well in terms of balance, composition and instruments used. It was excellent; Mongol music for MI was unreal too, one of the best soundtracks to any game ever IMO.

M2TW never had quite the same impression on me I have to say, not sure why...

I never noticed the narrator as I usually skip all intros after the first viewing anyway. I have tried to find out who it was but google has failed me yet again.

[Armatus]

Yes Shogun was award winning soundtrack. Honestly though I didn't care too much for the MTW european tension or battle music it got kinda annoying. But the muslim battle and tension was awesome, VI had decent music for the vikings. As for Kingdoms well it's strange because it certainly sounds like Jeff Van Dyke, but last I checked they are labeled with a different artist's name? Anyway M2 really does have some good tracks. I will try to post the names of some of them when I have more time to look them up.

But there is one I really love in M2 it must be the tension as it starts playing just as one of your units is engaged it's got a real churning of violins just like you were about to sail down through some dangerous rapids

Also the other track from M2 that I really like is the southern euro battle tension, I will have to get the name of it, but you start hearing like the Spanish cha cha ok I'll quit now

EDIT: I loved Road to Rome in RTW

[Don in the North]

i honestly think that the next game after etw should use a bit of the farcry 2 engine and should involve the entire eurasia/african continents with australia and americas unlockable after the 1500's, and that the game should start in the 600's when islam and christianity start their battle royale. it should also end in the late 1800's or 1700's, that would truely be a game worth of the title;
Empire:Total war.

and yes the load times might suck but those with powerhouse pcs wont be complaining.

would be awesome to start attacking europe with vast armies of samurai, and maybe do what apaches did with technology developement in kingdoms, but with plate armor and such.
i can totally picture a samurai kitted out with specially crafted plate/chainmail armor, maybe even a metalshield for their spearmen

[Saint_jimmyz]

The problem is that areas the size of france will be a single province, due to the truly vast empty spaces of Africa and Asia. 100 provinces were used for Rome TW Vanilla; using that scale there will be many thousands of provinces in a map like thiat. A good idea but completely unfeasable.

[Traitorfish]

I think Shogun was a good place to start. Aside from the fact that it was- and is- a relatively unexplored setting in Western games, it allowed them to focus on a single, homogeneous culture, rather than the diverse cultures found in Medieval and Rome, allowing them to focus on core gameplay rather than become distracted attempting to portray multiple cultures. This allowed them to create a single unit roster, each unit representing a defined battlefield role, rather than the diverse, varied and culture-specific units found in the sequels. With a solid set of mechanics in place, they were able to tackle the more diverse setting of Medieval Europe more effectively.

[/2 slightly late cents]

[bthizle1]

yeah, but in my case, i didnt started with shogun, becouse i never liked it. i consider myself lucky that i didnt spent my time with that game.

What??? Oh man, Shogun was and still is my favorite game of all time. I can understand not enjoying it if you didn't play it back when it was released, due to the advancements that have been made in gaming, but still.....gameplay not graphics my friend.

Sengoku Jidai is there perfect era for a game like TW.

[Mithiras]

Not only was it the perfect era to start the series, but it was the perfect timing. It was released before other games of this era became popular. It was also an era least known to westerner's but an era full of life, treachery and massive battles. Personally I love playing shogun from time to time, due just to the pure realism it provides as well as the mechanics. I still wish they would make a total war for Chinese history.

[Beanbee]

Shogun was a great game but certainly isn't better than any of the sequels CA produced.

[Martok]

Shogun was a great game but certainly isn't better than any of the sequels CA produced.

I beg to disagree.

In fact, I think you'll find quite a few folks here who will tell you that Shogun *is*, in fact, better than most (if not all) of CA's subsequent Total War titles. Even I acknowledge that while MTW might be my favorite TW game, Shogun is still probably the *best* one overall. In terms of atmosphere, immersion, and AI, it's virtually unmatched in comparison to its successors.

[Mithiras]

Yeah! I still like it the most, but just because the AI would actually attack you if you spammed archers. Their tactics were actually well thought out, unless of course your army was half hidden. The enemy would actually retreat if they didn't outnumber you, or if they thought it was hopeless or worthless to actually fight. I don't know how they managed to fck it up honestly.

[Traitorfish]

The enemy would actually retreat if they didn't outnumber you, or if they thought it was hopeless or worthless to actually fight.

In all fairness, this is simply an automatic event in Rome and Medieval 2- they worked it into the campaign map, rather than forcing you to enter a pointless battle.

That said, it was always gratifying to see the whole enemy army turn tail and flee.

[jehanzeb]

In my opinion it was fine, there has been nothing which I disliked about the game. As a result I still play the game over and over and over again

Regards

Jehanzeb

[France]

Yes

[France]

It's not bad though

[caravel]

STW was the original and best TW game. For tactical battles, general atmosphere, music score and clean simplicity it is unbeaten. Later titles add a lot of bells and whistles but have very serious flaws.

Yes they make use of all the latest visual effects that Direct3D has to offer but compared to STW they're ugly, crude and very cartoonish.

[The Great Caliph]

I still play Shogun from time to time. Playing geisha & ninjas is a lot of fun compared to diplomats or other spies from other TW series.

Besides, the martial & subterfuge advices from war-maestro, Sun-Tzu makes STW is truly ART OF WAR!

[The Great Caliph]

Besides, conquering Japan sure beats the hell out of conquering an entire Eurasia continent!

[General Stark]

Not weird to me, cause I've always thought that Total War was inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. It's always seemed to me whoever had the original idea for TW played Romance and thought to himself "hey, this is awesome but it would be PERFECT if you added real-time 3D epic battles." Of course every other TW game is Eurocentric, so I see your point, heh.

[Kisfvo]

What other Total War game is all out Total War besides Shogun? Had they started with, say, Rome or Medieval, they would have had a different series title, so I do think that Shogun still holds the best setting and that it is slightly better than Rome because of that.

[Tantalaul]

Shogun Total War is the best game ever !