Shogun 2 Assassination Trailer Flips Out With Ninjas

Further proof that there are few problems unable to be solved with the proper use of ninjas.

I remember installing the original Shogun: Total War on my parents’ PC back in the day. I don’t remember actually playing it – it was complicated, I wasn’t very good at RTS games back then – but I do remember going into the game files and watching all of the cool mission movies. Like what happened when your geisha’s mission was foiled by a ninja, or what happened when your ninja fought and killed another ninja, or what happened when your ninja killed some other dude. Come to think of it, I just remember the ninjas being really cool.

Apparently, The Creative Assembly remembers the ninjas being really cool, too – which is why the developers have released this newest Shogun 2 trailer all about ninjas. Er, about a single ninja (Law of Conservation of Ninjitsu at work, people). This is what happens when you send a ninja to assassinate an enemy figure in Shogun 2, and really, why wouldn’t you? They’re ninjas. That’s what they do.

I’m told by our own Steve Butts that in the final product cutscenes will branch off so that they won’t play out the same way every time. For instance, in this scene, when the ninja stumbles over the soldier the soldier has a chance to wake up and alert the guards who will then kill the hapless ninja. That’s certainly a cool feature, though it’d be nice to have ninjas learn where not to step when infiltrating a camp – but if nothing else, this video has instilled in me a healthy excitement for Shogun 2. It’s also instilled in me a healthy reminder of why ninjas are awesome.

(Via RPS)