Shadow Tactics announces standalone expansion, Aiko's Choice
Reemerging from the shadows
Mimimi have announced a surprise standalone expansion to Shadow Tactics: Blades Of Their Shotgun, their excellent real-time squad tactics game from 2016. Named Aiko's Choice, the expandalone tells a new story focused on the game's disguise expert. I hadn't expected them to return to Shadow Tactics, so this is great news.
"Although Aiko was certain that she left her old life behind her, a new enemy deeply connected to Aiko's past reappears from the shadows to challenge her," the blurb says. "Together with her friends of deadly assassins she sets out to hunt down the ghosts of her past..." So the squad are back together for three "fully fledged main missions" in new environments, as well as three "shorter interlude missions."
Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun - Aiko's Choice is coming to Steam in "late 2021". No word on a price yet. Here, have a useless trailer:
Aiko's Choice will be on fewer platforms than the original Shadow Tactics, mind. A Windows release is guaranteed and they plan to support Linux, but Mac and console releases are off.
"The technical effort that it would take to develop this standalone expansion for all platforms is more complex than you might initially think," Mimimi said in a blog post. They explained they "would have to update the engine" and that would "require an immense amount of additional work", more work than they have time for. "Basically, we had to decide: Let the dream of a Shadow Tactics expansion die or create a PC only version." I'm sorry for your loss, consoleers and Applenauts.
This is the project Mimimi previously referred to by the codename Knollenziest, separate to the big new project codenamed Süßkartoffel. Minimi said in February that Süßkartoffel was a new real-time tactics game set in "a whole new world, with a new setting, story and characters". As much as I'm keen to see what that is, I can hardly complain that they're making more Shadow Tactics.