<!--
	Title: Shogun: insulting Jesuits for fun and profit
	Author: Steven Payne
	Source: QuestBusters, v6(8)
	Date: August 1989
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

*"The gale tears at you, biting deep within, and you know that if you don't make
landfall soon you'll all be dead. You are John Blackthorne, Pilot-Major of a dead
fleet: one ship left out of five, eight and twenty men out of one hundred and seven,
and only ten of those can walk. Little food, almost no water, and that brackish
and foul."*

So begins *Shogun*, Infocom's latest illustrated text adventure. So also begins
(almost word for word) James Clavell's best-selling 1975 novel of the same
name, later made into the famous ten-hour TV miniseries. And therein lies the
problem...

As one of those strange individuals who somehow managed to escape prior
exposure to the book and miniseries (except for a few glimpses while passing the
TV room), I wondered if I were the right person to review this program. Then it
occurred to me that my ignorance might be turned to good advantage; I could cover
all the bases by first playing through the game without any preconceptions,
and later trying it again after checking out the novel and video versions. Reviewing
is hard work! As you've already guessed by now, in this game you play the character
of John Blackthome, an Englishman piloting the first Dutch trader-warship to
reach Japan; the year is 1600.

<div class="article-sidebar-box float-right" style="border: 2px solid;">
<strong>Type:</strong> Illustrated Text Adventure<br>
<strong>Systems:</strong> Amiga, Mac, Apple II (128K)<br>
<strong>Planned conversions:</strong> IBM (August)<br>
<strong>Version reviewed:</strong> Macintosh
</div>

Called "Anjinsan" by the Japanese, who have difficulty with your surname, you find
yourself plunged into the middle of a political struggle between
two *daimyos*, Lord Toranaga and Lord Ishido-both vying to become Shogun,
supreme ruler under the Emperor. Your actions as Blackthome will have a
crucial impact on the outcome. In the course of the game, as in the course of
the story, you get to pilot ships, fight samurai and ninja, outwit Ishida, advise
and assist Toranaga, fall in love with (and lose) the beautiful Mariko, insult Jesuits
(my favorite part!) and, most important, survive in a strange and often hostile
land.

The game is divided into about 20 scenes based on chapters or incidents
from the book. At the end of each, you'll be told how well you scored in that particular
section (25 out of 30 points, perhaps) and be asked if you want to
continue to the next. Sometimes there's a purely descriptive interlude that advances
the plot between the scenes without requiring any input from the player. Because
of each scene's brevity, mapping is not really required. This being an Infocom product,
however, a randomly generated map does appear on-screen in the middle of the game,
representing your furtive trip through Osaka by night. My advice
here is simply to create a new saved game at each juncture in the maze,
so you can revert easily to a previous position if you make a wrong turn.

<figure class="float-left">
<img src="/public/img/articles/questbusters-shogun-review/shogun-screen-shot.jpg" alt="Shogun screen shot">
<figcaption style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">Mac version</figcaption>
</figure>

## *Picture This...*

*Shogun* provides a decorative border around the text box, along with a status
line at the top of the screen indicating the current scene, number of moves and
current score. You can also ask the program to notify you each time your
score increases. This is primarily a text adventure, but from
time to time a scene or a "look" command will bring up an illustration. These pictures
are nicely done in a Japanese style (by the same artist who did *Journey*), but
they're infrequent and primarily for atmosphere, not to provide additional clues.
The screen shots from the Mac II color versions look spectacular; on my monochrome
Mac SE, they are still a pleasant diversion. One difficulty I encountered,
though, is that you cannot easily revert to a previous illustration or text passage
once it has already scrolled off the screen.

The game package comes with an instruction manual, a reference card for
your particular computer, a fold-out sheet describing the construction and significance
of a samurai's sword, and Blackthome's map of the known world—the
only form of copy-protection. The map is needed to answer questions Rodrigues the
Portugese pilot will put to you; they can't be answered correctly without consulting
the map. Luckily, the program itself also includes Infocom's now familiar on-line
hints, which in this case turn out to be all too necessary.

## *Stuck Again, Round Eyes?*

So far as I can tell, the puzzles are almost entirely derived from events in
the novel. That is, the game will place you in a particular scene and expect
you to act exactly as the character Blackthome did in the book (though not
necessarily in the miniseries) in order to score points. For example,
when the earthquake strikes, you must first save Lord Toranaga, then Mariko,
then offer your swords to Toranaga and join him in trying to urinate on the crevasse
you just barely escaped (in the movie, only Toranaga needed saving here).
Yes, this is one of the few Infocom games besides *Leather Goddesses* that actually
rewards scatological commands in certain places—and includes a dash of
PG-13 sex for good measure!

Still, unless you're already very familiar with the story, it's not at all clear to
me how you would figure out precisely what to do in some situations: it didn't
occur to me to give Toranaga my swords, for example, until I checked the hints. In
another case, trying to guide your ship through the reef at the beginning of the
game proves particularly frustrating. If, like me, you don't know your starboard
from your aft, I can almost guarantee that you'll be driven to the hint menu in short
order. Again, without the novel or the online hints, I would never guess the militantly
anti-Catholic Blackthorne is supposed to "bless" the dying Mariko.

## *Finicky Parsing*

According to the promotional material, *Shogun* uses Infocom's new parser,
though I have to admit I detected no noticeable difference. Too often I still sat
waiting in front of a "please be patient" message while the computer tried to respond
to what seemed like a reasonable command. Too often as well, I was misled
by the program's finicky attitude toward minor defects in essentially correct
commands. When Mariko "faints" aboard the galley, for example, you must
first "help Mariko," then "ask for *mizu*" (water). But for some unknown reason, if
you "ask for *mizu*" immediately the program acts as if it doesn't know what
you're talking about. Again, try to "distract Ishida" one move too soon while
covering Toranaga's escape in the closed litter, and you'll simply be ignored, as if
you were on an entirely wrong track.

## *Shogun Control Laws Needed?*

In short, somehow this *Shogun* just doesn't seem to work as a computerized
adventure. I've often wondered why there are so few good adventure games
based on stories from other media, when there are so many great film adaptions. I
think part of the reason is that a movie is supposed to be a spectator sport; even if
you already know the plot, you can sit back and enjoy the way the director and
actors interpret it.

By contrast, I expect an adventure game to be truly interactive, with lots of
room for exploration and creativity. In *Shogun*, however, progress is very linear,
and you're allowed very few mistakes. Unfamiliar with the story the first
time through, I felt as if I had been dropped without a script into the middle
of a play where all the other characters had their parts down cold It's no great
fun stumbling through a scene with the other actors constantly grumbling at your
stupidity, impatiently waiting for you to come up with the right line, and ready to
behead you if you neglect the least rule of etiquette. I'd much rather fire up the popcorn
popper and watch Richard Chamberlain go through the hassle!<br>
**Conclusions:** I really regret sounding so negative about *Shogun*, because in
many ways it's a polished product and I've always enjoyed Dave Lebling's
work. The biggest problem with this game, however, is that it adheres too
slavishly to the original story (as you might guess from the fact that the game's
full title is not simply *Shogun* but *James Clavell's Shogun*). In my opinion, Lebling
would have done far better by putting some of the same characters in new
situations.

As it is, he tried to faithfully condense a novel that runs to over 1,000 pages in
the paperback edition; obviously, much of the historical background, sub-plots
and so on had to be cut out. For those who don't already know the story, therefore,
plot development will seem choppy and sometimes arbitrary; you'll have a
hard time following the action, keeping track of all the characters (most of whom
have nothing to do in the game) and typing in those long Japanese names and
phrases. On the other hand, if you've recently read *Shogun*, you might know
what to expect in each situation—but then where's the suspense? Maybe the
ideal player would be someone in-between, who has a reliable but not too
detailed recollection of the original novel. For myself, though, I'd rather wait for
something different to play. *Shogun II: The Revenge of the Erasmus*, perhaps?

<hr style="border-top: 6px double;">

**Skill Level:** Intermediate<br>
**Protection:** Key Word<br>
**Price:** Apple, $49.95; others, $59.95<br>
**Company:** Infocom/ Activision
