Kurokawa, despite dying after Akamoto (having tripped and fallen on a spear) arrived in the after life before him, stealing his identity and the position that had been reserved for him by the Shogun.

After his defeat the Shogun passes the title onto Akamoto, revealing the eternity of misery it entails: being hated, plotted against, and enduring countless meetings.

"[30] Adam Beck of Hardcore Gamer gave it four out of five, calling it "a massive game filled with a lengthy single player campaign and a long-lasting multiplayer component that can be played day-by-day or minute-by-minute.

"[31] Harry Slater of Pocket Gamer gave the Windows Phone 8 version four stars out of five, saying, "Tight, fast, and remarkably fun, Skulls of the Shogun shakes the cobwebs off the turn-based strategy genre with some style.

"[32] However, Edge gave the Xbox 360 version a score of seven out of ten while the game was still in development, calling it "Wickedly irreverent and cartoonishly outrageous.

"[34] PJ O'Reilly of Nintendo Life gave the Switch version six stars out of ten, saying, "If you haven't played Skulls of the Shogun in any form over the past six years, we still can still heartily recommend the single-player campaign as a generous and devilishly fun slice of turn-based strategy action that perfectly suits the Switch, particularly in handheld mode.

However, the fact its online multiplayer seems to be a complete bust here certainly knocks a fair amount of the wind out its sails and it's something we've sadly got to penalise the game for.

"[25] Earlier, Nichols gave the Xbox 360 version four stars out of five, saying, "The enemy AI is deviously smart, and will not hesitate to take advantage of every trick you can think of and more.

"[26] Rob Kershaw of The Digital Fix gave the same Xbox 360 version eight out of ten, praising its accessible but challenging gameplay, whilst also noting that it was occasionally difficult to distinguish between the different units on the battlefield.

The sharp difficulty curve and reliance on aggressive tactics bring it down somewhat, but only because it's easy to see how a few small differences in design could have earned the game a place in eternity, rather than a pleasant distraction on the long road to get there.

"[27] Roger Hargreaves of Metro gave the Xbox 360, PC, and Switch versions seven out of ten, saying, "Its attempted revolution of turn-based tactics isn't quite as practical as it first seems but this is still an impressively fun, and funny, strategy game.