Got Rice?
It is clear when I played STW how crude it compares to the advances in RTW. The lack of details on the strategic map, the fact that you can't see automatically what buildings/units a provence has when you click on it only once; the strategic map interface resembles MTW's a great deal and it makes sense since MTW was after this. The 2D units on the battle map from Shogun also carried over to Medieval. There's the inability to zoom or to see your units in detail. The lack of control. When you select an army, point somewhere else at the ground and drag the cursor, there's no way to exit from the function, forcing you to put your units into an incoherent formation (same problem plagues the other TW games). Moreover, the inability to command a formation to face in the proper direction - you only can do this by making them move in the direction you want. Clicking on a unit is tricky, you have to click on its small banner and make sure it's not moving too fast, otherwise you'll just click and command another unit, the one you currently have selected, to move where the unit you wanted moved was. Same issue occurs in all the total war games in that you can't select no units. You're always in control of a unit, and I found this to be very annoying when I wanted to be "hands free". Also the tutorial doesn't show you how to play on the strategic map.
This game does something that others lack: culture value. Most games are Western based such as MTW and RTW from the TW series. There aren't many games that educate while providing fun about another culture in history, but Shogun manages to do so. Sure, it may mean less people are willing to buy it simply due to that fact, but there are others who are interested and such a game will be noteworthy in the gaming community. I wish there would be more games like this on other historically rich civilizations other than the jaded history of Europe.
I'm the type of gamer who would rather grow the economy and wait for upgrades to my troops rather than build my forces without the later upgrades. However certain circumstances dictate otherwise, and in STW it is almost forced on the player to decide what he wants. Money is scarce so there isn't the luxury of researching or building everything that you want. Betting on economics and diplomacy will result in an early defeat. If you go the economically-focused path, that will leave your borders unprotected, meaning you'll be under attack. Better to train un-upgraded units to fight the enemy's rather than none at all. There is no real diplomacy in STW, just like there isn't in the other TW games. I had the same clan come and ask for an alliance twice in a row and they invaded me after I accepted. Besides the clicks you'll have to do just to see the basic info on buildings and units being constructed for a provence, the management is low, unlike RTW when the empire eventually gets too large to wield effectively. Rebellions aren't as bad in Shogun, I had none by not building any churches or monastaries (atheist ruler!). After all, it isn't like a French ruler in charge of Egypt; everyone is Japanese. There is limited space within a terrority to build. For example, if you can build 25 structures in a provence, there's only room for 20. I liked how units recruited in a provence with a port can move to another provence under your control with a port anywhere on the map. If you're like me, you were expecting to command sword wielding warriors in Shogun. However the mainstay of your troops are units that are classified as spearmen. To my disappointment, a significant amount of the battles are fought with spearmen and archers, as swordsmen need a special condition to be recruited (and if you wait that long, you'll be overrun by enemy spearmen/archers). After a battle if you get a message saying that one of your warriors has achieved swordsman status, only then can you recruit swordsmen. Very strange, I have my doubts on whether this was historically accurate...armies without swords! The unit recruitment selection is very small and fundamental. You can recruit battlefield ninjas and kensais. The ninjas are like RTW's arcani. They can hide almost anywhere, throw deadly darts at their foes and engage in deadly h2h combat. Their numbers are very low and it's expensive to recruit them, but they are very deadly and can win even if faced with 1:15 odds. The trick is in how to use them. Like the kensai, if surrounded, they will take many out with them but will ultimately succumb to being fenced in by superior enemy numbers. The kensai is just one unit that costs 600 koku. It takes 8 seasons to train one of them and on the battlefield they are 2x larger than normal units. One can do the damage a unit of ninjas could. They are like supermen, but they do have a weakness like the ninja. They are best used for specific goals such as plugging up a bridge or killing the enemy general. If you fight with kensai in the single player campaign, the AI will fight you but run away in fear on the battle map when you target their general with kensai. During some battles, there will be thunder and rain. Given those weather conditions, the sky is actually dark, this is as close of night fighting as one can get. If you're expecting castles to be of use, think again. Castles are small and does nothing to stop the enemy. Its towers don't fire any missiles and your gate is open. Purely a unit vs. unit game, and there are no seige weapons because you'll never need them.
When I played Shogun, I knew of the advances of the latest TW game so it didn't compare. I know gamers of which STW impacted love this, but for me, I was playing in hindsight so this game never really sparked the devotion I had for RTW. During battles when men yell, that noise was annoying because it sounded so weak. I did like the cutscenes. The opening movie is called "Ran", or chaos when translated into English. The Japanese director is world renowned, so if you're a fan go rent the movie. I recall that it's a Japanese version of a Shakespeare play, forgot which one though.