Did you grab the Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition over the weekend? If so, you're now part of a very short-lived chapter in Total War history. SEGA and Creative Assembly announced on October 15 that they're pulling the Complete Edition from sale and putting the original Shogun 2 back on Steam, just two days after the remaster launched on October 13.
The new version was supposed to be a modern-device refresh of the 2011 classic — and on paper, it sounded great. SEGA promised upgraded textures, models, lighting, shadows, fog and environmental effects, plus modern rendering, anti-aliasing and image upscaling options. Campaign cutscenes even got optional 2.5D animations inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Sounds lovely, right?
Players, however, noticed problems fast. Some art details looked inconsistent — ship images had characters and backgrounds blurring together, unit banner emblems became hard to make out, and one general portrait had a face and helmet smeared into a single metallic blob. The new storyboard cutscenes reportedly featured hands with five fingers but no thumb. That led some fans to suspect undisclosed AI image upscaling was used, though the official word hasn't confirmed that.
Beyond the visuals, players complained about poor performance, jerky camera movement, various bugs and broken mod support. And there was another sore point: when the Complete Edition arrived, SEGA delisted the original Shogun 2 from Steam, so newcomers had no choice but to buy the pricier new version — a few hundred dollars more than the old one.
Creative Assembly addressed the backlash in a bilingual English and Japanese statement, saying the team has seen the feedback, comments and reviews, and agrees the game isn't up to standard. The studio said it's working with the platform to pause sales and restore the original release. If you already bought the Complete Edition, don't worry — you can still launch and play it.
The team added that it will work closely with development partners to find the cause of the issues and improve things, aiming to deliver the quality players expect from the Total War series. The announcement didn't name those partners, and SEGA's official account shared the news on social media on October 15.
So the original Shogun 2 is back, the remaster is off the store, and everyone who bought in is left waiting to see what gets fixed. Will you be sticking with the original, or were you hoping the Complete Edition would win you over?
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