Shadow of the Road will release on Nov. 12, developer Another Angle Games and publisher Owlcat Games announced during GameStar’s Find Your Next Game showcase at gamescom. The tactical RPG is coming to Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store, with a free demo already available on Steam.
The new trailer follows the game’s mismatched party of ex-samurai, Shogunate retainers, a mysterious child, his mother, and their bodyguard as they travel through a Japan already torn apart by war. Battles include human enemies such as bandits and imperial soldiers alongside supernatural creatures, while characters can upgrade skills, combine attacks, and use parts of the environment against enemies.
Players can also transform into yokai when a fight goes particularly badly, although the transformation is intended as a limited option and not Geralt-with-a-demon-mask mode on demand. Relationships between party members feed back into both combat and the story, with choices capable of strengthening friendships, breaking existing bonds, and changing how individual characters develop.
Shadow of the Road takes place in an alternate version of Japan in 1868, during the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Emperor Mutsuhito’s forces have a technological advantage thanks to support from the fictional British East Nippon Company, while magic, yokai, and enormous steam-powered machines complicate a conflict already loosely based on the real Boshin War.
Another Angle first revealed the game in August 2024, shortly after Owlcat announced it was expanding beyond developing its own RPGs into third-party publishing. Shadow of the Road was one of Owlcat’s first external projects, alongside Emotion Spark Studio’s Rue Valley.
The playable demo was released in July 2025 and contains sections set in a tea house and manor, three regular encounters, and one boss battle.
Another Angle Games includes developers with previous credits on The Witcher, Outriders, and Ghostrunner, while Owlcat is best known for Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Shadow of the Road releases Nov. 12 on Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store.
