Characters / Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

The Protagonists/The Shogun's Men/The Blades

Hayato

Voiced by: Adam Longworth (English), Yousuke Iwazaki (Japanese)

The lead protagonist and classical ninja of the party. Hayato is a no-nonsense professional mercenary who's initially only in the story for the paycheck.

His color is blue, reflecting his nature as The Stoic. Hayato is good at infiltrating: he's excellent at getting in and out of areas and creating distractions to allow himself to slip by. His Shuriken is also a useful alternative to matchlock pistols (available from the mid-game), as it has more range and only produces noise around the target. He lacks any kind of major distraction however—he can't draw a guard's attention for long, and he's only good for taking out one guard at a time.

• Boring, but Practical: Compared to the other characters' more flashy and elaborate diversionary skills, his ability to divert enemy attention away by throwing stones feels awfully mundane. But hey, it works.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: His actual model color is grey-looking, but his associated color is blue.
• Decoy Protagonist: While we begin the game as Hayato, Mugen is the one who drives most of the plot and leads the group. Subverted when Mugen ends his own life, thrusting the mantle of The Protagonist back onto Hayato.
• Fragile Speedster: He's only fragile insofar as, except for Mugen, on Normal difficulty he and everyone else has 4 HP. He, Yuki and Aiko are capable of jumping off buildings and ledges, with the option of landing a jumping attack on someone if needed.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: To the player, perhaps, but not to anyone else.
• It Has Been an Honor: Delivers this to Mugen just before the latter takes his own life at Mount Tsuru for failing to keep the Shogun's son safe.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he's in it for the money at first, he begins to care for his comrades and appreciates Yuki more over the course of the game. He also takes Mugen's suicide poorly. Aiko's Choice also shows him sympathize with Aiko's situation during the epilogue by saying that it's not easy confronting one's past, something he's had personal experience with — Aiko teases him a bit over the rare showing of understanding.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He already starts out emotionally restrained as he's the last of his clan. It only gets worse after Mugen commits seppuku.
• Last of His Kind: He's gone mercenary because his clan in Iga had been wiped out.
• Ninja: Natch.
• Only in It for the Money: Hayato doesn't really care about anyone he meets throughout his journey, though he eventually warms up to his team. Until Mount Tsuru, when he witnesses Mugen's seppuku.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Decidedly the Blue Oni to Yuki and Mugen's Red Onis. When paired up with Aiko, however, he's the red oni, since she has a better hold on her emotions and is a more meticulous planner.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Well... yes. Hayato's full range of gear is a dark outfit, a ninjato, exactly 1 shuriken, and rocks from the environment. Part of the game's difficulty is you have to be careful with where you use your 1 shuriken, as it is noisier than the ninjato^note the noise comes from the dying enemy, not the weapon itself and the shuriken has to be retrieved after use.
• The Stoic: Not much for small talk at all, preferring to stick with topics relevant to the assignment at hand. But after seeing Mugen commit seppuku, his lines change radically.
• Throwing the Distraction: Hayato's way of distracting enemies is to toss a rock, which will briefly redirect their gaze in that direction. He can also toss it at cattle and oxen to cause them to kill enemies that stand too close with a kick.
• Tranquil Fury: He spends the entirety of Mission 11 stewing in quiet rage because of Kage-sama's hand in Mugen's death.

Ōshiro Mugen

Voiced by: Toby Longworth (English), Naofumi Ichihashi (Japanese)

A samurai loyal to the Shogun, and the second character to be introduced. A Blood Knight with a Hidden Heart of Gold and the skills to back up his rank.

His color is reddish-orange, reflecting his nature as a Blood Knight and is the same colors as the Shogun's forces. Mugen is good at crowd control: he is excellent at taking out numerous guards at once, and his sake can take apart some tricky patrols. His large health pool and ability to lift two bodies at once are useful, but Mugen has no innate long-range abilities (though he gets a hand cannon in the mid-game), leaving him at the mercy of getting guards to come to him.

• Armor-Piercing Attack: His Hand Cannon is the only firearm capable of killing samurai outright, as opposed to briefly stunning them. Technically, his katana has the same characteristics as well, but this is more represented by his swordsmanship skills than by the sword itself.
• Blood Knight: While Mugen spends most of the game sneaking around, he has no problem with being in the center of the fray.
• Boisterous Bruiser: His Japanese voice is very loud and excitable, and it's clear he's having the time of his life while in the heat of battle.
• Driven to Suicide: Happens at the near-end of mission 10.
• Dual Wielding: Whips out both his swords when he executes his Sword Wind technique.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Mugen was born a peasant, but rose through the ranks to become the Shogun's most trusted and fearsome warrior.
• Hand Cannon: A gift from Takuma when he rejoins the team. Like everyone else's matchlock pistols, it grants him a limited-use ranged attack. Unlike the pistols, it pierces samurai armour, killing them outright instead of stunning them.
• Heroic BSoD: From which he never recovers. After he's forced to give up the Shogun's son's location to Kage-sama and watched him be killed (with Ryūnosuke asking in hurt confusion why Mugen betrayed him with his final breath), he commits seppuku after his companions reunite with him.
• Incredibly Conspicuous Drag: Mugen and Aiko first met while both were undercover dressed in women's kimonos. Mugen's physical stature meant he was unable to pull off the look with any amount of believability.
• Katanas Are Just Better: His katana is one of the few weapons capable taking out Samurai without requiring a shot from a matchlock pistol or Takuma's rifle first, the other being his Hand Cannon.
• Knighting: Mugen got this off-screen - the group's meeting with Masaru and Noboru to discuss strategy over handling Kage-sama's rebellion has Masaru mention Mugen used to be a peasant, ergo, Mugen proved himself such that he was elevated to being a samurai as he now is.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He's the Japanese equivalent anyway, being both a kind and very honorable Samurai.
• The Leader: As the one who answers directly to the Shogun, Mugen leads the group, strategizes most of the missions, and is largely the one responsible for bringing everyone together.
• Lethal Chef: Aiko's Choice reveals Mugen is not skilled in the culinary arts, something which Mugen himself admits to and which Hayato had unfortunately learned the hard way when trying his dumplings.
• Nice Guy: Next to Takuma, he's easily the nicest and friendliest character of the group—while they all get along for the most part, everyone loves Mugen, which makes his suicide all the more devastating.
• Master Swordsman: The best Samurai in the Shogun's army. It's notable in that he doesn't sneak attack enemy Samurai when he dispatches them, he clashes swords with them and wins.
• Person of Mass Destruction: By game standards, anyways. He's the only person who can kill an infinite amount of guards at once—no matter how many base guards are in his Sword Wind Technique's area of effect, they will all die... unless they're Samurai, in which case they'll just shrug it off cause of how badass they are.
• Red Is Heroic: He wears red armor, which makes him stand out from all the enemy Samurai you'll be otherwise facing, who all wear blue. And his honor and loyalty definitely make him a hero.
• Sadistic Choice: He's forced to choose between the lives of his companions or Ryūnosuke's after the group is captured by Kage-sama. He chooses the former, but after being forced to personally show Kage-sama where Ryūnosuke is and seeing him murdered, Mugen is ashamed at Ryūnosuke's death and commits seppuku.

Yuki

Voiced by: Martha Mackintosh (English), Yume Maihara (Japanese)

A young child Hayato encounters out in the wild during the second mission. A Cheerful Child with a Dark and Troubled Past, armed with tricks and traps.

Her color is yellow to demonstrate her happy-go-lucky nature. Yuki is good at distraction: her Little Trap and Bird Whistle combination is invaluably useful, and while her slow body-carrying speed may seem a detriment, it allows her to carry bodies into green-striped guard vision cones. Yuki suffers from the problems of both Mugen and Hayato in less severity—while she can easily distract guards and assassinate them one by one, she has no innate ranged options (though she gets a matchlock pistol like the others do in the mid-game) and must pick her Little Trap back up in order to reuse it. She is also the only character capable of pickpocketing items from living enemies.

• Animal Theme Naming: In her Japanese dialogue, she describes her skills using animal metaphors. Her blade is 鼠の歯 (Nezumi no Ha - "Rat's Tooth"), her whistle is 鳥の声 (Tori no Koe - "Bird Call"), and her non-lethal attack is 猫の手 (Neko no Te - "Cat's Paw").
• Cheerful Child: Eager, enthusiastic and surprisingly bright.
• Constantly Curious: Downplayed. During missions she's focused on the task at hand, but she likes to ask questions to the older members of the group. Often those questions pertain to the interesting tools they each have and how they work.
• Creepy Child: Her surprising aptitude for murder can make some of her comments quite creepy.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed. While she does make some manic comments here and there and she names all her tools after animal actions, she's very lucid.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The game reveals few specifics about where and how she got the skills she has, but her dialogue implies that she had to improvise to protect herself from those who tried to harm her on the street. Furthermore, in Mission 7, when rebels are systematically massacring the inhabitants of Suganuma Village, her remarks suggest she lost her mother under similar circumstances.
• Friend to All Living Things: She likes animals much more than she likes people. She really doesn't like hurting animals and can often be seen playing with Kuma.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: An active exploiter of this. Her whistle will distract guards without fail, leaving them easy fodder for Little Trap.
• Humble Hero: After Yuki gets in and helps Mugen, Takuma, and the surviving villagers escape from Suganuma Village, Mugen praises Yuki for being the one to rescue them. Yuki tries to downplay it out of embarrassment even as the villagers cheer her name.
• Just a Kid: Is on the receiving end of this if she is the one to confront Lord Noboru at the top of Sunpu Castle in the final mission. Should she be the one to deliver the kill on Lord Noboru, she will throw the words back at him.
  Yuki: I am not a child. I am Yuki.
• Little Miss Badass: She's young, but a capable and self-taught killer.
• Recruited from the Gutter: When Mugen learns of how Yuki helped Hayato out on the Tokaido Road ambush despite only being there to swipe stuff, he invites her into the group by promising she could learn from Hayato. On the next mission when she comes along to use her thieving skills to help Mugen out in his investigation of a local official, Mugen asks where she learned how to be so good at things like pickpocketing and killing. She answers that they were things she had picked up from other street people to survive and seems scared that the noble Mugen would disapprove — Mugen reassures her that her background matters less than what she chooses to do with what she's learned.
• Self-Deprecation: She calls herself an idiot disturbingly frequently throughout the game.
• Sticky Fingers: Describes objects as "wants to be taken" which is probably a rationalization she has for theft in her Street Urchin days. In-game, it allows her to pickpocket items from enemies without needing to kill them if the situation doesn't allow it.
• Street Urchin: Her background, having grown up an orphan and surviving via theft.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Downplayed. Yuki appears in Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew DLC Yuki's Wish. In the DLC, she's become one of the Cursed, a kind of Ghost Pirate, implying she died at some point between Shadow Tactics and Shadow Gambit. Based on the state of her body, she died some time in either her late teens or early twenties.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Upon learning in Mission 6 that the rebel army plans to attack Kanazawa Castle, Aiko sends Yuki back to Lord Noboru and warn the Shogunate army about it while she and Hayato continue to spy on General Okkoto. Aiko stresses to Yuki how important it is that Lord Noboru be told of the impending attack, but en route Yuki encounters Kuma who is covered in blood and is sidetracked from the route back in order to infiltrate another village being pillaged and its residents slaughtered while Takuma and Mugen are in danger. With her help Takuma, Mugen, and the surviving villagers escape, but the delay means the rebels catch Kanazawa Castle's garrison by surprise and take it over. Aiko scolds Yuki when she learns what happened, though she later apologizes after Takuma defends Yuki, admitting that she would have done the same in her position.
• Trap Master: Her talent lies in setting up lethal traps.

Aiko

Voiced by: Alix Dunmore (English) / Tamari Hinata (Japanese)

A shinobi fascinated by order and beauty, and the lover of Mugen who assists him in the freeing of Takuma. A Sugar-and-Ice Personality individual who can blend in with crowds using disguises.

Her color is purple, reflecting her calm, orderly personality. Aiko is good at disruption: using her sneeze powder to limit guard viewcones allows her and her allies to slip by at near point-blank range, and if she is disguised then she can keep a guards attention—even Straw Hats—fixed on her perpetually. Both of these skills allow her to poke holes in guard patrol routes that the others can dutifully exploit. Samurai see right through her disguises however, and while the ability to distract guards is useful, she needs to take it off to perform actions like climbing, swimming or even crouching, and it takes a while to change into her disguise.

• A Day in the Limelight: Aiko's Choice focuses entirely on Aiko as she confronts her past.
• Combat Haircomb: Her weapons are her hairpins, explaining how she's able to conceal them when disguised. Notably, this also means they're not taken away from her in the No-Gear Level, although it's of limited value since she herself is separated from your party until halfway through.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Kage-sama's men point their rifles at Aiko in an effort to force Mugen to talk, she calmly taunts the traitor that she will face death with open eyes.
• Femme Fatale: Aiko can kill guards by dressing up all pretty, getting into a conversation with them, and stabbing them with her hairpin, all without raising an alarm.
• Improbable Weapon User: Uses hairpins as her melee weapon. Truth in Television, believe it or not: there really were weaponized hairpins.
• In the Hood: Typically wears a hood when not disguised.
• Mugged for Disguise: She's able to knock female NPCs (such as geishas and shrine priestesses) unconscious and steal their clothes to use as a disguise.
• Number Two: She serves as Mugen's closest confidante in the team. When he dies, she takes up the slack and becomes the de facto leader of the group.
• The Rival: With Hayato. Their separate methods of infiltration clash frequently, but they learn to get over it by the end.
• The Smart Guy: Is able to provide some pretty good infiltration methods in the missions she's playable.
• Someone to Remember Him By: She's heavily implied to be pregnant with Mugen's child; it's further implied that it's a boy who ends up adopted by the Shogun as his new heir. This does nothing to slow her down.
• Shout-Out: If you command her to distract enemy guards, sometimes she will utter "Guten Tag".
• Silk Hiding Steel: She can be all dressed up and be no less lethal than when she's in standard ninja apparel.
• The Stoic: She's much more cool-headed than Hayato, which is notable in that she remains in control of herself after Mugen dies, even though she knew the Samurai longer and was his lover. Notably, the one time she breaks her stoic facade is when her old mentor Lady Chiyo appears back into her life and now works for Kage-sama.
• Team Mom: Basically Mugen's proxy whenever he's not around. She makes sure everybody stays on task, but is still adaptable to the other members' ideas. During Mission 6 when she, Yuki, and Hayato stop what's heavily implied to be an Attempted Rape of two village women by General Okkoto's soldiers, Aiko's the one to talk Yuki down and console her from the latter's surge of rage at what they were threatening to do.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: A heroic version. Aiko is able to blend into enemy encampments if she manages to get her hands on a disguise, and can assassinate guards without anyone noticing.

Takuma

Voiced by: Terry Wilton (English) / Tadashi Hirabayashi (Japanese)

A friendly old man with a penchant for guns. A Friendly Sniper who uses long-range weaponry to take out his foes.

His colour is green, representing his Nice Guy nature and Cool Old Guy status. Takuma is good at assassination: Takuma's rifle is invaluable to killing targets from long range and his grenades can take out groups of enemies from a distance. He is also the only one who can use the rifle, making him very useful for dealing with faraway targets. However, Takuma has the most handicaps in more ways than just having a pegleg—his run makes noise, he's very slow, he's immobile while shooting, he can't pick up bodies, swim or climb vines, his ammo and grenades come in short supply and he has no means of melee attacking; meaning if a guard bumps into him he has to risk a shot with the matchlock pistol or run.

• An Arm and a Leg: He loses a leg to cannon fire after the first mission and has to get by on a pegleg from that point on.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Friendly, easygoing, and very vengeful. Lord Yabu learns this the hard way when Takuma gives him some overdue payback either in the form of a well-aimed bullet or a poisonous concoction of his own design.
• Cool Old Guy: He's cheerful, excellent with a rifle, is an expert gunsmith, and is always willing to lend his advice to others, particularly Yuki.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Almost literally. While his long-range gunfire is really dangerous, he has a lot of downsides to make it so he isn't a Game-Breaker.
• Friendly Sniper: Frequently cracks jokes and is very easygoing. Brandishing his rifle even transforms the cursor into a glass sight.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He fashioned all of his guns himself and Yabu noticed this such that he enslaved him to disseminate gunsmithing for him for illegal arms production, and they're more advanced than anything else in the game. The matchlock pistols Takuma designed for the party are smaller than most, but just as powerful, and his extremely accurate rifle is assembled from his cane and pegleg.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Takuma's drawbacks are entirely sensible considering himself - he cannot perform any more physical tasks than moving or climbing a ladder because he is elderly, he makes noise while running because he has a pegleg, and finally his pegleg prevents him from keeping his long rifle sufficiently steady while standing up or moving (accompanied with how he is still able to fire his matchlock pistol while standing up like everyone else).
• Gun Nut: Loves his weaponry- upon rejoining the group, he gifts everyone in the team with matchlock weaponry to help at close range and deal with samurai. Hayato, Yuki and Aiko receive matchlock pistols- capable of stunning samurai. Mugen receives a Hand Cannon—which can kill samurai outright.
• Handicapped Badass: He may have lost a leg, but he's still a master sniper.
• Hollywood Silencer: Like Duke and Doc McCoy before him, his rifle is completely silent, allowing for quiet long range kills. This advantage is counterbalanced by a limited amount of ammunition.
• The Load: Can unfortunately be this at times, as he can't swim, climb anything except ladders, drag bodies or perform melee attacks, and he can't run without creating a lot of noise. Highlighted by the final mission, where he's completely stuck in his starting position and the rest of your party has to slowly clear the guards watching the narrow path he has to take, a path that they themselves fairly easily skip altogether, before he can catch up.
• Old Soldier: He may be old, but he's dangerous.
• Parental Substitute: He becomes one to Yuki, culminating in an offer and subsequent conversation about her becoming his student that could just as easily be interpreted as an unofficial adoption.
• The Pollyanna: He always looks on the bright side. In particular, he's not too bothered that he lost his leg, since it's a miracle he survived in the first place.
• Scaramanga Special: His cane and pegleg also function as the stock and barrel for his rifle. When selecting the rifle, he takes a couple of seconds to assemble it before firing. During the No-Gear Level, he retains his rifle, as they are concealed as such, but is without ammunition for it.
• Sniper Rifle: Takuma's rifle goes far - it'll take a few screens from over where he is for a player to see the end of his rifle's range. Brandishing his rifle also transforms the cursor into a fancy telescopic sight.
• Team Dad: Apart from Mugen bringing everybody together, Takuma has a particular soft spot for Yuki. He's the only one who gets her to open up about her past, and is determined to stay by her side for as long as he can.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: He can use grenades to take out groups of any enemies, allowing for lethal or non-lethal methods. The lethal ones are very loud (inversely, the non-lethal ones have the advantage of causing no noise whatsoever and a slightly larger area-of-effect) and in extremely limited supply, making them situational.
• Trick Bomb: Can use lethal or non-lethal bombs to eliminate groups of enemies by switching out the powder in the casing.

Kuma

Takuma's pet tanuki. As his Loyal Animal Companion, Kuma's mobility, luring and distracting abilities help Takuma take out or avoid his foes.

Though not a separate character in himself, Kuma is exceptional at luring: As Takuma is the least mobile member of the team, and relies on his arsenal of ranged weapons, Kuma both compensates for Takuma's immobility and can assist Takuma in lining up shots thanks to the hybrid nature of his luring ability. Firstly, guards normally ignore his movements completely, allowing Kuma to move about freely. However, he cannot be deployed too far from Takuma himself. On Takuma's command, Kuma will trill and dance, luring any guards within noise range without making them suspicious (compare Yuki's whistle). Upon seeing Kuma, guards will walk right up to him but do not pick him up (compare Mugen's sake bottle). Upon reaching Kuma, guards will direct their viewcones towards Kuma and be stationary, but will eventually return to their posts (compare Aiko in disguise). To see Kuma's fullest potential, quickly cycle between his luring call, and repositioning to pull guards away from their positions. Used properly, Kuma can lure guards farther than any other character.

• Acrofatic: Despite being a fairly rotund tanuki (Takuma must keep him well-fed), Kuma has no trouble climbing up ladders or even doing a handstand to distract guards.
• Beneath Notice: As an animal, and a very common one in the Japanese countryside, no guards (not even samurai) give Kuma a second glance when he moves around. No other character the player controls can completely ignore enemy sightcones. Feel free to move Kuma around knowing that he can only be spotted when the player wishes him to be, and even then is in absolutely no danger whatsoever.
• Cuteness Proximity: Exploited to distract guards and do terrible things when their backs are turned. When Kuma's luring call is active, he trills, rolls around, and even does handstands on occasion, much to the amusement of any guards watching.
• Friendly Fireproof: As some voicelines from Takuma will note after you hurl large boulders or grenades at groups of guards that Kuma's got all lined up for you, Kuma is inexplicably always unharmed from any and all of your party's death-dealing methods.
• Intellectual Animal: Not only is he able to listen to Takuma's commands to move to a close spot by him or follow Takuma's signal to begin distracting, a cutscene shows him able to read the room and bow at the same time as everyone else as Japanese etiquette demands.
• Loyal Animal Companion: In gameplay, Kuma obeys Takuma's commands to move and distract without hesitation. This is narratively highlighted at the start of Mission 7. When Takuma is too immobile to escape the massacre of Suganuma Village, Kuma leaves Takuma behind to search for help. Running into Yuki, he leads her back to Takuma's hiding spot in the village. United, Yuki and Takuma then go on to save both Mugen and the villagers over the course of the mission. Happens again in Mission 10, where the little tanuki follows Takuma all the way to his prison cell in Mount Tsuru...with a full sack of ammunition!
• Non-Human Sidekick: To Takuma.
• Spanner in the Works: Potentially. Kage-sama might have won if not for Kuma. The tanuki escapes his notice however, trails Takuma to his prison cell, and delivers some bullets to the old man, which can be used to commence the heroes' escape.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Downplayed. Kuma appears in Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew alongside Yuki. Like Yuki, he's become Cursed, a kind of Ghost Pirate.
• Team Pet: For the the rest of the team.

Other Characters

The Shogun

Voiced by: Neil McCaul (English)

The unifier of Japan after the Battle of Osaka Castle, the Shogun leads the land in the times of peace, realizing that it is time to put the violent history of the past behind. However, the warlord Kage-sama threatened to throw Japan into chaos once again, so he commissioned Mugen, his most trusted general, to gather a team of specialists to deal with this threat. He has a brother named Lord Noboru and a son named Ryūnosuke.

• Big Good: Essentially the guy whom the heroes respond to and generally pretty noble.
• Cain and Abel: Eventually, the Abel to Lord Noboru's Cain after his treachery is discovered.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Unlike other characters who are all given names, he's simply called 'the Shogun'.
• The Good King: He led the once wartorn Japan into a time of peace and preferred to keep it that way, which is why he takes Kage-sama's uprising very seriously as he threatens to break that peace and throw the entire land into war once more.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son Ryūnosuke was killed by his traitorous nephew Masaru.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed, the news of him executing Masaru reached Noboru before the heroes could assassinate him in the open. Fearing for his own safety, Noboru retreated to the highest level of Sunpu Castle and doubled the guards protecting it, making the heroes' jobs harder in the process.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: He's most likely based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, the last of the the three unifiers of Japan, who finally managed to bring an end to the chaotic Sengoku Period after the Siege of Osaka.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Late in the game he's duped into thinking that Mugen's friends betrayed him and killed Ryūnosuke, but when they arrived in his tent to explain the truth to him, he takes their explanation into account and compares it with Masaru's make-up excuse before coming to the right conclusion that it was Masaru who killed his son. He then pardoned the rest of Mugen's friends, which potentially includes the necessary killings of his own men on their way to the tent.
• Tranquil Fury: After he learns the truth that Masaru, his own nephew, was the one responsible for killing his son, he doesn't lash out in fury at the murderer, but the intimidation in his voice clearly shows the seething hatred inside. We learned later in the final mission that he eventually has Masaru executed.

Lord Noboru

Voiced by: David Shaw Parker (English)

The Shogun's brother and Masaru's father. An excellent tactician, he serves as the Shogun's war strategist and is the one the Shogun put in charge of hunting down the elusive Kage-sama. He's actually Kage-sama himself, plotting to overthrow his brother and return Japan to the Warring States period once more.

• Big Bad: Eventually revealed to be Kage-sama himself plotting for his brother's downfall and using the heroes all along.
• Born in the Wrong Century: His lust for battle makes him an excellent warlord, which serves him no purpose in the time of peace. This is why he planned to return Japan back to that state so warlords like him could have their places again. The Shogun even lamented this once he learned the full extent of his betrayal, saying that if he were born a century ago, he would have been the greatest warlord.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to the Shogun's Abel.
• The Chessmaster: He doesn't earned the position of the Shogun's strategist for nothing. He's in charge of the campaign to systematically hunt down Kage-sama's associates wherever they show up, never mind the fact that he is Kage-sama himself and is just using the heroes to eliminate those who have outlived their usefulness and gain the heroes' trust in the process, which allows him to lay a perfect trap to capture them all. He then forces Mugen to reveal Ryūnosuke's hiding place by threatening to kill his friends, leading to both of their deaths at Mount Tsuru. Even when the other heroes escaped, he manipulates the Shogun into believing that they were the ones who killed his son, leading to the Shogun declaring a manhunt for them and force them into hiding while he waits for a perfect chance to overthrow his brother. It all worked out perfectly and he almost won were it not for Aiko coming up with an incredibly bold plan of her own to kidnap Masaru and bring him before the Shogun to reveal the truth to him.
• Hired to Hunt Yourself: The Shogun puts him in charge of hunting down Kage-sama, when he's actually Kage-sama himself.
• Karmic Death: In his final moments, he attempts to commit seppuku and kills himself before he could die by the heroes' hands. You can deny him this should you desire by gutting him like a fish before he could go through with it. Even better, you can make his death more humiliating by just knocking him out, carrying him down from the castle roofs, before throwing him into the sea to drown. For even more humiliation, you could even arrange for him to be accidentally killed by one of his own men, by having Aiko toss her sneezing powder into one of his soldiers just as he's about to fire, causing the soldier to misfire and shoot Noboru instead. Aiko's Bond One-Liner puts it best:
  Aiko: "We all wept for Mugen. No one will weep for you."
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: From his distinctive spear-shaped dress decoration at the back of his head, he's probably based on Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second unifier of Japan and Ieyasu's predecessor. Like Hideyoshi, Noboru is an excellent warlord who unfortunately cannot adapt to the times of peace. Like how Hideyoshi, according to a theory, sent his armies oversea to take over Korea and China so warriors like him could have a purpose again after Japan is united, Noboru plans to return the land into a state of chaos to achieve the same thing.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: More subdued than his son but there are still shades of this, particularly in his Villanious Breakdown in the final mission, where if you pick Aiko or Yuki to assassinate him he'll insult them both with degradatory remarks as his last words.
• Walking Spoiler: You can't really talk about this guy without revealing that he's actually Kage-sama.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: How he sees himself. He believes that returning Japan to a state of chaos will make its people stronger and that it is his duty to ensure that it will happen.

Ryūnosuke

Voiced by: Daniel Kendrick (English)

The Shogun's son whom he loves dearly. He was sent into hiding after Kage-sama starts an open rebellion.

• Et Tu, Brute?: He and Masaru are implied to be close friends growing up, judging from the scene where they trained swordfighting with Mugen together, and he also has a high respect for Mugen himself. Both reasons make his death by Masaru's hands due to Mugen being forced to reveal his hiding place all the more tragic.
• Hostage MacGuffin: Turns into this in the second act after Kage-sama retaliates the Shogun for Lord Yabu's assassination with an open rebellion. Fearing for his son's life, the Shogun ordered Mugen to sent him into hiding. It didn't end well for them both.
• In the Back: How Masaru kills him.

Masaru

Voiced by: Matt Littler (English)

Lord Noboru's son and Ryūnosuke's close friend.

• Dirty Coward: When the heroes brought him before the Shogun and make him explain his role in Ryūnosuke's murder, he attempts to lie his way out and blame the heroes for the deed. The Shogun fortunately doesn't buy it, and quickly deduces that Masaru is actually the one who murdered his son. Even when caught, he still cowardly tries to defend himself by blaming that his father forced him to do it.
• Hate Sink: The guy literally has no redeeming qualities. Even his own father is repulsed by Masaru's derogatory insults sometimes, even as they're working together to overthrown the Shogun's rule.
• Jerkass: And that's the best way to describe him.
• Karmic Death: The Shogun eventually has him executed for his role in Ryūnosuke's murder.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Even more so than his father. Almost every line out of him is expressing his disdain attitude towards women and commoners. It gets so bad that even his own father has to rein him back a bit sometimes.
• Royal Brat: He spends nearly all his screen time either bossing around or insulting people. Then he goes and murders the Shogun's son. Later, he indulges himself in a fancy bathhouse.
• Walking Spoiler: Like his father.

Lord Yabu

Voiced by: Dean Williamson (English)

A powerful daimyo who's responsible for smuggling illegal weapons into Kyoto and is suspected of being Kage-sama. He's actually one of his associates.

• Arch-Enemy: Takuma really has it out for him for the years of torture he suffered as his prisoner at Mount Tsuru. When the time finally comes to go after Yabu himself, Takuma plays an instrumental role in killing him, either via Boom, Headshot! or poisoning Yabu's tea with a poison he created, which he made sure to make it in such a way that Yabu will spend his final moments in as much agony as possible.
• Co-Dragons: He and General Okkoto are the two main associates of Kage-sama.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's the first target to end up on the heroes' hit list and is initially believed to be Kage-sama himself until it's revealed that he's just an associate.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his faults, it's implied that he and his wife cared deeply for each other judging by their routine tea drinking together. He also has a pet dog that he seems to care much for, judging by how he will try to calm it down when it's provoked. Ironically, both of them played a part in causing his own death as the routine tea with his wife allows the heroes to poison him, and attempting to calm his dog puts him within the range of Takuma's rifle.
• Karmic Death: If you don't opt to kill him directly, his two possible plotline deaths are either Boom, Headshot! or poisoning his tea, both of which involved Takuma - a person that Yabu has been torturing for years in Mount Tsuru before planning to get rid of him.

General Okkoto

Voiced by: David Rintoul

A dangerous Samurai warlord serving under Kage-sama, responsible for carrying out his attacks on the Shogun's forces in retaliation for Lord Yabu's death.

• Blood Knight: He lives for the thrill of battle and believes that Samurai like him has no future in the times of peace, which is the reason why he followed Kage-sama in the first place.
• Co-Dragons: He and Lord Yabu are the two main associates of Kage-sama.
• The Dreaded: His ruthless campaign in which he burns down multiple villages and kills innocent civilians puts fear in the hearts of people across the land.
• Dying Curse: Before committing seppuku, he recites a poem expressing his desire to come for Mugen's head in the next life.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's a violent bloodthirsty warlord who won't hesitate to burn down villages and cut down anyone in his path, but he's repulsed to learn that Kage-sama has left him to die.
• Villain's Dying Grace: Facing defeat and realizing that Kage-sama has decided that he has outlived his usefulness, he cooperates with the heroes by telling him where Kage-sama's camp is hidden. This may have been his ploy to lead the heroes into an ambush all along, though.

Lady Chiyo

Voiced by: Nicolette McKenzie (English) / Yuka Kato (Japanese)

An old woman who is Aiko's former sensei. She now works with Kage-sama in rounding up Aiko and her friends after their numerous interferences in his plans.

• Arc Villain: The main villain of the Aiko's Choice. Or so it seems.
• Bad Boss: When Kage-sama's men who were supposed to execute Aiko, Hayato, and Mugen didn't come out of the hideout, she casually puts down the soldiers as incompetent and warns them to double their efforts otherwise she will have Kage-sama punish them instead. Background dialogues we heard from the soldiers during the third level also shows that her samurai secretly dislikes her due to her questionable orders (which is deliberate on her part. She never liked working with Kage-sama in the first place and thus intentionally makes various blunders that the heroes can take advantage of so that they can sabotage Kage-sama's organization further).
• Evil Mentor: She was Aiko's former teacher, who has become her enemy when she comes after Aiko and her friends under Kage-sama's orders. It's all an act.
• Faking the Dead: She was apparently killed by Aiko at Hana Gakuen, but is later revealed to have faked her death when she confronted Aiko later on in the epilogue, where she reveals her true motives to her student before leaving her final fate in Aiko's hands.
• Good All Along: Downplayed. She was never on Kage-sama's side, and deliberately makes blatant tactical mistakes (to the point that the heroes questioned if she is losing her steps in her old age) and let Aiko and friends sabotage Kage-sama's organization even further. That being said, her gambit also puts Aiko and her friends in harm's way, and the ambiguous nature of her actions means Aiko is having a hard time trusting her again. In the ending where Aiko chose to kill Chiyo, she reasons that she cannot risk Chiyo coming after her and her child in the future again.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: In the epilogue she meets alone with Aiko after faking her death as a means to get out of her obligations to help Kage-sama. She knows that Aiko is angry with her for putting her and her companions in danger like that, and so walks over to the top a hill to watch the full moon and turns her back towards Aiko, letting her decide within ten heartbeats whether she should die or be allowed to retire in peace.
• Secret-Keeper: She is the only person who knows that Aiko is pregnant with Mugen's child. Aiko, in turn, knows Chiyo's true name: Minako, which she only uttered out of respect if she decides to kill Chiyo in the ending.
• The Spymaster: She was the leader of the disbanded Sakura-clan, famous for their kunoichi trained from the elusive Hana Gakuen school hidden deep within the woods, which Aiko is also a former student of. Ever since joining Kage-sama, she has restrated the school in order to train a new generation of kunoichi to support Kage-sama's army. In addition, she's also in charge of a smuggling ring, importing high-grade gunpowder and firearms from the Portuguese.