Shadow of the Road will release on November 12, developer Another Angle Games and publisher Owlcat Games announced during GameStar's Find Your Next Game showcase at gamescom. Dot Esports reported the date alongside a new trailer for the tactical RPG, which is coming to Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store.
A free demo is already available on Steam. It was released in July 2025 and covers sections set in a tea house and a manor, with three regular encounters and one boss battle.
The game is set in an alternate version of Japan in 1868, during the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Emperor Mutsuhito's forces hold a technological advantage thanks to backing from the fictional British East Nippon Company, while magic, yokai and enormous steam-powered machines complicate a conflict loosely based on the real Boshin War.
The new trailer follows a mismatched party of ex-samurai, Shogunate retainers, a mysterious child, his mother and their bodyguard as they travel through a country already torn apart by war. Battles pit them against human enemies such as bandits and imperial soldiers as well as supernatural creatures, and characters can upgrade skills, combine attacks and use parts of the environment against opponents.
Players can also transform into yokai when a fight goes badly, though Dot Esports reports the transformation is intended as a limited option rather than something available on demand. Relationships between party members feed back into both combat and the story, and choices can strengthen friendships, break existing bonds and change how individual characters develop.
Owlcat's third-party publishing slate
Another Angle first revealed Shadow of the Road in August 2024, shortly after Owlcat announced it was expanding beyond developing its own RPGs into third-party publishing. The game was one of Owlcat's first external projects, alongside Emotion Spark Studio's Rue Valley.
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.