Description: The 2026 release has drawn complaints about strange-looking unit portraits. What players have actually requested, what remains uncertain about AI processing, and how to recognize a genuine fix.
Answer as of October 24, 2026: Fans have explicitly called for the portraits to be redone. The sources checked do not establish a promised date for replacing them. Visible defects and claims about the exact tools used to produce them are separate questions.
Why do these tiny pictures matter?
Total War: SHOGUN 2 launched in 2011 and lets players command armies in Japan's Sengoku period. The Complete Edition arrived on October 13, 2026. Its unit cards—the small pictures used to recognize troops—became a point of criticism.
Windows Central reported on October 14 that early Steam reviews were strongly negative, mentioning performance, graphical problems and odd-looking faces. Those launch-week review numbers are not a permanent score.
What are fans asking for?
An r/totalwar post compared the old and new cards and requested a manual remake. Commenters also suggested capturing fresh images with tools from the older game. Those are player proposals, not a confirmed development roadmap.
A card helps identify troops quickly during battle. An image that is sharper but makes a face or armor less recognizable may actually be a worse interface. This is more than a disagreement about artistic taste.
Is AI use proven?
Some players suspect AI-assisted enlargement or automated processing. The reporting discusses the suspicion, but a final image cannot identify the precise software or production workflow. Criticizing a visible defect does not require treating an unverified cause as fact.
What would a meaningful patch look like?
Watch official patch notes for changes to unit cards, portraits or artwork. Compare the same troops at similar display sizes before and after an update. Steam reviews are useful when their dates and game versions are clear.
Bottom line: The real goal is readable unit cards, not simply winning an argument about AI. In a game about scouting enemy armies, having to investigate the faces of your own soldiers first is an unusually silly extra mission.
