Definitely castle design.
Western thinking = Keep attackers out and kill them.
Japanese thinking = Invite them inside and massacre them.
The problem is, the japanese thinking works! infact, it works too damn well!
That's right, but too often I noticed that in MTW2 defending a castle or a city was just too easy even with tiny armies, as the attackers would seldom take the time necessary to build all the siege equipment, and attack just with a couple ladders and a couple rams even when their army is insanely huge.
On the other hand in Shogun there is no need for siege weapons, so they can attack the cities right away as soon as they reach them. This, coupled with the fact that the average siege is quite a bloodbath for both sides, makes defense truly a challenge. Everything requires a lot of planning as you must be very careful when leaving cities ungarrisoned or only lightly.
I definitely like it :p
