PS3

Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada

Hack and slash/Beat 'em up

Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, known in Japan as Sengoku Musou ~Sanada Maru~, is a hack and slash game by Koei Tecmo through their development subsidiary, Omega Force. It is a spin-off of Samurai Warriors 4, part of the Samurai Warriors series, which in turn is a spin-off of the long-running Dynasty Warriors series, both of which are also hack and slash games. It was released on November 23, 2016 in Japan to coincide with the airing of the climax episode of the ongoing NHK TV taiga drama Sanada Maru. It was released in North America and Europe in 2017.

The game retains the basic hack and slash play of the main series. The player controls a character through a specific battlefield against an army of enemy soldiers with the ultimate objective of killing the enemy's commander, although the player will be encouraged to complete side objectives that will raise the morale of the player's allies or acquiring rewards. Spirit of Sanada reuses the engine of Samurai Warriors 4 and its expansions and retains that game's play style and features. New features added include the addition of long-term battles, which are divided into several separate skirmishes affected by a day-and-night cycle that the player need to clear.

Like the main series, Spirit of Sanada explores and romanticizes the Sengoku period of Japan, a period of political and military conflict involving the daimyōs and their clans raising armies to fight against each other for power. While the main series features multiple viewpoints involving different factions, Spirit of Sanada focuses on one particular clan, the Sanada, who are led by Masayuki and his sons, Nobuyuki and Yukimura during the Sengoku period. The game's timeline is roughly 54 years (from 1561 to 1615) and follows different incarnations of the main characters, who are aged up accordingly.

The game's existence was first revealed in a Dengeki PlayStation in July 2016. Famitsu covered the first details and screenshots, including the nature of its collaboration with the taiga drama Sanada Maru. The current version of the game is 1.05 which was released in July 2017. Various weapons set were released as DLC. PS4 Pro owners have the option to play in 4K.

Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada has received positive critical reception, with Famitsu giving a score of 35 out of 40 in all versions of the game. During the first week of release in Japan, the PS4 version of the game sold 26,682 physical retail copies, ranking fourth place amongst all Japanese software sales within that week, whilst the PS Vita version sold 13,049 physical retail copies, and the PS3 version sold 11,040 physical retail copies.