Sakura Samurai - Art of the Sword Overview

Sakura Samurai is a short and interesting 3DS eshop game. I got the game off Club Nintendo and it is definitely worth playing.

The story is about a samurai (the player) who encounters a Kappa by a tree. The Kappa asks for your help to rescue the Sakura princess and makes the samurai into a Sakura Samurai. The game does not allow the samurai to spam his sword to kill his enemies since the enemies can block. Instead, using dodge then attack is more effective. Timing and precision is the key to victory.

Warning: Slight Spoilers

Another stamp card filled. So much mini game grinding.

There are only three bosses in the game which makes the game feel quite short but there is plenty of content. There are three towns that have similar looks and things to do. In each town, the sword can be upgraded once. There is a inn to save and heal. There is a shop to buy items but it isn't necessary as long as the mini games are done multiple times. There are two mini games in the towns which differ from town to town. I mainly spent my entire time in the first town beating the mini games. The mini games (depends how well you do) will give stamps towards a stamp card. Once the amount of stamps reach a number, a gift of some items is given. Once the card is full, power ups are given for the sword. If power ups are maxed, then a Kappa amulet is given (heals if all life is depleted once).

Money was easy to get if all money was bet on playing the mini games and won. I played the one with reaction time cutting melons that were not smiling. The money given back is twice the amount put in. The max amount given back will be 999. I tried with 700 coins and the npc told me that's all he had.

Travelling from castle to castle was quite a bit of distance. As each stage was successfully beaten on the way to a castle, the stages gave half a petal (which is life).  It was essential for me to have max life for each area before fighting the boss. The difficultly increases a bit after defeating a boss and going to a new area. The game was generous to advise about the new enemies and I have to say, the ninja was the most annoying enemy.

I was defeated a ton...I just restarted the game when I lost. Did not know it kept a count until the end.

After beating the game, there are thug challenges to try as well as expert mode. I barely beat normal and I don't think I'll be able to beat expert without better timing.

Final Thoughts

The game is nice, short and simple. Easy to learn but can be difficult to master. The game style reminds me of Okami which I liked. For the price, it's worth a try to play. I'll be trying expert mode soon and hopefully I'll be able to beat it.