Meeting the Unofficial Female Samurai of Samurai Spirit
Protect a small village from encroaching bandits with samurai and their unique animal forms with Samurai Spirit.
It’s been nearly a year since I first played Samurai Spirit, and I’ve often wanted to bring it back to my solo table! The puzzle of utilizing a team of samurai, unique abilities, and exact values offers a challenge that plays out nicely. Plus, I never moved beyond the easiest difficulty level, so it was time to put my skills to the test with a trio of new samurai!
Game Overview
Game Name: Samurai Spirit
Publication Year: 2014
Designer: Antoine Bauza
Artist: Víctor Pérez Corbella
Publisher: Funforge
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game (Cooperative)
The central element involves defending a small town of farms and families. Barricades provide short-term defense, yet it’s important for the samurai to both fight bandits and set aside time to defend the village. As my day came to a close, I was ready to work through this battle!
First Play
September 11, 2023
Complexity
2
Latest Play
August 8, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
15 Minutes
High Score
8
Game Area
28" x 20"
Low Score
0
New Female Samurai
The original game explains that it is based on the amazing movie, Seven Samurai, but this is also the reason why there are no female samurai characters to play as. Not great…
Yet Hoang Pham came to the rescue with unofficial samurai! Shino, Takeko, and Tomoe feature beautiful art and unique abilities that flow seamlessly into the game.
I was kindly sent this printed set, and I could finally try them out! This looked like it would be a great matchup.
Part of me wanted to mix together all of the samurai, yet this felt like a fun way to play and get back into the game.
Changing Forms
All samurai begin on their human side, but after receiving a couple of wounds, a new form is unleashed!
Animals are more powerful, yet there is a tradeoff… Their special abilities take a bit more time to activate, and another pair of wounds results in an immediate loss.
Look at Shino! Such an awesome piece of art and some excellent abilities. She mowed down a bunch of bandits!
I forgot how difficult it can be to choose whether to fight or defend. In this case, she was missing a hat icon on the left, so she took a wound and lost at the end of the round.
Tomoe’s Archery Skills
All of these new samurai were fantastic to play with! Tomoe had some very unique skills to use short-range and long-range archery to defeat adjacent bandits.
In short, this helped prevent Shino and Takeko from getting overwhelmed, while the special crane token allowed Tomoe to absorb a single wound each round.
So very cool! The bandits were always tough, owing to the random deck that was created during setup.
Subsequent rounds added in more powerful bandits, up until the third round with some of the trickiest bosses!
Achieving Victory
This is not a game where wins come easily. Several times, I lost less than halfway through. Most of that came down to poor decisions on my part, but I learned a lot.
At last, I made it through the final deck of bandits and bosses for a victory! The village wasn’t left unscathed, yet it was still standing so the inhabitants could rebuild.
I tried several more times to ensure I hadn’t found an easy way to win, but I kept on losing. Very, very challenging!
The new samurai added a lot to the experience, and I’m hoping I can remember to visit this village again soon!
Giving Unofficial Content a Chance to Shine
I’ll admit that I typically stick to officially released expansions when it comes to adding more to my solo games. Yet I loved these new samurai! They weren’t simply copies of existing characters with identical abilities. Each one introduced a new way to play and felt like a true expansion. Fans of games are awesome for expanding on the content!
Now, it can often be difficult to gauge the quality or expected experience. I get way too excited about the games I love, but would I trust myself to put out great content for all of them? Nope… I specialize in cuteness overloads and bad jokes. Ha! But it’s usually pretty clear to understand the work that’s gone into unofficial content and what stage it’s at.
Sometimes, prototype ideas are simply there to gather feedback in order to make refinements. This content might not be right for everyone. Yet I encourage you to keep an eye out for unofficial content or expansions for some of your favorite games. You never know what neat idea you might stumble across. Brand new characters might be available!
Session Overview
Play Number: 5-8
Expansion: Unofficial Samurai (Shino, Takeko, Tomoe)
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game (Cooperative)
Play Details: Normal Difficulty Level with 3 Samurai
Outcome: 0, 8, 0, 0 (1 Win & 3 Losses)
It was awesome to see how different each play was with the unknown assortment of bandits in the starting deck! I had to figure out how to manage a lot of elements, and the bosses were far from pleasant to mitigate. But a single victory was enough to celebrate, especially with this brand new team of samurai! Such a great little game to enjoy!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Figuring out how to manage the full deck of bandits is an awesome sort of puzzle that changes with each round.
- An increasing number of bandits and wounds adds a bit of tension to later rounds when planning is vital.
- Each samurai plays very differently, and various combinations open up the possibility for amazing combinations.
- Flipping over to an animal form is an exciting moment in many ways and adds more fun to the final round.
- Gameplay is very quick and features many quick decisions that slowly build up over time, often in a helpful way.
- Defending the village is very thematic with the cards and samurai, and losing a farm or family isn’t taken lightly.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The composition of the bandit deck sometimes makes for extremely difficult situations just based on setup luck.
- Although the base samurai are amazing, the deliberate choice not to include female samurai is a bit disappointing.
- It is very difficult to read the rulebook with its extremely small font size and lack of a single reference page.
- Most of the character abilities require checking up on frequently, especially for the one-use tokens in solo play.
Victory Conditions
Survive Through 3 Rounds
- Overall Goal Progress 75%
Goals and Milestones
Score 5 points.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the normal difficulty level.
Score 10 points.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Samurai Spirit? Have you tried out any of the unofficial samurai, or found new content for another solo game? Shino, Takeko, and Tomoe added a lot to the experience and I’m so thankful I have them to choose from! This is a surprisingly enjoyable game I didn’t expect to like this much… But how do I not enjoy the animal forms? Ha!
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