Samurai Warrior: The Battles of.... Usagi Yojimbo

Development

According to Doug Palmer in the "Making of..." article in Retro Gamer 29, the development of the game was largely a team effort centered around the storyline and the gameplay. The game's code was built from pre-existing components which were assembled all together. These components were a product of cooperation between Doug and Fred Milgrom.

Due to memory limitations many elements of the game had to be stripped out. As such they were mole ninja that came out of the ground, numerous additional peaceful activities like eg. rescuing a rider being dragged by a horse.

Dialogue

Many of the priests speeches are taken from the book 'Zen Flesh, Zen Bones’, a collection of Zen stories and koans from Japan. Many players thought that these words had a second meaning and were useful tips to be looked in the game. As such they had no gameplay purpose.

Title explanation

In Japanese, "Usagi" means "rabbit" and "Yojimbo" means "bodyguard".

Story

The story follows the exploits of Miyamoto Usagi, a samurai who serves no master and is therefore known as a "ronin" (a masterless samurai). It is set in 1600 AD and follows Usagi as he makes his living as a Yojimbo wandering Honshu, Japan's main island.

Awards

• ACE
  • October 1988 (issue #13) - Included in the Top-100 list of 1987/1988 (editorial staff selection)
• Commodore Format
  • June 1991 (Issue 9) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)