Super Samurai Sweeper (RPG, puzzle)

Many years ago, I came across a scratch card which had plenty of boxes arranged in rows. When a box is scratched, it revealed one or more arrows pointing the path to a prize. The idea is to scratch a line of arrows towards a prize in the end, picking paths if there were more than one arrow revealed behind that box. Super Samurai Sweeper reminded me of that scratch card game, though it uses a much different game mechanic.

This is not the scratch card part of the game.

Super Samurai Sweeper by nerdook is puzzle game with RPG elements in it. I classified it as a Puzzle, rather than a Strategy game, since it felt more like one. It is a rather short game, easily completed within an hour of play. However, this makes it easily replayable on a higher difficulty setting for a higher score.

Selecting a target.

The game challenge is to beat the boss character Daimyo in each of the seven levels, called Provinces in the game. Once that is done, the Province with the Shogun is unlocked. The player must defeat the Shogun to win the game.

At the start of the game, the player selects a Province to begin with.

Scratch card!

Within a Province, the player is shown a scratch card map where a target boss Daimyo is hidden and given limited Clicks to find the target. The objective is to find the Daimyo with the limited Clicks and defeat him. Revealed boxes may reveal bonuses/penalties to help beat the Daimyo or it may reveal footsteps, which is a trail leading up to the boss.

Unlike scratch cards, Clicking on a box also reveals partial information in neighboring boxes. This makes the game much easier (and bearable).

Footsteps may be misleading since they do not show how close they are to the Daimyo. It is possible that a newly reveal set of footsteps is further on a trail compared to a previously reveal set. It is also possible that the Daimyo is in between two sets of revealed footsteps. A little bit of judgement is therefore necessary.

The red marks on the map are groups of Mooks that the player may battle immediately or later. The final battle with the Daimyo will include all remaining Mooks on the map. It is easier to fight a smaller number of them earlier to reduce the number faced in the final battle. However, searching for Mooks requires Clicks.

When the Province is completed, extra unused Clicks give additional Score and Exp. The player has to decide whether to defeat many Mooks before the facing the Daimyo, or risk attacking early for more Score and Exp.

Red-green blindness helps me ignore the blood.

Battles are for the most part automatic. The only decision the player gets to make is when to use Chakra for special abilities or reviving followers (more on followers later). Chakra is charged by defeating Mooks or spending a large amount of Silver for a certain item in the Market (more on the Market later).

If the player underestimates the battle with the Daimyo and loses the fight, he/she is penalized 5% of his/her Score. The player then has to restart the Province all over again, with only the wisdom gained from the lost and none of the Silver and Exp. The exception is the Nightmare difficulty level. Defeat in Nightmare means that the player has to restart the whole game.

The final battle with the Daimyo.

There are Restart and Quit buttons to hastily back out of a losing map. However, at the time of writing, using those buttons on Hardcore or Nightmare difficulty level downgrades the difficulty to Normal. It is uncertain if this is a bug or game feature.

The game can be stopped after completing a Province and continued at a later time - the progress is saved. There is an interesting animation behind the 'clear current campaign' option in the main menu.

The reward for beating a Daimyo and completing the Province.

Exp earned in the game may be used to purchase Upgrades after completing a Province. In addition to that, Companions may be recruited to fight on the side of the Super Samurai. The next screenshot explains a lot more about this than mere words can.

The Upgrade screen between Province battles.

Fallen Companions may be revived in battle.

Silver is the other limited resource in the game. It is spent at the Market in a Province. The Market provides a different set of Upgrades for the player along with consumables that are replenished when a new Province is attempted.

So many Upgrades, so little Silver.

The Upgrades in the Market provide more varied bonuses. With the limited resources, the player has to decide on the Upgrade to purchase to best suit his/her playing style.

More unlocks... for the opposition!

As the player defeats the Daimyos in each Province, more and more gameplay features are unlocked. These may be new locations to be revealed on maps or new units and abilities for those people on the other side.

The game has a difficulty setting, which is selected at the start of the game. Higher difficulty settings are unlocked by meeting High Score requirements.

Higher difficulties are not only harder, but also more rewarding in terms of Score and Exp. More Exp means more Upgrades that may be purchased for the Super Samurai and his Companions. This extra Exp makes it a good reason to play the harder difficulty.

(On a side note, all screenshots in this article are from the Nightmare difficulty.)

Super Samurai Sweeper is a short game with decent challenge and some luck involved. The player needs to execute a lot of judgement in the game to decide on the amount of risk to take for the best  Score. The presentation is good with decent art and sound and cute animation. The High Score system and different available Upgrades are good reasons to replay the game.

The following are more screenshots from the game.

The Daimyo is a Mook!

Barely managed to defeat the Shogun in the final, final battle!

It was Nightmare.

That was the final score for the game I barely managed to win. 11 HP left in the final battle with the Shogun. And it was at Nightmare difficulty!

One final screenshot from a different game of a Province with the Shogun (labeled as 'daimyo'). It is a little hard to see, but the Daimyo was sitting on a Booby Trap. Smart fellow.

Smart final final boss.