Instead, once the player starts a playthrough, they are given immediate control of their chosen character, albeit in a hub area called the 'Castle Town'. Like Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends but unlike the main series, the player does not choose a game mode in a separate menu system. Stratagems requires 'Sanada Coins', obtained by meeting several conditions throughout the game or collected in the new Castle Town format. A mechanic called 'Stratagems' is added, which allows the player to use a gimmick midway through the battle to aid the player's cause, such as calling reinforcements or building bridges. 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. Spirit of Sanada reuses the engine of Samurai Warriors 4 and its expansions and retains that game's play style and features. 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. The game retains the basic hack and slash play of the main series.

PS4 Pro owners have the option to play in 4K. On June 6, 2017, various weapons set were released as DLC. The current version of the game is 1.05 which was released in July 2017. On August 4, 2016, a livestream was conducted which disclosed more information, including the game's release date an official trailer was released shortly after in YouTube. Famitsu later confirmed it on Jalong with first details and screenshots, including the nature of its collaboration with the taiga drama Sanada Maru.

The game's existence was first revealed in a Dengeki PlayStation release calendar in an issue dated on July 12, 2016. It was released in North America and Europe in 2017.

It was released on Novemin Japan to coincide with the airing of the climax episode of the ongoing NHK TV taiga drama Sanada Maru. 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. Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, known in Japan as Sengoku Musou ~Sanada Maru~ (戦国無双～真田丸～) is a hack and slash game by Koei Tecmo through their development subsidiary, Omega Force.

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