Following up on the extremely enthusiastic fan reception of the first Samurai Shodown game, SNK rebuilt the sequel from the ground up, including almost all of its predecessor's cast, adding several new characters, and refining the overall gameplay with more responsive control, more moves (particularly the use of the POW meter as a super special move meter; these moves not only cause severe damage to the opponents but also break their weapons, forcing them to fight unarmed for a short interval before a replacement weapon is issued), and a substantial number of Easter eggs.

There are also cameo appearances from other SNK characters, a hidden boss who would occasionally come out to challenge players, and several other treats for fans to uncover.

Those who had fought before in the past during Amakusa's reign of terror now find themselves, along with a few new faces, battling against Mizuki and her loyal forces in order to determine the fate of the entire world itself.

[3] It was ported to the PlayStation only for the Japanese market in 1998, in the form of the Samurai Spirits Kenkaku Shinan Pack[c] (combines the first two games into one package).

It was also released as part of the Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection compilation in July 2020, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows.In North America, RePlay reported it to be the 12th most-popular arcade game in October 1994,[21] despite only being available for location testing at the time.

[27] GamePro praised improvements such as the revised POW meter and secret moves as well as "the best graphics ever seen in a hand-drawn animated fighting game" but said the combos are still unbalanced, with some characters able to do far more damage than others.

They remarked that, in combination with other recent releases such as Fatal Fury Special, SNK was close to overtaking Capcom as the premier maker of fighting games.

[30] Retro Gamer included it among top ten Neo Geo games: "With its beautiful graphics, silky smooth animation and eclectic character roster, the second part of SNKs Samurai Shodown series is easily its best.

A massive arcade success, Samurai Shodown II was a fantastic two-fingered salute to Capcom and proved that SNKs style and ambition knew no bounds.

Chad Okada (Game Lord) stated that efforts to localize the text were stunted as the small profit earned from Neo Geo home versions was not considered worth the time and money needed to fix translation errors.