The strength of the controlled character allows for superhuman feats of destruction against multiple foes, and the battles revolve around defeating large numbers of enemies.

Samurai Heroes mixes up the gameplay by adding in other objectives, as well, such as guarding a castle or destroying an enemy's food reserves.

Combos can be easily performed, and characters have the ability to gain levels by completing stages, eventually unlocking skills and/or adding additional power to their existing ones.

Characters marked with (*) are unplayable NPCs (except for Takeda Shingen, who was only in cutscenes) in the original game that have become playable in its expansion, Sengoku BASARA 3 Utage Bold denotes starter characters in the main game and Samurai Heroes Matsunaga Hisahide (**) did appear in Sengoku BASARA 2 Heroes as an NPC but he makes his first playable appearance in Sengoku BASARA 3 Utage NPC characters that serve as bosses and/or mini-bosses with no role in the story, and aren't playable in any of the games (have made their first appearance in Samurai Heroes): Nanbu Harumasa, Satake Yoshishige, Utsunomiya Hirotsuna, Anegakōji Yoritsuna, Amago Haruhisa, and Naoe Kanetsugu.

The American and European versions of the game uses an instrumental track called "The Last Brave" by Rei Kondoh, due to licensing restrictions.