Sword of the Samurai is an action and strategy video game developed and published by MicroProse in 1989 for the DOS platform.

The player begins the game as a little-known vassal samurai; his ultimate goal is to replace Oda Nobunaga as the daimyō responsible for reunifying Sengoku Japan.

The player (and AI controlled characters) may kidnap and rescue family members, dishonor other samurai, or even assassinate their rivals or lord.

At minimum, exposure entails loss of honor and land and more serious offenses require ritual suicide (seppuku); a failed attempt on the life of the samurai's lord occasions the extermination of his entire family, losing the game.

He is able to direct his underlings to deal with any sword fight or melee minigames without loss of honor: the focus is on the size of the player's army and mastery of the battlefield tactics.

Depending on various factors such as the victor's honor and the presence of an adult heir, the length of the dynasty could range from hundreds of years (like the Tokugawa shogunate) to a quick dissolution after the shōgun's death (as occurred with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi).

They chose to set it during the Sengoku period because the era's chaos made it possible for samurai to gain great power regardless of background, and gave players the goal of uniting the country and becoming shōgun.