Samurai Warriors 3 is the third installment in the Samurai Warriors series. Like other games in the series, the game reinvents the story based on the Sengoku period of Japan, a period where Japan was ruled by powerful daimyos and where constant military conflict and much political intrigue happened that lasted from the middle of 16th century to the beginning of 17th century. The game features many gameplay improvements over previous games in the series, the most notable being the addition of the Spirit Gauge, a gauge which allows for characters to cancel certain attacks to perform more powerful ones. These occur depending on the level of the gauge. It can also be combined with Muso attacks to perform an "Ultimate Muso". Certain combinations of attacks from the Xtreme Legends expansions also make a comeback. Each of the character's weapons are categorized under Normal, Speed, and Power types similar to Dynasty Warriors 6, except that each character still has unique weapons assigned to them.