[Editor’s note: for the background information and box art of the Playstation Vita counterpart, Ukiyo no Roushi, go here.]

Ukiyo no Shishi, which translates to Patriot of Ukiyo, is the Playstation 3 version of the pair of third-person, action adventure games that Spike Chunsoft has been developing. The games are pretty much exactly the same in terms of setting and gameplay, and differ only in the platform they’re on, the story, and its characters.

Ukiyo no Shishi will be available for 7,800 yen on the Playstation 3, on January 29, 2015, for Japan only.

Characters

The main characters in the game will be, from left to right above, Sakamoto Ryoma, the protagonist; Katsu Kaishu, a government man, who plans to start an organization to overthrow the Shogunate; and Narasaki Ryo, nicknamed Oryo, the young girl who first finds the amnesiac.

Story

The PlayStation 3 version has as its protagonist Ryoma Sakamoto, a historical Japanese figure and samurai who in this game is an amnesiac.

Ukiyo no Shishi is intertwined with the Ishin Shishi’s attempts to return the Japanese imperial house, which had last reigned in the 1600s, to power in order to try to curb foreign influences in Japan. Ryoma loses his memories in Dejima, Nagasaki, and is found naked and unconscious by a woman called Oryu (who is directly based on Sakamoto’s real wife, Oryo). She helps him to regain his identity. In addition to Sakamoto and Oryu, another historical figure in the form of Katsu Kaishu will appear in the game.

The story is both about Sakamoto’s memory loss, and Japan’s slide into seclusion and protectionism at the end of the Edo period.

Action

Below you can see a few screenshots of the PS3 version of the game in action, which show off Sakomoto using special Sword Techniques. Since both Ukiyo no Shishi and Ukiyo no Roushi use the same gameplay systems, we’ve decided to explain them in one post: for a more in depth discussion of the game’s combat, check out our debut trailer update on the Ukiyo nos.