Guntama Gunshi no Tamashii

Guntama Gunshi no Tamashii (ぐんたま～軍師の魂～, roughly translated as "Guntama: Soul of a Strategist") is a puzzle action game based on Japan's Warring States period. It is Koei's first original Warring States IP in the social game market. Music is composed by Masashi Hamauzu.

Gameplay
The silent and faceless protagonist is named by the player (maximum 6 characters) who acts as the player avatar. The player's navigator is a young woman named Oomura Yuki. She speaks for the protagonist in the story and imparts tutorials.

Players can proceed through the game by fighting at battles on the main map. Each battle drains energy from the player avatar's energy gauge in order to initiate. Battles themselves proceed in phases, often requiring the player to defeat multiple opponents in each stage.

During battle, the player is given the task of breaking down their opponent's defenses while simultaneously protecting their player avatar's health points. The player can set up their army of attackers through character cards, which are collected through the gacha roulette or earned by collecting banners in battle. A total of five armies can be created for the player's defenses. A board of circular icons represents the means of taking action. Here is a legend of each icons' effects.

Battles proceed by dragging and clicking an icon across the board. Three or more of the same icons must be connected in a straight line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally for them to dissipate. The goal is to perform these chains as much as possible within a seven second time limit. Failing to do so wastes a turn. The timer begins only once the player has begun tracing.

Once the player has traced at least one row, the disappearing icons' action takes effect. Replacement icons are shoved onto the board on the bottom and can be used to contribute to the player's combo, or the number of successful chains in a single turn. Damage dealt increases based on the number of combos. High combos may cause members of the player's deck to attack if their unit type is used for the onslaught. Certain character cards require combos to activate their special ability.

The player can strengthen their character cards at the cost of weaker cards. To unleash their stronger form, a character card can be "Awakened" if it is fused with a specific figure. If this accomplished, the character will change their name, strengths, and portrait. Many of the historical figures in the game will receive multiple incarnations as a result. Inuchiyo, for instance, is the childhood name for Toshiie but his Maeda Toshiie can come to existence if the player keeps awakening him. Female characters who lack multiple identities undergo different name spellings to indicate the same progression (i.e. Hotaru = ほたる ⇒ 蛍).

Players can be befriend one another to act as reinforcements in battle and reward "Friendship Points", which are used in gacha. Micro transactions can be made to purchase rare gacha scrolls or to instantly heal the avatar's energy gauge.

Related Media
Players who preregistered for the title received a rare Yoshihiro Shimazu card. The Twitter campaign granted a rare gacha scroll to the 10,000 people who Retweeted about it.