First Samurai

Eating food and drinking sake will help the player get stronger, while fire and enemy contact will weaken the samurai. The main objective in a level is to collect a set of four items which must be used to gain access to the area where the level's boss lies.

Magic pots serve as checkpoints and are activated with the energy of the player's sword. Killing a monster releases a portion of sword energy which the player then collects automatically. Using a bell (down + fire) at the right place removes an obstacle, that is blocking the player's path. The player starts out as a hermit in an ancient forest, but eventually becomes powerful enough to fight in the villages and the towns, and later the dungeons.

In The First Samurai, the protagonist undertakes a quest as the first samurai in the history of feudal Japan, and must compete against rival swordsmen.

The First Samurai began development in July 1990, and was originally scheduled for a September 1991 release for Amiga and Atari ST, with an MS-DOS port stated to be 'unplanned' at the time. In a December 1990 issue of British gaming magazine The One, The One interviewed team members from Vivid Image for information regarding The First Samurai's development in a pre-release interview. , and Docherty expresses that "At the time we were in the middle of designing another game, but we weren't very happy with it." The One purported that the title The First Samurai's correlation to The Last Ninja is "purely coincidental".

Docherty's proposal of a samurai theme was received by Vivid Image as "exactly what they were looking for", and Docherty states "We wanted something fairly mystical so that we could put in lots of special effects. Samurai also have a very strong sense of honour - that fitted in with our plot." Mev Dinc, The First Samurai's project manager, expressed that programmer Raffaele Cecco was invited to the project "because he's not only a very good programmer, he also comes up with lots of really good ideas. If I suggest one thing, he usually comes back with three."

ST Review's Dave Jones raved about the Atari ST version, "This is an undoubtedly classic and, despite its age, it is a darn sight more entertaining than some of today's offerings!"

Amiga Joker gave the Amiga version of First Samurai an overall score of 82%, comparing it to other similar games such as Shadow Dancer and The Last Ninja, and expressing "If someone were to say that the game isn't really original, they would be correct. However, First Samurai impresses not so much with an innovative idea, but more with technical brilliance and excellent gameplay." Amiga Joker praises First Samurai's 'compelling' gameplay, noting the number of usable weapons, its "difficult" puzzles, and "crafty" level design, particularly praising the inclusion of hidden areas and items. g.