Musashi Miyamoto

Musashi Miyamoto is one of the new playable characters in Samurai Warriors 2. He is widely considered to be one of Japan's greatest swordsmen and is famous for writing The Book of Five Rings. He's symbolized by the characters for "cut" (斬) and "ultimate" (極).

Although he doesn't personally appear, scrolls named after the principles mentioned in his book appear in Samurai Warriors. When these five scrolls are equipped at once, elemental attacks are instant death. They can be found in the game's Abyss Survival mode.

Samurai Warriors
Musashi appears in Samurai Warriors 2 as an idealistic and rambunctious youth. He believes his swords can save people and strives to prove his worth as the land's greatest swordsman. He has a loose alliance with the Western Army and fought for his life at Sekigahara. While he is saving a village from pirates, he meets his rival, Kojiro. To prevent Kojiro from causing more destruction, he befriends Yukimura and opposes him at Kyoto. After he kills Kojiro in their fateful duel, he continues to defend the weaken Toyotomi family at Osaka. Kotaro dubs him as a man of chaos yet Musashi is determined to prove otherwise by helping to end Ieyasu. After a bout with the ninja, he swears that his swords will fight for peace.

In his dream stage, he wants to prove himself as the strongest warrior of the age. While Tadakatsu and Sakon are in the midst of a mock battle, Musashi barges in to show off his skills. Nene appears as the self-proclaimed strongest woman in the land. If Musashi does well during the battle, Kojiro will be obliged to duel him.

Warriors Orochi
He appears in one of Shu's Gaiden stages and leads a group of swordsmen to overthrow Mitsunari. If the player helps Musashi successfully release the floodgates with his forces intact to reach Mitsunari, he will agree to join the resistance.

Kessen
Musashi can be recruited for Nobunaga's army in Kessen III. He will join Nobunaga after he is beaten in a Rampage at Kizugawaguchi. He has a strong sword proficiency and leads one of the strongest sword units in the game.

Development
When developers were planning to add the strongest sword wielding character, Musashi became the obvious choice for the position. The designer wanted his design to scream Musashi and made a wild image to reflect known historical accounts of his appearance. They wanted to show his confidence by writing "The Land's Greatest" (天下無双, Tenka Musou) on the back of his coat. The director adds that Musashi was also one of the most requested characters for the first game, but he guesses that this was mainly due to the popularity of the taiga drama (titled Musashi) that showed the year before. Even though he is basically a bonus character for fans, he also wants players to max him out and use him to truly experience Chaos difficulty.

Voice Actors

 * Arron Wood - Samurai Warriors 2 (English)
 * Sam Riegel - Warriors Orochi series (English)
 * Hidehiko Kaneko - Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)

Quotes

 * "Only one can be the greatest! Guess who."
 * "My swords will cut through this darkness, and herald a new age!"
 * "The way of the sword, I will perfect it!"
 * "I am invincible!"
 * "Finally a chance to use my sword to end suffering! This is it!"
 * "If all you can do with them is hurt others, you don't deserve your swords."
 * "The sword is not a tool of death! You hear me?!"
 * "No matter how strong your sword, you cannot split a shadow."
 * "Yeah? Well I don't see any shadows here. Just a skinny little man in a silly outfit."
 * Hanzo and Musashi; Samurai Warriors 2


 * "Tadakatsu Honda... They say you're the best man 'round these parts. But I like a challenge! Here goes!"
 * "Very good. Come and fight me! Your youthful energy against my refined skill. And may the best man win."
 * Musashi and Tadakatsu; SW2 Empires

Moveset
Musashi's fighting style in the game is a slightly more theatrical version of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū twin-sword style he invented. Although it has a more limited range than spear weapons, his twin swords are excellent for both one-on-one duels and for keeping back large crowds. His Musou attack has him stand in place and essentially turns him into a living food processer, shredding apart anyone too slow to get out of the way.