Kojirō Sasaki

Kojirō Sasaki is first introduced as a unique non-player general and bodyguard in Samurai Warriors 2. He is playable with a generic moveset in Samurai Warriors 2: Empires and becomes a playable character in Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends. He is Musashi's rival. He's symbolized by the kanji for "sword" (剣) and "swallow" (燕).

Samurai Warriors
In Samurai Warriors 2, Kojirō appears as reinforcements for the Eastern army at the Battle of Kuzegawa. He is one of the generals who guards their escape point. During Ginchiyo's story mode, he also appears to reinforce Yoshihiro and traps Sakon at Shōryuji. He continues to appear in select dream stages surrounding Edo Castle. He also appears in the Village Rescue stages and various other dream modes. In Musashi's story mode, he acts as his rival's foil and taunts him at any given opportunity. He is killed in their duel at Ganryu Island. If he is impressed during Musashi's dream mode, he will appear as the stage's last challenger. When he's defeated, he dubs his rival as the land's greatest warrior with his dying breath. His recruitment mission in Survival Mode is an open call for a sword instructor, an opportunity he will take if the objectives are completed successfully.

His story in Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends explains how the two swordsmen meet one another. Kojirō, after witnessing villagers being slaughtered by pirates, decides to satisfy his boredom by defeating the brigands. During his unintentional rescue, Musashi appears to help him. At the battle's conclusion, Kojirō sees Musashi as his greatest opponent and becomes obsessed with showing his rival a "truly beautiful" death. After the other swordsman flees, Kojirō's talents were scouted by the Tokugawa clan and they hire him to frame Hideyori for scheming to take Ieyasu's life. Unexpectedly, an assassination was actually planned and Kojirō is ordered to kill Hideyori instead. Yukimura and Musashi help the young heir safely escape. More interested in dueling his rival, Kojirō's focus shifts to Musashi and he beats him. Curious to know how a sword can move people, he gives Musashi a year to hone his craft. Kojirō later duels Musashi and miraculously a strike that kills him in Musashi's story. He then joins the ranks to destroy Osaka Castle. Once the Tokugawa army claims victory, the two swordsmen have one last match together. In his ending, Kojirō is thrilled to finally achieve his goal but is simultaneously stricken at losing his greatest rival.

In his dream mode, Kojirō and Musashi work together to defeat many of the land's greatest swordsmen. They additionally compete with one another to see who can score the most fame.

Warriors Orochi
In Warriors Orochi 2, Kojirō plays a small role in the Samurai story mode. He decides to fight along side Musashi after being defeated in the second battle. In his dream mode, he joins a mock battle with Taishi Ci and Wei Yan. In it he confuses Musashi by helping the peasants. He also appears in as an enemy in various dream modes, such as the Itsukushima dream mode where he teams up with Kotaro Fuma to try and kill Liu Bei, and the dream mode in Rescue at Nan Zhong to harm peasants.

Personality
Kojiro appears as a saddistic narcistist, who loves to kill and prove his strength with his sword. Most of his appearances have him talk about him enjoying the opportunity to kill, and he is easily angered by the through of someone better than him. He becomes intrigued by Musashi's skill and is motivated to outdo him and prove himself as absolute best swordsman.

Appearance
In his alternate colors in Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends his coat changes from red to blue, his shirt from brown to blue, his sash from blue to green and his armguards from blue to green. His alternate colors in Warriors Orochi 2 are very similar, although he takes on a purple and blue theme as opposed to his blue and green theme in Xtreme Legends. In Warriors Orochi 2, Kojirō's alternate costume makes his outfit mostly black with a white/silver outlining. His skin is a more natural colour and he no longer wears his earrings.

Voice Actors

 * Maxime Mensah - Samurai Warriors 2 (English)
 * Antoine Yared - Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends (English)
 * Yuji Ueda - Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)

Quotes

 * See also: Kojiro Sasaki (Quotes)


 * "Look out! The spirit of a dead woman walks among the enemy!"
 * "Are you trying to insult me, or are you just stupid?"
 * Nagamasa and Kojirō; Samurai Warriors 2: Empires


 * "So Beautiful. I'll do you a favor and cut you down before you grow into an old hag."
 * "Didn't you know? Feeding on the blood of my enemies keeps me eternally young."
 * Kojirō and Noh; Samurai Warriors 2: Empires


 * "Do it. Kill me now. I want you to be the one."
 * "What!?"
 * "Can you really deny what I'm saying? You've trained your whole life to kill. That's what a sword is for."
 * "You...You...You're wrong! You...You don't see it yet. But I'll show you. Then you'll see... A sword; it can do a lot more than just kill!"
 * Kojirō and Musashi, Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends


 * "Poor thing, you've been waiting for me to give you a beautiful end haven't you?"
 * "Thank you, you saved us! We owe you our life!"
 * "I'm warning you, don't make me have to cut you down."
 * Talking with peasants; Warriors Orochi 2

Samurai Warriors 2: Empires

 * undefined: Kojirō swings his sword back then delivers a powerful diagonal slash
 * undefined: An upward slash that launches the enemy up.
 * undefined: Kojirō swings his sword back then delivers a powerful downward slash
 * undefined: A shockwave that knocks enemies away
 * undefined: Jumps in the air making multiple tornadoes circle Kojirō
 * undefined: Grabs the handle, and back of the sword and drives it forward in a charge
 * undefined: A grab attack that impales the enemy, Kojirō then throws them forward, dashes up to them before they hit the floor and slashes them
 * undefined: Kojirō holds his sword to the left then jumps forward and spins around hitting enemies in a 360 area with great range
 * Kojirō does slow upward slashes while advancing on the enemy
 * R1 + : Braces himself then quickly dashes through the enemies with a slash to the right
 * R1 + undefined : Whistles for his horse

Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends

 * R1 + : Kojirō charges for a moment and performs his Tsubame Gaeshi. He does an unblockable upward cut.
 * R1 + undefined : Using a bit of Musou, Kojirō can temporarily make himself invisible. If he attacks, the effect will wear off but his attack will be stronger.

Story Mode Stages

 * 1) Pirate Hunt - Kojirō fights with the local Fisherman against a group of Pirates and the Tokugawa army.
 * 2) Battle of Kuzegawa - Kojirō fights for the Eastern army against the Western army.
 * 3) Battle of Sekigahara - Kojirō fights for the Eastern army against the Western army.
 * 4) Chaos in Kyoto - Kojirō fights for the Tokugawa army against the Toyotomi army and a group of Vagabonds.
 * 5) Osaka Campaign - Kojirō fights for the Tokugawa army against the Toyotomi army.
 * 6) The Greatest Swordsman (Dream Stage) - Kojirō and Musashi fight against the Oda army and the Toyotomi army.

Samurai Warriors
His Empires moveset combines elements from Mitsuhide, Ranmaru, and Kenshin's movesets. His chain is based on Kenshin save for the last 4 hits which are Mitushide. Of his charges, his C1 is borrowed from Nagamasa Azai's C1 and uses Sakon Shima's C3 as his C3. His C2, C4, C6 and Musou are all Kenshin's moves while his C5, C7, and C8 are all Mitsuhide's. His R1+ and his ending stance after finishing his Musou attack are like Ranmaru's.

His moveset is flexible and rather plain with few really flashy moves, but useful in many situations, as most of his attacks hits large groups, but also tend to break defense, making them good against general and crowd alike. C4, C5, and C8 hit large areas in a 360 degree area making them ideal in dealing with crowds quickly. As for generals all three of his last charges break guards, with the last two even damaging blocking generals. C7 is a grab attack with a small area, but as it is a grab a guard is useless if it connects, and C8 is an attack that breaks guard on impact and hits twice, so if a general guards, his block will be broken in the first swing, and he'll be open for the second. Another note is his R1 + does a lot of damage to its target (about twice that of an average charge attack), which means while it is easily guarded against it is also recommended for generals

As far as what works best with Kojirō, Ice is one recommended element for the fact that it doubles the damage of his special making it very potent, doing 4 times the damage of what Kojiro's Charge attacks would do. Another recommended element is the death element, as some of his charges hits large crowds it kills a large portion of them. Everything else on a weapon boils down to personal preference.

In the Xtreme Legends expansion, Kojirō's fighting style differs in regards to which of his two weapons he is using; his nodachi or his two broadswords. When using his nodachi (mostly in his regular attacks) he attacks with reasonably wide sweeps and very precise attacks, this gives him an overall good range but makes it hard to hit with some of his attacks, particularly when he is using thrust attacks. When using his broadswords (only in charge attacks) his range becomes exceptional, hitting both far out in front of him and far around him.

His katana attacks could be compared to fencing as he does do a lot of thrusting attacks with it, but typically he uses it like any other sword-user uses their swords. His broadswords cannot really be compared to a fighting style as he never actually wields them; they appear trans dimensionally and he simply moves his hand to move them, as if he is directing them with his hands.

Overall, Kojirō is very versatile due to his two weapons but his precise attacks can make him difficult to master, however, as this only applies to a few of his moves he is a great crowd clearer and suitable for most players.

Warriors Orochi
In Warriors Orochi 2 Kojiro makes an appearance with his Xtreme Legends style moveset. He is largely the same, but relies even heavier on his charge attacks. His new special attack is not too useful, so Kojiro has a chance to use his musou often which is still as powerful as in Xtreme Legends. In his weapons however Range is worthless, as with Oichi, Kojiro's attacks aren't considered within the length of his weapon, and so none is adde to his charge attacks. Ice is debateable to add, some players like the improvement it brings to Kojiro, some however don't like to not make use of Kojiro's Critical hit with him being a technique character, and add Air instead.

Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends
* All listed lengths are for the broadsword.

Requirements for obtaining Kojirō's 4th Weapon
Stage: Chaos in Kyoto

Requirements: Within 10 minutes, make Musashi Miyamoto appear and defeat 300 enemies. (Insert Strategy)
 * Strategy

Requirements for obtaining Kojirō's 5th Weapon
Stage: The Greatest Swordsmen

Requirements: Within 13 minutes, make Nobunaga Oda appear and defeat 500 enemies. (Insert Strategy)
 * Strategy

Early Life
Sasaki Kojirō was a swordsman of the late Sengoku and the early Edo eras of Japan. Born in approximately 1585, he is remembered best for his famous duel with Musashi Miyamoto, which he lost and had his life taken.

Kojirō fought under the name of 'Ganryū' which was also the name of the kenjutsu school which he founded. He is believed to have studied the 'Chūjō-ryu' style of sword fighting from either Jisai Kanemaki or Seigen Toda, the latter being a master of the kodachi (a short sword). He became famous because of his school and the many duels he had won and was honored by Tadaoki Hosokawa as the chief weapons master of the Hosokawa fief north of Kyūshū. He used a nodachi that he called 'The Laundry-Drying Pole', also called the Monohoshizao.

Kojirō's Drying Pole was a nodachi, with a blade length over 90cm (3ft) long which is a lot larger in comparison to regular katanas which are 70cm (2ft, 3"). Despite this however, Kojirō wielded the blade with surprising speed and precision. His famous technique, known as 'The Swallow Cut' or 'Tsubame Gaeshi', was feared and respected throughout feudal Japan and was named so due to it mimicking the motion of a swallow's tail during flight. With its quick and precise motion, it could strike down a bird in mid-flight. The technique involves striking downward from above and then instantly striking again in an upward motion from below.

Duel with Musashi
Kojirō had a long rivalry with Musashi and is considered by many to the most challenging opponent that Musashi ever faced. Musashi heard of Kojiro's fame and asked Lord Hosokawa to arrange a duel for him, which was sorted and arranged for April 13th, 1612 on the remote island of 'Ganryujima of Funashima'. There are many accounts of the fight between the two, all of which leading to Kojirō's death, however many also depict that Musashi could have potentially cheated to win their duel.

Among the first of these 'cheating' rumors is that it is stated that Musashi arrived three hours late for their duel deliberately to unnerve Kojirō, a tactic he had used in earlier duels with other swordsmen. The second was that Musashi used the environment against Kojiro, such as the sun and the tides of the sea. Regardless, Kojirō was ultimately defeated by Musashi and his death is often debated even to this day.