The original review can be found here: http://spielbound.org/article/review-samurai-spirit
I am the original author, so I have obtained permission from myself to repost this on BGG (after long tense negotiations involving Brownies and Hard Apple Cider)
Samurai Spirit is the latest game by <PERSON>, the creator of such fantastic games as 7 Wonders, Hanabi, Takenoko, Tokaido, and Ghost Stories. It is a 1-7 player cooperative game which puts seven brave samurai against a seemingly endless horde of bandits in order to defend a small village of farmers.
If that plot sounds familiar, then I applaud your taste in movies; the theme of the game is very much influenced by the 1956 classic Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai) by <PERSON> (Or for you western movie buffs, the 1960 Americanized remake, The Magnificent Seven). Mr. <PERSON> went so far as to write an homage to the movie in the rule book and named all of the Samurai in the game after the <PERSON> in the film.
A full game of seven players should take about 45 minutes, but a 2–3 player game can be done as quickly as 20 minutes. There is also a solo variant where one person controls two samurai with a few tweaks to the rules.
Recommended for: Groups of 4-7 players who are looking for a quick, light cooperative game, people who enjoy the "Seven Samurai" theme, people who do not mind losing often to forces out of their control (like in traditional solitaire, Chainsaw Warrior, or DungeonQuest).
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay is very easy to grasp. You start the game with a deck of cards with values ranging from 1–4. The number of cards will always be the number of players * 7. This is the raider deck. On your turn you must first take any negative effects generated by the last raider card you confronted. You then have three options:
Draw a card from the raider deck and fight it. You fight raiders either by confronting (putting it on the right side of your board) or defending (left side of your board).
If you choose to confront, you place the card overlapping the previous card (if any), but still leave the number visible. You then move your meeple down the combat line to match the sum of all your confronted cards. 755
If you go over your maximum value, you are knocked out and must pass next round. You will also lose one fortification. If you hit your number exactly, you activate your Kiai superpower (more on that later)!
If the raider has an icon which matches one on the left side of your board, you can choose to defend and place the card on the left side of the board. You won't get the battle penalty or have to move your meeple further down the battle line, but you can only defend once per round per symbol; once all three symbols have been used, you can't defend for the rest of the round.
Give your support token to another player; this will allow the player to use your unique ability for the next turn only. You then place the top card of the raider deck in the intruder pile to be resolved at the end of the round.
Pass. If you pass you are out for the rest of the round and will not be affected by any game effects until the next round.
Each player takes turns doing this until either everyone passes or the raider deck is empty. If everyone passed and there are still raider cards left, they all move to the intruder pile (they got past your defenses and are now terrorizing the village!) Now the players check to see if they have any missing spot on the defense side of their board; for every missing spot you may have to get wounded, lose a farm, or lose a villager. Then each villager still alive will reward the team with a bonus of some kind. Finally, the intruder stack is turned face up; for every raider with fire at the bottom of the card you must lose one barricade (or farm, if you are out of barricades).
For round two, you gather up all the played cards and must shuffle in as many lieutenants (five value cards) as there are players. In round three you do the same thing for the boss cards (six value cards).
Every Samurai has a unique ability you can use once every turn; some will allow you to pass cards to your neighbors, some will allow you to ignore the negative effects of certain cards, and so on. Every Samurai also has a unique Kiai power, which is activated when your meeple is moved onto (but not past) the last number on your battle line. Kiai powers can mend fences, heal players, discard cards, and rearrange player’s battle lines. 50