The game is set one year after the events of TENGAI MAKYŌ II: MANJI MARU and four years after the events of the first game, TENGAI MAKYŌ: ZIRIA.
This is a side story in the TENGAI MAKYŌ series. It features Kabuki Danjūrō, a character from the previous game TENGAI MAKYŌ II: MANJI MARU (1992), as the main protagonist, and also includes numerous characters from TENGAI MAKYŌ: ZIRIA (1989) in this spin-off.
The TENGAI MAKYŌ series is set in a fictional country called "Jipang" with a 16th-century backdrop, built around the concept of "a mistaken worldview seen from the West." However, in this game, the setting shifts early on from Jipang to "London," a city modeled after England.
In previous TENGAI MAKYŌ titles, the battle scenes used a front-view display where only the enemies and messages were shown on the screen. However, this game introduces a side-view battle system where animations depict various actions, such as normal attacks and techniques.
In this work, based on a concept by the original creator Hiroi Ōji, musical elements were incorporated, such as boss characters singing their own theme songs when they appear. The collaboration between Hiroi Ōji and composer Tanaka Kōhei also introduced musical elements into the Sakura Wars series, which they later worked on, and the series was even adapted into stage performances.