After Hisashi Koinuma worked on Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends, he sought to create a Warriors title that represented one of his original interests in Koei. He thought that if Dynasty Warriors is the action version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it would be natural to create a version based on the Nobunaga's Ambition franchise. When he pitched the title, Koinuma directed his concern to "refresh" the one versus a thousand theme.