This is awesome! I had images of the film in my head the entire time. This is a great example of how important theme can be for gameplay. There were times I wanted to save the samurai from death but chose to protect the villagers instead. It was sad but it really put me in their shoes. Great artwork too, nice touch going gray-scale.
One weird thing was the turn speed controls. I'm not sure what I did wrong but the more I messed with the speed controls the slower the game got, even if I went the opposite direction. A visual representation might help?
Also do the villagers ever attack, or just defend?
Thanks for making this game, it's really fun. Something I'd love to play on work breaks.