Being the first game in the series to have connection with real world history, Dance of the Maple Banners inherited most of the previous game's interface, arts, and battle system, with subtle modifications, and wrapped with new plot. More realistic ancient war machines were made alive, while historical figures such as Mozi, Lu Ban, Sun Bin, could be encountered in the game.

As were the cases with most other standalone tales titles, players do not have the chance to wield the Sword. In this game the Sword is in Shu Sangzi's possession, and is used against players. In the final battle, Shu uses a move called Xuan-Yuan Sword Technique (軒轅劍法), which inflicts serious damage to the player party.