The alternate dimension transitions and transformation from the first two games have been omitted. Gameplay also allows longer combo chains -some ranking up to 20-30 hits, making it one of the more complex entries of the series. Dodging and blocking have been taken out and replaced in favor of a 'dummy attack', which causes explosion damage to the enemy at a small cost of life. Each character also has their unique special attacks (performed by pressing down twice and one of the attack buttons) and an ultimate magic technique that can wipe a clear a screen of enemies in one shot. (A) is for light attacks, (B) for heavy, (C) for jumps, and (D) for long ranged attacks chosen from a variety of projectiles that are found while playing. The controls are more set as a fighting game than a standard beat up. Two bosses that confront the player can also be playable after a certain chapter of the game, allowing players to re-select their character if they wish. Players can choose which character they want for the first time, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. The heroes are now members of a ninja clan who have to dispatch an evil emperor before he is released. The game takes a greater departure from its predecessors in both story and presentation. Hamster Corporation re-released Sengoku 3 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in 2018 under their Arcade Archives series. Sengoku 3 is included in the Neo Geo 25th Anniversary Humble Bundle, released in 2015.

In 2013, Sengoku 3 was digitally re-released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console service, courtesy of D4 Enterprise. The North American AES release has since become one of the more expensive titles on the platform, with copies fetching over US$2200 on the secondary video game collecting market. Sengoku 3 was later released for the Neo Geo AES system in October 2001. However, Tanaka was able to do the work by himself. The sound driver used was not designed with streaming in mind, proving difficult for Tanaka to do so and he considered modify the sound driver himself but could not make it so due to time schedule. Tanaka decided on using streaming playback for the music, as he felt he could not guarantee the high quality he desired with previous methods. Tanaka stated in an interview that his biggest challenge when composing for the project was getting the music quality nearly up to levels of other games at the time. The soundtrack was composed by Toshikazu Tanaka, who was previously employed at SNK and worked on project such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. Sengoku 3 was developed by Noise Factory and was first released for arcades on July 18, 2001.

Sengoku 3 rom