Devil Kings is in the same vein as the Dynasty Warriors series. Whereas in Dynasty Warriors, however, Koei focuses on ancient Chinese history, Devil Kings focuses more on feudal Japan, but with a fictional setting with the ability to use modern day weapons such as chain guns and shotguns as well as fighting legendary and fictional characters from the past.

The story takes place as the Devil King, a king possessed by the soul of the Devil, has unleashed an unholy army on the world to bend it to his will as the player must stop him along with many of his minions including his wife Lady Butterfly, his general the Red Minotaur, as well as loyal assassins Scorpio and Venus.

The gameplay is more arcade hack-and-slash style, with the ability of using magic spells to wipe out entire waves of enemies and as mentioned before, the ability to use modern day weapons along with historical weapons such as spears, swords among others. There are twelve playable characters to use as well, each with their own story told in CG and anime cutscenes as well as two modes of play, Conquest (the main story of the game) and Free Mode (where players can play in any unlocked stage they have completed).

Devil Kings is the localized version of Sengoku Basara with several significant differences. The most obvious one is the setting: instead of Feudal Japan, this version is set in a fantasy world. Because of this, the character names (no longer based on historical characters), the level art as well as the story were changed. Other differences are less player characters (12 instead of 16), harder difficulty levels and the introduction of the primer system: when using the primer attack (which was one of the special attacks of the Japanese version), the enemy becomes more vulnerable.