I think its pretty obvious the point was to mimic Samurai movies (which is why it had Kurosawa mode as an option) and their mythologized version of that "honor" system rather than the historical thugs they actually were.

In the same way Ninja games are always about Kabuki theater dressed assassins creeping around on rooftops rather than a dude dressed like a peasant shooting a bow from across the field like they historically did.