Sunday 8 December 2013

News roundup: Gossip from the Tokyo Sengoku Basara 4 preorder event

Today the last of the five consecutive Sengoku Basara 4 in-store preorder events was held in Setagaya, Tokyo at a Tsutaya store. KobaP presented a brand new Sengoku Basara 4 video, met the fans and answered questions in two separate 'talk show' presentations.

Since I'm not there in person, I've rounded up a few rumours from people who did manage to attend via scavenging from Twitter, blogs, 2ch and the like. Here we go.
  • This week's new video is about battles. A lot of stages were shown.
  • Masamune's Aoba Castle stage has an 'Oushuu Cup' event (presumably a race).
  • Katsuie was shown racing against Masamune with his 'nagi-copter' (i.e. spinning his naginata like a Doraemon-style take-copter).
  • Shikanosuke's Investigation: Shikanosuke stage was shown too.
  • Kanbee's stage has a mining cart you can ride. And there's a ball roulette of some kind..?
  • There's an onsen stage where the girls get together (Note: I think this could be the one we've seen in a few pictures before, and in Ieyasu's DLC video). Someone confirmed the name was Kaga Onsen: Otome No Tsudoi (Kaga Hot Springs: Gathering Of Maidens).
  • On the Maeda family's festival stage, Sakon was heard asking where the gambling parlor was.
  • Tsuruhime's stage has a huge bell which can produce money when it sounds.
  • Soldiers formed a barrier on Nagamasa's stage but it was broken immediately.
  • YamamotoD mentioned making a theme park stage this time (Note: we've seen this in a few shots).
  • Someone said that the mechanic of cutting through the sliding doors on Yoshiteru's stage was nice. Weekly Famitsu once said that this mechanic was part of Honnouji, if I recall correctly, so this might be mixed up (either that or both stages use it).
  • Motochika, Motonari and Keiji were shown on the march screen.
  • KobaP seems to have said that Motonari has his sights set on Aniki's Hyakki Fugaku fortress.
  • There's some kind of team-up between Masamune and Yukimura for Osaka Castle; the messages are jumbled but people are saying it feels as though they confront Hideyoshi and Hanbee.
  • There's a huge cannon on your side for Osaka Castle again.
  • And Hanbee's 'one night castles' can spring up again too.
  • There was other content too which the 2ch poster thought they had missed. Someone else said that there was so much information they doubt anyone will be able to remember it all to make a report.
  • For some reason half of Twitter is going on about Amago again. I'm going to assume that this is actually a Shikanosuke stage using Amago's name and troops as this is what all of the information points to... Amago's legions of fans are scary.
  • Amago's soldiers 'surf' the desert on wooden planks on Shikanosuke's stage.
  • Many people have mentioned an appearance by the 'Amago Juuyuushi' (Amago Ten Braves). Historically, Shikanosuke is described as being part of this group.
  • Yoshiaki's copies are better than Yoshimoto's were.
  • You can view pictures of the venue from @ritsuka8282 and @suimemo to see the scale of the event (it's small).
  • There's also a close-up picture of the facial expression designs for Shima Sakon. The other new characters will have these designs too in the special book that comes with the Hyakka Ryouran Tamatebako edition of the game.
Once again, Tsutaya is a store chain which is offering the Shima Sakon DLC costume with preorders - so that's why a lot of Sakon fans turned up there and he's being shown most prominently.

Even though these events are over, the news isn't going to stop flowing. The video should appear on Capcom's channel during the week (probably tomorrow), then there's a Nico Nico broadcast on Thursday, a private demonstration event for selected fans next Sunday and Jump Festa the week after. Furthermore, there's only a week and a half left until the next likely character announcements in Weekly Famitsu. I recommend checking the calendar link at the top to keep track of everything!

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We now have the video and reports from Famitsu, Gamer and Dengeki!


Rather than continuing to scavenge observations from elsewhere, here are my own now that I can see it.
  • The Amago Juuyuushi were in the formation part of the video, and they are also the people who surf in the desert.
  • There are a few new formations.
  • You race against Masamune and Kojuurou at Aoba Castle, like in Masamune's Sengoku Basara 3 stage.
  • The one-night castle which pops up on the Osaka: Toyotomi Hajou stage is huge.
  • Nagamasa is shown on Maria's Tango: Sengenji stage.
  • There are now three different Kaga stages, lending some credibility to the claim that the Maeda family will have a decent role this time. Kaga Border: Shizugatake has Matsu and her animals.
  • Similarly Shingen has three stages even though he's an NPC, now that he's been confirmed to appear in the Takeda Kawanajima stage (not that there was any doubt he would!).
  • There's a clash between Yukimura and Naotora ("Tiger vs Tiger!") which is called the Kai Takeda Grudge Time. Not sure whether this is a proper stage or a drama stage with a special name - it's probably a one-on-one battle from Naotora's story?
  • The Kanbee roulette looked a lot like pinball to me...
  • And the sliding doors are Honnouji, not Yoshiteru's stage. The reporter mixed them both up.
  • I'm putting them on my list as Eastern Sun/Western Shadow as it's better English when they're being described separately, but it's worth noting that the two Battle of Sekigahara stages are named as Eastern Yang/Western Yin.
  • KobaP mentioned that he thinks that Yoshiteru is the strongest boss so far, and they're pretty pleased with how he turned out.
  • He mentioned that there were four characters left, which is correct according to the numbers revealed to date.
  • He also told the Famitsu reporter that most of the attendees at the events were rather shy.
  • The reporter observed that the number of women present was overwhelming. KobaP was amused and said he knows that there are men playing the games even if it's the women who want to turn up and share the new information. Apparently the Tokyo events tend to have slightly better male representation than the others.
  • KobaP said most of the people asking him questions during the signings wanted to know whether particular characters were playable or not (Motonari was singled out as an example), and they also wanted story information.
  • The team aren't planning more demo events next year, but they'd like to do release events.
  • KobaP mentioned the angry tweets he received after the last NPCs were revealed (specifically citing a Kasuga fan who was furious he couldn't play as her) and said that the decision about which new characters, PCs and NPCs to include was a hard one.
My translation guide has been updated with the new information.

Update 22:00: Added Dengeki Online and Gamer report links, and a couple of minor details to the end of my bullet points.

28 comments:

  1. Those expressions...needs to be putted in Basara 4, so that it can convey the dialogue more better. I know it'll look a bit like Musou...but..

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  2. The video got me more hyped for the game! The stages are much larger now! :D
    On another note, I've noticed that there's some English on Masamune's stage(Aoba Castle). Eg. First Gate,Final Gate etc.
    And is it just me,or does Toshiie and Matsu's stage use the same map as Katsuie's stage(The one where H&H were fighting on)? :o

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    Replies
    1. Both of those two stages are set at Shizugatake, so well spotted!

      Masamune is just helping the English-speaking importers enjoy the game, I'm sure...:)

      Delete
  3. Just for reference, it's Yin/Yang, not Ying/Yang ^^

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    Replies
    1. Nooo I keep making typos lately! Thanks, fixed it.

      Delete
    2. Don't worry, it happens when you're always working hard~

      Delete
  4. Has capcom mentioned anything about what the max cap is for levels, is it going to be same as utage with a limit of 200 or are they taking it back down to 100 like in samurai heroes ?

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    Replies
    1. I don't recall seeing anything about the level cap yet. Levelling all 32 characters to 200 will be more fun now they have the Inrou stored experience mechanic, so I would quite like it if they keep the same limit as Utage, personally...

      Delete
    2. Same here, i enjoyed every level i spent with my characters to get them to lvl 200, it made utage much more fun for me, not to mention going through a easy conquest mode with a level 200 mitsunari and a fully upgraded joke weapon was fun to play with.

      Delete
  5. The last comment about NPCs and Kasuga made me laugh. Like when SB3 was announced, there was also a fuss about her being NPC and here it is again. LOL. Oh and if Shingen gets 3 stages will Kenshin get the same treatment?

    Btw, thanks again for the news, much appreciated as always ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, I'd guess Kenshin might appear on one of the Yoshiteru-related Ounin stages based on his story, but even so it's not looking very balanced so far :/

      I'd love to see him get a reversed version of someone else's territory as a stage too. It would make him feel more relevant again if he does more than camp at Kawanakajima.

      Though I imagine Oyakata-sama is profiting from Yukimura's popularity to some extent...

      Delete
  6. kenshin and kasuga will be upgrade to be PC soon.....

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  7. Incredible! Stages are huge, especially that of Maeda, Tsuru, and Toyotomi... they seem to have listened to the fans and have left some open spaces without enemy commanders. It is a very interesting Kanbei's the camp! It looks like a minigame than a battlefield XD They even put the two Sekigahara too :D

    Kenshin and Kasuga does not have their part as PC again D: but it is still amazing that there are 32 playable characters!

    Aoi

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    1. I found Kanbee's level relatively dreary in Sengoku Basara 3 so I'm glad to see that it looks fantastic this time around!

      Delete
  8. million people posting angry tweet to kobaP because kenshin and kasuga becoming NPC l think then kobaP will trying to reconsider to make kenshin and kasuga upgrade to be PC .....

    or l think kasuga will be have 2 characters same like mitsuhide akechi , one in NPC and the new one in PC ...

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    Replies
    1. that's impossible to have two kasugas because she's not a person who has separated personality. ^^

      Delete
    2. I don't think Kenshin and Kasuga have a million fans, and unfortunately I think it's too late for any kind of campaigning at this stage. The game is probably complete and just being tested/prepared for production. If you asked most people whether they wanted to delay it by an extra two months to add Kenshin and Kasuga, I think they would say no - and Capcom would lose money with any delays since everything is ready for January. Also, if you add those two it would be unfair not to also upgrade Toshiie, Matsu, Shingen and (if he's even in the game at all) Ujimasa, so it's quite a lot of work for their team.

      Campaigning to get them as paid DLC is probably the only plan that will work, but I think that polite messages will motivate KobaP and his team better than angry ones. As the saying goes, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar". Even if they want to upgrade Kasuga, doing it because they're criticised looks really bad.

      Also, I think people who buy the game and really want a particular character should say so on the survey card that is usually included. Then they know that the feedback is coming straight from customers instead of people who weren't going to buy the game.

      I like Kenshin and Kasuga a lot too, but I don't want Capcom to lose money on Sengoku Basara and I certainly don't want them to delay the game. If they release paid DLC I'll buy them that way.

      Delete
  9. four character left :
    sorin otomo 1000% confirmation
    muneshige tachibana same like sorin 1000%
    matsunaga hisahide 1000%
    pontiff xavi 50% , kotaro fuuma 50% , or probably the new character 50%

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    Replies
    1. I don't think that it will be a new character (they're done, according to this http://www.famitsu.com/news/201311/01042575.html ) and that rules out Xavi too if they're treating the returning cast as new characters too, so I think Kotarou is safe. Especially as the official magazine implied both ninja other than Sasuke would be included in some form.

      Delete
    2. there no DLC for NPC l really sure 100% , all NPC will saves in expansion 1 or 2 years later ..... but this time basara 4 comes really great gameplay but still again make upset some fans gamer

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    3. I agree with you,randy saputra , NO DLC ! ! Capcom !! that you make me disappointed just like Asura wrath (that make my friend buried all capcom games and never buy them forver ,LOL)

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. About Onsen stage, It must call BOOBIES TRAP!! (Man's Romance!! >W<)
    P.S. DAMN CAPCOM !! WHY YOU LET ME CAN'T PLAY WITH KASUGA (+boobies)
    [OPPAI BANZAI!!!!] )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously, are you playing Basara for "Oppai" Character huh?? Boobie trap?? or anything that should belong more "suggestive" title...

      Sorry, I don't mean any offence but you come to wrong genre, guy.

      Delete
    2. Your entitlement and weeaboness is showing.
      There are about one billion games out there with objectifed female characters designed for boys that you could play if you want to see pixel cleavage - and Kasuga is still in the game, could still be a dlc character.

      Delete
  12. Hi! As always thanks for the news! I love Kasuga but I'm starting to hate those angry fans .... Come on, One of my fav gameplay is Matsu and she is not there Im not crying, I will play her in the next game . Sengoku Basara 4 look really awesome , one of the best! They bring back old characters that I didnt expect at all (Nagamasa!!!)and they did a brilliant job with the gameplay. The shop ....just amazing. The stage are gorgeous. You cant play only one character in basara...There are some character I'm unhappy to see again but overall the roster is really good! I'm glad they keep unique character that are not super popular, like Shimazu.I dont play him a lot but love his story and Relationship with other character . Nice to have an old man now an then. DLC is stupid. better wait for an expansion to let them have a story.

    Will play kojuro,masamune,Nagamasa,motochika,Keiji, Oichi (wait for Kotaro and Matsunaga confirmation)and I really want to try Katsuie.
    Will wait for Matsu in the next one ! With maybe Nohime and Ranmaru? :3

    Well that being said! I'm really looking forward to this! The game is just so awesome, each time me and my friend talk, heard or saw anything related to basara we just want to play! Looking at gameplay video is so exiting and torturing at the same time.

    My life is on hiatus until basara came out!

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    1. It's going to be so weird when the game is finally out and we don't have to keep looking for new information to satisfy our curiosity! There will suddenly be so much free time to play :D

      All of the NPCs becoming fully playable with stories in the future expansion, along with Nouhime and Ranmaru...that would be fantastic. I'm going to look forward to it while continuing to enjoy the craziness from 4!

      Delete

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