Friday 21 February 2014

News roundup: Weekly Famitsu is running a Sengoku Basara 4 character survey!

Vote for your favourite Sengoku Basara 4 character with Weekly Famitsu magazine

I was a little disappointed that Capcom didn't include another big BSR48 popularity poll with Sengoku Basara 4 to gauge the current state of the series' fandom. Weekly Famitsu has just stepped up to the plate with an alternative, though, and I thought it might be fun to draw a little attention to it so that foreign fans can participate too. Please be careful not to spam the form since they might block entries from overseas if anyone tries to cheat.

The voting is open until noon on 24th February 2014 and the results will be printed as part of a Sengoku Basara 4 feature in the 27th March 2014 issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine, which goes on sale on 13th March 2014. I'll post the results when the time comes.

Each question has a space at the bottom for the voter to give a good reason for their choice. The best answers will be printed in the magazine - if you can't give a reason in Japanese, I'd recommend sticking with single word answers in English to avoid traumatising the Weekly Famitsu staff too much and having them invalidate your vote. Unless, of course, you picked Masamune or Sourin/Xavi, in which case answering in incomprehensible English is completely appropriate.

Here's a simple translation of the questions on the survey page. Since there are so many characters, I'd recommend finding the name of your favourite using the fan wiki (or this list).

Q1. Which of the playable characters in Sengoku Basara 4 do you like the most? Please tell us the reason you like them, too!

Q2. Which of the non-playable characters in Sengoku Basara 4 left the greatest impression on you? Again, please provide a reason.

(The final option is 'Other' with space for a name, so all of those Kanetsugu fans can still participate...)

Q3. Which military commander would you like to see playable other than those included in Sengoku Basara 4? It can be one of the non-playable characters, a character from an earlier game or a Sengoku-era warrior who hasn't yet appeared in the Sengoku Basara series. Once again, please provide a reason.

◎ Please provide your gender and age. This will be used for statistical purposes.

(Pick the top button for male or the bottom one for female. The dropdown is just for an age range; the only part that might be hard to understand is that you can pick early or late 20s/30s/40s but it's in a logical order.)

Once you're done, click the button at the bottom and wait for the results in a few weeks!

Designs for more new Gakuen Basara merchandise are revealed

They're gorgeous! As far as I know, these goods are limited to Animate stores and they'll be coming out in late March 2014. Details of the pass case, pin badges and 'second buttons' can be found in my earlier post.

POP/COOL Gakuen Basara book covers with mini bookmarks (¥400 each)


POP/COOL Gakuen Basara clear plastic bookmarks (¥500 each)


Pair/Group Gakuen Basara B5 shitajiki (¥300 each)


Pair/Group Gakuen Basara A4 clear files (¥350 each)


A pack of ten Gakuen Basara badges (¥190 each)

19 comments:

  1. hi! Thanks for translating the survey! Been wondering how to do it.
    My favorite character is Kojuro but I decided to vote for Azai Nagamasa, he need more love.
    Non playable Matsu of course!
    And for the last one I decided to choose Nohime, was hard between her or Ranmaru.
    I hope people will not forget about them when they do this ^-^ LOVE that I got to see them in the 4! <(^-^<)

    Thanks!

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    1. I'm glad it helped! My favourite is Kojuurou too but I also voted for someone different for the first question... then my second two choices were Kasuga and Ranmaru respectively, so my partner will be pleased you gave Matsu a vote to compensate for my lack of loyalty ^^

      I'm guessing the results will be slightly different to usual since Famitsu has more male readers than Capcom's own publications. It will be interesting to see what people pick!

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  2. Thanks for the heads up about the survey! I was worried about the lack of a proper survey with the game, so it's good to see there's one at all. My Japanese is awful so I had to rely on Google Translate for the responses then editing things I knew were wrong.

    I ended up picking Naotora out of the playable characters (I said she was funny, her moveset is fun, and that she's cool and sexy... I wanted to say attractive rather than sexy but I couldn't figure out how to phrase attractive in Japanese as the "appearing attractive" rather than being literally attractive- like magnetically atractive), then chose Kasuga out of the NPCs (said that her stages were sad and I hope that she has a happy ending), and even though I really want Nouhime, Ranmaru, and Itsuki back, I ended up voting for Kenshin since I figured he would factor in lower than Kasuga or missing characters (I basically said "I liked his playstyle in Utage and I really like Paku Romi" xD).

    ...I initially wanted to ask someone to proofread my responses but I figure they're just asking for reasons to put up amusing or surprising ones, rather than taking them seriously into account, so as long as my vote gets through I'm good.

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    1. And I just realized that they might invalidate the answers. AAAAAHHH... oh well. I tried at least.

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    2. I'm sure it will be fine! Most Japanese gamers probably aren't turning in perfectly-written responses either, so as long as you tried they'll be able to tell you're probably a real person :)

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  3. Voted for Maeda Keiji as my favourite - this game did him SO much justice. More than I expected, even. Chose Yoshiteru for the NPCs. I was dead set on choosing Kenshin at first but god, I love this guy.

    As for the new guy, I chose Takigawa Kazumasu. Do you know how brilliant it would be if Keiji discovered who his real father is, only to find out that he's working for the Toyotomi or the Oda? That storyline would be amazing.

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  4. It was a good idea for me to do it in English, right?

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    1. Yeah, Keiji is really cool in 4. I love his personality and that his links to the main Maeda family are much stronger this time.

      I hope they print a long list for the results of the third question so we can see all of the historical figures who might not get many individual votes; it would make a great article if they can highlight some of the choices. At least Capcom are likely to see all of the results since they work so closely with the Famitsu staff.

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  5. Voted for Kanbee in playable section (cmon, he's like the only guy from SB3 with no Drama Route here!) then I picked Mitsuhide in NPC section (I just love the guy's persona more than everyone else's there was even though he's technically in as Tenkai) and Ujimasa for Q3 (I was so disappointed he's not in SB4 in any form, he climbed up a bit in my favorites list leaving both Xavi (who got some love while not even being in the game himself) and Amago (who wasn't developed enough for me to like him more) behind).
    Thanks for the hint on the survey, BTW ^^

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    1. Very interesting choices! I want to see Ujimasa back with a good storyline soon. I miss his lovely music :D

      In a way, I feel that the NPC characters in 4 were handled very well so they're quite memorable; they'll feel more relevant when they're properly reintroduced to the series whereas in 3 they were barely given more attention than the generic area warlords. Ujimasa could really use the same treatment next time so he seems more important than just being 'that cowardly old guy with the cool ninja'. I want to see him trying to shape his own version of Japan in a story and ranting at the other characters too...

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    2. It may sound awkward but in terms of characters' themes I'd like to have Imagawa Yoshimoto back, lol. Would be funny to reimagine his boss fight as well He could act just like one of those SB4 tacticians running and hiding behind his troops and calling in even more troops. Though technically Yoshiaki already stole most of his uniqueness with all of those gentleman kagemushas out of nowhere. Still would be funny to see both of their doppelganger armies fighting each other while being totally confused in the process )).

      Honestly I love Ujimasa for his change of character. He has such a big variety of emotions on battlefield you can't help but smile at. Also SB3 gave him a such a great treatment even behind Kotarou's storyline (which is technically Ujimasa's very own). I enjoyed his acts towards Shingen, Ieyasu and Kanbee and his fear of Mitsunari. Literally laughed my as off when Kanbee realized his ambition by siezing the Osaka Castle with Ieyasu suddenly gone missing, which is hilaroisly resulted with Tadakatsu smashing through Odawara Castle purely because of old guy's well known good relations with Kanbee. Excellent writing no less :D

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    3. Yoshimoto was fun in the stage play and I liked his colourful silliness :D

      He does need a bit of a makeover, as you say, to avoid clashing with Yoshiaki too much. They both coexisted in the stage play though without it being annoying at all, and YamamotoD said before that he uses the plays to test character interactions sometimes...

      I love how all of the characters are so interesting that everyone has different preferences; there's not a single cast member I dislike (well, I dislike Hisahide, but that's because he's a big jerk rather than because he's a bad character).

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  6. Thanks raindrops , i voted for Kojuuro he is too awesome , and i wish we get more characters with similar design and Deep voice actor

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  7. Hey Raindrops i was playing SB4 , and i am sure i heared some generic officers say the name
    Musashibo Benkei , if u can find the line and translate it would be great

    thank u so much for your amazing work keep it up , and Put Ya Gunz On !

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    1. Yay, a vote for Kojuurou!

      I don't recall the line about Benkei, but I'll listen out and let you know if I spot it. If you remember which army's officers mentioned him it might help me track it down (unless they were responding to something specific about the player character which sometimes happens) :D

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    1. Haha, this made me smile :) did you manage to re-submit your choices?

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  9. Long time lurker here - thank you so much for all of your English coverage and translations for Sengoku Basara 4, it's been really helpful and interesting. :)

    I struggled to pick just one favourite character in the poll but I ended up voting for Matabei. I'm a big fan of Kanbei, Motonari and Kojuurou but Matabei pipped them all at the post for me since he's got quite an interesting character and design and I think he's a lot of fun to play. I was a little disappointed at the lack of drama routes for Kanbei and Kojuurou in Basara 4.

    I put my favourite NPC as Shingen and the character I would like to see in future Basara games as Xavi. I wish I could vote for multiple people because I would love to have Ujimasa, Nou-hime, Ranmaru and Yoshimoto back as well!

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    1. Thank you for your comment! I was surprised at some of the choices for drama routes in 4 as well, though I guess that's the price of the big character roster.

      It makes me happy when people vote for characters I like too. Matabee is great and I love Xavi's fighting style and craziness. I'm terrible with Shingen, I have to admit, but he needs to come back as a full character too; he's part of what makes the series 'Sengoku Basara' after all!

      I hope everyone comes back for the next big anniversary celebration. We need to see everyone on PS3 with the new system and proper stories♪

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