Wednesday 15 April 2015

News: Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi information from Weekly Famitsu (30th April 2015)

It's that time again! Fans in Japan are starting to receive their copies of Weekly Famitsu magazine and that means more Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi news for everyone else. Like before, we can expect the official website to update in a few hours to add the information revealed in the magazine.

Once again, I'm keeping the numbering system listed in the magazine to make it easier for people to navigate the website once it updates.

19. Details of Sen No Rikyuu's psychic moveset!

The article opens by describing Rikyuu's moves with pictures. To help those who find it hard to remember which is which, Wabisuke is the gentle personality and Sabisuke is the more aggressive one.

With Kuchikiri ('First Tea'), Sabisuke spreads his arms as though he's dancing and rushes the enemies holding fans in both hands. It can either be used to start a chain or to follow on from another move.

Ooyose ('Great Gathering') draws the enemies in front of Wabisuke together then lets him lock on to the group of them. He can either control the clump of soldiers for a set time or hit them with a follow-up attack.

Chachakuru ('Spinning Disruption') is another Sabisuke move described as a unique attack where he performs a wild dance as fans appear around him. It isn't pictured in the article.

(Raindrops' note: The name of this move is actually a multi-layered pun which was clearly chosen because 'cha' means tea. I'm not smart enough to come up with a better English equivalent.)

Rikyuu's first special (R2) move is called Sen Sensu ('A Thousand Fans'), an obvious reference to his name. A vast number of folding fans come flying out from his sleeve in a straight line to attack the enemy. The player can control the direction of the blast.

His second special is Nodate ('Outdoor Tea Ceremony'), the tea party move that we've seen in plenty of screenshots before. The enemy takes damage according to the number of times Rikyuu swirls the tool around his tea cup. His own health also regenerates during the ceremony.

The third special move is Kaiseki ('Tea Ceremony Repast'). Rikyuu uses his psychic power to scrape huge rocks out of the ground around him. These automatically attack the enemies in front of Rikyuu then blast them away.

The screenshots tease a scene where Sabisuke is being impaled by Hisahide's sword as flames rise around the two men.

Gaming journalist 'Giant Kuroda' added a few comments about Rikyuu. The moves which control enemy soldiers give his gameplay a very fresh feel but the best part is the way he flies around in the air relaxedly courtesy of his 'mysterious powers'. Using Kuchikiri or Chachakuru after taking control of the enemies with Ooyose makes it easy to pull off tricky combo attacks.

20. The game's ending theme will be performed by Ishikawa Chiaki.

This was already rumoured thanks to the fans who have seen the most recent promotional video (which is still an event-exclusive at the moment). Ishikawa has already performed songs for Sengoku Basara 3, the anime adaptations and the stage play series, so it's good to see her returning for Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi. The game's ending theme will be titled Heavenly Blue.

21. The player can transform into a bomb soldier or the Akatsukimaru in Battle Roulette.

We already knew this...

Anyway, the article goes into more detail about both of the 'newly-announced' transformations this time. They're numbered so it looks as though future articles will include descriptions of additional transformations later on.

The bomb soldier is exactly as he looks, one of the generic bomb-carrying enemies. He has a few special moves ready now that he's semi-playable, the first of which is the ability to use different kinds of bomb. The examples listed in the article are red bombs which cause pillars of flames to flare up while golden bombs produce enormous explosions. The soldier can also place bombs on the ground and turn the battlefield into a sea of fire through chained explosions.

The Akatsukimaru is Motochika's gigantic mechanical weapon which was called the Rising Sun in the English version of the game. It can fire a laser from its mouth to blast enemies in front and use a stomping attack.

According to another comment from 'Giant Kuroda', he's tried the new Battle Roulette out and finds it absolutely hilarious.

22. More Tenka Medal rewards are revealed.

Next comes the usual batch of screenshots showing off the new medal rewards.

12 of 167: A black and red biker-style costume for Shima Sakon called the Rider Suit Ver.
13 of 167: A new military-style green, black and red outfit for Takenaka Hanbee called the Commanding Officer Ver.
14 of 167: A new costume with Sarutobi Sasuke wearing his so-called mysterious friend's mask from the Takeda Dojo story: Tenko Kamen Ver.
15 of 167: A skill enhancement for Yamanaka Shikanosuke. The picture shows Oyassan kicking him into the distance and the description says it's a rush move which sweeps up the soldiers in Shikanosuke's path and opens them up for an aerial combo if you get the timing right.

I think I can guess what Kojuurou's Tenka Medal costume is going to be!

23. The 'War Buddy' system from Sengoku Basara 4 has been improved

KobaP already announced this elsewhere but the article formally confirms that you can now tag right from the start; there's no need to level characters up first.

24. The third batch of collaboration DLC is revealed.

As promised, the magazine revealed the third of the six major tie-ins as well as giving the first confirmations of the final three. The third collaboration DLC will be a crossover with the New Japan Pro-Wrestling group which I'm pretty sure nobody could have predicted, while the final three have been confirmed as Biohazard (Resident Evil), Street Fighter IV and Monster Hunter.

Going back to the wrestling, there's a two-page spread showing the new costumes in action. The characters who will receive wrestling-themed DLC costumes are Hideyoshi, Yukimura, Sakon and Nagamasa and each costume is based on a different famous wrestler.
  • Sakon's costume is the NJPW Nakamura Shinsuke Ver. and it's a flashy red jacket with tight black pants. Sakon's weapons will change to scarlet nunchaku to match the outfit when it's equipped.
  • Yukimura has the NJPW Okada Kazuchika Ver. which is a decorative orange/gold coat and shorts based on the wrestler known as the 'Rainmaker'. In order to 'make Tenka Medals fall like rain', Yukimura's spears will be changed to have stacks of banknotes at the end when he's wearing this costume.
  • Nagamasa is wearing a blue and white costume called the NJPW Ibushi Kouta Ver., apparently based on a wrestler with a heartthrob image. The costume will change Nagamasa's weapon into a microphone and gong combination.
  • Hideyoshi's costume is called the NJPW Tanahashi Hiroshi Ver. and it's a 'wild' outfit in white, black and red with glitter. His weapon doesn't need any major changes but he'll be using his bare fists without gloves whenever he wears the costume.
(Raindrops' note: I'm abbreviating New Japan Pro-Wrestling to NJPW for the costume names to stop them being too long.)

I don't know much about professional wrestling myself so this is rather surreal. Sakon and Hideyoshi look amazing while the other two are still growing on me. Several commenters on Japanese forums have been asking why Kanbee was left out of the wrestling collaboration.

It seems that series director YamamotoD will be appearing in an article on the Famitsu website very soon in a chat with wrestler Nakamura Shinsuke to discuss the costumes they chose and what led to this collaboration. I look forward to reading it later.

--

Miscellaneous observations from the footnotes and other parts of the magazine:
  • Sen No Rikyuu's two-character Giga Basara title is revealed to be 茶聖 ('Tea Saint').
  • The sample picture for Rikyuu's second super move shows Hanbee and Kanbee seated at the tea ceremony with Matabee in the floating bubble behind them; is this from a new intrusion stage?
  • There will be a playable demo of the game available at next month's Machi★Asobi event and in selected Japanese gaming stores from May onwards.
  • The PlayStation 3 version of Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi is still at 23rd place in the list of most wanted upcoming games. The PlayStation 4 version has slipped down to 39th position.
--

While I'm sure I'll be posting another news roundup on Friday when the game's preorder listings are available, here's an update I forgot to include last time.

News: The Sengoku Basara 4 x Capcom Challenge Park event has been extended

The special exhibition which has been running since January in Okazaki will now be open until 10th May 2015 (it was originally scheduled to close at the end of April). They've added a bonus too; fans who visit in the final 30 days of the exhibition will be able to use a special sticker machine which prints pictures with Sengoku Basara 4 frames.


Samples of the frames were also provided.

16 comments:

  1. I will be utterly disappointed if Kanbee get a boring SF Cody's striped prison garb and blond hair. since it won't be much different from his SB3 alternative costume. I'd rather gave him more appropriate Gyakuten Saiban reference (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4f/69/0e/4f690e5b61808d6db544a3e6478ef4a2.jpg - and dare I say I'd look perfect on him) but it looks like it's out of question this time T_T. From the other hand he might not be getting anything at all which won't even be surprising I guess.

    Also I hope SF collaboration costumes won't be based around Japanese fighters only. Though I can smell a whole bunch of them shotoclone warriors coming already (while Mitsuhide/Tenkai as Vega will be curious no less).

    Anyway, we'll see if SF or RE costumes will make me change my mind about skipping DLC Costume Edition of the game all of a sudden but being a fan of most of Capcom's series I may giggle at some of the references at the very least.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would buy a Kanbee-dressed-as-Yuugami-Jin DLC costume so quickly! He'd look fantastic.

      Delete
  2. So much details! You can play as the Rising Sun and annoying bomb dudes? What? And Sen no Rikyuu can fly while Ashikaga can shoot six swords at people, seriously overpowered, how are the others going to stand a chance against them?

    At first I was like what the hell, wrestler outfits - but I have to confess that Capcom might have finally seduced me into paying moneys for some DLC crap. Nagamasaaaaaa baby

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What I want to know is whether the collaboration will be two-way this time. The ToZ one also ended up having DLC for the other game, and T.M.Revolution will probably help promote the new game as usual. So will we see the wrestlers dressing up as Yukimura in the future? :D

      Delete
    2. That would be surreal....!

      Since I've avoided doing anthing more complicated than simple importing the games previously, I have to ask now, is it possible to just buy a couple of those DLC outfits and is it easy? I don't think I got it.

      Delete
    3. It's definitely possible! The easiest way is to grab some PSN credit at a store like this then go wild until you run out of costume money :)

      Delete
    4. Thanks. Saw the Sumeragi guide...that's quite an impressive amount of info. Seems like a lot of work.

      I didn't really expect it, but it's a bit of a downer that there has been no sign of intention for a Western release this time either.

      Delete
  3. As I said on twitter and KW- Kasuga as battlesuit Jill from RE5 seems /inevitable/. Capcom even has fan mods to draw off for inspiration on that, haha. Even if it's not Darkstalkers or Okami related I'm still happy to see Collab outfits from other Capcom properties!

    The NJPW outfits are certainly interesting! I wonder what spawned such a collaboration.

    As for the gameplay info, Rikyuu plays more or less as I imagined he would from previous descriptions of him and the trailer. Still, he sounds fun! Still not sure how to feel about Akatsukimaru being a transformation... seems a bit BIG, it wouldn't fit in some areas! Also the bomb soldier sounds fun, I hope they utilize that moveset as inspiration for a character in the future. One thing I think would be cool if they elect to include it is if when you play as Aniki, he hops on top of an incoming Akatsukimaru rather than transforms into it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

    I'm surprised, but pleasantly so, to see Matsu and Toshiie as a frame option for the park pictures! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was actually thinking RE3Jill/CVXClaire - Magoichi but RE5Jill - Kasuga makes sense. I wonder if they manage Wesker - Hisahide one since it's not an obvious choice.

      I wonder if they dare to do Dictator(M.Bison/Vega) - Nobunaga. Would be funny though, Wakamoto-san being VA for both of those characters - should feel essential, shouldn't it?

      Monster Hunter - I dunno. I'm not into it but is there even actual character aside from hunter's various armor sets?

      Delete
    2. Nobunaga in M.Bison (or vega in japanese) Would be so great...and funny! Kasuga in Cammy outfit could be great too! For wesker , Kojuro would be nice , the haircut made me tought so. Well its great for the Resident evil and Street Fighter.
      Like you, I'm not to much in the Monster hunter serie but at least they will get good looking plate armor?

      Delete
    3. I bet Shikanosuke ends up dressed up in MonHun garb, he already looks like he belongs in that series in some ways and Oyassan could have a cute catlike hat. Perhaps Matabee would work too, since he's supposed to resemble a dinosaur already so they could give him something intimidating to wear.

      Dictator Nobunaga would be fun! And since this update was so macho, we need some more costumes for the ladies in the next batches for variety.

      For the park picture frames, I'm guessing there will be more characters than those shown because otherwise it seems odd that Matabee gets to be on one of them when other popular characters miss out. Not that it's unusual for Capcom to make strange decisions...

      Delete
    4. Hmmm wonder what those character matches will be. I was thinking Magoichi - C Viper and Kasuga - Ibuki except I guess the latter is probably seen as not glamorous enough.

      Whatever Oichi and Mitsuhide get I hope it'll be classy. Ideally Mitsuhide should be wearing this waistcoat outfit: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25242302
      (enjoy the singing)

      Delete
    5. We'd be really lucky to get Ibuki. I'm sort of hoping the SFIV crossover gets more costumes than the others since I love those crazy designs.

      Good luck with your aspirations for waistcoat-clad Mitsuhide (lol). He deserves something cool though, especially as they'll probably be lame and make him Tenkai's medal costume so he won't get anything new.

      (I love GigaP!)

      Delete
    6. Oh, my fan-brain has been convinced that he would be seperately playable after that first trailer.
      Time to keep expectations lower eh?

      Delete
  4. Thanks a lot for the great news!
    Im a little bit disapointed with the wrestler outfit. I was so happy to see nagamasa got an outfit and its more like a joke....well I will wait to see it first.
    Resident evil and Street fighter!!!! I'm so happy! Could realy see Kojuro in Wesker lol Kasuga in Cammy maybe? lol
    Thanks for the traduction of the oda forces article in a previous post, I love them so much!!!Hope to see them soon!

    Basara is life ^-^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Nagamasa's shield makes a gong sound effect in the outfit, I bet I end up equipping it all the time ^^;

      Let's keep hoping the full Oda army returns one day in the future!

      Delete

I'm really sorry that I had to switch on authentication for comments. The blog had started to receive dozens of spam comments each week. I hope that this new setting will help!

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.