Friday 1 January 2016

News roundup: Happy New Year, Sengoku Basara fans!

The Sengoku Basara news kept on rolling out over Christmas before taking a break for the New Year. I'm going to have to do some catching up today!

Catch up on the classic Sengoku Basara games with the Winter Stylish Action SALE

Capcom is celebrating the holiday period with a sale on the Japanese PlayStation Store. Fans who purchase classic Sengoku Basara games between Christmas Eve and 4th January 2016 will be able to enjoy big discounts!

The original Sengoku Basara, Sengoku Basara 2 and Sengoku Basara 2 Eiyuu Gaiden (HEROES) are selling for ¥329 apiece as 'PS2 Archive' titles on PS3 instead of the usual ¥823. The handheld titles are also discounted; Sengoku Basara Battle Heroes is currently just ¥280 (usually ¥700) and Sengoku Basara Chronicle Heroes is down to ¥800 (usually ¥2,000).

In addition, Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi is on sale at a 30% discount, costing ¥4,193 for PS3 (usually ¥5,990) and ¥4,893 for PS4 (usually ¥6,990).

An official event report from Jump Festa

Capcom has published an event report from Jump Festa covering KobaP's stage presentation. There are a few new pictures (and comical moments, such as the description of Ashigaru-kun participating in the Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi gameplay challenge and not doing so well). The only potentially new item about Sengoku Basara: Sanada Yukimura-den in the article is a mention that an Osaka Siege azure-crimson clash between Yukimura and Masamune is set to be the climax of the game's story.

Incidentally, I didn't have time to mention it previously but fan Mewshuji spotted the Houjou crest in the Masamune scenes from the Sengoku Basara: Sanada Yukimura-den trailer almost as soon as it was published.


This bodes well for the return of Ujimasa, who has been absent from the main series for a little while now. Great! I think some of the less popular characters will really benefit by appearing in a game with a smaller roster so they don't end up forgotten.

The first episode of the new Sengoku Basara radio show is now available

The first episode of the Sengoku Basara -Nekketsu! Yose Raji!- ('Sengoku Basara: Hot-blooded! Variety Theatre Radio!') radio show launched on Christmas Day as planned, and it's possible to tune in and listen by clicking on the 'FLASH' or 'WMP' buttons on this page. Obnoxiously, it's region locked, so fans outside Japan will need to use a region unblocking tool of some kind in order to listen. I don't really understand the purpose in region locking audio shows in languages which aren't widely spoken across the world, but what do I know?

Anyway, the guest for the first 41-minute episode is Ishida Akira (Takenaka Hanbee), and Hoshi Souichirou (Sanada Yukimura) is hosting. The second episode will go live on 8th January 2016.

Missed out on the Eagle Talon tie-in merchandise? Check out the DLE store

The collaboration between Sengoku Basara and Frogman's Himitsu Kessha Taka No Tsume (Secret Society Eagle Talon) series back in summer led to a little merchandise. Well, fans who missed the exhibition can now purchase the goods from the official DLE store. There's a lot of variety, so if you've ever had a yearning for your favourite characters in bear form it might be worth checking out.

e-Capcom plans a range of Sengoku Basara mobile phone stands

A special page has appeared on the e-Capcom website offering the chance for fans to 'vote' on 51 different designs for mobile stands based on the Sengoku Basara characters in one of the most unnecessarily complicated merchandise strategies for which I've had the pleasure of translating the instructions. All 51 main characters from the series are available as potential designs.


The acrylic stands can be used to hold your smartphone, or simply as decorations. They're approximately 200-250mm tall, depending on the character.


Called the Sengoku Basara 10th Bushou Ransen Mobile Stands, each costs ¥2,500 (¥2,700 with tax) and they'll only be available through e-Capcom. Delivery is expected to take place in March 2016.

There's a catch, however. Even though 51 designs are available and this is a rare chance for fans to take home merchandise for some of the series' least popular characters, only the designs which receive a minimum number of orders will actually be produced.

There's no detailed information about the minimum order quantity; it could be 2 preorders or 200. Fans who want to apply simply make reservations on the e-Capcom website as usual. If the minimum order quantity is met, they'll be charged for all of the stands they reserved and receive them in March as normal. If it's not, the stands which didn't pass the order threshold will be cancelled automatically. Fans outside Japan will have to use a deputy service as e-Capcom don't support non-Japanese orders.

I sort of hope that e-Capcom reveals which stands made the cut once the preorder period is closed. It will be interesting to see.

8 comments:

  1. Hah, thanks for the shout out. :P Really hope Ujimasa is the result of this... I mean it's bound to be the Siege of Odawara after all!

    Wow, with the stands... that's a really... erm... "unique" way of of product producing. Guessing the more popular characters won't have any issues here... Makes me actually want to try to go for some of the less popular ones just to see if it's possible. But on the other hand... I'm not entirely sure of how one would even go about importing it given a lot of the forwarding services I know of that don't just buy the items for you require you to list all the items in the order so they make sure they got the order. So if one is cancelled, then you have a whole lot of mess to go through to change it.

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    1. By the way, is there a cutoff date for the preorders? I can't seem to find one if there is.

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    2. I couldn't find one either at the time; it's terribly confusing. I think the smaller proxy services would be happy to help though even if they agree to it and refund a deposit there'd be a risk of losing money in the currency conversion :s

      They should just make a super limited batch for everyone, I'm sure there are some people out there who would pick up an Ujimasa or Kennyo stand, even if it's just the people who run museum shops dedicated to the real-life historical figures...

      And it's hard to believe that stands based on characters as visually appealing as Kasuga or as popular with history buffs as Kenshin, for example, couldn't meet a minimum order threshold if they were obtainable in a more conventional way.

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    3. Ended up going with SMJ again, so I didn't have to spend any money yet, but to help them out a bit with any confusion I decided to only spring for Kasuga and Kenshin. Was going to go for Itsuki but thought she might not quite reach the threshold. Woulda gotten Naotora, too, but I just got her stick poster in the mail. Same render and taller, so, close enough! :P

      Yeah, hopefully they make it! ;w; It'd be cool to see some Kennyo stuff in the wild too...

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  2. That PSN sale is tempting. I've been going back and froth on whether to get Sumeragi since I have the vanilla game, so it was hard to justify at full price. Seems like the PS4 version has a better discount, so maybe it's all the more reason to get that one for the shinier graphics, lol...

    But buying JPN PSN cards seems like such a pain. Mark ups are pretty high last time I checked. Feeling the pinch even if I didn't want to import the physical game in the first place :X

    Masamune vs Yukimura being the big final battle (climax = final more or less, riiiiight?) doesn't surprise me. I think it's the only way to show them in the same scene without tripping up the attempt at historical accuracy. I'm curious if that means we'll see two kind of ending sequences (accounting for how you can control Masamune at some points), and if they'll go hardcore and show the respective character deaths.

    Man, I really hope there's a lengthy story...

    TBH not really feeling the mobile stands, but I can see the appeal in regards to getting stuff for characters that have been slighted all these years.

    After Yukimura, I'm rather fond of Magoichi. She doesn't seem to be unpopular in terms of Capcom marketing, but I haven't seen much merchandise of her either.

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    1. I stock up on PSN credit when I travel; it's a shame they made it difficult to pay for topping up foreign accounts.

      As for the game, I'm going to guess that Yukimura dies in a tragic (and vaguely historically accurate) way, then the phoenix imagery suddenly reveals itself for what it is and he springs back to life more hot-blooded and ready for battle than ever before for some nonsensical endless party with Masamune. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if they resist this temptation but I don't think they'll be able to! It would be interesting to have multiple endings, though.

      Magoichi is wonderful. I've heard a few negative things about her in the English-speaking side of the fandom but overall she seems to enjoy an untouchable status where everyone is full of respect for her. Which she completely deserves. Some decent merchandise for the ladies would be very welcome.

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  3. Happy New Year to you too Raindrops :)

    Poor Mitsuhide was left under that goddamn rain for all night at Okehazama (he was working with me on that 100hours trophy for the first game). Should've left him at Satsuma instead - a little tan would be better than a cold he might catch. Feel sorry for him a little, lol.

    Anyway, here's for a great year for us Sengoku BASARA fans and hoping that those OneCoinGrande MIA's are coming ^^

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    1. Thank you :)

      Mitsuhide probably enjoyed the abuse, in his own special way.

      And yes, we need those missing One Coin figures! They can add Yukimura-den coloured Masamune and Yukimura now if they're scared that the other characters aren't enough to sell figures on their own (though the figures always seem to sell quite well because they're so adorable).

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