News roundup: Weekly Famitsu magazine announces Ootani Yoshitsugu for Sengoku Basara 4

Ootani Yoshitsugu is revealed for Sengoku Basara 4 in Thursday's Weekly Famitsu magazine

In a surprising move, it seems that this week's news from Weekly Famitsu magazine only includes one character announcement for the new game: Ootani Yoshitsugu (Gyoubu). This means that next Wednesday's issue of Sengoku Basara Magazine is likely to reveal at least one additional character as well to reach its promised total. Perhaps it will be Motonari (do I say this every single time)?

BlackKite over at Koei Warriors has posted a translation of the details known so far. I'll add the rest this evening when I have access to the magazine.

Update: I now have the magazine so I've added a news story right at the bottom of this post and will add all of the magazine content there as I translate it this evening. Scroll down for the news!

Kotobukiya previews new Sengoku Basara One Coin Grande trading figures

It's been a while since these were announced and with this week's listings it turns out they won't be released until late May 2014! The price for a box of all twelve trading figures is ¥8,160 while blind single boxes will set you back ¥680 apiece.

The Sengoku Basara ~Eiyuu Shuuketsu-hen~ ('~Gathering of Heroes Edition~') collection will contain reissues of the popular Masamune, Kojuurou, Yukimura, Sasuke, Shingen, Keiji, Motochika, Motonari, Kenshin and Kasuga figures as well as brand new figures of Ishida Mitsunari and the older version of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The figures can be ordered as a set at CD Japan, AmiAmi, Hobby Search, Otaku Republic, Big In Japan and Amazon Japan.

Yet another Sengoku Basara 4 demo event announced for December

So far, the Sengoku Basara 4 demo has been in hot demand at all of the events where it's appeared with fans turning up early to try to get a chance to play it for themselves. They'll be able to try their luck again soon with the Sengoku Basara 4 x Play.Community premium trial session ~Shinagawa Daigassen~.

This free event will be held on 15th December 2013 in a secret location in Shinagawa, Tokyo, where a total of 120 fans will participate across three separate sessions at 13:00, 15:40 and 18:00. There will be an exclusive demo build of the game as well as a battle between players divided up into 'Western Army' and 'Eastern Army' teams. Attendees can pick up one of the special Sengoku Basara 4 bags and take home an exclusive clear file, and there will also be a presentation by the Sengoku Basara 4 developers.

Fans can apply up until 25th November 2013 using the form on the official Sony Play.Community website. Those of us who can't attend can at least look forward to more juicy information from those who can, since the new demo might contain different characters to the one we've already seen!

The latest Sengoku Basara 4 information from Weekly Famitsu magazine

This week's magazine (dated 5th December 2013) contains a huge amount of new information about Sengoku Basara 4. The game is currently ranked 11th in the top 30. First of all, here's our newest character reveal:

Ootani Yoshitsugu 大谷吉継
Character image phrase: 寥星跋扈 Ryousei Bakko ('Unrestrained Lonely Star')
Seiyuu: Tachiki Fumihiko
Weapon: Prayer beads
Playable: Yes
Description: It's been decided that Ootani Yoshitsugu will join the battle as the commander who serves as Ishida Mitsunari's advisor in the Toyotomi forces - and also his friend! Even though Tokugawa Ieyasu has left their ranks and they gained Shima Sakon as a subordinate, Yoshitsugu continues to counsel Mitsunari just as he did before.

"I occasionally serve as 'Gyoubu'...whatever the punishment, leave it to me."

(Note: The name Gyoubu literally means the old Ministry of Justice. The 'Gyou' kanji is the same as the one used for 'punishment'.)

Ootani is able to freely manipulate the prayer beads which float behind him, striking the enemy with them to attack. He has a long reach (when facing something) and he seems to have a wide range of attack too.

Caption: The prayer beads smash into the enemy trapped by the mark.

Ootani usually moves by riding on his koshi platform. By using the unique ability 'Sekuna Hokoboshi', he's able to move at high speed with the beads acting as wheels.

Caption: A renowned strategist, second only to Takenaka Hanbee.

Note: Poor Gyoubu didn't get a very long description! The pictures show him looming over Sakon with Hideyoshi's awesome kabuto visible in the background - it looks as though it's a huge feature of the stage they're on. Another shot shows him rising into the air clutching Kanbee's weapon with his beads. Poor Kanbee is dangling helplessly below.

Caption: A dramatic scene where he abducts Kuroda Kanbee like a UFO. What on earth is going on here!?

Weekly Famitsu pictures spotted so far: Shima Sakon's 2P alternate costume (based on his real-life historical armour), cool picture of Gyoubu looming, Gyoubu's CG render and stuff about tag level-ups.

With these announcements, we have just four more of the usual fortnightly Weekly Famitsu updates left before the game is released. We also have ten characters left in limbo, including the mystery character who will have some tie to next week's magazine release.

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Characters weren't all that the magazine wanted to reveal about Sengoku Basara 4 this week. Three full pages were devoted to unravelling the new game's system including tag, comrade levelling, weapon enhancement and the Basara shop.

Your battle comrade can level up mid-battle too!

Note: The main picture shows Sakon charging through enemies with some red status updates in the bottom left of the screen. 'Battle comrade: level up!', 'Battle comrade: behaviours expanded!', 'Battle comrade: tag available!' and (in orange) 'Tactical results: obtained!'.

Mitsunari's portrait is shining (perhaps the tag icon just appeared next to it with a flourish?).

Battle comrades can also use the abilities they learn immediately!

Battle comrades are able to use skills they learn mid-battle as they level up, just like the player's character. Show off the moves you've learnt!

Note: The stage that Mitsunari and Sakon are fighting on has a Tadakatsu graphic over the mini-map with a meter for charging a cannon. The map itself looks like exactly the one we've seen in pictures before with a cannon you can control to fire on some Tokugawa carts.

Explaining the system #1: Level up with an 'Inrou of Enhancement'.

Note: An inrou is a traditional box, shown as a floating gold object in the screenshots.

It's possible to pick up an item called an 'Inrou of Enhancement' during battle. By using the Inrou of Enhancement on the battle preparation screen you can increase your experience points. Of course, this applies to the player character - though you can also benefit and level up a battle comrade too. You can use the item on whichever character you choose to help them level up more quickly.

Note: Mitsunari is selected and he has two labels next to his portrait: 'available as a player character' in blue and 'available as a battle comrade' in green. The bottom of the screen displays your money on the left and the experience stored in your inrou near the middle. You can split the experience between characters however you like.

Speculation: The screen shows a total of 32 characters in the list, which might be a clue that there will be 32 playable characters in total when all 40 warriors have been revealed.

Explaining the system #2: A second costume is available for each commander.

It's possible to switch costumes on the battle preparation screen. As with previous games in the series, each character has a second outfit. Heading out to battle wearing a different costume to your usual one is sure to give the game a fresh feel! For now, we'll reveal the second costume for one of the new characters, Shima Sakon. Dressed in this outfit based on the real Shima Sakon's armour instead of his usual tracksuit-like costume, he looks like a true warrior.

Perhaps the orange-coloured kuwagata shape, which decorates Sakon's helmet like a stag beetle's horn, represents his easygoing personality?

You can also get special costumes as DLC! Once you've obtained a costume, you can equip it whenever you like.

Note: Both Sakon and Katsuie have the same yellow swirl as their elemental icon in all of the screenshots.

Explaining the system #3: Tag becomes available as the battle comrade's level is raised.

Increase your battle comrade's level enough and you'll be able to use 'battle comrade tagging' rather than simply relying on issuing orders to control your ally. If you tag mid-combo, you'll immediately unleash an attack and be able to continue your chain; depending on how you go about it, you could start a 'supreme combo'! What if it's combined with a Giga Basara technique...!?

Caption: By pressing the R3 button while playing as Ootani Yoshitsugu, his battle comrade Ishida Mitsunari becomes the main character. The changeover is extremely quick.

Aim for a 'supreme combo' by making use of tag with your battle comrade!

Note: As we thought, when you see the red/blue mark over the battle comrade's health bar it means that tag is available.

Explaining the system #4: A brand new weapon enhancement system.

Up until now, to improve your capabilities you could do things like attaching accessories to your weapon. In Sengoku Basara 4, you can strengthen your weapons in various ways with a new system involving whetstones, fortune hammers, tamahagane steel and inscriptions. This article explains each mechanic in detail.

Note: This section is split across a large number of screenshots showing the enhancement menu system. After going to the battle preparation screen and selecting 'weapon enhancement', a red menu at the top lets you choose between 'equipment', 'enhancement', 'fusion' and 'disassembly'. When you pick 'enhancement' your weapons are displayed on the left with a yellow label for the one you're currently enhancing and a blue label showing which weapon your character has equipped.

'Whetstones' are used to enhance weapons.

When you receive the item called a 'whetstone' during a battle, it can be used to raise the stats of a weapon from the battle preparation screen. The five weapon stats that can be increased are attack, defence, basara gauge, fighting spirit and hit points (moving clockwise from the top of the statistics chart). After selecting the stat you want to increase, decide how many whetstones you want to use and try out the enhancement.

The 'fortune hammer'.

You can use the fortune hammer to enhance one of your weapon's stats at random. There are three tiers: a blessing, a middle blessing or a great blessing. Leave your fortune to the heavens!

Tamahagane steel breaks through a weapon's limits!

Further enhancement is possible! There's a limit to how much you can enhance a weapon. However, by using the item tamahagane steel, you can increase the weapon's rarity - which in turn raises the upper limit.

Combine two weapons!

As well as being able to increase the stats with whetstones, fortune hammers and tamahagane steel, there's a feature called 'inscription' which allows you to attach special abilities to your weapon.

By fusing two weapons together, an inscription is created which can be used in enhancement. The inscription will vary depending on the combination used, and you can check what it will be before you begin the fusion.

It could be said that rushing through the battlefields and collecting weapons to create a perfect inscription is one of the game's highlights.

Note: The pictures show Katsuie's reverse naginata Senpuu (Unsigned) with a two-star rating/level and a gauge beneath it. The blue-and-white text under the picture of the weapon says that there are 10 more pieces of tamahagane steel required until the rarity of the weapon increases. You can press square to use tamahagane steel from your stock. Under this are three slots, of which two are occupied by the abilties 'break stone' and 'crushing blow'. In the bottom left of the screenshot is your total stock of fortune hammers which you can use by pressing triangle. On the top right of the picture is your total number of whetstones, which you can put into the five stats using the circle button.

Speculation: The weapon stat screen is mostly straightforward but in the area where the weapon's individual inscription slots are listed, some slots are marked with a circle in the middle of them which indicates they're maxed out. One of Katsuie's weapons had a unique gold-coloured slot with the text 'six realms'. Is that his personal ability..?

Note: As well as Senpuu and Senpuu (Unsigned), I think Katsuie has a green weapon called Suiran and (this is especially difficult to see) a gag weapon shaped like a pen called Mangamichi.

Explaining the system #5: The Basara-ya shop is still going strong!

You can go to the Basara-ya shop from the march screen and purchase items with the money you've obtained. The weapons you purchase in the shop will also have a few enhancements applied to them if you have enough spare cash. In addition, you can also buy the materials needed to enhance your weapons such as whetstones, tamahagane steel and fortune hammers.

Note: The march screen has options on the left for 'battle preparation', 'select battle comrade', 'Basara-ya shop' and 'settings'. The shop will alert you with text over its name when there are special deals on offer. The options in the shop's main menu seem to be 'buy', 'weapon enhancement', 'weapon fusion', 'weapon disassembly' and 'online Basara-ya shop'. If you pick 'buy' the shop can be sorted into categories such as weapons, enhancement materials, music and dialogue.

Caption: Don't miss the special deals! When the shop is running special deals, it will stock joke weapons with properties you can't see until after you get them in your hands; you might find a really powerful weapon! However, there are a large number of expensive items. Be sure to gather enough money!

Note: The prices in the shop show a lot of items costing 100,000 ryou or more. Whetstones cost 50 ryou, fortune hammers are 2,000 ryou and tamahagane steel is 3,000 ryou. There are apparently 200 items in the list, and the 'special deal' items have green labels. The interface shows three numbers underneath the weapon stats; these are your total number of whetstones, pieces of tamahagane steel and fortune hammers respectively from left to right.

Speculation: I also noticed that the total number of weapons in the bottom corner of the enhancement screen was 6/20. Can each character store 20 different weapons? In addition, the screenshot of the shop showed two separate joke weapons; whether they're a single weapon available with varying statistics or some characters have more than one joke weapon model is unknown. Some weapons have brown/orange backgrounds while others have blue/grey, so there might simply be two types of each - though to make things more complicated, in a picture of the shop some had silver backgrounds and others had gold while the mystery 'special deal' weapons were red.

Capcom updates the official Sengoku Basara 4 website with a new gameplay video

As expected, last Saturday's gameplay video has now made its way to the official Sengoku Basara 4 website. The theme this time is the various ways you can level up in the game. You can watch it on YouTube or below.


Initial observations:

• We have a few more confirmed stage names with Oushuu: Aoba Castle (Masamune), Bizen: Ujou [Okayama Castle] (Hideaki), Remains of Ounin: Souden (Yoshiteru), Battle of Sekigahara: Touyou (Ieyasu), Toyotomi Reminiscence Struggle (Hideyoshi) and Oda: Azuchi Castle (Nobunaga).
• I clarified the wording in the Inrou of Enhancement section above after seeing it in action. You can share your experience between characters from a single pool of experience stored in your inrou box. That's good news if you find levelling a particular character a chore.
• I was wrong about the gold inscriptions being unique character abilities, since the video shows lots of them along with special green ones.
• Sakon's basic weapons are Odds/Evens. He also has White/Black, Heaven/Earth, Luck/Misfortune, Odds/Evens (Unsigned), Odds/Evens (Gold) and Six/Four - which looks as though it's his joke weapon, except I cannot tell what it is. (Update: According to Japanese fans, it's a guitar and bass, and the numbers are the number of strings on each instrument. This shows how little I know about music..)
• Mitsunari's joke weapon is a tennis racquet apparently called Garden, though the pronunciation of the name isn't confirmed and it's a deliberate tennis reference.
• You can receive Inrou of Enhancement items as battle rewards as well as on the battlefield itself.
• There are many different types of stat bonus items you can receive (the flat sheets which appear as rewards and in the shop). They're referred to as 'play books'.
• As well as the 'special deals' which can appear in the shop, there's a red icon over the shop's name on the march screen when a discount is in effect. The discounts seem to affect certain categories labelled in red.
• There is a lot of space available if they decide to add a large number of DLC items later on since they're using very small icons for inactive costumes. I am going to start saving my money...

Fans of Gyoubu will have to wait until 28th November for his character page, but there are updates for the tag system, battle comrade level-ups and Sakon's alternate outfit. Other characters have received new voice samples as well.

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The usual higher resolution pictures are now available courtesy of the Japanese gaming press: 4gamer, Famitsu, Gamer, Dengeki.

Update 21/11/2013 (00:50): Translation complete.
Update 21/11/2013 (01:15): The official website has updated, so I added pictures and the video!
Update 21/11/2013 (07:50): Added the links to various Japanese gaming websites and some extra observations about the video I noticed when I watched it again in bed. This post is now complete and further updates will go into a new one on Saturday.

Manga review: Sengoku Basara 3 ~Kijin No Gotoku~

It's time for another shoujo manga review!

Sengoku Basara 3 ~Kijin No Gotoku~ ('Sengoku Basara 3 ~Like A Fierce God~') is an official Sengoku Basara spin-off penned by Higuchi Daisuke, best known for her hit sports manga Whistle!.

Originally running in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka magazine from May 2012, the four chapters of Sengoku Basara 3 ~Kijin No Gotoku~ were compiled into a single 141-page volume under the Asuka Comics DX label in 22nd September 2012. This book is priced at ¥588 and can still be purchased today from all good import stores such as CD Japan, Yesasia, HMV or Amazon Japan.

For those who want to see more of the art style before purchasing, there's a free 16-page preview here on the manga's official website along with character profiles for Motochika, Motonari and Tsuruhime. The simple storyline is very similar to Motochika's Sengoku Basara 3 scenario.

News roundup: A new Sengoku Basara 4 video debuts at Nagoya handshake event

Today is Saturday, which means that the second Sengoku Basara 4 in-store preorder event was just held in Japan! Game producer Kobayashi 'KobaP' Hiroyuki travelled to Bic Camera in Nagoya to meet fans and present a brand new video. I've been to that branch of Bic Camera a few times before and expect that there were more attendees; it's relatively accessible and the current Butai Sengoku Basara stage play is being performed in the same city all weekend!

Here are the rumours that fans have been sharing about the event from Twitter, 2ch and various blogs. I might add to this later if more details appear at the end of the event.

• Tag is confirmed! There are some restrictions but they weren't explained.
• Weapons can be upgraded. By combining them in some way, you can make them look the way you want.
• The Basara-ya shop will work the same way it did in Sengoku Basara 3 Utage.
• One person said KobaP mentioned not being able to talk about online gameplay yet while the event was being set up.
• The new PV seems to show some in-game content as well as the weapon upgrade system and something about levelling up your character.
• KobaP is trying to push Katsuie hard (i.e. he wants to make him more popular). But director Yamamoto is pushing Sakon!
• KobaP was asking attendees who their favourite character was during the handshake greetings.
• He refused to answer someone's question about whether Motonari was going to be in the game.
• There was a reference to Matabee having been in the Toyotomi army together with Kanbee at one point.
• One of the routes in the game involves the girls teaming up (note: this is probably the one we've seen in the third PV with Naotora, Magoichi and Tsuruhime all in a group).
• Shikanosuke has some kind of involvement with Nobunaga.
• Not sure whether this has been mentioned before but people were confirming that Sakon has a different taunt and Basara attack depending on whether he's in odds or evens mode (i.e. using his sword or his kicks).
• Some kid kept disruptively yelling that Kojuurou was awesome, which people found hilarious.
• The crossover with Geist Crusher was discussed at length too.
• Yoshitsugu has still not been formally announced for the game, of course, but in the PV he was shown as Kanbee's battle comrade. If they're only showing playable characters as battle comrades, this might be a hint.
• The PV included Hisahide again too, but there was no indication that he might be playable.
• KobaP (2), @puyootanau, @reitoumican and many others have been tweeting pictures of the venue.

Update 14:30: A little more news surfaced so here we go!

• Capcom have been showing off the full Hyakka Ryouran Tamatebako special edition of Sengoku Basara 4 at today's in-store event and @okayu_bsr managed to snap a picture. It looks great.
• As Bic Camera is one of the stores giving away Shima Sakon's DLC costume with preorders, there was an additional treat for Sakon fans; a sample of his official profile from the special edition game book. Twitter user @yzkyu888 provided a nice close-up of the sample character designs as well as a couple of Sakon's profile. Just like Katsuie's before, some parts are censored so they don't spoil the surprise.
• Sakon is described as a sociable young man, addicted to gambling. He acquires a future when he meets Mitsunari.
• Profile: Previously Shima Kiyooki, Sakon...(note: the next part is all censored). Having lost a bet for the first time, Sakon took hold of his own future. He would thereafter call himself Shima 'Sakon', a man close to Mitsunari, the Left Arm of the Toyotomi (note: the kanji in the name 'Sakon' are 'left' and 'near').
• There are headings for his relationship with Ieyasu, his position in the Toyotomi army and something about Kuroda Kanbee. The information is being kept secret for now. With regards to Shibata Katsuie, it's written that he reminds Sakon of himself back when he was wallowing in despair. If there's a way that Sakon can save Katsuie, he wants to try it.
• The chain of command in the Toyotomi army has Hideyoshi and Hanbee at the top, then the rest of the order is hidden.
• His colours are wine red and pink. One inspiration was a reddish version of Bruce Lee's yellow-and-black suit, except with asymmetrical colours. His clothing was designed to be suitable for kicking, hence the boots; there's only a little 'Sengoku-flavour'. The mismatched colours are to emphasise the two different sides of his fighting style and also to evoke an odds/evens gambling feel.
• Sakon's hairstyle is a 'rough, asymmetrical wolf-cut' with braiding on one side.
• After the in-store event, KobaP headed to the stage play venue, taking a picture of one of the posters when he arrived.
• During the stage play talk session, KobaP mentioned that he told the stage play director he wanted to try adapting the Gakuen Basara series one day. Will we see a Butai Gakuen Basara before or after a Butai Sengoku Basara 4, I wonder?
• KobaP also said that if Yukimura and Masamune are around 20 years old, Sasuke would be in his 20s but older than them. Nobunaga would be around 35 years old. These aren't official character ages, they're just the 'image' that the staff have in mind for how they appear.

I expect we'll see the video appear on the Capcom Channel whenever it's ready - last time it went up on Monday, but someone on 2ch suggested it would be Thursday this time. Because today was also the first of the HAL open campus game demo sessions, the Sengoku Basara team has been split to promote the game between two different cities.

This is a rather text-heavy news report so I'll finish with a picture that has been circulating on the official Sengoku Basara Twitter account for the last few days: it's the Yellow-Black Alliance!

Hoshi Souichirou to appear at the next Basara Matsuri event

The open lottery for tickets to January's Sengoku Basara 4: Basara Matsuri 2014 ~Shinshun No Utage~ event began on Friday, and if it's anything like the fan club lottery a couple of weeks ago it's going to be a real struggle for people to get tickets. There are simply far more people clamouring for a chance to attend than there are seats at the venue!

Capcom decided to exacerbate this situation by helpfully announcing another guest for the event just before the lottery began: popular seiyuu Hoshi Souichirou (Sanada Yukimura) will be attending for the afternoon show only. I bet he'll briefly appear at the evening show too as a secret guest (and Nakai will do the opposite) for old times' sake and to appease the fans who couldn't get a ticket to the right performance.

Busho Matsuri 2013 event DVD to receive a general release

Until now it was only possible to order the Butai Sengoku Basara Bushou Matsuri 2013 DVD from a limited number of specialist stores, but it seems that a general release (AmiAmi) is coming on 20th December 2013. I'm not sure whether this means that the DVD has slipped from its vague 'late November' release date at the Dais Shop, but I guess I'll find out soon! While ordering through Amazon Japan has the advantage that there's a discount on the price, if I can get my copy earlier then I won't regret having preordered from the official shop.

The Amazon listing also confirms a few details about the release. It will span two DVDs and last 250 minutes; 180 minutes will be the recording of the event while there will also be a generous 70 minutes of extra footage.

More and more merchandise is revealed ready for the launch of Sengoku Basara 4

Capcom don't intend to let the game's release pass without a ton of merchandise on offer for the fans to buy, and here are the latest additions to shop listings across Japan.

A 1000-piece 50x75cm Sengoku Basara 4 jigsaw puzzle. It will be released on 20th January 2014 and cost ¥3,360.

A set of four Sengoku Basara 4 badges. These are pretty cool; they're oversized at 75mm and the designs are better than usual. The badges will be released on 30th January 2014 and they'll cost ¥473 each. Masamune's says "Horse riding is prohibited", Katsuie's is a very glamorous mandala design to go with his theme, Mitsunari's simply says "If it's not about Hideyoshi-sama, I don't care." and Sakon's has an odds/evens gambling theme.

A set of four gorgeous new A4 clear files. They'll be released on 30th January 2014 for ¥368 each. There are designs for Masamune, Sakon, Katsuie and Mitsunari.

News roundup: Dengeki Playstation issue 554, and more Sengoku Basara 4 screenshots

Dengeki Playstation magazine vol. 554 includes some Sengoku Basara 4 coverage

I stopped buying Dengeki Playstation as they'd stopped including any new game information (it's not a cheap magazine!) but last week's Weekly Famitsu reveal had a brand new character, so I thought it was worth a shot.

Sengoku Basara 4 has moved up from 14th place in Dengeki Playstation's ranking of upcoming games, and it's now sitting in 13th place.

That wasn't all, though; I'm pleased to say that game director Yamamoto Makoto returned to give some comments on the three newest character announcements this week! He must have been in an extremely cheerful mood when he was writing these notes.

Kyougoku Maria: The name 'Maria' begins to spin the threads of fate?

• Nagamasa's older sister has been revealed at last! As you can see from her dialogue, she's a self-centered woman who thinks that the world revolves around her. I'm also interested in her name, 'Maria'. Whether this means that the story will develop in a certain way is unknown...heehee.

Azai Nagamasa: Absolute Justice! The revival of the 'hero'!!

• A revival! Absolute Justice! It's been a while, since Nagamasa didn't appear in Sengoku Basara 3! Even his actions go with his theme as a 'hero of justice'. This time, he's with the Kyougoku-Azai army, which enters into the Ashikaga faction due to the selfishness of Nagamasa's older sister, Maria. What on earth is going to happen (*grin*)?

Oichi: Pay close attention to the relationship between Oichi and Shibata Katsuie!!

• I thought that the revival of Nagamasa-sama would be cause for celebration, but what a sister he has in Maria. Until now, Nagamasa was trapped between Oichi and his brother-in-law, Oda Nobunaga; this time, he's stuck between Oichi and Maria. Sengoku Basara 4 offers a glimpse of an unexpected side to Oichi. Please also look out for her relationship with Shibata Katsuie (*nervous*).

A screenshot of the Takeda trio has the subtitle 'Kawanakajima: Hachimanpara'. I think this decisively confirms yesterday's speculation about there being a Kawanakajima stage in the game, and as that particular battle is famous for Kenshin's participation and it's likely to be the stage we've seen in the picture of Kasuga, the staff seem to be hinting about the Uesugi forces very strongly. In addition, Kawanakajima Hachimanpara was particularly known for being where Takeda Shingen camped his forces during the fighting. It's likely that the huge Takeda area we saw during the Kojuurou segment of the newest video is part of this Kawanakajima: Hachimanpara stage.

Perhaps less worthy of speculation is a shot of Nagamasa on Maria's stage - with Shima Sakon casually standing atop his head.

The magazine also covers the same new gameplay mechanics Weekly Famitsu introduced last week, including a few new pictures. More about these in my next news story...

Sony's Playstation blog posts new Sengoku Basara 4 screenshots full of gameplay hints

The Sony Playstation blog updated yesterday with a plethora of Sengoku Basara 4 screenshots, including several I had never seen before.

The picture of the game's mode selection screen includes Manual (this could include a tutorial, perhaps?), Online Basara-ya Shop, Sengoku Creation mode (the interactive story mode which contains the main gameplay), Free mode, Gallery and Settings. I have annotated the picture to show the order in which the modes appear.

The character selection screen appears to confirm that two-player co-op play will be available in Sengoku Creation mode, as well as progress being measured in years of your reign rather than stages, something which ties in with the comments made in last week's Famitsu magazine.

Skipping the details we already know, the pictures of the march screen show Mitsunari with a 'drama route' scene at Motochika's Pirate Fortress: Hyakki Fugaku stage, Katsuie with an 'anime route' scene at Hideyoshi's Osaka: Toyotomi Hajou castle and Shikanosuke as the boss in a 'one-on-one fight' (?) but on a stage full of Yoshihiro's flags. The text notes that if you leave an 'omen' battle on the map without engaging, it can change into a 'derivation' battle.

We can also see a picture of what could be Naotora's tiger basara-e artwork, though it seems to be red and hanging in the air behind her. Nine Demons Yoshitaka once noted that people were saying hers was of a tiger with a flower in its mouth, and that's exactly what the illustration seems to show.

DarkMantisTalon, meanwhile, noticed a suspicious icon in one screenshot which might imply that it's possible to use tag mode with your battle comrade.

The final new thing I want to highlight is the screen where you see your rewards for the next battle. This picture is extremely small, however there's a slightly different (and equally small) version in Dengeki Playstation so we're getting a clearer idea of the prizes on offer for each battle. Please understand that I might easily have misread at this size. These rewards are for clearing Incident At Honnouji as an 'outbreak'.

The Dengeki Playstation shot shows that you can get weapons and money as rewards as well as the icons shown above, using the example of Tango: Sengenji as a 'normal' stage. There's a fugitive icon above the stage name in their picture though, so that might affect the rewards somehow.

The left column in Dengeki Playstation shows Masamune's swords Kagehide and Kagehide (Unsigned) while the right one has Kojuurou's Kokuryuu and Kokuryuu (Unsigned) and a sheet of some kind of material with a quantity beside it. I can't read the tiny, tiny labels next to them which presumably explain the difference between the various weapons, but I'm guessing they boost different stats when you receive one as your reward.

Update 14/11/2013: Since 4Gamer has posted much clearer versions of the screenshots, I can now read the labels next to the weapons; in top-to-bottom, left-to-right order they look like (ignoring duplicates) steal food, stylish, find, experience, hardness and willpower. The flat sheet here is a stat bonus material (double hit points).

There's a new picture too (which confirms another stage - 'Investigation: Shikanosuke', the fight where he appears surrounded by Yoshihiro's flags). Kojuurou has his leek/burdock joke weapon back with the name 'nourishment' and Masamune has a wooden 'battou' which looks like it's actually a 'batto', or baseball bat. A few other alternate swords can also be seen, and there are some additional weapon labels detailing properties like collection, protection, break defence, tastiness and training.

Small coloured labels advise that the rewards on the right are for the character you selected as your battle comrade (or the second player in co-op mode, I assume) while the ones on the left side are for the player's own character. That was already pretty obvious but now it's confirmed.

Fans produce English subtitles for this week's new Sengoku Basara 4 gameplay video

The team of Nine Demons Yoshitaka and PSandNintendFreak have outdone themselves with their speed this week, adding English subtitles to the newest character gameplay trailer already. You can watch it on YouTube or below.


Sengoku Basara Card Heroes Matsuri in-game event news

It's been a while since I reported on mobile game Sengoku Basara Card Heroes Matsuri, and given that it's unlikely anyone playing it doesn't already speak Japanese it hasn't seemed all that important. Still, I should mention that Capcom is also running a crossover event with the Biohazard (Resident Evil) series title Minna To Biohazard Team Survive until 10th December 2013. I have no idea what that the other game is like, but the idea is that you earn special cards for the game you actually like by giving the other a try. The Sengoku Basara Card Heroes Matsuri reward you can earn by dabbling in Minna To Biohazard Team Survive is this rare Date Masamune 'The Dragon's Ambition' card.

A funny (and cute) Tsuruhime picture from another Card Heroes Matsuri event has been circulating on Twitter recently as well. The comment was "I thought it was a different game!".

Mobile game Street Fighter x All Capcom reveals Sengoku Basara characters

This isn't exactly news, but as a result of the new promotional video for this Capcom smartphone game being posted today, I was able to grab textless versions of the artwork they are using for Masamune and Yukimura. There will probably be more Sengoku Basara content in this title if the official website is to be believed.

New Sengoku Basara merchandise revealed: Sengoku Basara 4 charms

The CafeReo website has announced a range of charms themed around the emblems of a few key characters from Sengoku Basara 4. Each of the charms will cost ¥1,000 and four designs will be available in mid-January 2014, patterned after Masamune, Mitsunari, Yukimura and Kojuurou. I think they're rather nice!

Speculation: The second Sengoku Basara 4 character gameplay movie. Let's take a look!

This morning, Capcom released the second character gameplay video for Sengoku Basara 4. Their timing wasn't great for me as I had to work, so I'm going to make up for lost time and try to pick the video apart this evening instead!

The trailer includes all of the characters mentioned on Saturday as well as two who were missed in the list.


Here is a list of things I've noticed. I've linked to forum posts where other people beat me to it!

Ieyasu (with Tadakatsu)
Stage: Yoshiteru's, based on the enemy flags. The stage seems to have at least three sub-bosses. It doesn't look anything like Yoshiteru's casino stage which was shown in Weekly Famitsu a while ago, though this one has turned up before in Katsuie's gameplay introduction in the first character gameplay video (English subtitled version) a while back.

Tadakatsu (with Ieyasu)
Stage: Oda army, but with Mitsuhide's forces. The stage has some kind of gauge with flags. It was also seen in the Masamune segment of the previous video.

Kojuurou (with Masamune)
Stage: Takeda army. There's a large clearing in the north, a padlock and a strange semicircle of clear orbs at the top of the screen (a weather gauge?). One boss can be seen.
Update 12/11/2013: It has been suggested by Balder and Mewshuji that this might be a glimpse of a Kawanakajima stage. I wish it was possible to see the full map in the video!

Sasuke (with Yukimura)
Stage: Shikanosuke's Amago army. The stage has some targets marked with pink crests and some of the bases have different icons - I believe that this indicates that they've been upgraded to two-tier or three-tier camps. The same stage was shown before in Mitsunari's gameplay introduction.

Magoichi (with Tsuruhime)
Stage: This looks like the Honnouji stage with Nobunaga's forces fighting Mitsuhide's. One of the Oda army's soldiers mentions Nouhime-sama by name in a line of dialogue (via BlackKite).

Tsuruhime (with Magoichi)
Stage: Motochika's based on the flags and enemy names.

Kanbee (with Yoshitsugu)
Stage: Presumably Kingo's based on the flags, though it looks amazing.

Hideaki (with Tenkai)
Stage: The gauge at the top of the screen has the Ishida crest behind it. I think the red text might say 'Western Army', which strongly indicates that this is a Sekigahara stage.

Tenkai (with Hideaki)
Stage: I have no idea...there seem to be two large structures on the map. Are they vehicles?

Nobunaga (with Oichi)
Stage: A Toyotomi castle. Possibly the encounter they're calling Osaka: Toyotomi Hajou?

Oichi (with Nagamasa)
Stage: This looks like the same stage as the previous one except now both the Date and Takeda forces are present instead of the Toyotomi.

Shikanosuke and Oyassan (with Naotora)
Stage: The Shimazu forces can be seen. The map is missing, the climate looks warm and there's just one boss so this looks like a classic Yoshihiro encounter. After the first gate is open, some kind of fleeing objective opens up. This stage has been shown a few times before.
Notes: Oyassan's dialogue is really cute, and you can take control of him! Also, Shikanosuke's kill counter is actually recording how many people he has 'investigated' in his search (via Intrepid Wanderer).

Nagamasa (with Oichi)
Stage: Are there four different enemy bosses, all from different armies? Nobunaga is there and one of the messages refers to penetrating the first Azuchi Demon Gate so I'm going to make a guess that this is the Azuchi-Shiten Gathering encounter. Hideyoshi's forces can also be seen. I wonder if this is going to be a Yoshiteru/Nobunaga/Hideyoshi/Ieyasu stage to go with the split-screen picture of the four together which keeps appearing in magazine articles?
Notes: We can see Nagamasa charging up his 'Power of Justice' right at the start.

Matabee (with Tsuruhime)
Stage: Masamune's - the same one they showed with Yukimura in the previous character gameplay video.
Notes: Like Shikanosuke (and a few older characters), Matabee has a special kill counter. His records how many people he has 'executed'. I really like Matabee.

--

Since there are only four playable characters unaccounted for with this huge gameplay trailer (Keiji, Motochika, Hideyoshi and Hanbee, if I'm not mistaken), I'm guessing it will be a while before we get the third in the series. It's certainly not likely to feature at this weekend's handshake event.

Instead, my guess is that we'll see a followup to the first general gameplay 'handbook' video (English subtitled version). That one was described as being a simple introduction to the game system, so perhaps next week we'll see some of the more advanced techniques?

News roundup: Today's Sengoku Basara 4 event hosted a new gameplay video

News from today's Sengoku Basara 4 in-store preorder event

Today, a handshake event took place at a branch of Yodobashi Camera in Sapporo for customers who had preordered Sengoku Basara 4. The event was attended by staff from Capcom including series producer Kobayashi 'KobaP' Hiroyuki, and just as promised a brand new Sengoku Basara 4 video was premiered for the lucky visitors.

People who attended the event offered some snippets of information from the presentation and pictures of the venue at the start, like this one from @Rougami. A picture of the special poster is shown on another fan's blog. None of the following details have been formally confirmed.

• There won't be very many 'anime route' endings.
• They decided to announce the female characters in sequence since Naotora was the only girl who had been revealed at the time.
• Kyougoku Maria was described as a 'domineering' person who toys with the Azai couple.
• When Maria's identity was still unknown, KobaP was asked whether she was an older version of Itsuki - she isn't, of course.
• As Nagamasa posed with his skill names flashing up on the screen, he seemed more like a tokusatsu hero of justice than ever.
• Gotou Matabee's moves are 'nasty'. They might be the most savage we've seen in the series so far. Every single report I read emphasised the same point.
• The whole room was shocked watching him making violent sawing motions with his weapon as if to torture his victim.
• There was also a horrible squeaking sound.
• Everyone laughed when Kingo was shown and immediately turned and fled from the enemy shouting "I'm running away from you!".
• KobaP joked that Oyassan (Shikanosuke's deer) was voiced by a certain seiyuu.
• (Note: It's probably one of the existing cast members, just as Kuwatani Natsuko voices Yumekichi.)
• There was a sense that Shikanosuke considers Oyassan very reliable.
• The demo was the same as usual with the same six characters. One attendee tried playing as Katsuie and found him easy to use.
• Katsuie is treated as though he's a fool, even by his subordinates. There were lines where his own soldiers said that they would make a better general and acted as though he wasn't there.
• When someone selected Masamune they thought he said "I'm Dragon ___!" in English. It didn't sound as though the final word was 'King', so they wondered whether it might be 'Ou', the Japanese word...
• They thought they heard the regular soldiers referring to Masamune's English lines as 'the language of the dragon'.
• One of Masamune's lines went "The Demon King, the Conqueror King, or me. Which do you think is the worst?".
• There was a line from Yoshitsugu when a fan was playing as Sakon.
• Enemy ninja have a new technique which can bind the player.
• One person mentioned that Naotora's Basara-e illustration was a tiger, though this hasn't been corroborated. It would make sense, given her name and connection to the Takeda forces.

There weren't a great number of people at the event since Sapporo isn't all that easy to get to, so it's unlikely that there will be many more reports. I'm grateful to the fan @andd1104 on Twitter for providing very detailed comments to help make sense of all of the others I'd read.

According to the comments made about the video, it's the second character introduction video (the first was this one, also available with fan-made English subtitles). While the first one showed moves from Masamune, Yukimura, Mitsunari, Sakon, Katsuie and Naotora, it seems that the new video covered Ieyasu, Tadakatsu, Sasuke, Magoichi, Tsuruhime, Tenkai, Hideaki, Nobunaga, Shikanosuke, Nagamasa, Oichi and Matabee.

I'm hoping that the new video will appear online on the Capcom channel in the coming week. The second handshake event will take place next Saturday at Bic Camera in Nagoya.

More details of the upcoming Sengoku Basara Comic Anthology 'Setouchi Chronicle'

Amazon Japan has revised the listing for the upcoming Sengoku Basara Comic Anthology 'Setouchi Chronicle' manga with some new details. The most important clarification is that the release date has slipped back a month to 21st December 2013. The other details are unchanged; it's still in the Dengeki Comics EX line with 116 pages and priced at ¥893. The contributors will include veteran Sengoku Basara manga artists Ashika Nozomu, Sasakura Kou and Arai Karo.

HAL College of Technology and Design will host Sengoku Basara 4 events

Japan's HAL colleges focus on training the next generation of game developers and IT workers, and their 'open campus' events will include access to an official Sengoku Basara 4 pre-release demo. It seems that a number of Capcom employees are alumni of the various HAL schools so they've teamed up to encourage the next generation of game industry workers!

If you happen to be in Osaka on 16th November, Tokyo on 23rd November or Nagoya on 7th December and feel like enrolling in one of the HAL courses, perhaps you can check it out.

Udon's English-translated Sengoku Basara 2 manga is now available digitally

The first double-sized volume of Haibara Yak's gorgeous Sengoku Basara 2 manga has now debuted in the Comixology store in digital form. This is the series which was translated into English by Udon Entertainment as Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends, and I thoroughly recommend checking it out if you haven't yet had the chance.

Gaming website Magic Box posts more pictures from Weekly Famitsu

My translation post might make slightly more sense if you view it together with their article.

Fan club exclusive event DVD becomes available for general purchase

The DVD recording of the Sengoku Basara Fan Kanshasai ~BSR48 Kaihyou No Utage~ event held to celebrate the results of the BSR48 election back in January 2012 has now been announced for a general release. It was previously only available through the old fan club shop. As the shop has now closed, those who weren't able to join the old fan club during its limited recruitment periods finally have the chance to pick up their copy. You can read my original review of the disc for the full details.

News roundup: Sengoku Basara 4 updates and stage speculation

I thought that I could squeeze today's news updates into the end of yesterday's big Weekly Famitsu translation post, but it turned out that there were too many and the post became too long. Here we go!

Official Sengoku Basara 4 website updates to show the Kyougoku-Azai army

The official Sengoku Basara 4 website has now been updated so I've added pictures to my original article. The front page has changed to show the game's cover artwork and there's a new (very short) teaser trailer. The Kyougoku-Azai army character profiles will be available on 14th November.

The trailer isn't the only sign that the marketing for the game has begun in earnest. Twitter user @foi1059 posted a snapshot of a gorgeous two-page advertisement for Sengoku Basara 4.

Gaming websites such as Famitsu, 4Gamer, Dengeki Online and Gamer have now started to cover the new reveals with higher resolution pictures.

Character profiles from the Sengoku Basara 4 limited edition are previewed

A news posting today gave us a glimpse of Shibata Katsuie's profile from one of the Sengoku Basara 4 Hyakka Ryouran Tamatebako special edition books. It looks pretty interesting, listing the characters' main defining features ('a frustrated man', in Katsuie's case) and a bunch of personality/design notes, including a reference to the Gelgoog's beam naginata in Mobile Suit Gundam. They're keeping a few things hidden in the preview version of the profile, but part of it reads as follows...

"...and separated from his beloved Oichi so she could enter into a political marriage to Azai Nagamasa. Katsuie wasn't able to tell her how he felt. In the midst of his despair, he wonders what he's living for."

The news report also notes that the CLAMP illustrations will include pictures of Yukimura/Sasuke, Naotora/Oichi, Yoshiteru and also one other, which they're keeping secret for now. This is in addition to CLAMP drawing Masamune, Mitsunari, Sakon and Katsuie for the book as previously reported.

More details surface about Sengoku Basara Magazine issue three

The e-Capcom listing for Sengoku Basara Magazine vol. 3 is now available, shedding light on more of the content. Sengoku Basara 4 producer Kobayashi Hiroyuki and director Yamamoto Makoto will give a 'pre-release interview' about the game. Cover star Tokugawa Ieyasu is going to receive tribute illustrations from artists Toh Azuma and Ayamura Kirihito. Last but not least, the Showgeki Basara Talk! bonus CD will be presented by Hoshi Souichirou (Sanada Yukimura) and Koyasu Takehito (Sarutobi Sasuke) as we knew, and it's been confirmed that their 'Basara Challenge' task will be a game of hide-and-seek. I suspect that Sasuke will be better at this than Yukimura...

The other details are as reported in my earlier post. Amazon Japan is now listing the magazine for purchase, too.

On the subject of Ieyasu, the official Sengoku Basara twitter account had some fun this morning pointing out the button detail on his Gakuen Basara DLC costume.

More listings appear for as-yet unannounced merchandise

Shuueisha's Sengoku Basara 4 strategy guide has been spotted at Manga-Oh, for release on the same day as the game itself on 23rd January 2013. The sold-out Sengoku Basara Magazine CD: Showgeki Basara Talk! Vol. 1: Masamune & Kojuurou No Maki Special-ban disc is also getting a second press this winter for those who missed it the first time around.

TV Asahi posts an introduction to the world of the Sengoku Basara stage plays

A short introduction to the Butai Sengoku Basara stage plays has been placed on YouTube courtesy of TV Asahi after its original broadcast last weekend. It's been created to promote the current stage play, Butai Sengoku Basara 3 Utage Two. Official videos covering the series are rare so I thought it was worth a mention!


Speculation time

There are a few stray pieces of information from previous reports and yesterday's Weekly Famitsu article which I want to draw particular attention to as we draw closer to the final character reveals.

We're up to 30 characters revealed now out of the 40 promised. We've seen characters such as Kasuga, Yoshitsugu and Hisahide appearing in promotional videos already, and there have been sightings of the Shimazu and Uesugi armies' flags in the past. But those aren't the only clues, and today I want to talk about stages.

We've previously been shown pictures of the march screen with points marked on the in-game map where we'd expect to see Hetsugigawa (Sourin/Muneshige), Hasedou Castle (Yoshiaki) and Itsukushima (Motonari). The latter is supported by this glimpse of Itsukushima's world famous torii which Japanese fan @hananohiyoko125 spotted in today's magazine.

While it's not certain which characters will be assigned to which locations in Sengoku Basara 4 - the status of all four of these characters is still unknown - at the very least there are strong hints that we'll see them appear in the game.

In addition to this, this week's magazine mentioned some interesting 'outbreak' encounters. The battle which immediately stood out to me was called "Revenge: the sword of the God of War". The God of War is obviously Kenshin, and his 'sword' might refer to his 'beautiful blade', Kasuga. If it's a revenge encounter, could something have happened to Kenshin in the storyline? Is it a hint he'll be a non-playable character again this time, or could this be a flashback?

I guess we'll have to wait before finding the answers to these questions. I'm expecting (at least) two more characters to be announced in next fortnight's Weekly Famitsu to get us up to the total promised for this month's issue of Sengoku Basara Magazine, unless they're saving the last two for a sudden reveal in the magazine itself. It's hard to believe that we're just over two months away from the game's release!

News roundup: Weekly Famitsu announces the Azai couple and Kyougoku Maria for Sengoku Basara 4

We're back into the rhythm this week as early leaks from tomorrow's issue of Weekly Famitsu (dated 21st November 2013) have started to appear on 2ch and Sengoku Basara 4 is getting some coverage once again. It's moved to 13th place in the Most Wanted ranking (a drop from 11th place, and 8th place the week before).

Motonari is still missing in action (and looking even more likely to be teamed up with the Xavists than ever unless Gyoubu and/or Hisahide will be involved with his story) but at least last week's mysterious lady has had her identity revealed. Here's what Weekly Famitsu has reported.

The Kyougoku-Azai army joins the battle to seize the country!

Nagamasa has been revived for the main game series! It seems that he'll be stirring up drama along with Oichi once again. In addition, the game's final new commander has arrived!

Kyougoku Maria 京極マリア
Character image phrase: 愛染艶花 Aizen Enka ('Bewitching Flower Of Passion')
Seiyuu: Sawashiro Miyuki
Weapon: Cloth
Playable: No
Description: Introduced as an enemy commander, Kyougoku Maria is Azai Nagamasa's older sister. She's a woman who possesses so much beauty that it even distracts warriors from enemy armies. Maria considers herself the most valuable thing in the world; she views other people from this perspective and tries to determine whether or not they are good enough for her. On the battlefield, she attacks by manipulating cloth at will.

"If you want to become my accessory...show me proof? That even you would make an worthy accessory for me..."

(Note: She uses the word warawa to refer to herself.)

There's a picture showing Masamune wrapped up in Maria's weapon, then another with a kiss mark covering the screen. Caption: "In a defenceless state, bound by the cloth. A devilish kiss approaches Masamune!?"

Then a strip of cloth is shown extending from her hand area and hitting Masamune. "Part of her outfit becomes a long cloth and knocks Masamune over! This long range attack looks like quite a threat... How do you close in!?"

Another picture shows a purple-fringed cloth descending from above Maria with a caption: "A gigantic veil from the sky above!?"

(Raindrops' notes: In the real world she was known as a Christian - she was also the wife of Kyougoku Takayoshi and mother to Kyougoku Takatsugu. It's strange that Sawashiro will be providing Maria's voice, as she's also reportedly behind Itsuki in Sengoku Basara Mobile, which I've never played. I'm not sure whether that's good for Itsuki's future in the series.)

Azai Nagamasa 浅井長政
Character image phrase: 信義不倒 Shingi Futou ('Unshakeable Loyalty')
Seiyuu: Tsujitani Kouji
Weapon: Katana
Playable: Yes
Description: The supreme commander who leads the Kyougoku-Azai army. Nagamasa is a deeply serious person who prizes justice and punishes those he has recognised as 'evil'. He's proud, too. Often trapped between the demands of his wife Oichi and his sister Maria, Nagamasa's problems never end. Although his reach is short on the battlefield, he fights by making use of his agility.

"Where there is evil, there's justice as well... Where there is justice, evil is stifled!"

There's a picture of him using Kizan: Juumonji and a caption. "One of his unique skills involves Nagamasa storing up the 'Power of Justice'. As the power builds up his reach increases, and he can also release a powerful technique."

Oichi お市
Character image phrase: 幻妖言惑 Genyou Genwaku ('Enthralling Apparition')
Seiyuu: Noto Mamiko
Weapon: Dark hands
Playable: Yes
Description: The wife of Azai Nagamasa. Feared by many as the sister of Oda Nobunaga, Oichi harbours self-destructive thoughts. Since being with Nagamasa gives her a sense of peace, she's become deeply dependent on him and will stop at nothing to protect her husband. Oichi's weapons are her shadowy 'dark hands'.

"Oh, I'm glad...you can die before hurting Nagamasa-sama...hehe."

Caption: "The threat of the 'Great Dark Hands' from cancelling a normal attack!". There's also a small picture of Nagamasa holding Oichi by the shoulders as they're surrounded by the demonic hands.

Lastly, there's a funny picture of Oichi and Maria tugging at Nagamasa earnestly while he makes an agonised face in the middle, captioned "Even Nagamasa is baffled, torn between his wife and his older sister!?".

--

Here are the pictures I've found so far: one incredibly small picture which apparently came from Jump, and a camera phone shot of Nagamasa and Maria. G from the comments section also found this shot of Oichi. Here are alternate shots of the same pictures of Maria and the Azai couple.

There's also some new information about the structure of the game's Sengoku Creation mode in the same magazine article. I'll just translate it all, even though it sounds erratic when they keep changing topics.

--

In this game, you can alter history in countless ways depending on your character's actions and the shifts in the influence of the enemy forces. Depending on how you play you could reign for more than a thousand years.

Choose your battle from the march screen!

On the march screen, your character's drama unfolds first of all and then the enemy forces' movements are relayed. You choose where to march after receiving the information about your enemies; you can also view the rewards and requirements while making the decision.

Since the enemy movements vary between plays, the details of each battle will also change. The five types of battle are normal, outbreak, omen, derivation and one-on-one fight. The outbreaks and omen battles can suddenly appear with shifts in enemy influence, so you have to look out for them.

The pictures show Iinoya Castle as an 'omen' (purple), Sengenji as a 'derivation' (blue) and Honnouji as an 'outbreak' (red).

The type of battle also affects the rewards and contents; these changes can be substantial. In the case of the 'one-on-one fight' battles you have to face an enemy boss right at the beginning of the stage. If you win the match, the prize will be a weapon.

--

The anime cutscenes made by Production I.G. are shown if you clear one of the 'anime routes' in the game. Only some of the characters have this as an option. Alternatively, you can take the 'drama route' to enjoy a deeply dramatic story. The drama routes seem to appear as blue scrolls whereas the anime routes are coloured red.

Drama breaks out during the march!

There's a lovely picture of Masamune and Yukimura crossing their weapons in front of huge blue/red flags.

Developments in the fights between enemy forces can change the conflicts which break out. You need to check which scenarios and battles have appeared!

There's a shot of Mitsunari running and gasping "Hanbee-sama!" with his and Hanbee's portraits on either side of the screen.

Rush into the drama routes! There are events with certain combinations of characters!

If you head out to fight when a drama route appears, the mid-battle conversation will change. Each of the characters will have major story developments. Incidentally, finishing the drama route after branching will alter the ending. The outcome is up to you.

At the end of Sengoku Creation mode, once you've unified the land, a timeline of the steps you took is displayed on-screen. It also shows the length of your reign.

--

Finally, a few of the screenshots reveal even more interesting stage names, which add to the few I've posted about twice before. Please note that these pictures are incredibly small and I used my best efforts to make out the blurriest kanji.

(With a blood-spattered background) An outbreak! Azuchi-Shiten gathering.
(With a blood-spattered background) An outbreak! Revenge: the sword of the God of War.
(With a blood-spattered background) An outbreak! Kaga: Maeda Kabuki-Matsuri.
(With a blood-spattered background) An outbreak! Fate: the One-Eyed Dragon.
The Chousokabe forces crush the Kyougoku-Azai forces at Pirate Fortress: Hyakki Fugaku.
A fugitive ('otazunemono') lurks at Shizugatake.
A fugitive ('otazunemono') lurks at Osaka.

Both Nobunaga and Mitsuhide are shown as bosses on the Incident At Honnouji stage, and there's a new stage called Tango: Sengenji which belongs to Maria.

--

The return of the official Sengoku Basara pickles

In other news, remember the Sengoku Basara pickles from Kyomaf (Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair 2013)? The special edition packs of Kyoto-style Daiyasu Sengoku Basara Kyou-tsukemono have now been given a wider launch, still priced at ¥683. The pack includes three varieties: red shiso cucumber, pickled shiso and purple shibazuke. You can even pick them up at import stores such as AmiAmi.

Not sure I'll be going out of my way to order a set...

More merchandise on the way: Sengoku Basara 4 gashapon collectibles

I mentioned this on Twitter during the Animate Girls Festival 2013 at the weekend, but we now have a listing so it's official: Takara Tomy are to release a set of ¥200 capsule 'AR Gacha' collectibles on 28th February 2014. There will be fourteen different designs to collect - Masamune and Mitsunari have two each - and one of the characters is secret. I'm guessing it will be Motonari, especially since they've arranged them all with Motochika next to the blank spot.

The latest Sengoku Basara 4 video news

The news should continue in a few days as fans in Hokkaido are going to be shown a brand new Sengoku Basara 4 video this weekend at an in-store event, and more details about January's launch event should also be coming very soon. In the meantime, the team of PSandNintendFreak and Nine Demons Yoshitaka over at Koei Warriors subtitled the DLC costume video in English for the enjoyment of their fellow fans.


Update 23:45: Finished! The Famitsu information is now complete. At least until morning, when I'll add the pictures from the next official website update...
Update 07:55 07/11/2013: The official Sengoku Basara 4 website has now been updated so I've added pictures to my article. The front page has changed to show the game's cover artwork and there's a new (very short) teaser trailer. The Kyougoku-Azai army character profiles will be available on 14th November. I've moved the other news snippets to a dedicated news post today as there were too many.

Speculation: Who is the mysterious woman in the newest Sengoku Basara 4 trailer?

I think it's time I rounded up all of the main guesses about the identity of the mysterious new character in case we get the answer this week. Here's a quick summary of what we know about her for sure:

• She's only appeared once so far, in the newest promotional video.
• The press describe her as the 'final new character' in the game.
• Dengeki explicitly referred to her as a 'non-playable character' in their report.

So who is she? Here are the names which seem to keep coming up on English and Japanese discussion forums.

Izumo No Okuni 出雲阿国

• Okuni was known for her dancing, and the mysterious newcomer is shown gesturing elegantly and spinning as though dancing in mid-air.
• If she fights with her ribbons there is potential to have her entire move set use theatrical dance movements and flourishes, which would suit the person credited as the famous performer who brought the world kabuki.
• Okuni is an interesting historical figure who would fit into the Sengoku Basara world quite well.

Mochizuki Chiyome 望月千代女

• A legendary female ninja with ties to the Takeda clan.
• The emblem on the woman's chest looks very similar to the Takeda crest. I think it's possible that it's actually a stylised flower, like the four-petal designs on her skirt and in her hair. But a red diamond crest is such a familiar sight to fans of the series that it immediately stood out.

• Personally, I'm not convinced by this theory (even though it would be interesting to have more female ninja). The evidence is quite weak and relies entirely on the diamond crests on her clothing tying her to the Takeda clan, but the creators already have trouble juggling three popular Takeda characters. Her design also looks too fancy and exotic to fit the image of a legendary kunoichi.

Himiko 卑弥呼

• Himiko's name has already been linked to Sengoku Basara 4. Tsuruhime is said to be acting on instructions from a mysterious voice which calls itself 'Himiko'.
• As an ancient (time-travelling) queen, she would be 'above' the other warriors like Yoshiteru, which would fit in nicely with her role as a non-playable surprise character.
• As a monarch, she would probably have a strong opinion on the 'Sengoku Creation' storyline and determining the true ruler of the country.
• The traditional floral imagery and feathers in the new character's design might indicate she has roots in an earlier culture. She has an exotic look which many people are associating with a fantasy character rather than a Sengoku-era commander.
• In the video the woman is spinning through space, which is generally not something normal people do. On the other hand, this is Sengoku Basara and it's probably a clip from the opening movie...
• However, a number of fans are upset at the idea that a character from hundreds of years before the period even began would take up a character slot in a Sengoku-era game.

Grown-up Itsuki いつき

• The new character's hair is very similar in colour to Itsuki's. Her hairstyle is more mature but still incorporates a pair of braids, too.

• A lot of people want Itsuki to return.
• She's involved in the storyline of the current stage play, so a tie-in would make sense.
• Itsuki's seiyuu has sadly passed away, so giving her a redesign would avoid any inconsistencies if her voice is a little different.
• This can also be combined with the Himiko idea. It's plausible that Itsuki could be channeling Himiko given her supernatural storyline elements, and this would be a very neat solution to the problem of reintroducing her and giving her a link to Tsuruhime.

Kyougoku Maria 京極マリア

I wasn't convinced by this guess at first, but Japanese fans have been digging up clues and they've built up quite a few good arguments.

• Maria was the real-life sister of Azai Nagamasa. Since they still haven't formally announced Oichi or explained Nagamasa's brief presence in the promotional videos, they could be holding back to reveal an interesting storyline for them all.
• Although Maria isn't well known in the English-speaking community, she was the wife of Kyougoku Takayoshi and mother to Kyougoku Takatsugu, so there's plenty of room for the Kyougoku house to have ties to major conflicts in the series' storyline. Maria may have been chosen over her famous male relatives in order to increase the number of females in the roster.
• Maria had ties to Tango Province. There's a spot marked on the map in a screenshot which has been published several times, right in the middle of the Tango area. I was struggling to work out which battle or castle it might relate to back at the time - maybe it's her stage?

• We haven't yet heard anything about the Xavists, even though Sourin and Muneshige are expected to appear in the game. The real-life Maria was known for converting to Christianity, so her storyline would probably be deeply connected to the Xavists.
• Her exotic looks might be inspired by her ties to Christianity, too.

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Finally, there's the matter of the mystery flag seen behind Oichi in the same video.

It's a distinctively lurid green/yellow colour, just like the clothing worn by our mysterious woman. The crest (which I've singled out in the corner) is a yotsumeyui design. This was used by a number of families, significantly including both the Amago and the Kyougoku.

We know that Yamanaka Shikanosuke is tied to the Amago family. However, his livery colours are blue/orange, not green/yellow, and he seems to be using the alternate hanawachigai crest instead of the yotsumeyui. In Sengoku Basara 3, Amago Haruhisa wore the yotsumeyui on his headpiece but used a pink/grey hanawachigai on his banners too.

Given all of this evidence, I think it's safe to say that the flag behind Oichi is not associated with the Amago family in Sengoku Basara 4. Yet our mysterious lady's belt design seems to incorporate the same shape as the crest on the flag.

If it really does belong to our mystery lady, the chance of her being Kyougoku Maria increases greatly. Then there's the fact that it's shown behind Oichi, who has ties to the Azai family Maria was born into. I'm becoming convinced.

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There are plenty of other suggestions, ranging from one of the male characters in drag to Matsuhime, Tachibana Ginchiyo, Nene or Hosokawa Gracia (who also has ties to the Tango area). Someone even wondered whether she was Shikanosuke's deer in human form!

I think that a visitor from the past, a spouse or a sibling is more likely than the new girl being one of the existing characters' children; Capcom has apparently tried to avoid true parent-child relationships in the series so far. While we wait for some kind of official confirmation the discussion has been continuing over at Koei Warriors!