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Since the earliest days of gaming, tactical conquest has been a tried-and-true staple
of any console’s library. Doesn’t matter if it’s Ghenghis Khan, Nobunaga’s Ambition,
Civilization, Master of Orion, what have you. It’s just like Tears for Fears said, “Everybody
Wants to Rule the World.” (Or feudal Japan. Or the universe. Really doesn’t matter.)
But this is a new, hyper-stylized era, where tactical acumen can be overshadowed by a fine
layer of shinyness. And into this era, Sengoku Basara was born. Capcom’s franchise-optimized
bishounen-laden interpretation of Dynasty Warriors-style beatings certainly fights to
establish its own unique aesthetic, but is it a case of form over function?
Taking control of one of the major players of Sengoku-era Japan, your ultimate goal is
unification of the entire country under your own rule, ideals, and military force. You’ll
probably recognize some of the names, from the hoodie-clad Ieyasu Tokugawa, dual-triple-wielding
Date Masamune, Uesugi Kenshin, Sarutobi Sasuke, and (of course) Oda Nobunaga himself. You
carry out your campaign by getting down on the ground and slaughtering masses of foes
with reckless disregard for physics, bodily integrity, or standard military tactics. Your
people have a near-invincible general, after all, and it’s your duty to destroy, destroy,
destroy, and look good doing it. You’re up against a legion of your foes’ forces,
from the swarms of grunts to Squad Leaders to named units (who drop resources for you
to claim) to tactically-positioned camp leaders for you to topple so as to claim territory.
If you’re a veteran of Dynasty Warriors or Drakengard or other such games, you’ll
fit right in.
Adding to the diversity of the game is a system of item manipulation and creation, based on
the spoils of war you’ve picked up over the course of your campaigns. Between skirmishes,
you can create and equip power-ups to increase your parameters or give you bonuses in battle,
as well as configure your allied fighter, check and set your special attacks, and change
outfits if you’re into that sort of thing. While any given campaign can easily be completed
in a sitting, each character has multiple paths resulting in varying difficulties, spoils,
and allies.
Let’s face it; this game’s primary draw is for those who already have somewhat of
a grasp on the history of feudal Japan, and want to see it play out with Saica Magoichi
as a ridiculously hot mercenary with a thigh-mounted bandoleer of pistols. And Oichi... she’ll
give ya nightmares, man. Nightmares. The characterization is fun (if wildly anachronistic), and the
vocal performance features some of the most practiced VAs in the business. ‘Cuz when
you’re spilling out names like “Maeda Toshiie,” you want someone with experience
in the Persona series, who can wrap a tongue around that like it’s no thing.
There’s a lot to this game, with any one campaign unlocking only as much as 2% of the
total experience, and plenty of characters to find, recruit, or slaughter. But most importantly,
this game serves as Capcom’s reminder that just because a game deals with a historical
period rather unfamiliar to Western audiences, there’s no reason to excise those aspects
entirely. The first Sengoku Basara was stripped of these very same references, and remade
into the abysmal Devil Kings for PS2. Discretion is the better part of valor, folks. That’s
one of the things you learn on the battlefield.