[Drem]

I've always found it interesting to compare the designs between Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou in Japan) from Koei and Sengoku Basara from Capcom. Both are "musou" games that take place during the titular Sengoku period of feudal Japan and both are incredibly popular. Koei's Musou franchise is consistently one of the best selling franchises in Japan with each entry. Senoku Basara was Capcom's attempt at getting in on that sweet musou money and has managed to achieve a similarly popular status. Interestingly it also has one of the highest ratios of female fans for any mainstream game in Japan.

There's obviously a large overlap in cast for the games since they feature the major players of the era. You can see characters tend to share some motifs across games and are undoubtedly pulled from real historical representations or events. I'm unfortunately not knowledgeable on Japanese history so I can't pinpoint where these come from nor have I played Samurai Warriors so I can't compare the character's representations in each game. I was just looking through these tonight and thought someone else might find them curious to look through. I've only included characters that have 3D models in both series. Both series have characters that don't appear in the other and those characters aren't included in this list.

Both series have new games coming out next year. Sengoku Basara 4 is coming out on January 23 and Samurai Warriors 4 is coming out March 20. Sengoku Basara 4 isn't ever going to come to West but Samurai Warriors 4 probably will.


Oichi:

Sengoku Basara Pre-death


Sengoku Basara Post-death


Samurai Warriors:



Otani Yoshitsugu:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Sanada Yukimura:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Shibata Katsuie:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Shima Sakon:

Sengoku Basara:


Samurai Warriors:



Tachibana Muneshige:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors:



Takeda Shingen:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Takenaka Hanbei:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors:



Tokugawa Ieyasu:

Sengoku Basara 1-2


Sengoku Basara 3+


Samurai Warriors



Toyotomi Hideyoshi:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Uesugi Kenshin:

Sengoku Basara



Samurai Warriors



Yoshihiro Shimazu:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Akechi Mitsuhide:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Azai Nagamasa:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Chosokabe Motochika:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Date Masamune:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Hojo Ujimasa:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Honda Tadakatsu:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Imagawa Yoshimoto:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Kanbei Kuroda:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Katakura Kojuuro:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Kotaro Fuuma:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Maeda Keiji:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Maeda Toshiie:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Magoichi Saika:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Matsunaga Hisahide:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Mitsunari Ishida:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Miyamoto Musashi:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Motonari Mori:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Mori Ranmaru:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Naoe Kanetsugu:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Naotora Ii:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Nohime:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors



Oda Nobunaga:

Sengoku Basara


Samurai Warriors

[Bingle]

In Samurai Warriors 4, they actually redesigned Nobunaga's face which was pretty interesting. It seemed to tie in with the new Nobunaga's Ambition, so it's nice to see a crossover of assets there, especially considering how ROTK and NA more often than not use assets from the Warriors series rather than vice versa.

I'm also wondering if the KOEI games actually set up design precedents for other similarly themed games. As far as I know, Lu Bu's depiction in Dynasty Warriors is always ripped off in Chinese MMORPGs and the like. An amazing feat for a series that's so seeped on complete mediocrity when it comes to actual art direction.

Number One Pictures of Lu Bu:
http://i.imgur.com/7FIuiEC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HqgsDIV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zUw9Lnf.jpg

[Renfrew]

I never fail to impress Japanese people with my knowledge of Japanese civil war history, just from playing these games for hundreds of hours. Samurai Warriors is head and shoulders above Dynasty Warriors, btw
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[Guillotine]

Nice thread! I follow these games very intermittently so I missed the guy with chainsaws. I have a soft spot for the ludicrous over the top basara designs, my favourite got to be Zabi. I think what I saw of 4 new characters looked rather plain... but again I'm not that invested in the games themselves.

[meauxdal]

Played a lot of Sengoku Basara 3 on Wii, it was actually probably one of the very best co-op games on the system. I always wondered if there were any major differences between the Wii and next-gen versions. Wii version was blazing fast considering all the enemies and split-screen and the graphics weren't bad!

Seconding approval for the over-the-top stuff in those games. Never had a chance to play the Samurai Warriors games.
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[Drem]

[Guillotine]

[Renfrew]

Yeah, the characters were more individualized, at least in SW2. Every character had two special techniques controlled by the shoulder buttons. Some were special attacks or counters, some were types of buffs like turning invisible or creating shadow doubles for extra attacks, and some were just simple things like summoning your horse. Also, in the Dynasty Warrior s games, you always jammed on the square button for a while and then finished off the combo with a special attack with the triangle. In Samurai Warriors, there were three different attack growth paths you go down as you level up. There is the basic DW long string of square attacks path, one with a shorter square chain with multiple triangle attacks, and one where the special shoulder button attacks and effects chained
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[Drem]

I had held off on posting until I got back to my home so I could upload a bunch of videos I had made over the past few months on Sengoku Basara's animations but I don't think free SkyDrive is going to hold 87gb. I had been recording footage to make some videos showcasing just how much character SB has infused into the game's animations along with character guides showing how different everyone played but after a while decided to just wait for SB4 later this month.

Renfrew that sounds a lot like what Omega Force did for Hokuto Musou (Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage) and One Piece Kaizouku Musou (One Piece: Pirate Warriros). The combo inputs were more varied from DW and each character has unique special abilities mapped to specific buttons and character gimmicks. Coincidentally I like those two series much more than DW so SW now has my interest piqued. I've been trying out Dynasty Warriors 7 and Dynasty Warriros Next (which I heard was based off DW7 XL) off and on and I just can't get into the combat or the characters. The weapons' combos aren't very interseting and I can't find any interesting applications for whatever moves you have access to. Since any character can equip any weapon the only thing that differentiates the cast are their EX moves and Musou moves, both of which tend to feel very anemic. Hokuto and One Piece did fantastic jobs of making everyone's combos and abilities unique. This explains why I also have trouble getting into Gundam Musou since I can now see that it follows the DW lineage as opposed to SW, featuring the same combo and EX move system with the addition of that boost canceling thing. The attacks, the sense of weight, and the pacing are all in line with DW.


Does Musou Orochi lean DW or SW? I know it's got that three character system like Dynasty Warriros Strikeforce, a game I didn't play enough to realize it was Omega Force's attempt at Monster Hunter pre-Toukiden, but it's got both DW and SW characters. I've been thinking of trying out Musou Orochi 3 Ultimate whenever that comes out in the West.

[Renfrew]

I only played 1 and it has been a long time. I think every character had 1 special move/ability but I don't remember the actual combo system
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