[Drem]

My copy of SB4 came in today (the collector's edition is really nice by the way) and I managed to play a little bit of it. While some thoughts were fresh in my mind I recorded a quick video showing off one of the new characters to help demonstrate what the game's combat system is like. I think SB does a good job of conceptualizing and developing individual playstyles for each character so I hope to expand on that in this thread as I play. The video I made is for Sakon Shima and his unique character gimmicks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2zojHab1wU (it cut's off at the end but you aren't missing much)

Real quick though, SB4's design focus seems to have been two main things: develop the subsystems and improve the pacing. The equipment system has been overhauled into something much more customizable and timesink-able, the partner system has been adjusted to allow more functional cooperation with the AI by essentially turn your partner into another special attack, and individual stage gimmicks and unique enemies have been given more focus.

At the same time, the menu structure combined with little in the way of load times is designed to help you brush through the menus and customization as quickly as possible. Character story conversations now play as you work through your menus rather then dedicating time solely to cutscenes and transitions between menu sections have been shortened to give everything a more brisk pace. Furthermore the levels themselves have been designed to be more concise, tightening pathways to shorten land traversal time and pushing you to key areas quicker. The levels are paced to be shorter but more intense; the stage gimmicks feel like they have a stronger presence and effect on you, the enemies are noticeably more intelligent and aggressive, and there are a lot of new enemy types and new group attacks that are legitimately threatening and require new approaches.

Overall I feel like the series is making a conscious move towards being a distinct character action game rather than staying within the confines of the "musou" genre. It's not completely there yet but I don't think it's a bad direction to go in. Also, here's the game's rad opening. Capcom specified this game is in an alternate history from the rest of the series but this opening has me wondering if they meant that in a legitimate multiverse kind of way.


Fun fact, I think the lead designer of Sengoku Basara was also the lead design of Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.

[Drem]

Yeah, the game tries to not get you bogged down in one place and is paced fairly quickly. I was planning to touch on the game's emphasis on mobility and fluidity in my next post but I got kind of sick this past weekend. Every character's main combo moves them forward, everyone has special moves that move them forward (usually very long distances) and most moves have some sort of option to cancel the recovery time by dashing, jumping, or going into another special move. The ability to keep moving and attacking is actually fairly important in this game because you want to keep your combo meter (the hit counter on the left) up as high as possible. As the hit count rises you're given progressively higher multipliers on every piece of money you pick up and is vital to accruing funds. At the same time the higher it gets the quicker it resets back to zero. It also acts a big source of positive feedback outside the typical musou killcount and adds a metagame in seeing how high you can get it.

As for the gameplay benefiting from technology, I guess it's depends on what you mean. If you mean it from a enemy count perspective, being able to display more enemies at once and at longer distances, I'm not sure if that is really the case. It definitely helps the atmosphere of creating a grand battle and will look cool to send flying from big attacks but that appeal only lasts so long before the player's experience falls back onto the core gameplay. There are games like Ikusagami and Ninety-Nine Nights that have huge enemy counts as one of their main selling points but since your interaction with them is weak it didn't account for much. 1,000 enemies with brain dead AI isn't going to be that much more interesting 100 in itself. In fact Sengoku Basara 4 has actually toned down the enemy counts a little bit compared to the previous games in exchange for smarter AI and more varied enemy types, and I think the game is better for it.

[Drem]

On the Capcom forums the PR people have been surprisingly upfront about Sengoku Basara 4 never being release outside of Japan. I don’t think the bombing of SB3 is wholly attributable to the game’s qualities but it’s killed Capcom’s interest in trying to push the game to other countries.

If you have no interest in the story mode then just waiting for the expansion isn’t a bad idea. SB4 actually only has a story mode (and the typical stage select mode) this time around but the game design’s been adjusted to make the story mode more re-playable. Each story path is much shorter than previous games, maybe around ~5 stages, and the stages themselves are more brisk and gimmicky. It’s easier to sit down and play completely through one of a character’s story branches in a few hours. But there’s no country unification mode or the assorted party modes and challenges you typically see in SB’s expansions. Most annoyingly is that two of the new characters, the main villain Ashikaga Yoshiteru and another character named Kyogoku Maria, aren’t playable in SB4 nor are Uesugi Kenshin or Kasuga. I’m not sure if anyone else is included in that list (I don’t think Ujimasa Hojo is even in SB4) but it’s obvious expansion bait.

[Drem]

As I briefly touched upon earlier, I find building the combo counter a fun meta-game to play because you have to plan your attacks and positioning a bit more. You don’t want to completely mash out attacks because you will end up attacking the air at some point and lose the counter. You might always destroy a squad of enemies and not be close enough to another group to keep the combo going. Or maybe some of the longer range or more aggressive enemies will hit you once which will reset your combo counter too. The game also gives you some goalposts in this system to keep you motivated. Every 500 hits you enter Fever Mode where you get a bonus money multiplier for a short period of time and your hit counter won’t reset for the duration of that mode. Your hit counter glows gold and loads of money start spewing from every hit so it feels real good to achieve. Multiples of 1,000 count as Super Fever which net you an even higher multiplier bonus. It’s a very carrot-on-a-stick type game design since you look at how close you are to hitting a multiple of 500 and think “I want to see if I can hit that” and you feel bad if you’re this close to reaching Fever but run out of enemies or get hit.

So when I look at a character’s moveset the ability to keep a combo going is one of the things I consider. It’s not just a matter of strength and defense as nice as those are but I also try to look at a character’s speed of attacks, the ability to hit large areas, the ability to cover distance, how many hits do the moves do, how quickly can he or she build the super and style meters, etc. Just things that I think will help keep that meter up.

Hitting large areas is an obvious perk but attacks with movement are important as well. Those let you cover distance while building hits and is useful for traversing areas sparse of enemies (getting at least one hit on someone will reset the timer before your hit counter goes away. If you have moves that can carry enemies with you that’s even better because you can ride their hits until you reach a new group of enemies (although you have to remember that enemies can only take a certain number of hits after they’re dead before they can’t be touched anymore). Building super meter is good because your combo counter won’t disappear throughout the duration of the super move; characters with fast meter build or super moves that travel far distances are really useful because of this. The style meter is used to enter a super mode that slows down time but your combo counter also won’t reset for the duration of that mode so it’s very useful too.

Looking back at Sakon Shima off the top of my head I’d say his foot stance is good for damage and longitudinal distance while his sword stance is good for latitudinal attack coverage and larger hit counts. You just have to use them based on the level layout and enemy formations. This is largely how I approach the game (and maybe a couple of my friends although I’m not sure if I just rubbed off on them) but I can’t speak for anyone else. Hopefully this will give you an idea of why I like Goto Matabei's ability to make his weapon fly randomly around the area hitting people when I post a video of him tonight (probably).

[Drem]

The biggest thing I’ve learned so far is that I cannot talk about a game and play it at the same time.


Goto Matabei has a- uh, I don’t know if there’s a technical term for it- giant curved blade that he can focus on a single person or throw around to hit lots of people. He’s another slow character but has an amazing ability to gather enemies from a distance. He’s got a handful of moves where he singles out one opponent and cuts him or her over and over and over again, moving the blade back or forth or bending the person in the center of it like with a nutcracker. These slowly do damage to an opponent over a relatively long period of time and honestly they don’t seem particular useful to me outside of bosses where it can lockdown the more troublesome opponents. Matabe’s other specials moves involve him throwing his blade like a boomerang and piling large numbers of enemies into a small clump. Where things get interesting is that can move around while the weapon is thrown and you get a completely different moveset. Matabe becomes much more mobile and quicker, numbly jumping around and scratching people with his hands. His special moves of course change too but a few them change again if you manage to catch your blade returning to you in the startup animation of the move. His 2nd special move throws the blade forward a long distance; without the blade Matabe lunges forward a long distance like Blanka from Street Fighter, and if he catches his blade while lunging forward he’s slam the blade down into the ground and cause a large and damaging electrical explosion. There’s a lot of ways to play with these two movesets and the way they interact with each other. Video: http://youtu.be/85S0095QNuw


Naotora Ii (that’s two ‘i’s) wields a giant sword so the obvious assumption that she’s slow but strong isn’t hard to make. She’s one of the slowest characters in both movement and her normal combo (s-string) but of course her sword covers a huge range. What makes her so cool is her ability to mix her special moves. Her basic five moves are 1) a sword slam that goes into a repetition of swings, 2) and upward swing that launches enemies, 3) a large forward swing with a large arc, 4) running forward and thrusting the sword, an 5) an aerial flip that turns her around and slashes from behind the enemy. They’re cool moves in their own right but in the first half of each move’s startup animation you can input another special move’s command to do something completely different. If you cancel Naotora’s 3rd special move, the arced swing, into her 2nd move, the launcher, she instead swings her sword upwards and launches a giant tornado. If you cancel her aerial flip into the forward dash + thrust, she’ll do an angled thrust to the ground from mid-air. If you cancel the forward run into the arced swing she’ll do a 360 degree swing followed by a stronger forward arced swing. The only exception to this is her first special move that can only be cancelled into, not out of. So in total you could say she has 21 different special moves. Video: http://youtu.be/auuPIganRnE


Shibata Katsuie has a double-bladed polearm and an assortment of fairly fast attacks. He’s got a basic launcher, a dash attack, a projectile, and an AOE attack. His gimmick is that he also has a special move where he spins his weapon above his head which will pulsate wind each time he charges a level. Each level you charge enhances all of his special attacks. His launcher will be followed up by Katsuie spinning his blades and jumping after the enemies, his dash attack goes farther and has an additional series of slashes at the end, his projectiles grow bigger and more can be shot in succession, and his AOE gets larger and has additional attacks. You can do short bursts of charging between each attack in his normal combo (s-string) but even more effective is a special evade cancel he can do out of his special moves. At certain points Katsuie can cancel out of his special moves by doing an evade and this will instantly grant him one level of charge. This turns his gameplay into a constant succession of endless attacks and evades cancels as you try to keep him permanently charged. He’s a very fast paced character. Video: http://youtu.be/B7CqVN9XKOk

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One thing I forgot to mention that helps keep the flow of combat smooth is the characters’ moves are designed to work well together. A character’s flow is determined by where the enemies land as you hit them since that decides what you can follow up with. If a character has one move that knocks enemies very far away chances are the character has some option that lets him keep attacking those enemies, perhaps a move that makes him dash far or a projectile of some sort, and then you'll be able to follow up with another attack after that. If enemies get knocked into the air then the character can probably do an air combo, an aerial special move, or a combination of the two, land, then do more stuff. Sometimes you might have a lot of different options and have to decide based on your proximity to a wall or whatever enemies are in the area but the characters are designed so that you can always be doing something.


Hideyoshi Toyotmi is a giant hulk that towers over pretty much everyone else in the game. Fittingly his moveset revolves around grabbing people with a single handle and through them around the field. He has a move solely used for grabbing people but most of his other moves have the ability to grab people at some point in them. Once someone is grabbed he or she can then be swung around like a weapon, giving Hideyoshi larger range for his attacks, or thrown like a projectile. Overall he is one of the slower characters but his range and strength compensate for that. He can also pound the ground and make the earth erupt (the stones from that eruption can be grabbed and used as a weapon too), he can yell really loud for a 360 degree attack, and he can jump in the air and do a spinning piledriver. His super specials look suitably ridiculous: he can punch the air so hard a giant force of air in the shape of his hand flies forward or he can clasp his hands together with such force that somehow the air several meters in front of him smashes together like two walls, bringing a huge group of enemies together into a straight line. Many of these special moves also change if Hideyoshi is holding someone, so instead of that yelling special he’ll instead be able to smash the person he’s holding back and forth on the ground.

Hideyoshi also has the ability to do special ending moves at the end of regular combo or any of his special attacks. Each of these combo enders are enhanced versions of his regular special moves and are done by pressing one of the special moves button at a specific time; the timing is a little tight so you need to get a good rhythm down. Further, Hideyoshi can combo from one ender into another. You can’t repeat the same combo ender twice in one combo and you can do a max of four but that fourth move will be an even more enhanced, more powerful move, such as a 5400 degree spinning pile driver that creates a vortex to suck surround enemies into the air with you. These “combo-ender enders” all look incredibly cool and end with Hideyoshi using some poor soldier to create a giant crater in the ground. Video: http://youtu.be/BnbpZv_cJL4


Maeda Keiji was the main protagonist of Sengoku Basara 2 (Hideyoshi was the main antagonist of that game). He uses a ludicrously unwieldy sword that grants him long range but somewhat average to low speed attacks (amusingly at the beginning of a level he throws his sword’s scabbard into the sky and it never comes down except for during certain special attacks). Keiji’s gimmick revolves around one of his special moves called “Love Tactics”. When used by itself it’s a move that can cancel into itself infinitely, rotating through a series of many different kinds of attacks ranging from sword throws to launching kicks. What’s interesting is that every move in his arsenal can be “love canceled” into either a unique move or some part of the default Love Tactics combo string. One of Keiji’s moves has him dash forward with his sword held horizontally and launch the enemies into the air with a sword swipe; if you hold the attack button down Keiji will jump after the launched enemies. If you love cancel the attack during the dash Keiji will trip and fall forward, doing a wide area attack and breaking guards. If you love cancel after the launching sword swipe Keiji will start the regular Love Tactics combo with a downward kick, knocking the enemies back onto the ground. If you love cancel after he jumps into the air then Keiji will do a series of aerial sword slashes ending with a downward slam. Keiji’s gameplay revolves around learning these different love cancel moves and how they can be used to follow up with each other; he’s a good example of a character where you need to learn that “flow of moves” I mentioned in the top of the post. He has so many different things he can do but all of these attacks put enemies into a position where he can do something else. This learning process and the amount of possibilities makes him hard to grasp (especially with the strict timing of Love Tactics’ cancels) but very versatile. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qkFW0qJ-s

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One neat thing about Maeda Keiji I forgot to mention is that he is so cancel heavy that he can even cancel his own death if you time it right.


Nagamasa Azai is a well-rounded character with quick attacks and fast movement. He’s themed like a tokusatsu super hero (a combination of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider) and poses after everything he does. His moves use his sword and his shield, the swords for the bulk of his moves (such as drawing a laser cross into the air and shooting it outwards) and the shield for ranged attacks that draw enemies together (throwing it like a boomerang). His gimmick is that he can charge himself up to three levels albeit in a different way from Shibata Katsuie. Nagamasa has an invisible meter that builds as you attack people and you go up one level when it’s full. One of his special arts is used just for charging and you can see your progress while charging with it. The first level enhances his sword, the second level his shield, and the third his body. Level three makes his incredible strong, leaving laser slashes in the air with every strike and doing heavy damage will of his attacks. All of his special arts are powered up and enhanced and he can do special versions that cause him to pose while the screen freezes and Japanese text appears on the screen. Those will revert you back to level one however, which will eventually happen anyway after a certain amount of time.

Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier Nagamasa will pose after every move he does and will have some part of him glimmer or shine. If you do his charging special art right after that shine you will instantly charge one level. This lets you quickly build your levels while attacking. Even more interesting is that his charging special itself has two glimmer points on startup and if you time it right for both you will instantly charge up to level three. The problem is that the transformation takes so long that your combo will end. If you’re starting a combo putting yourself instantly into level three is great but mid-combo you’ll want to be get the one-level charges after every move since those allow you to keep your combo afterwards. Video: http://youtu.be/mPOAv70xmIk


Shikanosuke Yamanaka is the one new character in Sengoku Basara 4 I haven’t really figured out how to play well. He’s followed by a deer he refers to as Oya-san who grants him magical armor and nunchaku. Oya-san will run around attacking enemies at her own pace or helping in your special arts if you hold the attack buttons down or position them right. You can also throw giant crackers like frisbees for her to eat that will put her into a super state where she gets much stronger and hyper aggressive. I’m tempted to say she’s the real main character here because I can’t get a good combat flow down with Shikanosuke himself. He can clang his nunchaku together to do a huge area attack that does good damage, he can spin around in the air, he get spun around by Oya-san and throw, and he can even play tennis with Oya-san using the enemies as balls (I haven’t figured out how to do that last one but I saw it in videos) but I don’t know how to make them work together smoothly. And if you do Shikanosuke’s basara art Oya-san will temporarily take her armor back and leave Shikansokuke defenseless. All he can do is point his finger and bow while apologizing. I was looking forward to him the most but I just can’t crack his playstyle. Video: http://youtu.be/AnDpjgPOcnw


Hanbei Takenaka is Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s devoted retainer who wields a combination sword+whip like Ivy from Soul Calibur. All of his moves have a sword version executing by tapping the move commands and a whip version by holding the buttons down- naturally, the sword is faster but the whip has greater range. You can seamlessly switch between the sword and whip during his regular combo and he has great utility out of both weapons in his special arts. One of Hanbei’s sword special arts is a dash forward followed by two thrusts; it does good damage, can break guards, and moves him forward a little bit. The whip version of that move will him shoot the whip forward and pull it back along with any enemy it hits, gathering enemies for further combos. One of his secret arts makes him Very mad and he gets double hits off every move and the whip attacks get a delayed after-image that hits enemies and looks neat. Video: http://youtu.be/pZ_NJUIn1rY